The rest of my trip

As I said, I would tell everyone what I was doing the rest of my trip. It's been hard since I have not had a lot of time to get online so this is what is happening before I get home...

July 10-11-went to Madrid (left for Rome the night Spain played in the World Cup Final...most regretted thing ever)
July 11-13-Rome
July 13-16-Arrived in San Marino with Bryce's family... best food I have ever eaten
July 17-19-Munich
July 19-21?-Prague for 2 days
-Berlin for 2 days
-Amsterdam for 2-3 days
-Traveling to Bayoux for the night, taking a tour of D-Day, then chunnel to London
-July 30, flight from London to Dublin, then back home to Chicago!!!

I don't know all of the days, it is hard to tell. THings change because of trains and everything but that is where I'll be for those days. Can't wait to see everyone!!!

What I've Done Here

I realized that I only have 2 days left here in Barcelona so I'm trying to make sure I do everything that I wanted before I leave. I don't really have time to write about everything like I had hoped so I'm just going to make a list of what I did and hopefully I will have pictures to show you of everything. I'll be able to explain it then. There's a lot of things that I've done, but most I can explain really quickly. I just wanted to make sure I had some sort of log to remember my trip, but my friend has been doing that all along anyways. Well here is the list:

Dublin
-Guinness Factory
-Temple Bar Area
-Dublin castle
-Trinity college
-Hiked around Hoath
-O'Connel street and Grafton Street

Barcelona

Tourist Attractions
-Port Olimpic
-Olympic Village
-Sagrada Familia
-La Pedrera
-Park Guell
-Barrio Gotic
-Old Roman Neighborhood
-l'Eixample
-Tibidabo
-Born District
-San Juan
-La Catedral
-Santa Maria del Mar
-Las Ramblas
-Barceloneta
-Camp Nou
-Montjuic
-Picasso Museum
-Chocolate Museum
-Palau de la Generalitat

Other places in Spain we went
-La Costa Brava
-El Penedes
-Cavas Codorniu
-Sitges
-Montserrat
-Tarragona

Some Spanish Things I did/ate
-tapas
-San Miguel/Estrella
-Flamenco dancers
-Intercambio
-Cooked and ate gazpacho, pan con tomate, tortilla de patatas, paella, y Crema Catalana
-Patatas Bravas
-There was something I had the first day that might have been my favorite food here and I can't remember what it is called

Bars/Clubs
-Apollo
-Shokho
-George Payne's (huge touristy bar)
-Sonora (our local place)
-Razmatazz
-Cyrano (pour your own)
-Chupitos (2 euro any shot-monica lewinski)
-Dow Jones (stock market crash)
-Ovella Negra (biggest bar i've ever seen, never open though)


Basically I've done a lot of stuff. There's so much more that I could probably name off that I can't think of. Soon I'm going to put up the list of what I am doing the rest of my trip.

La Costa Brava

June 18-20


The next few days were some of the same. Went to class, went to the beach or the pool, Wednesday we watched the Spain game which was kind of boring because they lost and then went out to one of my favorite clubs Razmatazz. The beach is somewhat fun. It is extremely dirty though. Also, with people walking around asking you if you want a massage or beer, it gets kind of annoying.

On Friday, we didn't have class because our program was taking us on a trip up La Costa Brava. We met for the bus at 8:30 am. Our bus driver was this crabby frenchman named Lauren. He didn't speak any Spanish or English, only French. He didn't like us very much. So the first day we took the bus about 2 hours up the coast and into a small French town. We were kind of free to do whatever we want for a couple of hours. There was a tour of the Chateau which was optional. First we walked around and the teachers bought us croissants. I never knew a croissant could be so good. Then we walked around looking for somewhere to eat. Since we were in France we wanted some crepes and found a good place, and it was unreal. Then we decided to do the tour of the chateau. From the outside, it looked pretty small and boring but we decided to do it anyways and I'm really glad we did. It was actually huge and really cool inside. We saw where the dungeons were, where the archers shot out of, where the moat and drawbridge were. It was really cool.

