The Magical Land of Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona with a few of my friends.  It was so much fun and very pretty!!  If you ever have a chance to go you definitely should!  I had a blast!  However, if the trip would have turned out like our trip started, I may be saying something different.

    We left Thursday after class to take a bus to Malaga to catch our flight.  We were kind of cutting it close on time so we (okay maybe just me) were worried a little bit. We ended up getting to the airport and through security in plenty of time for our flight.  Heck, we were basically the first people at the gate.  But of course, when the guy came around to check tickets, he looked at us, asked us if we spoke spanish (we said yes) and then said we need to go get a stamp on our ticket, but we needed to hurry, like run, because they were boarding!  Oh my goodness!  We have never had to get a stamp before for any of the other flights I have taken, so we didn't get one this time either.  We ended up running all the way across the airport, we had to go outside of security, and then to the other side of terminal 2 just to get a stamp on our ticket!  Then we ran all the way back, through security for the second time, and when we got back to the gate...it hadn't moved at all!  There was no point in even running!  But at least we made the plane.
 

Who's America's Next Top Model

    Once we got to Barcelona though things calmed down.  Well kind of, but the rest of the running around that we did we decided to do ourselves.  On Friday, we got to see La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, the 1992 Olympic Stadium, and el Fuente Magica, and we went on a bus tour.  La Sagrada Familia is a HUGE chapel that started being built by Gaudi but he never had a chance to finish it.  So people have been and still are building it to how he wanted.  It has never not been under construction!  I don't think it's supposed to be done until around 2020.  Then we took a bus tour of the city, just so we could get a chance to see everything that Barca has to offer.  After the bus tour, we had a picnic in Park Guell, which also has some beautiful architecture of Gaudi, complete with houses that reminded me of Hansel and Gretal/gingerbread houses.  In Park Guell, there is also an area where America's Next Top Model was shot!  That's right, I got to be a model for a day! :)

 After Park Guell we went to visit the 1992 Olympic Stadium.  It was so cool!  We couldn't go inside the stadium, but we got to look in.  It was pretty neat, it's the first Olympic Stadium I've seen.  There was also a cat inside the stadium!  I named him Oly short for Olympics. haha  After the stadium we visited el Fuente Magica, the Magic Fountain.  Every Friday and Saturday, there is this gigantic water fountain that lights up and has a water show with music.  It was so pretty and lots of fun.  We stayed for two of the shows.  The first one was to 80's music!  My favorite! And the second was with Classical Music.  It was really cool.  Then we took some cheesy touristy photos in front of it.

el Fuente Magica

 Saturday, we went to Camp Nou, the FCBarcelona Futbol Stadium, and got to have the Camp Nou Experience.  It was lots of fun!  We got to see the field from the press boxes, from the sidelines, we saw the locker rooms, press conference area, the team's church, and I even learned the Barcelona Fight Song.  It was so much fun, and I'm not even a big fan of soccer.  But it was really cool to see how into the sport the people of Spain are.  It reminded me a lot of being back home in my house. :)  After the Camp Nou Experience we spent the day at Las Ramblas, which is like a tourist shopping street with lots of street performers.  And, I got to stick my foot in the Mediterranean Sea!  Really cool, but really cold!  It was such a great trip!  I would go back again when I ever get a chance.  Tomorrow I'm headed to Dublin,!  May the luck of the Irish be with me!