Barcelona

Barcelona is one of those places that everyone says you need to visit but you're never really sure why. I'd heard about how cool Barcelona is, but I never knew specifics. Maybe I wasn't paying attention.. I don't know. But now I know why it's so cool!

Anna and I headed to Barcelona for the weekend. We booked our hostel and were working on getting tickets to the soccer game, but weren't really sure if it would work out.

We started Friday with just touring the city. We went to the Sagrada Familia basicilia right away. Gaudi started working on this church in 1883 and it still isn't done yet! It's expected to be finished in 2030, but it's completely funded by private donors- not the government or The Vatican or any other organization- which I think has both helped and hindered its progress.

Gaudi was the master of Gothic design. His works are just crazy. Honestly, I found them a little weird, but he was very ahead of his time and is said to have transcended mainstream modernism. He actually never drew his plans or ideas; he preferred to create them as 3D scale models.

Here it is- It's kinda creepy. I honestly thought it was supposed to look like a melting candle when I first saw it.

The amount of thought and care that Gaudi put into this church is astounding. He gave the last 43 years of his life to this project. It is centered around the life and death of Jesus. There are 3 phases to the church as a whole representing the birth, passion, and glory of Jesus. Once complete, it will have 18 towers: the 12 apostles, four evangelists, one for the Virgin, and the central tower in honor of Jesus. Each part of the church has significance and meaning.

I was in love with the stained glass windows! I think I ended up with almost 20 photos just of the colors.

Gaudi created the inside to feel like a forest. The pillars were the trunk and on the ceiling was the detail of the leaves.

We also saw the Gaudi houses. They were weird. Am I just not expressive enough to appreciate art or what? I don't know, but Gothic style isn't my thing.

Then we headed back to the hostel for the day. My mom was more than a little worried about me staying at a hostel after hearing all the horror stories of bed bugs and people crawling into bed with you. The hostel was awesome. It was probably the second best place we've stayed- after the Couch Surfing with Noura and Mathieu! We were in a 22 person room- which is really big. I mean, really big. But the hostel was in a great plaza, it had security guards, keys to get into the building, and individual lockers so we could keep our stuff safe. Also, we got breakfast and dinner free. All for 9 Euro. Amazing right? This traveling Europe thing is way easier than I thought it would be.

Saturday we got up early to get our tickets for the soccer game! We reserved them online but weren't sure if we would get them since we had to pick them up the day of the game. We waited about 2 hours and were the second group in line. When we got up to the ticket stand the guy asked if we wanted third or first row but we figured it really didn't matter in the nosebleed section anyway. So we turned on the charm and asked if he could get us seats with a really good view. Well, he did work and got us on the first level! We had such an awesome view!! We walked into the stadium and our jaws literally hit the floor. We even asked a security guard if we had the right seats because there was no way we should have front row view for the price we paid. Here's what it looked like-

I kid you not. We were right up in the game.

Happy girl!

Now, I need to explain the awkward blue cardigan. And you are probably going to think I have a death wish.
I like Cristiano Ronaldo. I think he's pretty attractive, ok more than that, but that's not the point. So when we went to a Barca game, I couldn't just leave him and buy a Barca jersey to follow the crowd! I bought my Real Madrid jersey, complete with official lettering with Ronaldo and number 7 on the back. And I was so proud of it! I figured I should at least wear the team colors for Barcelona, so I was lucky that I brought red skinnys and a blue cardigan- it was meant to be! I knew fans would be a little testy about me wearing a RM shirt but it couldn't be that bad right? WRONG. I almost died. People were genuinely offended that I would wear it. I had people yelling at me, and if looks could kill.. wow. It was intense. It probably didn't help that Barcelona is trying to secede from Spain, so not only did I remind them of a rivalry in the sports world, but I blatantly wore the one team that Barcelona hates politically too. Since Madrid is the capital of Spain, things are a little tense. Oops. It never even crossed my mind until I was almost stoned.

After the game we went with the hostel to Razzmatazz club. It was crazy. It's the second largest club in Europe and has 5 floors, each with a different type of music. When we walked in, I could feel the bass through my whole body. I think we spent more time walking around from floor to floor than we did dancing- it was a mix of being lost and just wanting to explore the whole place- my GPS probably would have come in handy to be honest.

While we didn't pull another all nighter for chocolate and churros in the morning, it was close enough that it threw off our whole Sunday. We did get to the port and the beach, which pretty much covered everything we wanted to see. Barcelona was just beautiful!

The Barcelona Cathedral. There was a guy playing the violin outside and it was so peaceful. We sat and listened for quite a while. It was such a cool atmosphere, and the acoustics were perfect.

Christopher Columbus statue pointing toward the Americas!

The bridge connecting to this restuarant. It moved when we walked in the middle.

I crossed off a couple more bucket list items! Success.

Protests

I am literally living through history. I can officially say that I saw the Spanish protests of 2012. This is so crazy!