Then we took the bus back into Spain to our hotel. It was the day of the second U.S. game versus Slovenia and we got to the hotel just at the end of the first half. We had like 10 minutes before we were supposed to go on the bike tour so we watched the game a little. Then, when it was time to go, Josh, this other kid from NY Sam, and I were the last to go outside. We found out they were 3 bikes short so we convinced our teacher that it was really ok if we didn't go. We all really wanted to watch the game. It ended up being an awesome decision. After the game we went and bought some wine and went on the beach for a little. When everyone came back, they said it was pretty miserable, especially because it rained on them. That night, they had a carnival on the beach so we went and ate and went to the carnivals where I went on one of the craziest rides in my life. It was one of those pirate ships that swing back and forth but at both ends there's a cage that you can go in and stand up but you aren't strapped in or anything. A bunch of us went in and it was nuts. There's no way that this ride would ever be allowed in the U.S.

The next day, we had an amazing breakfast then went to old Roman and Greek ruins. They were pretty cool, but it was so hot that it was hard to pay attention. We did get to see some of the places like where they used to train for the Olympics, the forum, and the baths. It was cool but we definitely spent way more time than needed there. Then we went to a beach for 2 hours. Bryce, Josh, Pat, Matt, David, Sam, and I rented 2 paddle boats with slides on them. It was definitely money well spent (like 3 euros a piece). It was a lot of fun though.

One of my favorite things of the trip was next, the Dali museum. By far my favorite Spanish painter was Dali. Everything he painted was so unusual but there was so much symbolism in his work. I wish we would have spent a lot more time there because we didn't have time to do it all. A lot of his work also has hidden images in it that I wouldn't know of if our guide didn't point them out.

After the museum we went back to the hotel for like 20 minutes before we had a boat tour. We took 2 boats, all of us got on the one that is over 100 years old. The guy on it was nuts. He had all of these ship stories and stuff. After we sailed around the coast a little bit, we put down the anchor and we were allowed to jump in. It was freezing but so much fun. We then went back, showered, and had dinner at the hotel.

Sunday was not a very fun day. We went to a pottery place and painted pottery. They cooked them and stuff and they all turned out pretty ugly...at least I think they're ugly. Some people might like them, but personally I really think they look terrible. Then we went to Sans which is a small town up on this hill. We had lunch there and walked around. That was fun too but we were there for too long as well. The town was small and we had like 3 hours to kill. It was fine though. Then we went back to the pottery place to pick up more pots that didn't have time to cook before and were on our way home.

Overall, I enjoyed going on this trip but I really wish the timing of everything would've been planned out better. We spent too much time in some places and too little time in others. I enjoyed it though and I think most other people did as well.

Barcino and the Roman Foundation

June 15, 2010

I'm obviously writing this late again, but the roman part of the city is still one of my favorite places. We went on a field trip and got a tour from our teacher about the Roman foundation, which used to be called Barcino. I really like this part mostly for the architecture, but also because there is so much history. Barcelona in general is filled with history that they have preserved and are very proud of. However, they obviously cannot restore everything. For example, we were showed the area of where the Roman baths were found. They haven't excavated it though, but they still exist. There is a way to get to them but they are not allowed to be viewed by the public. It is very very interesting.

They do however have other areas which they have restored. We saw one of the the 78 towers that surrounded the city. It is impossible to completely just leave the structures alone because of weathering and a chemical in pigeon poo that wears down the stones. It was very obvious to see what were original stones because they were very large and then what parts of the tower had been fixed. In many of the areas there are pictures of what the shape of the city used to be. The city was originally discovered by retired soldiers so it has the shape of an oppidum (military camp).

