Barcelona for Brandon's 21st Birthday!

  Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands
Thursday, November 6, 2008

Last weekend I visited Brandon in Barcelona to celebrate his 21st Birthday! His birthday was on Tuesday and I was sad I could not be there on the actual day but I made it there by Thursday and skipped one day of class to get to stay through Monday. We had got to do a lot of sightseeing and had a fun time celebrating his Birthday too! 
 
Thursday November 6th: 
            I had a bit of a rough time getting there because they made me check my bag and charged me 22 Euros to do so! Also, my flight was delayed an hour which is unusual for Ryan air who has a 90% rate for on time flights. But nevertheless I made it to Spain and was happy because the pie I made for Brandon and packed in my bag made it there with me! 
            Brandon picked me up at the bus station when I finally made it to Barcelona (Ryan air makes there flights so cheap by flying into smaller airports so u always have to take at least an hour bus ride on both ends of your flight). From the bus station I took my first metro to Brandon's host family's house. His host family was very nice and they let me stay in their extra room which was great! Nidia, Brandon's host mom was very hospitable and even made meals for me while I was there I was so surprised. She is very helpful and talkative and I even understood her some of the time :-) Alvero is Brandon's host dad and he is quieter but also very friendly. He is the type of person that does not talk a lot; but rather, only talks when he has something important to say.

Greta!

They also have a cute little dog named Greta who acts as a guard dog and barks at you every time you enter the house.  But most of the time she is a very sweet dog who likes to cuddle.
            That night I gave Brandon his presents and his pie.

Birthday Pie!

I got him 2-1 candles and we lit them and sang to him and he was so surprised.  Nidia had dinner already ready so we all sat and had dinner, which apparently does not usually happen, so I felt honored.  I was pleasantly surprised that I liked the dinner, even the soup! She made us a soup with rice in it and then white rice with egg.  That night the boys took me to a bar called the Dow Jones.  It is really cool because they have different drinks to represent the stock market and then as people buy drinks the prices go up until the stock market crashes and the drinks are really cheap.  The boys really like it but think they could do a better job with it and want to make their own Dow Jones Bar in America.

Dow Jones

Afterwards we met up with some people from their program at school, including Monica, and hung out at the beach. 
 
Friday November 7th:
            Brandon and I started off the day with a free tour.  Nidia made us lunch to take with us, as she did for the rest of the trip it was really nice.  We had been on some free tours in other countries and had good experiences so we decided to try the Barcelona one.  Our tour guide was actually French and was really strange.  We also did not see many of the main buildings on the tour like you usually do but it was interesting nevertheless.  We saw a palace that Gaudi designed, the school that Picasso went to, a square named after George Orwell, a roman looking emperor's tomb, and plaza real which we learned was modeled after the plaza real in Madrid.

Plaza Real

We also saw a room inside a palace that had a gold hand on the wall that supposedly if you put your hand on top of it it would give you good luck in love.

Love Hand

Brandon and I both did it just to be safe :-)
            After to the tour Brandon took me to his market and I liked it because it had the regular meats and vegetables but it had candy too!  We also went to H+M because they don't have it in Italy.  We then had lunch at home and then went to see Parc Guell, which is a park that has Gaudi architecture.  The park is up a hill and it was really cool because you can take stairs up the hill or you can take escalators which go up the middle of the hill.  We of course took the escalator and it was really cool!  We first saw a part of the park that you could see a nice view of the city and we ate this mini chocolate cake that we bought on the way there.

View in Parc Guell

Next we walked to this big circular area.  It has a really cool wall on one side that is lined with palm trees and the other side has mosaic benches that overlook a fountain and two houses.  I loved the houses because they looked like candy land to me.

Candyland Houses

Gaudi architecture is so unique and fun to see.
            That night I took Brandon out for his birthday dinner on Las Ramblas

Tapas Dinner

.  We found a place that had a deal where you get two tapas, a paella and sangria or water for 11 euro each.  The restaurant picks the tapas for you and then you pick the paella.  We got chicken, beef, some bread with fish on it and octopus! Brandon ate the octopus and liked it and I even tried a little piece.  Our paella was really good, I got one with chicken and Brandon got chicken and seafood.  It was fun to try the local cuisine and it was really fun to eat on Las Ramblas.  We got to people watch and it was a really romantic atmosphere.
            After dinner we tried to go see the fountain show but found out that it is only on earlier in the night during the winter time so we planned to come back the next night.  We walked all the way to the top of the stairs at the fountain show anyway and saw the view it was beautiful.  Afterwards we went to this place called Chupitos near Brandon's house.  It is this really cool place that has over 600 types of drinks.  The boys really like this place because they light the bar on fire for some of the drinks and they even light some of the drinks on fire it is really cool.  Monica and I both got the Girl Scout.  It is really cool because you roast a marshmallow on the bar and then dip it in your drink.  It was so fun! It was just a fun place to go to and a totally new experience.
 
Saturday November 8th
            On Saturday we went to Mount Tibidabo.

Amusement Park

Mount Tibidabo is really cool because it has a huge church and an amusement park on the top.  We took a little train car up part of the mountain and a funicular the rest of the way up it was so cute!  First we looked at the church. 

