The end of a dream.

So I haven't really had the heart to blog about the last week in Spain, but I should probably do it before too much time passes. It went way too fast. Kind of like a freight train rushing off to somewhere, and you can't really get off, because you know you have to get there, but still, you wish you could stay, at least for a moment.

Anyway, our last day in Spain we had "graduation." I'm still waiting for my grades to be posted, but I'm pretty sure I did well. But we had a little graduation ceremony at AlcaLingua to celebrate finishing up.

Vega, Cristina, me, and Rebeca - my teachers. I love these women so much!

Melanie and I with our diplomas - three months of "homework" in our little bedroom paid off! :)

The next day we headed off to the Canary Islands for four days! Only seven of the ten of us went, and our first day there was a bit gloomy, because we were all missing the other three, two of which we may never see again. Plus it was cloudy. But after that, the sun came out, and we spent four days lying on the beach, hanging out at the pool, swimming in the ocean, and staying up reeeeeally late at night talking about life and getting to know each other better.

Carina, Melanie, me, and Isabel. We made some amazing memories in the Canaries that I'll never forget. <3>

Me, Melanie, Isabel, Carina on Playa de las Americas on Tenerife island.

We flew back to Alcala on the 23rd, and then three of us flew backhome on the 24th. I cried for a full half hour once on the plane, when I couldn't see Madrid out my window anymore. My flights went okay, I was delayed in Chicago, but I got home, and that was that.

It's weird thinking back, now, on the whole experience. It seems kind of distant and far away, now that I'm back in "real life" picking up where I left off when I left for Spain. It's a lot like a dream, almost as if it didn't even happen. But it did. And it changed me. It changed the way I look at the world. It opened doors to me that before I was afraid to enter. It changed the way I look at myself, the way I feel about my own capabilities, the way I feel about myself when I interact with groups, with friends. It taught me that people all over the world, albeit we have our cultural differences, are still the same. We all have hopes and dreams and wishes. I think that's the biggest thing I learned - that despite some differences, people all over are still the same. And when you define the relationship by the similarities, not the differences, you find friends you never thought you'd ever discover. Friends that change your life forever.

Viva España!

Last Trip...

This is a hopeless post - I'm sorry, but life here is rather on the crazy side. We only have four days left of the official program, and then we go off to the islas for a bit, and then home in ten days... I can't believe it.

Anyway, to sum up the last little bit:

Last weekend: A trip to Aranjuez and Chinchon, two small towns near Madrid. I am so pictured-out that I didn't take a single one. It's okay. We saw a royal palace and some pretty gardens and that was all that was really important. Later that night, we went and had dinner at the Restaurante Botin - the oldest restaurant in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. And the food was amazing! It was great. They even sang happy birthday to Dallin, who turned 24. Yay!

Week in review: homework, class, FHE, Madrid, wallet-shopping, Madrid temple (baptized in Portuguese, that was cool), trip.

Yes, we left on Wednesday for our last trip. We hit Cordoba, Sevilla, and Granada in four days. We spent a lot of time on the bus, and there was a lot of really beautiful Arab architecture. In Cordoba is a famous mosque that was later turned into a cathedral by the Catholics (of course) but the arches inside are candy-cane striped. I felt like I'd fallen into Candy Land!

In Sevilla we saw the beautiful river, the Plaza de Espana (where Rachel and I ate roasted chestnuts and rented a rowboat and sang Christmas carols - loudly :D), the cathedral, Christopher Columbus' tomb, the Alcazar (a palace), and a fabulous hotel with kitchenettes, in which we made our own dinner and had a dinner party. That was definitely fun!

In Granada, we visited the Alhambra - an Arabic palace that was conquered by the Reyes Catolicos (Ferdinand and Isabella) in 1492, the last stage of the unification of Spain. It's one of, if not the, most famous tourist attraction in Spain. We also saw the tombs of said Reyes and went on a night tour of Granada, ending in Las Cuevas, a cave-like bar where we watched gypsies perform real, authentic flamenco - guitar, dance, and song. It was AMAZING.

This was our last trip as a group. This week we have finals, for the which I ought to be studying, so, enjoy the pictures!

