Barcelona... June 16 - June 18

I know,I know... it has been a while... so here is my barcelona update.

Before leaving for Barcelona, we had to finish school. Since I am auditing, I didnt have to take the final exam on June 15. So, after my 2 other classmates finished their exams, our teacher Estela, took us to her home town of Durango, about 40 minutes from where we lived in Getxo.
Durango is a calm, peaceful and quiet town. Estela made us lunch... tortilla with potatoes, salad with pasta, fresh bread and spanish style fried rice with ham. All was delicious. We then went and had some coffee.. cafe con leche... no more iced vanilla lattes from starbucks for me... im boycotting starbucks in europe.. they only belong in the states.. and took too much money from me since the new drive thru opened in chico. Estela then took us to the mountains near by where we stopped to take pictures of the view and a hotel and restuarant. We had a great time!! Thank you Estela.. and come visit the states again.. only this time come to California.. dont worry I'll talk to Félix.


So, Friday, June 15th, we (Ashley, Laney, Kim and I) left for Barcelona at about 11:30 pm on the bus.
On Saturday, June 16th, we arrived in Barcelona around 7 am, dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went to see La Sagrada Familia. This catholic basilica which has been under construction for 100 years.. crazy!! anyways, the outside has alot of details, and inside is just a lot of scaffolding since it is still under construction. It will be neat to go back once it is finished (in the year 3000! haha) and see how it really came to life. The inside columns are made of different stone and meant to resemble trees with the burst at the tops like knots of a tree and then above that, the branches.
We went up in the evelator to the top of one of the towers... and saw the view... the people looked like ants!! There were 427 stairs that we then had to climb down, in a spiral.

After La Sagrada Familia, we checked into the hotel, took one of our last spainsh siestas, then went to find Las Ramblas and Colon. We walked in the wrong direction about three times, got to see some of the houses that Gaudi helped build and design and finally made it to see Colon. We decided to have some sangria at an outisde patio restuarant, and ran into some friends from Bilbao... but the waiter wouldnt let us just order drinks and appeitizers for 7 people.. so we got up, left and went to another bar where the sangria was really strong!! We ended up just hanging out that night and then went home and to bed.

Sunday, June 17th: Ashley had to leave us so she could fly to Rome. So, Laney, Kim and I went to Park Guell and the Olymipc Village area. Guell had purchased the land and Gaudi built on it. At the main gates are the houses of Hansel and Grettle,
then up the main path are a few founatins (the most famous is of a lizard.)
There are many arch ways which Gaudi built...

The olympic area wasnt very impressive.. but this thing was pretty cool lookin.
and so was the beach....


Later that day we met up with the guys form bilbao again... by the 'dirty fountain' this founatin was yellow, but the one next to it was white... something funky was going on... These are the guys from bilbao we met up with!

and had some more drinks!! we ended up going to the beach so i got to touch the Mediterrian Sea!!!!

Monday, June 18th: Laney and Kim left early in the morning to go back to Bilbao... so i was alone in Barcelona.. i got to people watch all day long! it was great! This is some of what i saw...






Durango and Barcelona are very cool and enjoyable. Hope you enjoyed them too!!