The prior week we had taken a similar tour of the same area, but I didn't realize how small the city was. This time, our teacher showed us the different entrances of the city and it was very easy to see that this was not a very big community at all. There were 2 main roads running perpendicular to each other that and met right in the center of the city. We also got to see where the palace used to be (in the middle of the city). It was built at the highest point of the city and there still remains 4 columns. I believe that these were in the southwest corner of the palace, but it doesn't really matter. The man who discovered these columns wanted to preserve them so he built a building around them so that they wouldn't be destroyed. That is what is pictured on the left.

First Weekend

On Saturday, our program took us on a day trip to the Codorniu, which is a vineyard. We got a tour which was pretty cool. They had an unbelievable amount of champagne (or what they call Cava). The cellars were pretty cool. We got to ride on this train thing and ya, it was fun. I wasn't able to hear the tour guide very well, but also I was taking pictures of things and not really paying attention so sorry, I can't really tell you how it's made.

Then, we went to Sitges, which is up the coast a little bit from Barcelona. The beach was beautiful. We had lunch there and walked around a little bit. Most people stayed at the beach but a couple of us didn't know we were supposed to bring our swim suits so we went back on the bus. Sitges is also one of the most gay-friendly cities in Spain so to say the least, it was interesting. It is a very beautiful town though. Josh and Bryce stayed and said that the paella was unreal. The other day we went back because we wanted to go to a beach but not Barceloneta (the beach in Barcelona) so we went to Sitges. We got some paella and it was pretty good, not something I would order again though. I did have to at least try it.

On Sunday, we decided to go see Camp Nou, which is Barcelona's soccer stadium. This was definitely one of the top things that I wanted to see. FC Barcelona is like a religion here. Everyone has uniforms, there are stores everywhere, its crazy. People don't really support Spain though. Catalonia, which is the region that Barcelona is in, used to be its own country until Spain took it over in the 18th Century (see...I do go to class). Many people are very bitter about this because the Catalans were repressed and forbidden to speak Catalan in public, people were slaughtered, and they closed the university. There's still many people who support Spain but there are definitely people against Spain as well. Anyways, we went to Camp Nou only to find that there was this huge event where they vote for the next president of the organization. The place was packed and so we weren't able to go down near the field or get a tour. Hopefully I'll be able to go back though.

Since we weren't there very long, Bryce, Josh, and I decided to go to Tibidabo which is the highest point in Barcelona. There, they have an amusement park which looked kind of cool, but it wasn't really big. We got on one of the rides which basically just took us higher. I took the picture of the Cathedral while we were up there. Then, we went in the Cathedral and went to the top which was actually even higher than the ride. The view of Barcelona was unbelievable. You can see the entire city on one side and then the mountains on the other side. It's definitely one of my favorite places.

Then Dong's birthday was that Sunday night so we went out for that. We started at a place called Xiputo's where they have all these crazy shots for 2 euros a piece. Somebody bought Dong one called the Monica Lewinsky, which is pretty raunchy. I'll just leave it at that. I didn't make it to my first class in the morning but it was ok...we get 2 freebies.

We didn't do much the rest of the week. We went to the beach, we took siestas (naps) after class a lot. We went out a few times to check everything out. We still had a lot of time so we kind of took it easy the entire week. I did go on some cool field trips with my class though so I'll probably post that next time.

Classes and Figuring out the CIty

June 10-11

Thursday and Friday were our first few days of classes. We are all taking a spanish class and a history type class. Bryce and I were placed into the intermediate spanish class, but quickly found out that this was not for us. We were told that this class would be taught with some english, but this obviously wasn't the case. By the time we got through the class, we looked at each other and said we have to move down. There's no point in sitting through a class in which we won't learn anything because we don't understand a single thing being said. On Friday, we went to one of the beginner classes, which turned out to be a joke. There was a huge difference between beginner and intermediate, and Bryce and I were definitely right in the middle. We just decided to stay because we thought that it might get a little bit more challenging.

