London- Home Tomorrow!

I am here in London and heading back home to Houston tomorrow!  10 hour flight, blah! 

I will update some more about London when I am back.  

But, for now--

See you soon!

San Fermín Festival

San Fermín, aka "running of the bulls" is one of the biggest and most well known festivals in the world.  We went for a night to see what it was all about and it ended up being the highlight of my summer!  When we left we still did not know if we would be running "with" the bulls or just watching.  But, we got there and thought, how could we not run (for at least a little bit)??

First, outfits are very important. 

We were told to wear all white and buy the bandannas and sashes when we got there.

 Everybody is wearing all white with red- so so cool!  The way we knew we got to Pamplona is when we looked out of the bus window and saw people in these outfits. We should have worn pants to really fit in, though.

 There we are, ready and nervous to start!  

We made friends with all of the people around us.  A group of boys from UVA and a guy who graduated from A&M helped us figure out where we should run to have the most fun but also stay safe.  Everybody was so excited but also nervous. Apparently a lot of people thing girls can't run (false), the police just pull the ones out of the crowd who they don't think can do it (guess we looked good enough!!). We ended up starting directly down from the arena so that we made sure we got in to see the people and bulls running around for an hour or so.  We probably ran for about 45 seconds (the run is about half a mile total) with crowd before we made it in. 

 And we made itttt! A little frazzled and overwhelmed.

 The only way I saw people getting really hurt was by trying to taunt the bulls and whatnot.  It is "good luck" if you touch the bull.  (See the guy with the rolled up newspaper?  It is common to have that and reach out and touch the bull with it).

First, there was a set of six bigger bulls let out to run, and then another set of six smaller bulls.  The smaller bulls were the ones that ran around the arena with the people.  I did not think they were small at all though..

 We stood close along the edge and jumped over the other side of the fence when needed.  But were never close enough to touch the bulls. It was quite the thrilllll.

 These men brought out oxen when it was time for the bulls to leave the arena.

 This is how close the crazy people would get to them and then get knocked by their horns.

 They kept us in the arena until all of the bulls ran through and were taken out.  It was about an hour or so, and after everybody was just gathering in the middle finding friends, etc.  We ended up finding our friends from UT who were also studying in Barcelona with us!

We went and took naps in the park after.  Pretty view of the mountains in Pamplona!

This began around 1591 and is celebrated by everybody in Pamplona.  During the day we saw so many families dressed up going to parties.  Some people say that the festival is comparable, or bigger, than Mardi Gras. 

This was my favorite summer adventure, for sure! It was one of the coolest and most insane things I have (and probably will ever) do in my life.  I loved it!!

For more info on all of this (there is way too much for me to type and don't want to bore you) here is a CNN video talking about it. 

Click here to see the video!

End of Barcelona

I can't believe that it is already time for me to be leaving Barcelona! 

It was sad packing up my room and saying goodbye to my host mom.

Here is my room and bags all packed up--

(My roommate Blair has a pic of me and my host mom on her camera that I wish I had to put up here!)

Sad to leave, but I was excited for our next adventure to Pamplona for the running of the bulls.

Labyrinth Park

I just love all of the parks here so much and could sit in them forever!! My favorite one was the Laybyrith Park.  It was a little farther away for the busy center of Barcelona and is less well known, so it was not filled with tourists or anything. 

It used to be some sort of palace, but it is run down now and the park is open to the public.

Here are some pics!

 Lost in the Labyrinth maze..

Friends, Friends, Friends!

We have been so blessed to have lots of great friends from home in Barcelona and Europe traveling around!  I have loved it since it is my first time to be abroad with old friends.  Lots of great memories we will have with each other for years.

When our visitors came from Florence (Torrey, Riley, Ellen, Melissa, and Holliday), we decided to make our own bike tour and show them around the city.  I felt like local tour guide getting to show them around.

Here is my fav pic from our adventure--

4th of JULY

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

We celebrated here in Barcelona with all of the americanos around!

Sadly, no fireworks, but we did attend an American party, ate hot dogs and painted our faces with red white and blue.

A restaurant called The George Payne had the greatest idea to have a 4th of July party.  They gave free hot dogs.  And we brought face paint!

Emily was the expert face painter.  She had a line of at least ten people waiting soon after this.

Riley and me!  Sad she leaves Barcelona tomorrow!!

Aly and Riley eating hot dogs. So American!

We are proud to be Americans here in España! 

The W

We finally made it to the W.  I had been looking forward to this visit all summer long! And it was so cool.

The hotel is new and hip to Barcelona-- you never want to leave when you walk in.  Everything is very modern and trendy.

We went up to the lounge on the 26th floor called Eclipse to check out the view of the city.

It was filled with swanky Spaniards and foreigners.  And the view was incredible!!

 This picture does not do it justice...

