BARCELONA BABY!

Hola!!! I hope you all are doing well, even with all those tornados coming through!

Here, I just had a fabulous time in Barcelona with my best friends here, Zion and Becky! It was so amazing! I was expecting Barcelona to be kind of dirty, and maybe unsafe at times, but I was totally wrong. The whole city was so clean! And there was never a time during the 5 days we were there that any of us felt unsafe, it was so nice! I would totally recommend Barcelona to people to go visit! It is so beautiful and such an amazing city! We just had the best time! And it was really nice as well, since it was the last time the 3 of us, best friends since the very first week here, will be together. Which is sad, but at least we get to remember our final hurrah as an amazing one, right? It is funny though, since when we told people we were going to Barcelona, they were like “So you are taking a vacation to Spain from your vacation is Switzerland?”. Yes. We are.

Okay. So we took millions of photos. Literally. And so I put them on a Picasa web album, so you can go through and look at all of them if you please  

Click HERE to see the album with all the photos!

But I am also choosing my favorites to put them on here  

So here we go!

We left Sunday morning from Geneva airport. But our plane was a little delayed. . . P.S. Check out the matching shirts Becky and I are rocking! Haha.

The plane ride from Geneva to Barcelona took 1 hour. That amazes me. And it seemed to fly by since we had a fantastic British steward named Patrick to entertain us. Haha. As we were making our descent, we were flying over the Mediterranean and it was just so beautiful! Once we landed, we immediately felt that hot Spanish sun! We got off and took a train into central Barcelona, but our directions were wrong, so we actually went 1 hour outside of Barcelona, then turned around and went back. So we saw some other places in Spain! Once we made it to the hostel, we dropped our stuff off, changed into swimsuits, and headed to the beach!!! I was soooooo excited!

Right when we got to the beach! Ah! Palm trees, the smell of the salt water, the hot sand, the sun!

Yay for Barcelona!

The 3 amigas on the beach!

After swimming and laying out in the sand for a while, we got hungry, so we wandered around and found a little café and then after, we wandered around Barcelona!

Zion and I.

When I lived in Connecticut, Dad used to bribe Becca and I each morning with Dunkin’ Donuts, saying that if we left early enough, we would stop and get a donut. So, for the first 10 years of my life, I basically had Dunkin’ Donuts on a daily basis. In Kansas, there is one about 40 minutes away, which is so upsetting. So, as we are wandering down this street in Barcelona, I spot out a Dunkin’ Donuts!!!!!! My eyes lit up and the heavens opened and my life was complete! So, of course, I went and got an iced coffee and donut. Ah. I LOVE THAT PLACE!

Then, we walked around some more, and eventually made it back to our hostel and off to bed!

Monday, Day 2, we first headed to the Sagrada Famillia, which is the most famous thing in Barcelona. It is this HUGE Catholic church that was started by the architect Gaudi, but he died before it was finished. It is so massive and beautiful! We only went and looked at it, but didn’t go in. We saved that for another day.

Me at the entrance to the Sagrada Famillia!

Afterwards, we went to another building by Gaudi, but this one was a house. He made all his buildings without straight lines, it is like a fun house type thing! Becky and I went into it and toured it then! I normally could really care less about architecture and stuff like that, but I was really into Gaudi!

The front of the Casa Batilio.

The streets of Barcelona!

After getting some food and realizing how expensive Switzerland is (seriously, we went into this grocery store and Zion and I thought that we had died and gone to heaven, it was so cheap!!! But then Becky reminded us that that is how much things are in the States. Switzerland has thrown our perspective of money out the window. Dang Swiss Francs. . . ) So after having a hay day in the grocery store and having the other people in there think that we were some weirdos, we headed to the beach!

In the Med Sea!

Tuesday, we woke up, had some breakfast at our hostel, and then were planning on spending the whole day at the beach! But we somehow managed to make a detour, which ended up taking 6 hours to get back to the beach. Haha. But had we not gotten on that random bus, we never would have seen that part of Barcelona, so it was all good! Us 3 at the start of day 3!

Me by the Christopher Columbus monument!

