Picking up where I left off last time, Barcelona was wonderful and the sites were beautiful! The feel was similar to that of NYC, in that it was a big city that could be a little too big for me at times but then wonderful two seconds later. Highlights of Barcelona: 1. there is this mountain that you can take a tram up to and look out over the entire city! You are so high up that if you sit a certain way on the wall you literally just see clouds. 2. the dancing (Ill explain this in a bit) 3. the fountain (it is a huge fountain with multi-colored ligths and music from the 90s.... gotta love the throw back to the "good ole days")
The dancing: In front of a cathedral there wasa small group of musicians playing a certain song. All of a sudden people came from the crowd and began dancing in a circle, same steps same hops same motions. It was the most amazing thing Ive ever seen. The idea that people of all ages would know this same dance, it transcended generations and just made my heart skip three beats! Since my days of high school dance team I have been OBSESSED with dancing of all kinds, so to see cute old woman who could barely walk holding hands in a circle and dancing from their childhood just truly amazed me.
Other news from Barcelona: I finally saw all the sites that I have studied about since high school. It was exciting to actually see them in person and not try to imagine what they were like from a little thumb nail in a McGraw-Hill textbook.
When I arrived home it was so refreshing to be back in Alcala. I missed my Spanish family and talking in Spanish. Barcelona is such a tourist city that as soon as the vendors realised I was American, they would talk in English (I cant believe I stand out that much...I mean just slap an I <3 NYC shirt on me and we would be set).
The next day I met up with Bethany (a girl from my high school that goes to BYU but is here in Alcala for the summer). Can you please sing "It's a small world after all" with me? Thank you. It was so wonderful to get to spend time with her and hear all about her experiences here and back home. It was like having a piece of home here in Spain.
We have made more trips back to the mountains and river, but here is the story I find most entertaining. Our Romanian friend, the stud, has been hanging out with us lately and he took us into some caves in the mountains. The first one was small and cold, it was so refreshing after being in the hot hot heat here. (Thank goodness for the fan in our room). We then walked up the mountain to another cave but...um well... it caved in. Ironic yes? By that point all desire to go caving left me, I mean I loved being cold but trapped in a cave, not really my thing. We decided to go back to the river, which on a hot day reminds me of the redneck yacht club. There were men washing their hair in the river and I saw quite a few "honky tonk badonk adonks". Ha, but in all honesty it was so cold that we loved getting covered in the muddy water and who knows what else.
Site to see: Toledo. It is a good day trip from where I am staying and is a beautiful town. They have hills and small streets that have sheets and lamps hung from the roofs to give you shade. I definitely quoted Pride and Prejudice a few times while I was there and pretended like I was living in the days of horse drawn chariots and such. We took a little rest stop in front of this church where a wedding was taking place. The groomsmen were wearing shiny grey tuxedos and the women had shiny dresses as well. When the bride came out she was so beautiful and happy that I do not think she was TOO bothered by the extensive number of tourists taking pictures of her.
Our second trip to Madrid was even better than the first! We saw the Prado Museum which was the coolest thing I have ever seen! Then we went back to our favorite place... THE PARK! This time we go a little lost and came upon a rose garden that has colors I didnt know existed. Can you say Secret Garden? For lunch we went to a Ham Museum. Before you start picturing carvings of President HAMilton and Porky Pig, it was basically a resturant with pig legs hanging from the ceiling, really yummy. We went to a bullfight at night. I was incredibly excited to go but if you take all my excitement and turn it in the opposite direction, that was how I felt when I left. I respect that it is a cultural tradition but many people in Spain do not support it, and with good reason. I was picturing Harry Potter against the dragon in the Wizard Cup but it was basically eight matadors hiding behind walls and occasionally popping out to confuse the bull. The bull gets stabbed a bunch of times before it slowly falls to its death. It is a slow process and even though I have grown up around hunting and hunt myself, I definitely consider it animal cruelty. My advice is not to go see it, there are six bulls so if you do not like it the first time, you get to wait around for five more slow and painful (to watch) deaths.
I always like to end on a light note, so consider this: I am about to commence project 7 countries in 5 days!!!
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