Birthday and Madrid Pictures

A Few Pictures from Barcelona

Made it to Madrid

The last but certainly not the least :)  We had an adventure getting here.  We went to the train station yesterday morning around 10AM to buy our train ticket to Madrid to find out that it cost 135 Euro each.  We looked into a bus and that was a much better option.  So we dragged our luggage all around town getting from our hostel to the train station and then to the bus station.  The bus ride was great though.  We were driving through the mountains, so it was beautiful scenery.  Eight hours later we finally arrived in Madrid.  Our hostel is great!!! It is definitely one of the best that we have stayed in.  We eventually went out to dinner last night after not eating all day and we had a few drinks to celebrate by birthday.  Tonight is the real celebration though.  More about Madrid later...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

I am in Love with Barcelona

Thus far, Barcelona is definitely my favorite city, which is sad because we only had one full day here- but it was packed. We woke up this morning around 7AM and were out by 8. We enjoyed a danish and coffee at a local shop. Then we were off to the Church of the Sagrada Familia, which was designed by Greco, but was never finished being built. However, it is being finished thanks to donations worldwide. The interior is expected to be completed by 2010 and the first actual service is to be held by 2030. Four of 18 expected pillars are completed. I have a lot of pictures of the church that I will post once I am in Madrid because the internet is not working here. After the church we headed to the Parc de Gual in which we hike to the very top of the mountain and looked out onto the entire city of Barcelona with the mountains and ocean in the landscape. Afterwards we headed back to the center of town where we mingled among the markets. We evenutally found the food market, which is a lot like the market in Cleveland, just ten times bigger, with every kind of fruit possible. Then we made our way to the beach shore where we just sat for about 15 minutes. Although I have been saying this the entire time I have been in Europe, but being here has maximized my desire, I really want to work hard at minoring in Spanish and becoming more fluent in it when I get home. We don´t have our train tickets yet, but tomorrow morning we are off to Madrid. Until then...

Paz y Amor,
Laura

Made it Safetly to Barcelona

After a three hour flight delay due to a bird strike, we made it safetly to Barcelona. Nothing to impressive to report yet. The mountains near Girona are beautiful. Tomorrow is our only full day here, so we are spending the entire time out and about. More reports later.

Paz y Amor,
Laura

Oh What a Night!

Today we slept in...until 1:00PM.  We took our time getting lunch and getting ready and eventually headed towards the Eiffel Tower.  Trying to delay our time until sunset, we window shopped on the main shopping street only to find a protest outside of Sephora.  The after party in the shop was awesome.  The manager started a dance party.  Eventually we made our way to the tower in hopes to go to the top.  It was still light out, so we sat in the park on a sheet from our beds that we brought and opened a bottle of wine and cheese to enjoy on our last night.  Around 9:45 we made our way to the lines only to discover that we were in the wrong one.  A storm had started brewing in the distance, but we were still allowed to go up.  After we changed lines the storm picked up a bit, along with the rain.  So we pulled out our sheet/blanket and then made it into an umbrella.  Not even thirty seconds later it started POURING rain and the strongest winds came with it.  People started jumping over the bars and we started running through them, eventually making it inside the west foot of the tower.  We were locked in there for about 20 minutes until the storm somewhat passed and then we had to leave.  As we started walking back 5 cops used us as a shield to hide behind as they attempted to catch the illegal street sellers, terrifying us because we did not know what was going on.  Needless to say, it was very eventful and very fun.  We are off to Barcelona at 5AM tomorrow.  

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Pictures from Paris

Site looking beyond the Louvre
Mona Lisa
Jackie and I outside of the Louvre
Back of Notre Dame Cathedral
Front of Notre Dame Cathedral