For lunch, we wanted something spicy and Spanish. More specifically, these taco things we had heard were really good. So, we attempted to order, but the guy didn’t understand English and we didn’t understand whatever language he was speaking, and so in the end, we ended up ordering calamari. Haha. We thought we were getting these spicy tacos when we ordered it. But no, apparently we ordered calamari. Haha. But it was all good!

With our calamari!  

After that, we headed to the beach again!

So, after we had tanned for a little bit, we asked this American lady that had asked us to watch her bag, to watch our stuff while the 3 of us went into the water. So she agreed and we headed out! We were probably out there for 20 minutes or so, and when we came back up to the beach, we couldn’t find our stuff anywhere! So we literally wandered the beach for 30 minutes, and right before we almost gave up and were considering the possibility that our stuff got stolen, we found her and our stuff! We are such idiots. It was so embarrassing! Just wandering the beach searching, and she was right there all along. Haha. Then, we had bought some Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, so we pop open the lids and just layed on the beach, in our “bikini bodies” and ate ice cream. Life was so good. We have no shame. Haha.

Becky and I before heading back for the night!  

Barca 2011!

The next day, Wednesday, we headed back to the Sagrada Famillia to go inside! It is just such an impressive church! I mean, you walk in and it is just like “wow"!

Me inside!

This is just a teeny tiny section of the outside. Imagine how long it must have taken to build that!

Some of the beautiful stained glass!

We spent over an hour just wandering around inside! It was so amazing! After we finished looking around, we went up in this elevator and we had this amazing view of the city of Barcelona! It was so awesome! Then, we climbed down through the various columns.

Me climbing down! It was so narrow and twisty! By the time we made it to the bottom, I was a little dizzy! Haha.

Becky and I!

After we made it out, we took one last look at the amazing church and then headed to get some lunch!

Seriously. You all need to try this. I have not had seafood since I left America. This was a seafood “paella”. It is this Spanish dish that is basically rice and then whatever you want in it, but it is SO GOOD! Ah. Heaven. Yum. I could totally go for some of that right now. Ah. 

Can you guess what we did next? TO THE BEACH! We spent the whole afternoon on the beach! Ah. We swam, we took naps, just basically soaked it all up! I have never loved going to the beach so much in my life.

On our last day in Spain, we were going to go see all the things that we had missed during the week. So we packed our bags and left them at the hostel in the luggage storage and hit the streets!

The Arc de Triomf of Barcelona!

We went up in this tower and had views over all of Barcelona!

Becky and I wanted to go see the other really famous building by Gaudi. They are apartments, and the top level is open to the public and is furnished with furniture from the 20th century. People still live in the other apartments! Which I think is so cool! But when the city bought the top level back in the 80’s, it cost 27 million euros! Can you imagine how expensive it would be today! Dang!!!

The roof/terrace of the building has all these cook sculptures that he built!

We then finished out our last hours in Barcelona wandering around some more!

The building behind us is the palace! And, if you saw the Disney movie, Cheetah Girls 2 when they went to Barcelona, the building behind us is where they filmed one of the music videos. I was a big fan of the Cheetah Girls as a young child. Haha. So I was kind of excited.

 

Around 5pm, we headed back to the hostel to get our bags and then we headed to the airport Our plane left at 8. Once we made it back to Switzerland, it immediately smelt like cheese. Welcome home! It was comforting though to see the Swiss trains, here French, and smell cheese. I missed home.  

All in all, we had a fabulous time in Barcelona! These 2 girls have gotten me through so much this year, and I can’t imagine this year without them. I know we will see each other next year and in the years to come, and I am so glad that we had this last trip together to remember our last few days together by!

Now, I am currently on a train to Zurich to a Good-Bye party for all of us oldies and then tomorrow I am going to Ireland and England for 10 days with Becky! I can’t wait! And in less than 2 weeks, Mom, Dad, and Becca will be here! I will update my blog once I get back from Ireland/England! See you soon and I hope you have a great first few days of summer!!!

Love Always, Laura

Just another day.

Hello world!

I hope your past week has been amazing! I know everyone back home is busy running around to graduations, studying for finals, counting down until summer, etc.! Here, the past week has been a little stressful. Jenna, one of my best friends here, went home. It was really sudden, but there were a lot of problems, and basically her best option was to go home. But she was already going home in June anyway, so she only went home a couple weeks early. But still, it was hard. So, the few of the week was spent going and getting all her stuff from her host family’s house and moving her to the French part to stay with Zion. And holy cow. Did she have a lot of stuff. How we made it all the way from Luzern to Morges, I have no idea. Haha.

