san sebastion = love.

sometimes, i wonder if spain will ever just stop taking my breath away.

and then i spend a night in san sebastion (pais Vasco) and i know that the answer is "nope. not a chance."

Here's our first afternoon/night in Pais Vasco.

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Our first stop in this beautiful part of Spain was in Bilbao, to see one of the most famous modern art museums in the world-the Guggenheim Museum.

The building itself is famous--designed by Frank O. Gehry, and exhibiting some of the most groundbreaking architecture of the 20th century.

riley, rachel, courtney, and i outside the museum.

They also have a huge flower dog, just chilling outside of the museum.

dana, me, & flower dog.

The museum was fascinating in a very weird way.

Very interesting.

Kind of disturbing. but

...i liked it?

Then we left Bilbao for San Sebastion.

Oh boy.

Do I LOVE this place or WHAT?

Bay of Biscay is GORGEOUS.

will and i (almost) on the beach.

Our group went and ate tapas.

(San Sebastion is famous for their tapas)

I think I would have enjoyed them a lot more if I 

actually really enjoyed seafood...

thank goodness for the tortilla espanola.

It's always a safe, tasty option.

Afterwards, our director treated us to ice cream.

Hands down, the best ice cream I've had in Europe so far.

That is saying a LOT, considering the quantity of ice cream I have eaten so far.

rikki and i celebrating our copious amount of delicious ice cream.

And then we went and played on the beach.

Even at night, this beach is beautiful.

But even more than that, the sand is SO soft and smooth and the water is so warm. I can't imagine a more perfect beach.

Riley got thrown in the water. Laura and I ran down the coastline. We took pictures. We all got a little (and a lot) bit wet and a lot bit sandy.

And it was all absolutely perfect.

I'm laying in the most comfortable hotel bed I've had yet in a four star hotel and I'm going to go to sleep and dream some sweet dreams.

Tomorrow, I'm going to France for the day. 

:)

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                Hoy salimos por País Vasco.  Nuestra primera parada fue en Bilbao, donde vimos el Museo Guggenheim. Es un museo de arte moderno y tiene mucha arte de tres dimensiones. Fue muy interesante.  Había algunas exhibiciones que fueron un poco raras, pero todavía me gustó el museo. También el edificio es muy famoso. Fue designado por Frank O. Gehry y la arquitectura es muy innovadora.

                Después salimos para San Sebastian. Me encanta este lugar—es tan TAN hermoso. Está en la costa de Bay de Biscay y la playa aquí es increíble. No hay muchas turistas aquí. San Sebastion es famoso por sus tapas y nuestros directores nos llevaron a un lugar de tapas. No me gustó mucho pero eso es porque no me gustan los mariscos. Pero me gustó mi tortilla española y por eso pude comer algo.

                Después de comer, nuestros directores nos compraron helado—lo mejor helado que he comido aquí en España. Cuando estábamos caminando a nuestro hotel, jugamos en el agua. Fue tan divertido.

                Nuestro hotel aquí es fantástico. Las camas son las mejores en este hotel. Voy a dormir muy bien esta noche.

if i were a boy in spain....

i would have 23 more euros

(aka $33).

i even got the smallest sizes.

buh-bye, dinero.

it's been real.

bulls&blood.

we went to la Plaza de Toros last night. 

it's the most famous bull fighting stadium in the world. 

we also paid 11 euros to watch six bulls die.

super cultural.

la plaza de toros.

laura and i in the arena waiting for it to start.

inside the arena--before the first bull came out.

i liked it for the first bit--

then the first bull came out.

and it was really bloody

and a bit sad.

the first one was the worst.

after that one, you kind of get desensitized 

and it's not such a big deal anymore.

but even after watching the third or fourth crumple to the ground,

my stomach still turned a little.

the old people in the arena were loving it

but they see it as something beautiful.

and maybe it's just because i'm so young still

but the beauty of anything get cut down in its prime

 is kind of hard to understand.

it was a good experience and

i'm glad i went.

but i don't think i'll be going again anytime soon.

candy shoppe :)

we went to the 

cutest candy store yesterday. 

it's actually a swedish candy shoppe,
full of chocolate and gummies and other sweets.

ever so excited.

The candy was delish.

The shoplady thought I was Italian. 

And finally...

My new smile, 
all thanks due to this precious
little candy shop.

P.S. I may or may not have eaten my entire

bagful of candy already.

P.P.S. Haley, I really hope 

that you still like chocolate...

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. 

barcelona barcelona barcelona. parte uno.

Barcelona was everything I’ve dreamed it to be. I wasn’t pick-pocketed once (although I did have my purse zippered and clutched next to me at all times) and even though the forecast said it would rain all weekend, it didn’t. It was a four day trip (Wednesday-Saturday), so we did a montón de cosas (ton of things).

First Day:

We left Alcalá at 8:00 in the morning, headed for Barcelona.

We made our first stop in Saragoza to see the basilica and the cathedral (La Sea).  Both were beautiful pieces of architecture. I didn’t take hardly any pictures here because we weren’t able to take pictures inside. La Sea had a floor full of ceiling to floor tapestries—it was mouth-dropping. I can’t imagine how long it must have taken to weave all the intricate details of the stories into tapestries of that size.

outside of La Sea.

There’s a plaza right outside the basilica and the cathedral and there were probably 100 tents in the plaza. It was some kind of political protest. When the Spanish want to protest, they always congregate in the plaza. There have been quite a few protests going on lately, especially with the elections that just went on.

After we had gotten our fill of La Sea, we all piled back on the bus…and finally arrived in Barcelona around 8:00pm. We were STARVING. Our directors took us all out to eat at an Italian restaurant.

sometimes when we're REALLY impatient for our food,
we're a LITTLE immature.
(our entire table end participated. i just couldn't find
any more embarrassing pictures)

i ate pizza until i couldn't eat anymore...and then i ate ice cream.

