Barcelona (Part 2)

Hello! We are ready for Part 2 of the Barcelona post! As I was uploading the pictures, I am very happy I made this two separate posts, since we did a LOT during our 3 day stay in Barcelona! Also, some of the pictures in the second half may be a little out of order with how they uploaded, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem!

Look at this happy lobster!

On our first full day in Barcelona we did a free walking tour. I have to say, while these free walking tours can be kind of exhausting, it really is a great way to learn some of the secrets of the city that you wouldn't know from walking around on your own!

We started off here with some Columbus history, as the mahogany roof from this building was one of the results of Columbus's voyage to the New World (although most of his riches went to Madrid).

This is the cathedral of Barcelona, which has some important significance to the city. Currently, Spain is a predominantly Catholic, but when the Romans overtook modern day Spain during roughly 200CE/AD, Christianity was outlawed, since the Romans had their own gods and goddesses. The church was built in 1339 and officially named The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. It was named after Eulalia, who was a 13 year old Catholic girl who had lived outside of Barcelona during the time of the Romans. Since all of the Christians had been removed from the city center, the Christian community selected Eulalia to try to make peace with the Romans. Unfortunately, the Romans were not happy to see her, so they punished her by putting her into a barrel full of broken glass, knives, and anything sharp, and they rolled her down the nearby mountains. After they had rolled her down the mountain, they opened up the barrel, asked her if she wanted to give up her faith, and when she didn't, they rolled her down the mountain again. Ultimately, she never gave up her faith, and they rolled her down a total of 13 times. She did remain alive at the end of this, so they ended up beheading her. However, when the Romans did switch over to Christianity centuries later, they made Eulalia a Saint and named the cathedral after her. Definitely a morbid story, but not too surprisingly since it is the Romans we are talking about.  There are currently 13 geese in the Cathedral to honor the 13 years of Eulalia's life.

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Barcelona (Part 1)

Hello! I was thrilled to be back in Barcelona! Out of all of my previous travel, Barcelona was my absolute favorite city in the world, and I am happy to report that after our trip this summer, my opinion is the same! I LOVE Barcelona! Hopefully you will feel that way after checking out some of these pictures :)

We got excited to see the Mediterranean Sea from our bus to Barcelona!

We were very hungry, so we stopped at the Boqueria, which is the huge market with tons of fresh foods, juices, and restaurant booths! We stopped at a yummy vegetarian stand called Organic where they had delicious wraps and paella, which is a famous yellow rice dish! It was so yummy!

La Boqueria is off of Las Ramblas, a very popular walkway with tons of shops, restaurants, some trees, street performers and more! I can't imagine wearing so much body paint each day like these street performers do!

One of the first activities we did was to get a great view of Barcelona by going to the top of the tower of Christopher Columbus. While I personally think he gets way too much credit in history, he did bring a lot of wealth back to Spain.

 We were really high up… look how little the people are!

There were gorgeous views of the city!

Here is a view of the Ramblas!

I did love how the statue looked against the sunset!

One of our absolute favorite moments of the trip was spending time on the Barcelona beach! It was just one of those perfect moments that just feel amazing and time stops. Although I had been to this beach before, it felt like a brand new experience that Jake and I shared! The sun had just set and the lights along the beach were coming on along the coastline. We took our shoes off and had a blast walking in the sand and standing in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. After walking in the waves, we sat down on the beach for a while and ate some grocery store snacks we purchased. It was a perfect night! I love Barcelona! :)

That's all for now! I'll cover days 2 and 3 in Barcelona in my next post!

Valencia

Hello! After a goodbye with a tearful Carmen, we were off to Valencia! During my time in Spain several years ago, I actually had never made it to Valencia, but it was on my list when we came back! I have heard others refer to it as the Paris of Spain, so Jake and I were really excited!

Our main attraction in Valencia was the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, or the City of Arts and Sciences. This complex contains several museums and art centers, in the midst of many parks and statues. It was lovely!