My other class is awesome. I absolutely love it. Its called Past and Present in Barcelona. So far we have learned about the history of the city and who occupied this region and such. Also, I really enjoy it because our teacher takes us on field trips where we walk around the city and learn the significance of different places. If I were just here to visit, I feel like I would just see all of the touristy places and just say oooohhh ahhhhhh. This way, I get to learn some of the real history and reasons behind things you wouldn't typically get to see because they aren't in travel books.

I don't remember exactly which day I did what but we went grocery shopping and did laundry and went to the beach. We just started getting a feel for where we were, where everything else was, and how to get around. I'm not sure if I already mentioned this but my residencia is only 10 blocks from the beach. We also found this small little sports bar thats like a block away that everyone from our program likes to go to for watching the U.S. and Spain World Cup games. We're only like 2 blocks away from a metro station which is what we take everywhere. We usually take the metro in the mornings to class but then we found out how to get home by walking so we started doing that.

Getting into Barcelona and the First Few Days

June 7th-9th

Getting into Barcelona wasn't the easiest of things for us. We didn't plan the best and didn't realize that our flight from Dublin was into Girona, Spain...which is like an hour and a half bus ride into the city. Once we got there, we had no idea where we were and the only directions we had to the hostel were from the Barcelona airport, not the bus station. So anyways, we got in a cab and he didn't really know where it was and then all of a sudden he did and started driving and we started going into the mountains. It didn't help at all that none of us spoke very good Spanish. We thought he was taking us to the middle of nowhere. It turned out that he actually did know where we were going and the hostel ended up being in the mountains in a somewhat nice hostel.

The next day we were able to figure things out better with the help of a girl on the train and made it to the hotel where our program, CIEE, was meeting. We were the first ones there so we were able to check in right away and then rest for a little bit before things got started. P.s. the hotel was unbelievably nice, which was completely unexpected.

After more people got here, we got a chance to meet each other and then we did some ice breaker type games. We also were split up into groups with our "guardian angels" which are just other college kids that live in Spain and were to show us around. With our groups we took a walk, found out where the metro stops we needed to know were, where our classes would be, where the beach is, etc.

Then we came back and I had an amazing dinner. The hotel had a really nice restaurant where we got served a bunch of different appetizer-type things called tapas. I didn't exactly know everything I was eating, but it was good. We sat with one of the guardian angel guys that told us a lot about what to do.

The next day we woke up, had an awesome breakfast at the hotel. We then checked out, had a meeting with the people in charge of the program where we found out our classes and where we're living. Luckily, I got my choice of living in a residencia and I was also lucky that all of my fraternity brothers were staying in the same place. We then took a tour with tour guides of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. It was extremely interesting and the architecture is unbelievable. I'll be able to explain most of my pictures when I get home, but on here would just take forever. Then we had another lunch at a very nice restaurant in one of the plazas. I decided to get more Spanish food since I might as well soak in the culture and it was a good choice. I can never remember the name of what I had but I know it was amazing.

We then walked back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage and were off to our new homes. The place that we live in is about 10 blocks from the beach and 2 blocks from the metro that we have to take everyday to go to class. We are not in the best area of town, but nonetheless I still love it. I have my own room including a small desk, tv, and bathroom. Then I share a kitchen at the end of the hall with everyone on my floor. We have our own sections in the fridge and cabinets. Then there are 4 buildings, each split into 2 sections, but on top of the buildings there are pools and areas to sit and hang out. It's really cool.

On Wednesday, we didn't do much. We had our Spanish placement tests and then we took a bus tour. However, it was rainy and hard to understand the tour guide but we got a basic gist of some of the bigger things to see and then we can go there on our own time. Then we were treated to another lunch which was good, but not as good as the ones I had already had. And finally we had free time. We were on our own so we decided to all go home and nap. We had been walking around so much, seen so much, and a lot of people were jet-lagged so ya, we slept.

The rest of my blogs really won't go by and tell you every time I eat lunch and stuff but these were probably going to be some of the best meals that I would eat and I wanted to share how things got started. More to come soon.