Reflecting pool in the Alhambra

Guadalquivier River in Sevilla
BEAUTIFUL dinner
In the mosque at Cordoba

Windmills in Andalucia

In the gardens of the Alhambra

The Alhambra lit up at night
Orange in Cordoba - Andalucia is famous for its orange trees. This thing tasted NASTY (it was still green) but it made a great picture...
Torre de Oro in Sevilla - this is a famous tower with a gold roof on the top part. The picture is taken looking from the bridge, where people lock padlocks onto the bridge with their initials to "lock their love"

El Muelle de San Blas

So I've fallen in love with this song by Mana. It's so sad... but so beautiful.

Here's the translation; it's more beautiful in Spanish, but this is pretty close.

She said goodbye to her love
He left in a ship from the San Blas dock
He swore he would come back
And through her tears she swore she would wait
A thousand moons came and went,
And she was still at the dock, waiting.
Many sunsets reflected
In her hair and on her lips.

She wore the same dress
So that when he came back,
He would not mistake her.
Crabs bit her, her dress, her sadness and her illusion.
And time went by,
Her eyes were filled with the dawn.
She fell in love with the sea
And her body became a part of the dock

Alone, alone in memories
Alone, alone with her spirit
Alone, alone with her love, the sea
Alone at the San Blas dock

Her hair turned white
But no ship brought back her love
And in the village people called her
The crazy woman of the San Blas dock
And one April afternoon
They tried to take her to the asylum
But no one could take her away
And they never separated her from the sea

Alone, alone in memories
Alone, alone with her spirit
Alone, alone with her love, the sea
Alone at the San Blas dock
Alone, alone she stayed…

Treasure and dead people

Trip 8 - El Escorial, Segovia - aaaand Halloween!

Friday - El Escorial.

Honestly, El Escorial was slightly anticlimactic - a very large palace/monastery/thing in the bottom of which were interred a LOT of kings and queens and royalty of Espana. It was definitely sort of weird thinking I was in a room with 50 or so dead people from the 1500s... pretty cool, though.

We also went to Manzanares - El Real - a castle near El Escorial. This is my favorite favorite castle in Spain - there's a picture of it hanging on my bedroom door at home. I just thought it looked so cool. However, after visiting it, it was not near as cool as anticipated. I like Coco Castle better - see my early post about our trip to Leon and Burgos - that castle was better. Manzanares is a re-build, and the inside's been turned into a museum, so, not as authentic. Still nice though.

Manzanares castle

Manzanares El Real - castle

Saturday - Segovia. I actually really liked Segovia. It was really pretty, with lots of fall leaves and colors. It was rainy and cold, but it was very fall-ish.

Rachel, Carina, and I jumping in leaves. Yes, our expressions are really weird... the camera blurred a bit.

In Segovia we visited the Alcazar, a royal palace - very famous. It's actually the palace the Disney castle most resembles! (see picture below). It made me miss Disneyland. The Alcazar is also where Christopher Columbus originally approached Isabel and Fernando to ask them about going to America. (Although, our guide said that, but I feel like I've been told like three different places this happened... I think every city wants their palace to be the one he went to...)

The Alcazar - see the Disney castle resemblance on the right side/tower part?

On top of one of the towers of the Alcazar, with the Segovia cathedral in the background.

Friday night we also went to a YSA Halloween dance at the stake center in Madrid. It was a costume dance; Dallin, one of the guys in our group, dressed up like Edward from Twilight, and he had an avid following of picture-taking girls the whole night. At one point seven or eight of them ran up, squealing, joined hands in a circle and danced around him. It was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. The dance was great fun, though; it was very similar to stake dances in Utah, though there were fewer people, and they played a LOT of Latin dancing music, to which I can't dance - I'm not good enough friends with my hips to dance like that... :D

From left to right: David/Mexican soap opera character, Spanish girl, Spanish guy, Spanish friend Susie/hippie, me/cowgirl, Lindsey/Pocahontas, Kenneth/Hot Rod, Rachel/genie
(yes, I know I was sorta blinking here... but... it's the best I've got :D)

Unexpected Adventures...

So Rachel and I decided to take a little trip into Madrid today - hit up some museums, maybe eat some authentic food...

We had a map, I promise.
The reading of the map proved more difficult than we'd anticipated.
After wandering in a forest (aka, large city park) for what seemed like HOURS, we determined we needed to be on the other side of the six-laned freeway.
That would be when we noticed the massive tower with the sign saying "Museo de America" on it. We're brilliant, and blind, apparently.

