Las Moreras Pineda de Mar

I have just come back from barcelona..my favourite city ever! I was there as part of my erasmus placement and im so pleased I chose Barcelona to spend it. I worked for 5 months in an internship but finished at 4pm everyday and had so much time to enjoy the city.

I came in the summer..summer in barcelona is amazing, its so hot, there are festivals and fiestas all the time..and of course the BEACH! I loved ...

... stopping in at a little restaurant for lunch.

The train ride, is about another half an hour. We are going along the sea and the beach. On some small secluded beaches I see men sunning 100%. Len says no, they would at least have a thong on, as we pass the next beach and he realizes, no they are not wearing a thong at all.

The train station is in the underground and we get off at the 2nd stop in Barcelona. We find our way out ...

... had a more detailed book on it. There is so much to see, however, in Barcelona that it was time to move on. We had to wait in line for our tourist bus but then took it to Park Guell, another of Gaudi´s famous works. After a steep climb we entered the park and immediately saw the lush landscaping and brilliant mosaic work that has become synonomous with Gaudi. Park Guell was originally designed to be a 60-residence housing project - a kind of gated community for 1900 ...

... to the rocks above. We ate lunch on a high cliff, overtop the red, craggy rocks that signify the Costa Brava. The trails here in Spain (and the rest of Europe I'm sure) are exquisite and very well marked. As long as you know what marker to look for, you don't even need a map. At each junction, there are X's telling you which way to not go, and a proper marker showing the right way. It's a really great system. The hike in total took us about 4.5 ...

... I had a wonderful opportunity to do just that! Tomorrow, we are going to go on a day trip to Monseratt (not sure if I´m spelling that right), which is some sort of monestary about 50km out of the city. Since I obviously know so little about this, you would be correct to assume that it was my Mom´s idea! We usually whine and groan about this sort of thing, but it always works out well in the end, so I´m secretly looking forward to it! Much love, Laura

... the Quebecois vs. Canada... Those moments, tucked away in a flat in the city centre while one person plays a guitar and we drink our wine, the discussions that happen and the connections we make, those are the moments that I like. I appreciate, most greatly, the architecture and the history of the earth I´m covering. I enjoy learning more and more about the artists who influence their cultures to move and change. The food, the atmosphere, the people pushing by to get ...

... genius managed to create some of the most ridiculous buildings you will ever see. He's got works all over the city and they are all just mind boggling. Window covers that look like sharks teeth.. just .. just Guadi. hopefully i can manage to get these photos back and post them.. but this church has fruit cups on the top of its spires, and gothic looking jesus, and just.. just nuts. We spend a few hours here, go to the top of the church, and walk down this ...

... to see it anyway. There are a number of other Gaudi properties around town, like the Palace Guell (being restored until 2007), more small 'Casa's', schools, hospitals and some remote sites on the fringes. Even in Placa Rieal you can see his first architectural assignment - two ornate lamp-posts that bear the hallmarks of ...

... red for blood, huge dark doors to where, bodies and body parts, a pervading sensation of gloom, terror, torture, and hopelessness. The exhibit reminded me of the feeling I had on my first visit to Spain immediately after World War 11. Franco was still in power. The country was recovering from the Spanish Civil War as well as WW2. There was a bleakness and sorrow everywhere. Underneath everything Spain had a ...

... we only have 3 weeks left of this adventure - 3 WEEKS! Sadly, the ferry is booked to return to England on November 7 - so we motored it towards Spain and it seems pretty cool so far, based on Barcelona. We had high expectations for the city as it's been hyped up a lot as Europe's number 1 city and things like that, and after 2 days here we can definitely see the attraction. It's a lively vibrant attractive city with heaps to do ...