Spring Break In Spain

Hi everyone! Sorry it has taken such a long time, but writing a post about my entire spring break has seemed like a daunting task to take on. In 11 days I traveled through Barcelona, Sevilla, and Madrid, and saw/did a whole lot! In Barcelona I was with two other kids from my program, and for Sevilla and Madrid, we met up with one other person. I had a great time, and feel so lucky that I was able to experience something totally different from the world in Italy that I've become accustomed to.

Barcelona

Barcelona is a beautiful city right on the Mediterranean Sea. Barcelona was a great change of pace because of its modern feel (nothing like Italy). We stayed in a hostel right on La Rambla, which was really convenient. While there, I went to the Picaso Museum, a museum in one of the famous Gaudi houses, saw the Olympic Stadium, Park Guelle, saw the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, walked along the beach, and just in general, explored the city. For those who don't know, Gaudi is an extremely famous architect, who designed many of the buildings in Barcelona. They are very modern looking, and just really cool. He designed the Sagrada Familia, as well as Park Guelle. One of the greatest things about this destination was that my friend Anne from UofM was visiting that weekend. It was really great to spend some time with her. Also, her boyfriend is studying there this semester, and he took us on a huge walking tour of the the city. We saw the gothic quarters, different churches, etc. etc.. It was really nice to be with someone who knew the city so well, and I definitely think I saw a lot more than I would have. On the last day we were there, we rented bikes and road along the beach. It was a really nice relaxing ending to our time in Barcelona.

Being super touristy on top of the Gaudi apartment/ museum

Anne & I in front of the Segrada Familia

Arc de Triomphe

Park Guelle

My travel buddies

Sevilla

Sevilla is much more like the Europe I have experience; cobblestone street, older buildings, and I thought it was just incredible. We were only there for about two days, but I could have stayed longer. Sevilla has the largest gothic-style cathedral in the world (also the third largest cathedral). We did a tour of the Cathedral and it was awesome! I think we spent about two hours there. One of the most famous parts of the church was the tomb of Christopher Columbus; I thought that was pretty cool to see. There is also this large tower that went to the top of and had a great view of the city. Other things we did in the city included seeing a flamenco show, walking and exploring the city, and we also got a chance to see my friend Gayle, who is studying there. It again, was great to see the city from the perspective of someone who is living there. One of the funniest things we did while in Sevilla was a free walking tour that our hostel offered. The "tour guide" was this loud Austrian woman, who I'm pretty sure just read about Sevilla on Wikipedia and then started giving tours. Not sure if it was the most worthwhile thing to do with our time, but we did get to see a lot of the city, so that was good.

Top of the Cathedral

Madrid

Madrid was probably my favorite city that we visited (which has for some reason surprised a lot of people). I really just enjoyed the amount of museums and things to see there. We went to three different art museums, The Prado, The Reina Sophia, and The Thyssen, all of which were awesome and had a large range of different types of art. We also took a tour of the royal palace, which was beautiful, and did a lot of walking around the city. Madrid is the capital of Spain, and know to be similar to a New York City type of a feel.

Train from Sevilla to Madrid

Outside the Royal Palace