After having spent 45 minutes of wandering in circles we arrive at the museum.
We then decide to practice our international espionage skills, because somehow we've managed to arrive at the exact moment as our professor and her parents - talk about weird timing, seriously, of all the museums they could've gone to today, they had to pick this one?
We dodge them for a bit, and finally realize it's hopeless and give in and say hi. Despite Rachel's fabulous Charlie's Angels sneaking skills.

We then head over to the famous National Library, full of old, old books in display cases.
Rachel about dies of excitement when she FINALLY sees the old, old Darwin book on evolution that she was SO hoping to see, and just as she lifts the camera...
The security guard comes over and tells us NO PICTURES.
We try to use the espionage skills to come back and take one anyway, but he's following us around. Laaaaame.

So then we're starving.
And what restaurant do we happen upon, but the Cafe Gijon!!! (Only the most awesome cafe in Madrid, where intellectuals, artists, writers, poets, etc have been eating lunch for the past 100 years.)
We're a bit underdressed, but we go in anyway.
We can't understand the waiter's accent, the food was all seafood stuff, and they didn't have Fanta. But it was SO COOL! We felt intellectual. And famous.

On our way back to the Metro, we see a massive, impressive building. We try to go in, but the police officer outside informs us it's closed. I think if we'd taken another step he was ready to tackle us.

We find a street stand and buy ridiculous numbers of postcards for our scrapbooks, meet a couple from Colorado, walk through a creepy tunnel to get to the Metro, and fall asleep on the train home.

Oh you know, just another day in Spain... :D

Recent Randomness

- After our short afternoon in France, I've decided French is actually pretty cool.

- Today we went to the Madrid temple and did baptisms! All the workers there right now were from Bordeaux, France. I read the Introduction the the Book of Mormon in French while in the chapel, and was surprised at how much I understood.

- I have officially decided to learn French again - you know, along with my native Spanish, which will always and forever be my first love.

- I love Spanish very much. In fact, I might cry when I have to start speaking English full-time again. Today I couldn't remember the English word for something. It made me so happy.

- I get to register for winter classes tomorrow - and I'm superexcited for my schedule!

- I started knitting a scarf! But I'm a perfectionist, and I'm going to start again, because I made it way too wide. But I'm super excited - I can knit!

- I think I want to go to spring term this year.

- It's almost 2011 - and that scares me. I can't believe it.

- I've basically stopped doing my hair since coming to Spain - my hairdryer barely works and my straightener doesn't, so, what's the point. Surprisingly, life has gone on as normal. I kind of like it sometimes.

- I have the best host mom of the whole study abroad. The Spanish have officially surrendered in the Spanish-American Food Wars - and now she still loves me even though I hardly ever eat all my food. And she's teaching me to knit, and she likes to talk to me. Love :)

- I'm going to go to the Canary Islands for four days at the end of this program! I'm very excited about this. I have learned on this program that I have a deep love of the ocean.

- I wrote a poem today in Spanish. I'm quite proud of how it turned out.

Random things about Spain you might not have known:

- Grass seems to be pets' litterboxes. People look at you weird if you sit on the grass. They look at you even weirder if you're doing exercises on it. We went running the other day, and worked our abs afterward.

- People live with their parents til they're 35 or married. It's weird to move out. Weird.

- You have to pay for grocery bags at the grocery store, you have to bag your own groceries, basically nothing is free... haha.

- Doggy bags at restaurants? Yeah right. You'll get some suuuuper weird looks and probably a refusal.

- Something like 55% of the people in Madrid are over 50. There's lots of little cute old couples walking around.

I love Spain, Spanish, languages, linguistics, the temple, Harry Potter, poetry, and Nutella.

Life is amaaaaazing!

Complete and total beauty

Trip 7 (I think?) - Santander, Bilbao, FRANCE, San Sebastian -

Four days of fabulousness. Main focus: beaches. This is the northern coast of Spain, and it is completely gorgeous - beaches, greenery, mountainy hills, all rolled into one makes for total beauty! I'll let the pictures talk for themselves this post.

Santander

Beach in Santander

On the beach in Santander

Cool cemetery outside Santander
Beach in St Jean de Luz, France! It says "I love you" :D

Melanie and I in Biarritz, France
Patisserie in St Jean de Luz, France
Beach in St Jean de Luz, France
San Sebastian - Playa de la Concha (shell-shaped beach - super famous)

The beautiful view of San Sebastian - northern coast of Spain

Probably my favorite part of the trip was visiting France. It was cool being in a country where I really, really don't speak the language. Although we were so close to the border that most of them spoke English or Spanish, so we didn't really have trouble communicating for the most part. It was a cool experience. I love study abroad. Even though there've been some problems, and some disappointments, overall this has been the most amazing and biggest growing experience I think I've ever had. One month left. SAD!!!!