Mount Tibidabo Church

It is really unique because it has a big statue of Jesus on top with his arms outstretched.  It's cool because you can see it lit up at night and it's nice to know what we were seeing.  The inside of the church is really beautiful too and it made me sad to think about going back to the U.S. and not being able to see such beautiful churches all the time.  It is one of my favorite parts about Europe.  We ate lunch that Nidia made for us on the steps.
            After lunch we got tickets and went into the amusement park.  We were really surprised because the amusement park was huge and had really cool rides.  It was also amazing because when you are on the ride you get to see beautiful views of the city too.  We rode a roller coaster (that was scarier than I expected), bumper cars (which they called crash cars), swings, and even a water ride.  I did not want to get wet because I was cold but Brandon said he would let me wear his jacket after the ride so I was ok J  We also saw a 4D movie which was cool.  They gave us 3D glasses and the fourth dimension part is that we were one of the characters in the movie.  The movie was in Catalan, not Castilian so we could not understand it but it was still really fun.  The amusement park also had musician, clowns, a man on stilts and really good carnival food (we got a candy apple and popcorn).
            We had to leave Mount Tibidabo to make it back in time for the Fountain show so we had to leave.  We loved Mount Tibidabo though.  The amusement park was even cooler than we imagined and there were such pretty views from the top.  The fountain show was beautiful and it was just like I remembered it from when I went with my parents when we visited Robby in Barcelona.  It is a huge fountain and there are lots of other little fountains leading up to it.  All of it was built for the Olympic Games in 1992 like many parts of the city. 

La Fuenta

The fountain show, La Fuenta, is very colorful land done to music it was very romantic.  After the show we went back to the house and Nidia had made lasagna fro us it was really good.
           

Fans at the Soccer Game

On Saturday night Monica, Brandon, Garrett and I went to the Barcelona soccer game.  It was my first soccer game in Europe and I was really excited.  I got to wear Brandon's scarf that I got him for his birthday.  The stadium is really impressive it is beautiful and can fit 100,000 fans!  I was lucky because I got to see a really good game.  They played all of the main players and won the game 6-0.  Eto'o scored four goals in a row it was really exciting.  The fans were really into the game and did the wave a bunch of times it was fun.  We stayed after the game for a little bit and took pictures in the stadium.  It was really funny because Garrett wore a soccer jersey and scarf and then he wore his funny England hat.  A lot of people were confused by this and it was entertaining to talk to them about it.
 
Sunday November 9th
            On Sunday we went to the beach in the morning/afternoon.  It is funny because we slept in a bit and Brandon's host family always says Buenas Notas to the boys when they wake up late.  We went back to the beach we went to at night and it looked really pretty in the daytime.  

Barcelona Beach

It was really sunny that day so we sat on the beach for a few hours and had our lunch there.  There were people there windsurfing, relaxing and sailing and it was fun to watch them.  It felt good to lie in the sun and it made me miss going to the beach in California, but not too much because going to the Barcelona beach was really cool.  It's interesting because Barcelona actually did not have a lot of beaches before the Olympics but they imported beach from Egypt and made beaches for people to enjoy.
            After the beach we went to La Sagrada Familia., which means the Sacred Family. 

Sagrada Familia Towers

It is a church that is still being built that Gaudi was the director of.  It has taken them over a century to build and they are still not finished yet.  It is funny because when I went before with my parents I said I would take them back in 50 years when it was supposed to be done and I was already back 3 years later! We went inside the church which was really pretty. It had stained glass and flower designs in the wall that made a really pretty reflection on the floor.  We took the elevator up to climb around some of the towers.  There are 8 towers that are finished but there are supposed to be 12 by the end to represent the disciples.  The towers are really pretty and some of them looked like candy to me too. There is also a museum inside that shows you the process of the construction and a timeline. After the Sagrada Familia we went to see Brandon's school because it was nearby.  It was closed but I got to see the building, which is an extension of the larger school and it was good to see where Brandon goes to school.  From his apartment it is about a ten minute metro ride and a five minute walk so it is not too bad.
            That night we decided to go out to dinner because since Nidia had cooked for us we had not eaten out very much.  Brandon took me to this Mexican restaurant that was really good.  On the way to the restaurant we saw a really cool church and thought how are our dates going to be impressive again when we go home?! The restaurant was really cute and I liked how it had sandals on the wall as Mexican decorations.  Mexican food is one of the things that we have missed while we were here so it was fun to get nachos and food there.  Afterwards we went back and had a skype date with Jamie, Justin and Erich.  We have skype dates with our friends back home from time to time and it is fun for us all to be together, kind of.  Erich and Brandon decided its feels like a hologram because it is like we are there but they can't actually touch us.  Skype is such a good invention and I don't know what my experience would be without it.  It is so nice to get to talk and SEE my family, friends and Brandon for free! 
 
Monday, November 11
            Monday was my last day there so I woke in the morning and packed my stuff.  I said goodbye to the family and thanked them for such an amazing stay.  They were so nice to me and it was so nice and convenient to get to stay in the house and so sweet that she made me food all of the time.  Brandon and I went to the arc de triumph before I left for my bus because it is right by the station.  It was a cool arc but definitely not as amazing as the one in Paris.  We said goodbye and I was really sad to leave Brandon in Spain because we had such a great time there together.  I also really loved Barcelona and do not know the next time I will be back so I was sad to leave.  Brandon and I are lucky though because in a few days we would see each other for our Sweden trip.  It is still always sad to leave him though.  Spain was a lot of fun and it was nice to go somewhere where I kind of knew the language.  Barcelona is a city that is much different than any of the cities I have seen in Europe and I love the Gaudi architecture.  I also loved being with my amazing tour guide.