After dinner, we all walked Las Ramblas—a famous, albeit tourist-filled, street. It was full of street performers, musicians, mimes, venders, and lots of people trying to get you to come to their nightclub. You have to watch your purse, but the street feels so alive—and I loved that. A girl and I stopped to watch a group of break dancers put on a show—it was incredible.

las ramblas!!
p.s. notice how i'm clutching my purse...nobody even
TRIED to get in my things.

barcelona thugs.
uh...from byu?

We decided that we wanted to take the metro home. Problem: it was almost midnight and that’s when the metro closes. We all rushed to buy tickets and as we were walking to our metro, we saw that we had barely a minute left. Hermana Stallings started yelling for us to run and so forty college kids rushed through the doors (on one ticket—the police weren’t too happy about that), ran down the stairs and escalators, arrived on the wrong side of the train, turned around, and sprinted to the right side. We could hear Hermana Stallings crying, “Chicos, chicos, corren, corren!” the entire time. I’ve never been a part of something so funny in my life. We were laughing so hard we almost cried.

 Day 2:

I flooded the bathroom on the morning of day 2…our shower was so awful. I can’t count how many times I wrung out my towel to mop up the floor. But after that experience, and after a good continental breakfast, I got back on the bus with my group and we took a bus tour, pointing out some interesting things as we were driving by (like the outsides of the houses Antonio Guadi designed). We also drove by la Plaza Catalunya, which is famous for its political protests…this weekend was no exception.

political protesting--like I was saying,
the Spanish are pros.

Our first stop was at Park Güell, designed by Antonio Guadi (a famous architect—very modern—and INCREDIBLE. I love his work). He had a vision of a community of houses where nature was prominent. Originally, there was supposed to be 70 houses, but only two were constructed. 

There were tons of people trying to sell necklaces, earrings, sunglasses, scarves, etc. even though they weren’t supposed to be there. A police car showed up and I’ve never seen a place empty so fast. I was in the process of buying a pair of earrings and the man muttered “Dios mío,” grabbed the earrings, his stand, and fled. After the police left, the man found me again and offered me the same earrings. I bought them.

Park Guell--soo cool

We also stopped at La Sagrada Familia—the masterpiece of Antonio Guadi. It is by far my favorite cathedral of the entire trip. Absolutely amazing. We only saw the outside with the tour guide, but we returned later to see the inside—and boy, am I glad we did. Antonio Guadi is pure genius. He saw God as the master artist and looked for inspiration in nature. He rarely used straight lines because there are no straight lines in nature...he is INCREDIBLE. I walked inside the cathedral and my breath literally got taken away--it was just so beautiful.

exterior of the cathedral.

Pictures just don't do the interior of this cathedral justice.

more of the inside.

something that's really distinguishes this cathedral from the rest is the amount
of light that enters through all the windows.

We also went to el Museo Nacional de Arte de Catalunya (Museum of National Art of Catalunya). We only had a little over an hour, so we just went to the modern art section. Modern art is still a mystery to me. I’m not sure why I like it. Maybe because it’s something you have to feel instead of understand. It’s a puzzle.

picture 1: view of barcelona from the museo
picture 2: museo nacional de arte de catalunya

After this museum, we went to another museum—the Joan Miró foundation. It has a lot of Joan’s work, as well as a couple pieces from other similar artists…so…a lot of modern art. I really really enjoyed this museum. It was super interesting. He worked during the civil war in Spain and at first there is a lot of realism…but after a while, he used his art as a way to escape from the cruel reality of war (escapism)—and created a collection of pieces on constellations, stars, the universe…which I loved.

By this time, it was probably around eight again…and we were starving. We went back to the same Italian restaurant, I ate pasta, and then we all returned to the hotel. We were all pretty tired so we didn’t go out. I hung out in Audi and Aubrey’s hotel room and told scary/funny stories until we were so tired that we had to go to bed.
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                El primer día, antes de Barcelona, parramos en Zaragoza. Vimos una basílica y una catedral se llama La Seo.  Los dos tienen arquitectura muy hermosa. La Seo especialmente me gustó. Tenía un cuarto de tapices muy grandes—eran increíbles. Tenían tantos detalles y fueron hechos hace siglos. Afuera de estos dos edificios en la plaza había muchas tiendas de campaña.

                Cuando finalmente llegamos en Barcelona, teníamos tanta hambre y nuestros directores nos llevaron a un restaurante italiano. Después de comer pizza y helado, fuimos a las Ramblas—una calle muy famosa con muchos turistas, músicos, mimos y artistas. Fue muy divertido.

                El segundo día teníamos una gira y vimos muchas cosas de Barcelona por autobús. Fuimos a Parque Güell para ver las obras de Gaudí  y compré algunos aretes. También vimos La Sagrada Familia, la obra maestra de Guadí. El exterior del edificio es increíble, pero el interior…es difícil encontrar  las palabras describirlo. Hay mucha luz y mucho simbolismo.

Después fuimos a dos museos—el Museo Nacional de Arte de Catalunya y Joan Miró Foundation. En los dos yo vi arte moderno, pero me gustó el Joan Miró Foundation más. Después de ver estos dos museos, eran las ocho y fuimos al mismo restaurante italiano.

Todos estábamos muy cansados y por eso, no salimos esta noche. Pasamos la noche en el cuarto de Audi y Aubrey. 

a bit of french in spain.

i've learned a lot of things in spain.

one such thing is french braiding.

look, LOOK.

Photo 1: REAL french braid. Photo 2: Inside-out french braid.

Okay. So I realize it's a bit lumpy. And big.

But I was just learning.

AND I did it on a bumpy bus.