Walls and Skulls and Astronauts and Chocolate

Trip 6 - Avila, Salamanca,

Basically I haven't blogged about this trip yet because it was pretty ordinary and there wasn't a ton to say. But we went first to Avila. Avila is famous for walls surrounding all the old part of the city. While there, we went up on said walls and watched a parade/procession of sorts. It was pretty cool - it was the Day of Santa Teresa of Avila, so they were having a religious procession/festival.

The walls of Avila

Later that day we went to Salamanca. Salamanca is home to the University of Salamanca - the oldest in Spain and fourth oldest in the world. It has a super cool plataresque facade (yes, I did just use both those words AND I know what they mean, go me) and it is also home to Cathedrals (plural). There's two cathedrals connected - one is older than the other by about 300 years. They're both two different styles of architecture, so they're pretty cool to look at.

Old building? I think not... haha. This is carved around the door of the cathedral. The building is old, but this part of the carvings was redone in the 90s, and they carved an astronaut in to celebrate modern science. Another part shows a dragon eating an ice cream cone. Way cool.

This is the facade of the University of Salamanca. Ask me sometime - I can label all the plataresque characteristics for you. (we had a test today, so I know stuff now :P)

Casa de las Conchas
So there was this man whose daughter married nobility - thereby giving him new social status. To show off his new status to the world, he did this to his house. The conchas, or shells, are part of the family crest of the family his daughter married into. Show-off...

We spent the night in Salamanca, and visited Toro and Tordecillos the next day - two small towns with a lot of churches. Suffice it to say, we were ready to be done with the churches by the time we left. I really am starting to believe they want us to come home Catholic, with all the churches we visit. However, we did see the first little bit of Mass when in Avila, which was pretty cool, not going to lie.

Random picture of me in Tordecillo, before visiting a monastery - Lindsey took this and I really liked it. There was a really pretty view of a river up at the top of this street.

What I'm going to miss the most...

I might miss Spain when I leave.

It struck me as I walked down the street in Salamanca and paused in the middle of Plaza Mayor. It was night, and a beautiful half-moon hung above the 16th century walls. The buildings shone golden with authentic-style lamplight, and people were everywhere, walking, talking, laughing, eating, spending time with friends, just living.

Up above me the first star came out. Yes, I did wish on it.

And I realized this was what I was going to miss most - not the Spanish, not the food, not the cathedrals, not any of the stuff we see on our trips - I was going to miss the friendly atmosphere in the streets. Being out in a city at night has always scared me - but there's a sense of community here, a shared feeling of friendship, to some extent. I love the "street culture;" eat on the street, get together on the street, walk on the street, etc. At home everyone has their cars, their houses, their yards, their cubicles, their fences. We put up walls and push our neighbors out. Here you can hear your neighbor two floors up singing to the radio. You know the neighbor across the street because you walk to the train station together every morning. The owner of the bar on the corner is your best friend - he sells you hot coffee and churros every morning on your coffee break.

Maybe it's just me and I'm overly optimistic about Spain, Alcala, all of it. But even if I am, it's still true at least to some extent - and I think that's what I'm going to miss the most.

"Culture"

Think about it.

The Spanish arrived in South America and called the natives uncivilized and without culture because they were bloodthirsty and primitive.

But the Romans had gladiator fights, and somehow that's "culture."

And the Spanish have bullfights.

I'm actually more than 95% ashamed of myself for going - however, the 5% appreciation is because it solidified in my mind that I'm 100% against it. Culture or not. Six bulls died last night for absolutely no reason at all, and I paid money to go in and watch.

It's true, there's a lot of "technique" involved. It's supposed to be a showdown between the man and the bull, a place to prove the courage and valor of each, in essence, a representation of the age-old struggle between man and beast for domination.

Man wins in the end. It's a bittersweet victory - and for me, it makes them as "primitive and uncultured" as the indigenous peoples in the Americas.

So maybe I'm a strong supporter of animal rights. Maybe I'm unappreciative of cultural traditions. Maybe I'm just religious.

Moses 3:19:
"And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God, breathed into them the breath of life..."

If God gave those bulls the breath of life, who are we to take it away?

