barcelona. parte deux.

Oh, Barcelona. You are fantastic.

Day 3:

After breakfast, we began the day with some more Antonio Guadi—a fantastic start to any day if I do say so myself. His work is SO incredible…I want to LIVE in one of his houses.

We started with the Casa Milá. We began by climbing stairs. We climbed stairs for the longest time, but then we arrived at the roof of the house…and man, was it WORTH it!! This is when I decided that Antonio Guadi would be put on my list of need-to-see-people-in-the-next-life list.

all these cool sculptures on the roof? well, surprise,
 they're really chimneys.

We had a lovely view of Barcelona and got to run around and play with all the huge, kind of strange, sculptures. Chris and I had a light-saber fight next to the star wars heads sculpture. Then, other people wanted to join in the fun…so we all had a fight.

having a star wars fight next to the star wars heads (you can't see them in
this picture though...they're on top of the sculpture we're standing next to)

After we were done playing on the roof, we went down a floor to see the apartment. It was really cool. Antonio Guadi didn’t believe in straight lines so everything was curvy, graceful, and classy.

Then we walked over to see Casa Batlló—another house that Antonio Guadi designed. This house was a definite favorite. SO incredible. If I was a multi-billionaire, I would want to live in this house. Just look at these pictures! Antonio studied nature because he believed that God was the best architect—and you can totally see it in all of his works, but this one especially. I also got to have an audio tour. I’ve never felt more like a tourist—snapping pictures with my digital camera while clutching an oversized tv remote to my ear.

hope and i being all tourist-y.

this is the house i want to LIVE in someday.
if only.

And that was all the Guadi we would get to see for this trip. Sad day. I was so so so glad we got to see as much as we did though.

We all piled back on the bus and went to the gothic part of Barcelona—it is chock full of flower-filled balconies and tiny streets. During the day time, it is adorable. During night time, not so much. Apparently, it’s renowned for its pick pockets. We had about an hour to go shopping—so much fun. And then we all met in front of a museum of Picasso—it was chock full of his earlier art and showed his progression of style. This was probably one of my favorite museums of the trip. It was so interesting to read about his life and see how his style reflected that. My favorite exhibition was his collection of pieces interpreting Las Meninas (a painting by Velazquez). So very interesting.

me in the gothic neighborhood of barcelona.

After this museum, a group of us went to the beach. We bought dinner and ate on the beach. We rolled up our pants, dug our toes in the sand, and waded in the Mediterranean Sea. We also took many a picture and tried to ignore the old naked man who was walking around the beach haha.

eating dinner :)

fun pictures on the beach. we are SUCH tourists sometimes.

I'm getting a pretty sa-weet tan line from my sandals.

We also ran barefoot down the boardwalk to find an ice cream place. We bought gelato and somehow I don’t think there’s a better combo than chocolate gelato, good friends, and a sunset on the beach.

We returned to the hotel once it started to get quite dark. Laura, Claudia, Giselle, Hope, Kiley, Erin, Aubrey, Dana, Riley, and I all had a girls night…with Eli and Chris. I laughed till my eyes teared up more than once. These girls (and boys) are SO fantastic. I love them and will miss them ever so much when I can’t see them everyday. Needless to say, we went to bed quite late…

Day 4:

It was SO hard to wake up. But somehow I managed to…and then I managed to shower, pack, and eat breakfast—all without falling asleep.

We headed for the Monastery de Montserrat—a famous monastery about 45 minutes outside of Barcelona. We were on some of the twistiest roads I’ve ever been on in Spain (and that's saying a lot).

the road to the monastery.

We just climbing higher and higher and higher…my ears popped several times. We finally arrived at the monastery though, and we had a spectacular view. Needless to say, we stayed outside for quite a while.

photo 1: courtney and i...and a wonderful view of the mountains.
photo 2: cool structure close to where we were taking pictures.

photo 1: chris and i were just so excited to be there.
photo 2: the incredible view.

We finally went inside the monastery. A wedding was taking place inside the cathedral. We watched it for close to an hour probably…mostly just waiting for them to hurry up and kiss already. But then we got tired of waiting and decided to just go. When we got outside, it was POURING. I shared an umbrella with Rina and we both still got pretty wet.

the wedding. don't worry, i was sneaky...and i didn't use flash.

It was a straight shot back to Alcalá after the monastery. We stopped to eat lunch—and I didn’t buy lunch because rest stop restaurants are ridiculously overpriced. I refuse to pay six dollars for a measly sandwich. Besides, I had food with me on the bus. So for lunch, I ate crackers and tuna. I also ate almost an entire can of pringles while watching School of Rock on the bus. Not my proudest moment.

It’s 8:15 right now and I’m typing on the bus…and we’re ALMOST home. hallelujah. FINALLY.

At moments like these...when you can no longer feel your butt and your knees have carpet burn from the seat in front of you...it feels like you've been on the bus for years and years and years.

Only ten minutes more. hallelujah otra vez.
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El tercer día, fuimos a ver las dos casas de Gaudí en Barcelona. Primero, fuimos a la Casa Milá. Mi parte favorito fue el techo. Tenía muchas esculturas que realmente fueron chimeneas—muy divertidos. Después, fuimos a Casa Batlló, que fue mi casa favorita de Gaudí. Todo fue tan hermoso, con líneas muy elegantes y curvas.

También, fuimos al barrio gótico de Barcelona. Hicimos compras por una hora y fuimos a un museo de Picasso que muestra el arte de Picasso desde el primer parte de su carrera hasta que el fin. Me gustó mucho su colección de pinturas interpretando Las Meninas de Velázquez. Después del museo, fuimos a la playa y comimos nuestra cena y helado. Cuando regresamos, tuvimos una noche de chicas.

El cuarto día fuimos al monasterio de Montserrat.  Está en las montañas y cuando llegamos, teníamos una vista increíble. Después de eso, regresamos a casa.