Barcelona!!!!!!!

Barcelona!! Definitely my favorite place, besides Zwolle, that I’ve visited on SPICE. The city is absolutely beautiful, it’s a center for modern art - not the impractical, interpretive type, but the type that mixes bright colors and unique shapes in the architecture - this style was started by Gaudi, who’s the famous architect who began the work of Sangrada Familia and Park Guell (google those places and you’ll see what I mean). His work reminds me of castles in fairy tales. The city is clean, has many green parks, and trees and flowers along the streets. It also has great, unique shopping! The best part is probably the beach though. We stayed in an area called La Barceloneta (google.map it!), which is the triangular section of Barcelona along the beach. We were about a 5 minute walk from the beach, so we could go back and forth between our apartment and the beach during the day. 

The trip was so relaxing. Each morning we slept in a bit, walked along the beach or through the market, spent the afternoon on the beach, and dressed up to go shopping or to dinner in the late afternoon. This was the perfect place to spend my birthday! I got to share my birthday with a friend I met on SPICE, Katie. She definitely added to the fun of the day. After skyping my mom in the morning. We set off to the beach for much of the afternoon, then dressed up to go shopping in the city along the famous “La Ramba”, and finished the night going out to eat to an authentic Spanish restaurant where we were served a seafood paella (a rice dish with a mild sauce, and yummy seafood). They served the seafood - shrimp, mussels, clams - still in their shells which was new for me, but all part of the authentic experience! We ended the night with homemade Spanish Sangria and games in our apartment. The only thing I missed was of course celebrating with friends and family from back home...and surprisingly birthday cake. 

After getting a little burnt the first day, I realized I needed to cover up a bit with a scarf and hat...This is how I spent day 2 on the beach :)

The beginning of our birthday outing..shopping!

An opera house designed by the famous architect Gaudi 

Beautiful park on La Ramba

First course of our Spanish birthday dinner

Our seafood paella 

Lekker! 

And Birthday Dessert 

Overlooking Barcelona from Park Guell 

Overlooking Park Guell 

Picnic area in Park Guell 

Thankfully there were some escalators to aid in our climbing the hill up to Park Guell 

Some beautiful sights from our beach walk the last night 

Beach walk on the final night

Some of the workout equipment to found

Perfect way to end the trip!

This trip was much too short (meaning I’ll have to come back again to see everything :) ). Now on my way back to Zwolle and realizing all I have to do this next week before I leave, it probably was the right decision. I’m feeling very bittersweet in leaving Zwolle in less than a week. I’ve enjoyed my time here so much! I’ve formed wonderful relationships and made so many lasting memories. I also can hardly wait to hug my mom and little sister, Lizzie at the airport and spend a final weekend as a college student with my roommates and friends from Dordt. I do think this is perfect timing, I jsut can't let myself think I’ll never come back.