I'm not saying it's never okay to kill animals. I instead side with the Native Americans - whose belief was that when man took the life from a fellow animal, it was never without a purpose - and they prayed for the soul of the animal to rest peacefully and to forgive them. Then they wasted nothing.

Somehow I don't think "cultural traditions" are going to be on the list of acceptable purposes at the end of the day. It was a waste - a waste of a beautiful life, a beautiful animal, a beautiful spirit - now in a better place than this rather messed-up world we've got down here.

90 minutes in heaven, well, just about

Trip 5: Valencia, Toledo:

Thursday, October 7 - reunited with the now-very-familiar bus and headed off to the mysterious land of Valencia.

First stop: Lladro factory. Lladro (accent on the O) is a very prestigious brand of porcelain. We stopped at the factory and took a tour and saw how it's made. Very, very cool. I would definitely have the patience to do that for a living - for about three and a half minutes. Then chuck it out the window, I say! The detail was amazing.

After the tour, our group spent a rather LONG time in the "seconds" store - meaning they had all the "flawed" statues at a "discounted" price. I put these words in quotes because the flaws were completely invisible... as were the discounts... no, they were cheaper than the perfect stuff, but seriously, $200 for a porcelain statue? Please. I can find statues I like better at Hallmark in the mall.

Obviously, I have not developed a taste for the prestigious and exquisite.

Nonetheless, here's some of the pretty stuff they had in their showroom:

Hello Kitty grew up and got married

This piece - about 2-3 feet long - took two years to design and complete. It's the most expensive piece Lladro has ever done - I believe it's about $120,000, if I remember right. It's Nefertiri's boat on the Nile - Charlton Heston, go ahead and let your jaw drop, they didn't give you anything this cool in The Ten Commandments movie.

This piece did speak to my heart a bit.

As did this one. If I would have bought anything here, it would have been this statue. I feel they captured the missionary spirit really well.

After Lladro, we went on a walking tour of the city at night (thank you Dallin, for being our tour guide). It looked basically like all the other Spanish cities, so I won't bore you with pictures. However, we then arrived at our dinner destination - a fabulous paella restaurant. Paella is one of the best dishes ever invented. I refuse to come home from Spain without learning how to make it.

Friday morning: We went to the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias, a fabulous modern museum near the harbor in Valencia. It looked like something out of Star Wars. We only went in the science museum part - it had a bunch of cool interactive exhibits.

There were pools of water all over. We all wanted to swim in them. Which is probably what prompted us to speed through the museum and go to the BEACH!!!

We spent about an hour and a half on the beach. The day was perfect, the weather was perfect, there was basically nobody there at the beach, the water was just barely chilly but still great, also super salty. I went out farther in the ocean than I have before - okay, so I haven't actually ever been out that far, this time, we were out where we could touch and sort of bodysurf the waves. It was a super clean and smooth beach. Basically, it was amazing!!

The seven of us who swam in the ocean - the others only waded a bit.

Saturday: Toledo

It couldn't have been more of a contrast - cold, wet, rainy, gloomyish... did I say cold?

Toledo is famous for it's mazapan, a kind of candy (marzipan? not sure) and also it's swords/blades. It's also famous for another cathedral, a painting by El Greco that hangs in a church there, and a large weapons museum. Store windows. Mmm.

Toledo

Tomb? of El Greco - famous painter. It was cold. You can tell. :)

Spanish-American food wars

Come mas! Come mas!

I hear this every. single. meal. It means "Eat more! Eat more!"

Okay, so my host mom is super nice - I really like her, she cooks very well, the food here is excellent, but every meal is about three times the size what I've eaten my entire life, and every meal is meat. meat, meat, meat, meat. I've tried and tried to eat everything she gives me, but I just can't. Every single meal I eat too much - simply because I'm trying not to offend her, and I'm super sick of it. So I've stopped eating more than I want to eat - it's my body, I'm the one who has to suffer through the stomachache the next two hours if I eat too much, not her. However, she's been getting increasingly frustrated with me every time I leave food on my plate.

Today I went out an hour before lunch and told her I wasn't very hungry, and that I didn't want very much food. She gave me less than normal, but still more than I could eat. When it appeared I wasn't going to finish it all, she started getting agitated - and there we were, the American girl trying to explain she has a small stomach, the Spanish woman trying to tell the American girl she's too skinny, anorexic, and needs to eat more. Anorexia is DEFINITELY not a problem... but geez, how do I even explain that convincingly in Spanish?! I ended up stuffing the rest of the meat in my mouth, excusing myself from the table, and spitting it out in the garbage can in the bathroom.