This building is the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, which is a theater. This was undergoing some construction while we were there, so we could not go inside, but it was still beautiful!

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Granada

Hello! Granada was perhaps one of the most anticipated (and most nerve-wracking) destinations of our summer, so I could not believe we were already arriving! I was super excited to return to where I had studied abroad for six weeks back in 2012 and was looking forward to sharing Granada with Jake and taking him to my favorite places in the city! Also, I was excited to reunite with my host mom, Carmen, who I had lived with during my time in Granada. I was a bit nervous however, since I had not talked to her very much in the past year and a half, so I was hoping things would pick up right where we left off. Also, Jake was very nervous to communicate with Carmen since she does not speak any English.

Some of the beautiful sites from our train ride to Granada...

I didn't take any pictures from our first night in Granada, but we did get to see my host mom Carmen and we hung out with her for several hours. It was really fun and she was so happy we were able to visit her! She has probably hosted about 15 to 20 students over the past 6-8 years or so, but I guess I am actually the first girl she had who ever came back to visit, so that was pretty cool! She actually still had the photo collage I made her up on her fridge! It was really sweet!

Our next morning, we started with delicious pastries from "the bread lady", or a lady who sells amazing treats from a kiosk/stand in one of the plazas in central Granada. This is part of the pan de chocolate that Kelley and I would always get three summers ago!

After breakfast, we visited the Alhambra Palace, which is one of the attractions that Granada is most known for. Construction began in the year 889 and was used as a Muslim fortress and palace during their 800 year reign in Spain. We were able to see beautiful views of the Palacio de Carlos V, the Albayzin, and the Generalife (gardens).

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Sevilla/Seville

Hello! After five days in London, we were ready to head to Spain! Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a hiccup on our journey as we missed our flight from London to Sevilla. We made a few mistakes along the way while getting to the airport, and although we arrived in time to the airport, our flight was with Ryanair, which is Europe’s budget airline, and some of the extra steps involved with the check in process ultimately led us to arrive at the gate 10 minutes late. Fortunately, we were able to catch another flight to Madrid later in the afternoon, so we at least made it to Spain. We spent the night in Madrid and took a train to Sevilla the next day. Although it was one day later than we had planned, it felt great to arrive in Spain. Sevilla is a very charming, relaxed place and I was very excited to return!

We really loved our apartment, which was comfortably located in the city center and a welcome respite from the heatwave!

We stopped for frozen yogurt, because why not!

Gotta love Snoopy!

During our evening, we enjoyed walking around and visiting some of the plazas, including Metropol Parasol, which was one of my favorite sites from my first trip to Sevilla while I was studying abroad in Spain three years ago. 

On our next morning, we packed in several sites before our train ride in the afternoon. First, we stopped at the historical bull fighting ring, where we received a tour of the grounds and access to the museum. While bullfighting is not something that I personally support, it is definitely a major part of Spanish culture, and many cities have a bull ring that has been used for centuries.

This was the part of the bull ring where the royal spectators would sit to watch the bull fight. From left to right, the flags are for Andalucia (southern region of Spain), Spain, and Sevilla.

We thought this looked a little bit like Pat!

Our next stop was the Plaza de España, which was incredible! I had actually not visited this when I was in Sevilla last time, since it is a little bit of a walk outside the city center. Jake was also very excited to visit this because it was used in the filming of Star Wars episode I as Naboo. Here is a picture for reference from the movie.

It was such an incredible and powerful experience plaza with stunning architecture, so we definitely enjoyed walking around here! I will let the pictures do the talking! :)

We just needed an R2D2!

Some people would take horse drawn carriage rides through the plaza!

This picture might seem a little random, but I felt nostalgic upon seeing this entrance to a park I had gone to during my past trip to Sevilla! I have included the picture of me from three years ago for reference haha!

Our final stop was the Cathedral, but unfortunately we did not have time to go inside. It was still beautiful on the outside though!

And that concludes our trip to Sevilla! Next up…Granada! Thanks for reading!