barcelona!!

today is my second day in barcelona. i have to admit that coming to spain i was incredibly nervous and had no idea what to expect, but i have completely fallen in love with the city and don´t want to leave. the culture is so rich and everyone is overwhelmingly nice. the food is delicious and the language is gorgeous. i have been speaking much more spanish than i thought i would and much more than i thought i knew!

i will do quick overviews of the last two days: (also on a side note i´m using a spanish keyboard right now and all the symbols are all over the place so that colon took me about 30 seconds to fine and learn how to press it properly haha)

day 1:
i arrived in barcelona around 2 with 3 girls that are going to be in oxford with me. we got out of the airport (with another stamp in my passport!!) and caught the bus into town. my friends kelly and rachel (who i was staying with in barcelona) told me that they would be waiting at the starbucks in downtown for me, so we had our destination. on the bus, we saw a starbucks and all hopped off, ran inside and saw no sign of the other girls. we thought it was the wrong one because there was not much action around it. so, we then had to walk about a mile into downtown barcelona with huge heavy traveling backpacks on (my hips are still sore) and no food in us. but we were excited and happy so none of that really mattered. we saw another starbucks and found no one we recognized. so we decided to stop for some lunch. we hopped into this little restaraunt and ordered sangria (amazing!) and 8 different types of tapas. it was absolutely delicious and i could eat all of it! at this point i had given up on finding kelly and rachel and started heading to the other girls hostel with them. as we were walking down the main street, Las Ramblas, we saw another starbucks. i darted in with high hopes, and saw them. with an enormous amount of relief i rushed into kelly´s arms and said goodbye to the other girls. then the three of us walked around the markets, shops and cafes for the rest of the afternoon and had a delicious quaint dinner, saw some more sights and went to bed exhausted.

today:
we woke up this morning around 8, got ready and headed down to a cafe near us for some breakfast. we ordered croissants (sorry mitch...) and cafe americana, which is basically a super super strong espresso watered down. then we did a little shopping and headed down to the coast. we then made reservations with a sailing company for a boat ride tonight at sunset around the harbor, with a jazz band. how cool is that! then we walked towards the museo de picasso, and stopped and a breath taking cathedral that the sailors built 500 years ago. i also read that it was burnt by a kind on 9/11 and the people still mourn over it every year. ironic how we have a sad day like that in common with a completely different culture. after the cathedral we went to a museum which is hallways and hallways of picasso´s artwork. it was incredible. in every room there is a quick biography of a few years of his life and what he produced in those years. then, we stopped for lunch at the cafe in the museum. after lunch we walked the streets and stopped in at shops we thought were cute and stumbled upon a really fun flea market. i got an AMAZING dress that my sisters are going to be obsessed with (you´ll get a picture girls) and some very europeon looking shorts for the boat ride tonight haha. we grabbed some gelato and headed back to where we are staying to freshen up before the boat ride.


all in all it has been breath taking so far. absolutely exceeding all my expectations. i love it here. i´m taking lots of pictures so i´ll put them up as soon as i can! i love you guys and love hearing from you! so keep me updated too!