Hola from Spain

After our last days in Prague, which was quite the roller coaster of emotions mixed with about zero hours of sleep, I was thankful to have one last weekend abroad with one last trip. It’s safe to say I wasn’t ready to go home to Colorado.

Keira and I planned a trip to Spain to end our study abroad. It started with visiting our friend Lisa in Madrid where she has been studying all semester. I had been to Spain before, but only to a beach town in Southern Spain and Sevilla, so this was a totally different trip that I was excited for.

To make a long story short, making it to the airport on Friday morning after our last night in Prague with everyone was far from ideal, but you betcha I got on that plane to the land of tapas and dancing. Side note, I was pretty sad to be leaving at this point. I had packed up my apartment, said goodbye to my roommates, and even though I would be back for one night just to sleep, I was saying goodbye to the people and the memories I made. Being sad almost made me happy, because I was missing the semester for a reason.  I’ll get more into Prague and my last days and adventures later, so let’s focus on Spain for now, shall we?

When we arrived, we took the train to Lisa’s homestay. She stayed in a cute home with a Spanish family. I was shocked with how much Spanish she was able to speak after being there for the semester and loved the house that overlooked the city with a terrace. We dropped off our things and made our way through the metro to the Royal Palace.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know a single thing about Madrid. I was banking on Lisa to be our tour guide and she sure was a good one. We ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the functioning castle that the Royal Family lives in and continued to the gardens. The hedges were perfectly trimmed and beautiful. I stopped for a few photos and realized my stomach was growling so we got some paella as a little snack and boy was it tasty. After walking around a bit more we went back to the house to siesta and get ready for the night.

Remember, in Spain they eat a lot later. We got ready for the entire night and headed out to get to our dinner of tapas at about eleven. I was so pleasantly surprised with how lit up the streets were and how lively it was. Everyone was eating and getting ready to go out that night and most importantly, smiling. In Prague, we don’t see this kind of loud craziness from people and I loved how excited it got me for the night.

Our tapas dinner was everything I wanted and more. I never had true tapas, just a few at a restaurant in Boulder called The Med. We ordered tapas of Iberian ham, croquettes, potatoes bravas, ceviche, quesadillas, and washed it all down with some delicious sangria. It was safe to say that in this moment I was super happy.

We made our way to a club that wasn’t quite our cup of tea so we headed to another one that was awesome. We spent our night dancing and enjoying each other’s company as balloons and confetti flew from the sky onto everyone enjoying themselves into the wee hours of the morning.

Exhausted, we woke up the next morning to see some more of Madrid and get to our train to Barcelona in time. Lisa took us to a brunch place that looked fabulous. It was crazy that it didn’t open until one in the afternoon, but when in Rome…

The brunch place was so cool. Not only was every item on the menu tempting but as we went downstairs to find our seat I saw that we were standing on sand. Our seats were low to the ground and the room was lit in pinks and blues. They played trendy music and I had a whipped cream covered coffee that perked me right up.

We walked around Madrid to a park that was beautiful. We saw the glass palace, which of course with my luck, was closed that day but we could still see from the outside.

We wondered around the city to see the main square, shop for souvenirs, and navigate on the metros a little bit more. Finally, it was time for us to catch our train to Barcelona. We waved goodbye to Lisa and Madrid and headed to the train station.

We baaaaarely made the train, but don’t worry, we did like we somehow always do. Some cute Spanish brothers that were matching sat across from us on the train and we watched them go from best friends to beating each other up in just seconds. Our entertainment lasted most of the three hour train ride.

Once we got to Barcelona we found our way to our Air BnB. The sun stays out so late in Spain so it was still shining when we got there which I absolutely loved. Our Air BnB was perfectly cute and tucked away in a residential area of the city. We got in late but not too late for dinner, in fact, we were perfect. We had friends that studied in Spain and gave us recommendations on places to eat so we got dressed and headed out to the main street to stumble upon El Nacional for more tapas since we loved them so much the night before. It was a great choice.

