Barcelona Recap

I just arrived in Granada so it's probably a good idea to give you the run down of Barcelona. Here is the brief overview of my week. (Sorry if this is repeat information!)

Monday - returned from Taize sick so I just wandered a little and slept.
Tuesday - Parc Guell, Casa Batlló, late lunch at Petra, more wandering.
Wednesday - cava tour, El Xampenet
Thursday - Sagrada Familia, Santa Caterina market (love!), long hike up to include Olympic Stadium, La Boqueria, Magic Fountain and tapas.
Friday - Cathedral, Camp Nou (FC Barcelona stadium), amazing menú lunch, beach, trenhotel to Granada.

Here are some highlight pictures from the end of the week:

Sagrada Familia

Main doors of Sagrada Familia

Santa Caterina Market - coolest roof over the building, but I forgot to take a picture!

Olympic Park - the Junior World Championships were going on at the same time.

I swear I'm wearing a shirt, but I just hiked up that hill

Magic Fountain - went with my host Miriam.

Found a store that sells Toms and the whole alley was decorated

Inside the Cathedral.  I walked by it everyday on my way to and from "my" house. Took until the last day to go see it!

This one is for the brothers. I went to the stadium for you. Love you :)

El Setial in Barrio Gótico - best menú by far! It included this salad...

this amazing salmon and another salad?

Plus this delicious lemon tart and a Diet Coke! Seriously for 9€ = $10.80!!!

Then I decided it was a good idea to change in their bathroom and go to the beach.  I tried going on this boat cruise, but it kept getting postponed due to big boats in the harbor :( I went back to shower and pack and lug my broken suitcase to the train station.  Thank goodness I was greeted by this room.

 

Coolest experience! I experienced a bit of loneliness on the last day, but it's much better now.

I'll do a little more of a reflective post later.


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Coming "home" to Barcelona.

I'm finally back to the civilized world! Leaving France and coming back to Spain felt like I was coming home.  I returned to a place where I know the language, where I knew how to get to my "house," and generally knew what the heck was happening!

Taizé was overall a good experience, but definitely not what I was anticipating.  If I ever return, I definitely know what I will and won't be doing. In the next few days, I will be posting some of the entries I wrote while there with pictures! I'll do my best to keep them in chronological order and as concise as possible.  If you have other questions or want to hear the full story, let me know!

Now, since I returned sick and I'm in bed at 8:00pm I will leave you with a little ¡yay! story and a few pictures before I type up those other posts.  The people I'm staying with must think I'm über lame.

Today I was on the bus to Parc Güell (whoa - two umlauts in one post) and this woman sat beside me.  I wasn't 100% sure of where I was going but from eavesdropping I found out lots of people were headed in the same direction. Seeing as I kept craning over her to look for the next stop, the woman asked where I was going. I told her and she informed me she worked there.  We began to chat a bit and eventually she asked where I was from because my Spanish was really good!!! Oh yeah, doing all of my Bible reflections in Spanish last week was worth it. (More on that later.) And for all of my readers from the Valdivia clan, she was Cuban :)

Now for fotos...

My view from the bus. So quaint.

The top of the church which has a very interesting interior. There were a few of these.

A little waterfall - part of the "silence" garden.

The view from Taizé. Umm I think I stepped into a painting or a set from Pride & Prejudice.

ACErs, I found Kubb!

And just in case you missed me.