I'm really looking forward to being in charge of my own meals again.

Don't cry for me, Barcelona...

THE trip: Zaragoza, Monserrat, Barcelona...

So I feel like after this study abroad I ought to write for National Geographic or something, considering I go cool places and then write reviews of them for y'all... Also, I really recommend you look at my Picasa album about this trip, because I took about 200 photos and they're ALL interesting. :D

Anyway, so once again we departed on the autobus for strange and far-off destinations in Catalunya - a part of Spain in the northeast corner that pretty much would like to secede from Spain entirely. They're pretty proud, the official language is Catalan, not Spanish, so all the signs and everything are in Catalan with Spanish underneath. Our tour guide the second day told us that the FC Barcelona soccer players are the World Champions, because more national team players in that game came from the team FC Barcelona than any other team - therefore, Barcelona is world champions, not Spain. In return, most of the rest of Spain calls Catalunya weird and strange and says they're not really Spanish, so hey, everything works out in mutual minor dislike.

Day one - visited Zaragoza, a city between Madrid and Barcelona - it has this cathedral, which is where the virgin Mary supposedly appeared to St. James - I went out on a bridge by myself to take amazing pictures, got in trouble for leaving and taking said pictures, but... it was worth it, if I say so myself.

Basilica of the Virgin Pilar and the river Ebro - photo taken from the bridge.

We continued to Monserrat, in the mountains, where there's a little monastery and a GORGEOUSLY BREATHTAKING VIEW of a mountainous rivery valley.

I was overcome by an urge to take an artsy picture - there's more in my Picasa album. Here you can see the mountains, though. There weren't a lot of mountains, but they looked like this.

We got to Barcelona just after the sunset, went to our hotel, then headed out to see the Sagrada Familia at night and eat. If you haven't seen the Sagrada Familia before, I suggest you go to Google and look up pictures of it. None of mine do it justice. But I'll try...

The next day we took a bus tour of Barcelona. We saw a lot of crazy things. Barcelona is a more modern city, influenced especially by the work of Gaudi, a half-crazy, half-genius architect. I plan to learn more about him - because his works are amazing!

The "Face of Barcelona" statue. After seeing this, I started thinking maybe the rest of Spain isn't so off in thinking Catalunyans are weird... We drove up to the lookout point on a hill overlooking Barcelona called Montjuic. From here we could see the city and the Mediterranean. We later came back to Montjuic and hiked ten minutes up to the top, where there's a castle/fortress. It was closed when we came, but we got to see all the city lights and lights from ships out on the sea.

I fell in love with the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, looking at it from on top of Montjuic was as close as I got to it.

From Montjuic, we went back to the Sagrada Familia with the guide to take the official tour. It's a cathedral dedicated solely to the Sacred Family - Christ, Mary, Joseph - started in the 1800s, that's STILL under construction. It's the most crazy cathedral ever invented. However, it's also incredibly cool, because everything is symbolic. The front side of it has scenes depicting Christ's birth, and the back side has scenes depicting his death. The whole thing was amazing - it's been declared a world heritage site, it's definitely one of a kind! They anticipate finishing it (for real this time) in 2016. The world is waiting to see if it actually happens.

After our tour, our group basically spent the rest of the day walking around Barcelona. We saw the Plaza Catalunya and Las Ramblas - a street with lots of flea-market type stores - we saw a statue of Christopher Columbus, who visited Barcelona after his first trip to the Americas, we explored a neighborhood of Gothic -style architecture, and best of all we ate at an all-you can eat that had FRUIT and VEGETABLES and PASTA and I was in heaven!

Yes, that IS grapefruit! It was AMAZING!!!

On our way back to Alcala the next day, we stopped at Monasterio de la Piedra - monastery of the rock - and it was cool, but the best part was the park - basically it was a mountainside with trails all over through the trees and waterfalls EVERYWHERE! It was quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been.

This is the biggest of the waterfalls we saw - and this isn't even the bottom of it.

The trip to Barcelona was, for various reasons, the trip I was both looking forward to the most and worrying about the most. However, it couldn't have gone better! The only sad thing was that we were only there a day and a third. Someday I'm coming back to Spain, and when I do, I'm going to spend all the time I want in Barcelona.