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!

Montserrat, Spain

Since we stayed in Barcelona this weekend, we took a day trip to a monastery in near by town called Montserrat.  It was about an hour long train ride into the mountains.  Apparently many people still make pilgrimages to this monastery from across Spain. 

 When we got off the train we rode a cable car up to the top of the mountain where the monastery is located.

The Basilica

According to good ole Rick Steves, about 30 monks that live on the mountain as well as a group of 80 boys who go to school and sing in the oldest boy's choir in Europe.  

 We hiked around the area.  There was this little chapel. And lots of statues of saints. 

I love the mountains and hiking/exploring, and it was a nice change of pace from the busy city of Barcelona!  We saw breathtaking views and had a super fun and active day.

Biking Around Barcelona

 Renting bikes for a few hours was so much fun.  It was a little too hot to walk around everywhere (we needed the additional wind from the bikes), and now that we know our way around Barcelona, it was perfect to just go out exploring on bikes this afternoon.  I wish I had a bike to ride here every day!!

We started in my fav area, El Born and headed to the Cituadella Park. 

 The park is really big so it was the perfect area to bike through.  I had already been a few times, but never on the weekend.  There were SO many people hanging out everywhere. The best people watching you could imagine. 

For example---

These people were casually doing crazy yoga in the middle of the park. 

Then we biked over to the beach area.  We went all the way down the beach and found a cool new area that I can't wait to go back to. 

 The W Hotel is pretty new to Barcelona, but is very well known and we often stare at it wishing and hoping to go... They are known for having an amazing pool and restaurant that overlooks the entire city.

 It is located right at the end of the beach and we look at it every day from afar.  Today we decided to go check it out, close up, for the first time. 

Plans for a day at the pool at the W after school are in the works... we will just have to walk in like we own the place and I'm sure they will let us stay.  I will post pics when the day comes!

 The beautiful Mediterranean water!

Montjuic Adventure!

Aly and I went on an adventure one afternoon exploring an area called Montjuic (where I previously posted about a castle we visited).  We just wanted to go on walk and ended up stumbling upon lots of cool places!!

Like the Olympic Stadium (built for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona)

 And more great views of Barcelona.

And several awesome gardens!

 (The Botanic Gardens)

I loved this one!! There is an outdoor theater here, as well, and I think it would be so cool to get to see a performance there!

Sevilla

First of all, Sevilla was awesome! I loved the city so so much.  But it was soooo hot and made me so very thankful for the weather here in Barcelona! 

Highlights from the city were---

1. Flamanco Show (traditional dancing)

Little did we know, Flamanco is a pretty emotional dance/performance type thing.  We got there and I could not even hold my laughter in because the performers had such straight and serious faces.  It was super cultural and much different than I expected.  At random times the guy playing the guitar in the back would make a crying/whaling sound, while the lady tapped her feet at a crazy beat.

2.  Bullfight

Oh my goodness, the bullfight..... now that was a cultural experience.  It was so cool, but I had no idea that more than one bull was killed at these things.  They killed like at least six right in front of our eyes :(

 Got out the sword

 And killed :(

sooo sad

 The the horses dragged him away..

(we had to sit up top to hide from the sun)

3. The Real Alcazar

Another cool Moorish Palace / Gardens

4. Hotel EME

We went to a hotel one night that had a view of the cathedral and city on the roof.  It was so beautiful!

La Alhambra

La Alhambra is an old Moorish palace that was built during the 14th century.  I was so excited to get to visit it because I read all sorts of Spanish literature stories about Granada and the Alhambra last semester.  It was eventually conquered by Christians and now is just a tourist sight.  It a beautiful place and very unique looking since it was built by the Muslim people.

 Water was everywhere.  It represented something significant (I can't exactly remember) to the moorish people since water was in short supply.

 The view of the palace from the gardens.

 My favorite part-- the view of the white hill towns!

 The tiles were all awesome and the stucco detail was insane.

 There were walls and walls covered in detailed designs of stucco. 

Overall Alhambra was awesome. It was huge and beautiful and since we went later in the evening, it was not over crowded with tourists which was really nice. 

(sorry my camera didn't have any of the pics with us in them!)

Next stop-- Sevilla

We took a sweet bus ride (abt 3 hours).  When we paid for it we wondered why it was a few euros more than the bus ride to Granada cost, then we got on the bus and to our surprise, it was like a first class bus or something.. who knew that even existed, but it was awesome!

Granada!

We spent this past weekend in Southern Spain.   Our first stop was Granada!  It was such a cute little place filled with middle eastern influence.  We got off the bus and walked up some little rocky roads to find our hostel.

Which ended up being a great location right next to lots of little shops and tea houses. (Granada was all about the tea!)

All of the street signs looked like this--

And the main streets- 

Such a cute city!

We decided to have some tea before we visited the Alhambra.

Each spot was decorated like that.

We headed to the Alhambra next and I will post about that later today!