Here's a video of what was going on-

Spain is protesting against the government. Between 6.5 and 8 million Spaniards have participated in these protests since May. Mostly they are protesting all of the cuts by the government in welfare, spending, and jobs; capitalism and banks; and also the fact that they feel they have no real representation from their political parties. About 25% of the population is unemployed, and 50% of young adults are, and it's not looking like anything will change any time soon.

The protest today meant that no one went to work. There was no public transportation, no stores were open, no restaurants, no nothing. 600 flights were cancelled and trains weren't running. The city, which is usually kept so clean, was trashed. Spaniards take great pride in their streets- they clean them everyday, but there was trash everywhere. Almost every bank and atm we saw had been vandalized.

Most of my professors were out protesting too! I had one class today, which wasn't so bad. At least I didn't have to get up at 8am. It was very important to all of my professors that we understand their part in the protests. My Civ and Culture professor knew she would be participating and told us a week ago we didn't have class. She said it's unfair that the government is taking jobs and money and leaving the people with nothing. My Business professor had class today. He said the school doesn't pay the teachers who didn't come to work, so it's just another business absorbing more money. He said he was going to donate the money he earned that day to the poor who needed food.

People have been out all day with signs and flags. The teachers came into our building and were yelling and blowing whistles so we couldn't hear our professor. Any shops that were still open had protestors outside being so aggressive and obnoxious that they ended up closing anyway. but around 5:30 they all gathered in front of the government building. There were thousands of people, everyone in town was out either participating or just watching. Roads were closed and people just took over the streets. It was peaceful here though, they just walked and shouted. In Madrid it's getting pretty intense. Police have been using force to stop riots. I'm just not sure how far this will go!

I'll just post the pictures.

Thousands of people came out to participate or walk.

One of the ATMs we saw. Almost all of the ATMs we saw were vandalized. Most of the banks had some vandalism too.

One of the entrances to the University. It had signs all over it.

This was actually pretty cool- this is the fountain that is in the center of town. They filled it with soap so there were suds everywhere! The plaza was just covered.

Don't worry, it's very safe. My program is keeping a close eye on things so if anything happens, they'll take care of us. Conchi is also very concerned on our behalf so we can't leave the house tonight. Don't worry mom :) I'm well taken care of!

Mussels in Brussels

I'm going to apologize now for how long this is. Sorry. But there are quite a few pictures so hopefully that breaks it up a little bit..

Random weekend to Brussels, Belgium was a HUGE success. Accent on HUGE. I can't even tell you how awesome this trip was. Brussels is the hidden gem of Europe, why no one talks about it, I will never know but it's my personal goal to start spreading the word.

Bucket list item!! Much to my mother's dismay (and probably the grandmas too after reading this), Anna and I Couch Surfed. Couch Surfing is this online site where you create a profile and request to stay with people. People around the world literally offer their couches to travelers for a couple nights while they visit the city. So, about 3 weeks ago, I sent out a few requests. I heard back from a lady named Noura. Her profile looked legit, so we made plans. This was probably the best decision I've made since I got to Europe. Noura and her husband Mathieu were so great, they picked us up at the bus station and brought us back when we left, they drove us around town, showed us where to tour the city, and fed us twice a day! Not to mention let us stay at their place for 3 nights. We didn't pay a thing for housing. This is probably the best invention since Belgian chocolate.

Noura and Mathieu

We left Thursday, so Friday was our first big day of touring the city. We took a map and headed off. We started at the Royal Palace, which as it happens, the King was home! I tried to get him to look out the window- only to see me and fall madly in love, but it didn't happen. I think I was outside the wrong window.

The Palace! I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture.

Couldn't find the window of the King.. I had a one in like 1,000 chance of picking the right one.

From there, we needed food. And we learned that Belgium is famous for very specific foods- Fries, Chocolate, Waffles, and Mussels. We got this coupon from the tourist center that got us a huge thing of fries for 1 Euro!

The fries were so good- I don't know how they do it in Belgium, but they do it right.

Tummies full, we headed further into the city towards the Grand Plaza. There are no words to describe this place. It's probably three football fields long by two football fields wide, and has 6 giant buildings surrounding it. I felt so small next to them. It was just beautiful, we walked in the city center and I think my jaw dropped. I literally stood there with my mouth open before I realized people were staring. It's just overwhelming beauty.

How do we even follow that? Food, naturally. So we got the next most popular food here- WAFFLES. With chocolate, so I guess the two most popular foods. If I could choose a last meal, it would be this waffle. It was that good. It's like heaven. Just look at all that melty dark chocolate and a perfect crispy sugar outside with a moist inside. YUM. My mouth is watering. Sorry for the visual.

Now, there is a waffle choosing skill involved here- in order to make sure it's an authentic Belgian waffle, it has to have little chunks of sugar on it which happens naturally when they cook it. I would definitely include my skill in choosing a proper Belgian waffle on my resume. You never know when that might come in handy!

I got Belgian dark chocolate, and Anna got the white chocolate. We learned afterwards that white chocolate really isn't chocolate- it's just super sweet butter!

Next we hit up the Beurs and St. Gery buildings. The Beurs building holds the Belgian Stock Exchange.

The Beurs building

St. Gery

I think I'm sensing a theme here- building, food, building, food, building, guess what's next- MORE FOOD.

