The Travel Week Continues, in Spain!

Our next stop after Paris was Barcelona, Spain. The palm trees and sunshine were a nice welcome coming from the 20 degree weather in Paris! The first day we wandered around after finding our hostel and immediately locating all of the Starbucks in the vicinity. Our hostel was located right around the corner from Spain's Arc de Triumf, and we were able to walk nearly everywhere we wanted to go which was nice. For dinner we had the traditional Spanish dish "paella" which was rice with veggies, it was delicious!

The next day we went to a market off Las Ramblas, one of the major streets in Barcelona. The market was filled with vendors and we all got fruit, bread, and cheese for breakfast. Everything was so fresh and tasted amazing!

Day two in Barcelona was a whirlwind of sightseeing. We went to the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral, which began to be built in 1882 and is still being worked on today. I have never seen anything like it! We continued our tour to Park Guell, which was definitely my favorite part of the day. The view was unbelievable, ocean on one side and mountains on the other. I could have spent all day up there! 

Sagrada Familia

View from Park Guell 

On our last night in Barcelona we were able to experience the famous night life! We went to a bar called the "Dow Jones Bar" where the drink prices fluctuated with demand, such a fun idea (especially for all of us business majors). I was especially excited to see NBA basketball playing on the TV, if only it was the Mavs...

The next day four of us took an overnight bus to Madrid, which wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds! We managed to be in and out of sleep for about 5 hours, and arrived in Madrid at 7 am on Friday. We were so excited because we were meeting two of our best friends, Anna and Caroline, at the hostel. It was such a blessing to be able to spend the weekend with them! We walked around Madrid for the day, and saw the Royal Palace, a beautiful park, and of course Plaza Mayor.

Palacio Real de Madrid

Churros & Chocolate

Plaza Mayor

We spent a lot of time catching up and comparing stories from our different study abroad experiences, Anna and Caroline are in a home-stay in Seville, Spain! We went to a famous club in Madrid Friday night, Kapital, which is 7 stories tall and sprays mist on the dance floor. It was so much fun to be there with so many people we knew! We danced the night away before heading back to the hostel for some much needed rest. 

Saturday afternoon I was able to see one of my best friends from high school, ANNIKA! She is studying just outside of Madrid and came in for the day to walk around with us. We went to a beautiful park that reminded me of Central Park in NYC, we could have spent hours there. That night our whole group went to Botin, which is the oldest restaurant in the world! It was a great way to end our travel week, with new friends and old.

Parque del Retiro

Oldest Restaurant in the World

ANNIKA!

We made it back to Paderno without a hitch, and we couldn't have been happier to be back in our "home town"! Tomorrow we head to Milan, where it just happens to be fashion week. Time to break out the cute clothes.

-Megan