First leg of the trip to Morges. Getting all of it on her village bus that would take us to Luzern for the train. We were already worn out. Haha.

Tuesday and Wednesday I hung out with my host mom. We made lunch, we went to the horse stables, where my host family has horses, we went shopping, etc.  

Wednesday night, I slept over at Becky’s house, because that way I would be able to make it the airport on time.

Thursday morning, we got up at 5am and met Jenna and the crew on the train and we headed to Zurich Airport  

6:30am. Cris, Zion, Jenna and I on the way to Zurich!

Once we got to the airport, I didn’t have much time to spend, since after Becky and I were going to this amusement park (we will get to this later). So we got there at 8:15 and we went to go check her in already. It took us a little while to figure out where it was we needed to be, but we managed and got it all squared away! By then, it was 8:35, and I had to leave with Becky to go catch our train, and so I tried to take a picture before we started crying, but I didn’t do to good. . .

To Jenna. It has been such an amazing ride. I couldn’t have imagined anyone else to share the memories with. We have done so much and come so far. Never ever will I forget any of it. I love you to death girly, and I will see you at our meeting point in between Canada and Kansas soon! Love, love, love.

After quite a bipolar train ride on my part, of me crying, then laughing, then crying, etc. and having everyone else on the train think I was crazy ,Becky and I made it to Germany!

Now, there is this famous amusement park here in Europe called Europa Park. It is located in Germany. And I have been wanting to go all year. So Jenna and I had planned this date like 2 months ago, and it just so happened that she ended up leaving on the day we had planned to go. But we had already gotten the tickets for this day, and we couldn’t reschedule it, so I spent the morning at the airport, and then the rest of the day in Germany, so I could go to an amusement park.

Becky and I with the famed mouse at the entrance!

Getting ready to go in! Anticipation!

Once we got in, I, of course, grabbed a map and planned our attack. Making sure we hit all the rides. I was going to get my money’s worth!

Europa Park is divided by countries, and then they have rides that correspond with each country. For instance, in Switzerland, they have a roller coaster called “Matterhorn Blitz”, in Greece, there was a water roller coaster called “Search for Atlantis”, etc. . .  

They had this giant ball in France. They totally stole this idea from Epcot. . . Just saying. .. . . But the ride inside this one was WAY cooler. It was a legit roller coaster.

My favorite of the European countries, Switzerland!

So, we went on a Thursday, since that way there wouldn’t be a lot of people and lines. So, we are walking through Greece, and I hear someone calling “Laura!”. But I didn’t look back since I assumed that no one I knew would be there. But it sounded like the voice of my little sister in my 2nd host family. So, after hearing my name called a bunch of times, I turn around to see Nora, my sister, and her best friend there! I was so confused! Haha. I was like “Does mom know you are skipping?! What are  you doing here?!” And turns out she was there for a school field trip! It was just so funny that we would be there on the same day! So then we went and rode a bunch of rides together, got a souvenir photo, and just had a great hour together! After, she had to go back with her class, but it was still so funny and lots of fun!  I miss living with that girly!

Becky and I!

It seriously was PERFECT weather all day long, until the last 30 minutes, which worked out perfectly, since Becky and I had just rode the last ride!

On our way out of the park, we stopped and got some food for the ride home. Chocolate Apples, Cotton Candy, and popcorn. Along wit my souvenir mouse hat of the Europa mouse! They have so many great rides at Europa Park, some of which would never work in the States, haha, but we made it out with no bumps or bruises, and very pleased with the fact that we rode everything! Day well spent. The only problem we encountered was that  on the way home, our train to Vevey was late, and so we missed my little village train by 1 minute! So we had to wait in Vevey, at 11pm at night, in the rain, for an hour, since that train only comes through 1 time every hour. But it was all good, since Becky came home with me for a sleepover. And even though the morning sucked and was hard, the day ended up nice!

Now tonight, I am going out with my host sister, and then tomorrow morning I leave for BARCELONA, SPAIN!!! So I will be gone until Thursday night, so until then!