It was really fun to get to go with our friends visiting from Florence!

Holliday, Melissa, and me with our yummy mojitos!

 And here is the whole group outside with the W!

Ice Bar

Since it's pretty hot here and our apartment does not have AC, we decided to head over to the Ice Bar the other night.  It was a bar entirely made of ICE! 

Benches, walls, cups.. everything made of ice! How cool is that???

When you get there a man gives you a big puffy jacket to wear.  Thank goodness because it was freezing and we all stupidly wore sandals...

He opened a huge freezer like door and we entered.....

So much ice everywhere!

Ice sculpture of Sagrada Familia

and a frozen soccer jersey.

It felt great to get out of the heat, but we couldn't stay in for too long since our toes felt like they were going to fall off!

Sitges Round 2

We headed back to Sitges (beach town about 45 minute train ride outside of Barcelona) today. 

Since Barcelona's beach was only made around 1992 to help the city with tourism, etc, Sitges is the spot where the Spanish people have gone to the beach for lots of years!  It is a natural beach, unlike Barcelona's, and is so pretty and relaxing.

 Today we walked farther down the beach and hung out in this area with little coves and rocks.

 The highlight of the day was renting this---

A paddle boat with a slide!  Weeeee!

Beach Day

We had a fun day at the Barcelonetta beach today.  I am going to miss this beach so much!  It is always filled with tons of people, but makes for the best people watching ever.   You don't need an ipod or a book here because you can just watch crazy people all day.  

We walked farther down the beach today where the water was less crowded and there were less people trying to sell us things, etc. 

Emily and me with our friend Torrey who is visiting this weekend!

Today's spotting-- 

This crazy guy balancing/juggling this glass ball on his body.  The kicker is that after I took these pics, he started to do it completely nude....... crazy Europeans. 

Bo de B

Bo de B is our favorite lunch spot in Barcelona. 

It is a little shop on the way to the beach from class with the best fresh sandwiches and more! It is super inexpensive for a ton of food.   

There are always just two ladies working non stop.  The line can end up down the block on weekends.  The inside has a few tables to eat, so if you are lucky you can sit inside instead of waiting at the window.  Sometimes we prefer to sit inside and eat, but sometimes we just like to get it to go and eat it on the way to the beach.

There are tons of fresh veggies to chose from to put on your sandwich.  And, they cook the meat as you order.

 This is a chicken sandwich or "bocadillo de pollo." They are HUGE.  Good to share with one other person.

And here is a salad platter which is also so yummy. 

And finally, papas braves.  These are what Bo de B is well known for and are a typical Spanish thing to eat.  They are like french fries, but wedges, with lots of sauces on them.  

This place is where we "regular" here in Barcelona.  A lot of study abroad students are always at Bo de B because it is so cheap and great!

Wahooo!!

 I love stumbling upon these festive streets!!

Metro

I realized that I have not talked about how we get around this city at all...

And it is SO different from back home.  We use the metro to go everywhere and do just about everything we can.  Taxis are $$$ and we only take them when we must and the metro is closed.

Public Transportation here, and in all of Europe, of course, is just a different world.

I have already used up two metro passes of 50.. so I have used the metro over 100 times since we have been here!! crazzyyyy!

The Barcelona metro is just like any other metro is, but less complicated than the one in Paris.  And I do not remember it when I went to New York.  But, basically, the metro equivalent to a car here, except you always have to make sure you don't get pick pocketed! 

We have two stations that are about 7 minutes from my apartment.  (Sounds close, but most of our friends have it like 2 minutes away!).

So, we walk to metro station.

Swipe our metro cards.  (This is what I have apparently done over 100 times in five weeks..)

And then, wait for the metro to arrive.  Usually it is only a couple of minutes. 

And then hurry in and we stand or, preferably, sit in the metro and have a great time people watching until we get to our designated station.  (Ex: School is about 8 stops away, 15 minutes.  But from school to the beach, it's only 3 stops)

And then, we get off the station and exit, or as they call it in Catalán, "sortida." It is usually a bunch of stairs and hall ways to reach the outdoors.

So that's the metro, and that's how we get around this big city!  At first it was overwhelming but now its so easy and a part of our every day lives.

School Day...

Today was a total school day, blah! I had to work on a group project for my international business class all afternoon.  And the whole time I wished I was exploring or on the beach!!

Our project is about elBulli, a restaurant that has just closed but was known as the world's best restaurant for about five years and was in a small beach town two hours outside of Barcelona.  Only 8,000 people ate there a year, and millions would try to make reservations.  The chef was all about creativity and would make dishes like this--

It is actually a cool project.  We are talking about how the restaurant would not even make an annual profit when it charged over 250 euros per person because everything was so over the top. 

Anyways, after the presentation tomorrow I can't wait to go to the beach. 

Maybe I'll even get to spot this dude again--

 

Hehe!