Bye Bye Barcelona

We started the day off early packing our bags last night and getting dressed quickly and heading to breakfast for the normal array…although today I broke the tradition and ate Spanish cereal that reminded me of coco pebbles but was less chocolatey…we ate and then headed back to the room to grab our bags and head down to the busses (we wanted good seats for the 7ish hour ride home…which yes I did get hahahah J)

…We took the bus to the Cathedral down in the main strip…it was breathtaking…we had to be dressed properly so I put my head in a low pony-bun with a headband that matches my hair color, my white cropped Indian t-shirt, purple tank top underneath, and a long black maxi skirt with my usual go-to sandals….as we walked towards the monument hidden among other buildings we could spot the spirals…it was so old on the outside that it had a certain charm…the inside was exactly what I was expecting...a large area for mass that we could not enter unless we were attending and gate areas with certain relics of Jesus draped in gold molding and red satin.  The high ceiling gave the awe factor along with the many stained glass…I have a serious soft spot for European cathedrals J they never stop amazing me no matter how many I have seen they take the breath right out of me…after taking our pictures we headed to the other side of the cathedral entering the Barrio Gotico which had an even stricter dress code, thus a majority of our group couldn’t go in….

 

The Gotico was a beautiful garden that the church used as a monastery…the walkway was arched at the top with dark stones and a pond sat in the middle with ducks that honked at you J along the sides were the various areas deicated to Jesus statues and the extraordinary stained glass windows…a hidden fountain sat around the corner that was surrounded with beautiful orange flowers…the site was amazing and neither can be shown the maganitude (along with 95% of Spain) through pictures….these moments are something everyone should experience without a doubt…

We then took a tour through the Museu de la Ciudad de Barcelona…you travel underneath the city and cathedral into the acient ruins of the people from many centuries ago…the ruins in tact show the life they lived and how they built their city….again you’re walking on a walkway above these ruins…walking the same streets that ancestors before you had walked….it was so perplexing to wrap your mind around and gives the goose bumps on my arm a tingle…you follow the path leading you back up to the street level to see the artifacts that scientist have found and are on display…the mechanisims they created show how intelligent our ancient cultures really were…I took a few pictures to show you the tour, but again no feeling can be displayed in these photos unless you have been there:

 

After our tours we hopped back on the bus to grab lunch at the monestary…we had a pasta of some sort that reminded me of a mixture of hamburger helper and pot pie (it was pastry crust stuffed with a beef of some type and coated in heavy white gravy and cheese…apparently they don’t care about their figure) and our second course was chicken marinated and a salad drenched in dressing with ice cream and yogurt for dessert…I took my roll to go (such a rebel) and enjoyed it on the ride home on the bus with my apple and crackers for dinner because we didn’t stop much and I’m too cheep to buy a sandwich hahaha J….

After dinner, I took a walk to stretch my legs before our long bus ride home although I got lucky and have the seat next to the door so no one can move their seat back on me hahaha J I got evil glares from taller people…but hey even short people need their space J

The bus ride was long and tiresome…we stopped at our usual places like on the way there and took a stretch…I read some of my book, took a little siesta, listened to music as the scenes passed by, and finished my papers so I wouldn’t have to do my homework later J…oh I also had a little free time to have fun with my webcam :P

….after we got back to Alicante we dropped a group off at the bull arena and then our group off at the metro station where we caught the last tram to our house, got a shower, read some more of my book, peeled pistachios so I wouldn’t have to do it later, hung some laundry, and went to bed…

(I want to live in the countryside like this!)

There wasn’t much of a breeze last night as we all snuggled into our beds after our adventures in Barcelona it was a quiet night only to be awoken by a beeping alarm signaling a full week of classes ahead :P