Allie's fourth year travels

I'm in Spain!! I love it here!

I flew out of Cedar Rapids. I left on a Friday morning and arrived in Spain the next morning. One of my connections was in New York and my plane flew over Manhattan and the Atlantic Ocean, which had white caps on it. I hadn't seen an ocean in four years! I drank some red wine on the flight to Barcelona and fell asleep. When I woke up, the sun was rising and I was over the mountains of Spain. Then, I saw Barcelona and the Mediterranean.

My friend, Juan Carlos, picked me up from the airport and we took a couple of trains and a bus to my flat. The view from my place is fantastic!! I'm living in the mountains west of the city.

JC said that Shakira lives in a mansion in these mountains b/c she is dating one of the Spanish soccer players.

Juan immediately took me to the center of Barcelona. This street is Las Ramblas, it has beautiful maple trees on each side and runs all the way to the beach. It is always packed with people.

A theater.

A busy market.

Cute ponies.

Parrots and palm trees.

The harbor.

JC and I got the best ice cream cone I've ever had in this store. It had one scoop of cappuccino and one scoop of dark chocolate with brownie chunks and caramel and a waffle cone. It was fantastic.

Their chocolates were works of art.

Sunset at the beach.

Juan just about broke a leg getting this sea urchin. He convinced me to venture a ways on these 6' tall cement blocks, but then I got too scared to go further. Height aren't my cup of tea, but Juan just went sky diving after he graduated. He is fearless, hence he almost fell off a block.

Then, we momentarily crashed a party/wedding at the 5 star hotel next to the beach to get a photo with these fabulous ladies. One of them then proceeded to go up the stairs behind us on her stilts--impressive.

Then we took the metro to La Sagrada Familia, a giant cathedral designed by the famous Spanish architect, Gaudi.

The next day, I mustered up the courage to venture into the city alone. This is the square at the center of Barcelona. The art work is quite beautiful.

An Italian greyhound--maybe it's actually from Italy.

I went to mass at the cathedral. It was in Spanish and I could pick up on a few words. I was just happy that it wasn't in Catalan, the native language of this part of Spain.

There were multiple musicians playing in the streets near the cathedral.

This was a little museum.

This Irish man was giving a tour and talking about how Catalonia wants independence from Spain (he is holding their independence flag) and many say that Madrid owes the region money.