Piedra Perlora

... cabin bringing her dog on the train with her. We got to Barcelona and to the area of the hostel, which is a massive boulevard called Las Ramblas. Its a little seedy, but covered in street performers, stalls and cheap beer. The hostel is fantastic, everything works, the rooms have keycard locks, as well as free keycard lockers for each person (and they`re massive). Rather than even attempting a tourisim style walk of ...

On the way to Barcelona we stopped at the Roman aqueduct, Pont du Gard. Although we wished we could go swimming, we only had about an hour to sight see and eat some lunch before heading back to the bus. Once in Barcelona, we saw Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which is ...

... pretty decent sized seabass are in abundance along the rocks, along with a ton of other more exotic looking creatures of the sea. Every now and then, you run into some topless folks and at some beaches...totally nude folks. Unfortenately the lot of them were gay...which to me infects the raw beauty of things with a bit of human unnaturalness. But, with a conscieous effort to ...

... gave her the grand tour and then had to change and get to work in the library from 11:15-3:00. Then I had a whopping hour off and then went back to the library until it closed and then had to go change clothes quick and work in the teen center until it closed at Midnight. Today was a very good day, highly entertaining and fun to meet my new roommate (who is super sweet and from Pensacola, FL) , but I am ready to go to bed. I have been getting up at ...

... nocturnal on us. We had heard there was some traditional Catalan dance thing going on down in one of the plazas at 6:00 pm, so after a few minutes of down time and planning in the afternoon, we headed out into the city to try and find some culture. Unfortunately, there weren't any dancers, but we did stumble upon some other Spanish things to look at. We came across some parade costumes on display in ...

... reading kids books, watching tv, speaking with my flatmates, etc. Maybe I was so embarrassed by my German ineptitude in front of my family that I have a renewed urge to actually figure this thing out!

However it takes until the next week to actually find a place that fits what I need, although it is much smaller than my current lodging for about the same price, it will have to do. I will now be living with Ximing from Beijing, China and Julia from ...

... Tea Latte's and they were so good. I never get those here, mainly because Starbucks doesn't exist in Rome. They had their holiday cups and were playing holiday music- I was trying not to get too homesick, but I couldn't help it! Overall it was a good trip and I feel more confident in my travel abilities in a place that I am not familiar with. It was nice to see a friend from home too and I enjoyed seeing Barcelona and experiencing a little bit of the Spanish culture.

... cava - so it had a bit of carbonation to it. I'll have to try making this version when I get home, it was the perfect summer drink! The next few days were a blur of wandering narrow alleys of the city. My favorite story is when Nick, Paola and I were heading out to see one of the Gaudi buildings. We only had time to tour one that night, so we were trying to decide which way to go. How to pick one over the other? Well, along comes ...

... direction, they should equal 33, or Jesus' age when he died. The interior, though also not complete, was almost more amazing. Its columns branch as they go up, not down, forming a ceiling that looks like a canopy of trees. Gaudi said his inspiration for the church wasn't spiritual or religious, but the trees in his back yard, which to me is a statement that's as spiritual and religious as it gets. He truly seemed to be an amazing, well rounded, highly instinctual ...

... the concept that different is not necessarily negative and many times very positive, it is a constant battle to remember that with all the pressure to conform. It takes quite a lot of energy to keep seeking my own truth, rather than buying the prepackaged ideas practically forced down my throat. We zoomed home in a very fast cab and the Sus and I finally discovered the 24 hour pizza. It took us four days which I think was partially due to the overload of pizza we had in Italy. I ...