This time we got Escargot. And not just any escargot, street escargot. I got 6 escargot for 2 Euro. That probably would have cost me $12 in the states. And it was way better here!

Check it out- the guy in the stand smiled too!

Then we made it to St. Hubertus-Gallerijen. It's basically a glorified shopping center. It's three stories, and has two sections, each about two football fields long. Above the front entrance it says, "Omnibus Omnia" which means "Everything for Everybody". It was created in the 19th century, construction started on May 6 (Happy Birthday Mom! They built you a mall!) and lasted 18 months, which is relatively quick work considering.

Bought some chocolate here too!

St. Catherine's Cathedral is said to be the largest church in Brussels. It was designed in the 11th century, and in the 13th century it was revamped and had Gothic features added. There are almost 50 bells in one of the towers!

We saw Mannequin Pis and Jeanneke Pis. I don't think I was as impressed as I should have been. They are two statues of little kids peeing. It was a little weird to me to be honest..

Mannequin Pis- the story goes that a father came to Brussels with his family and his son got lost. The police and many citizens helped him look for the little boy and they found him peeing in a garden. To thank the city and people for their help, he made a statue.

Jeanneke Pis. I don't know what her story is, but this is just weird to me. I do know that she's unrelated to Mannequin Pis, but she is the gender match to him.

That ended our Friday. Actually, that ended the touring of our Friday. We went out with Noura and Mathieu that night, but it wasn't too exciting. Noura had a job interview the next day so we didn't stay out late.

We went to the Atomium and Mini-Europe on Saturday. I'm going to put all of these pictures on another tab I think, because Mini-Europe is actually exactly what it sounds like- a mini tour of Europe. They took all of the major buildings and scaled them down into a walk through park. It's actually pretty cool. Naturally, I took a photo with every single monument.

Here's an example-

Got the Leaning Tower!

This is Atomium.  It was built in 1958 to symbolize an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times. It's 330 feet tall!

There's even a restaurant in the top!

That night, we got some seafood at this outdoor stand. I think this is the way to do it- the food was fresh and so good. We tried the scampi, mussels, catch of the day, and more escargot!

Scampi and escargot

Catch of the Day

The Mussels from Brussels

Then we headed to Delirium! This bar has over 2,000 different kinds/flavors of beer- honestly anything you can imagine. We tried peach, cherry, raspberry, chocolate, cookie, amber, dark, triple, and I can't remember the other ones. All four of us got different ones and tried each others, so we had quite the selection. Raspberry was my favorite- I'm such a baby when it comes to beer. Anna was going for the amber, dark, and normal flavors, while I did the fruity stuff.

There it is.

A cherry beer and the book of flavors. It's a BOOK of beer. Holy Moly.

 We were celebrating that night! Anna and I were pretty proud that we made it to Brussels in general and that we navigated the city by ourselves, and Noura was celebrating because she got the job!

It was a great experience all around. We made it home safely AND got our homework done for class on Monday :)

The Luck of the Irish

A week later. Wow.

I feel like I should give some background from the last post- the Friday before I headed to Ireland, Anna and I stayed up all night and got chocolate and churros at 8am. I slept for 4 hours, and started the trip to Ireland.

Here we are- after a long night, we were rewarded with chocolate! I'm probably never going to do that to myself again, but hey, I can say I did it!

Once in Ireland, Abby showed me around the city! I think she's actually a real tour guide, because we found everything we needed to without having to search or consult a map. She lives about 10 minutes by cab outside of the city, so she spends most of her time in Plassey Village where she lives. It's pretty close to campus and as a science lady, she stays pretty close.

This one is just gonna be a bunch of pictures again, since it's easier to show than tell!

Here she is- THE Abby Wolf.

This is where Abby lives. It's just a bunch of houses with 7 or 8 bedrooms in each, with 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. They were really nice!

The flag poles for the University of Limerick.

This is the "Living Bridge". It connects the two sides of campus. It actually moves as you walk across it! (Hence the name, the Living Bridge). Here's some more info from the University- The architects designed the bridge to move in a beautifu lflowing line across the shannon, mirroring the river. The design conveys the sense of a series of bridges leaping from pier to pier, each supported by one of the existing islands in the riverbed. This gives the traveller the sense that they are crossing the river on stepping stones. It was so cool, yet such a weird feeling at the same time!

The bridge all lit up at night.

Here is our journey into the city-

King John's Castle. This castle went through quite the battles. It was actually built in 1200 for King John. But King's Island was actually run by Vikings first. The Island passed from the Limerick Vikings to the Dublin Vikings to the Munster clan. The Munsters burned down the city in an effort to keep it out of other hands. Despite their efforts, the Anglo-Normans took control and later built the Castle! This side of the river is known as "English Town", the other side is "Irish Town".

I touched the castle!!

St. Mary's Catedral

Tried a Guinness. It was unlike anything I've ever tasted. But check it off the bucket list!

Got the Fish and Chips! It was excellent.

Successful weekend in Ireland! Now I have a few days at home before I go to Belgium.