The restaurant was actually four restaurants in one giant space. There was a bar in the middle of the room that was decorated with light fixtures, bottles, and plants. We made our way to the tapas restaurant and ordered Sangria to start. This restaurant was unique in that you could order some tapas and the rest the eccentric waiters came around with on trays and you had to flag them down if you wanted it. The waiters were absolutely hilarious and loud, so we made sure to have some conversations with them and stop to get some croquettes, paella, and potatoes bravas.

That night we wanted to check out the nightlife, but after getting no sleep in Prague straight to no sleep in Spain and having gotten back to our Air BnB around one in the morning after dinner we decided sleep was more important. Besides, we had tomorrow night after we went sightseeing.

The next day we stopped by a coffeeshop (naturally) that turned out to be surprising unique and delicious. We took the public transportation to Park Guell. I was so excited for this so that I could get my Cheetah Girls picture. We rushed to make our reservation and saw the entire city from the view at the top.

The mosaic tiles were absolutely beautiful. The whole park was actually stunning. We checked out the gift shop, tile figures, and walked all around.  After Park Guell where I successfully got my Instagram worthy photo, we made our way to the Arc de Triomf.

I was pleasantly surprised with the Arc. It was beautiful and home to a little festival that day. We walked through the see that it was a Thai festival. We smelled amazing food and were tempted to get some but we had a brunch spot in mind that our friends insisted that we go to.

We made our way to Brunch and Cake by the Sea, the brunch place that about twenty people told me I had to go to, and got right in. The menu looked absolutely mouthwatering and with how hungry we were it was even harder to decide on just one thing.  Looking around, I knew why our friends had talked about the place so much. Everyone’s dishes were presented in the coolest ways I’ve probably ever seen at a restaurant.  After much debate, I eventually went with the shrimp poached eggs with a lobster hollandaise and Keira with an egg bagel and salmon salad.

When my vanilla latte came out, I was super confused. I told the waitress that I should have gotten a vanilla latte and she insisted that it was the latte. However, my drink was pink. Now pink is my favorite color and all, but seemed a little off especially with what looked like dried flower petals. I shrugged and drank one of the best vanilla lattes of my life. It was in fact a vanilla latte and a good one at that.

Our food was to die for and aesthetically pleasing. I devoured my giant plate and was happy with our decision to venture to the restaurant.

Next up was La Sagrada Familia where we had a reservation time so we headed over to the famous cathedral that is still under construction.

The cathedral was beautiful from the outside. It looked to me like a giant sand castle. The details of different figures on the building was phenomenal. We marveled at the cathedral and made our way in where I was awestruck.

The inside was absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t believe it was real. The pillars went high up to the top of the building and my neck was all the way back looking at the ceiling that was white and lit with amazing lights. Stained glass of varying warm and cool colors lined the walls. The light was coming from a side that had red and yellows coming through that looked absolutely fantastic shining on the walls.

We stared open mouthed at the ginormous room for so long. We watched a short video of Gaudi and his reasoning and tactic for making the cathedral. I was in awe the entire time of the beauty of the building. It’s definitely got to be one of my favorite in Europe, right by St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague that will always be number one in my heart.

We made our way back to our Air BnB for another siesta and to get ready for the night. Included on our list of restaurants for that night was, you guessed it, a tapas restaurant. Keira and I absolutely loved tapas so we went to La Luna to try out a few more.

At this point, we were experts. We got croquettes, nachos, lamb, and baby squid. We had a leisurely meal and washed it down with a strong mojito before going to the beach for a club.

Now that, was insane. There were strobe lights, dancing, and a patio that overlooked the beach at night. We stayed for a bit until exhaustion took over and we went back for sleep, or well, a nap.

The next morning, which is today for me as I write this on a plane with a little boy screaming behind me and finding my tray table to be the best toy, we made our way to the beach. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and our pale bodies that were chubby from all the goulash and beer from the semester were ready to see the sun. We joked that we shouldn’t have saved the beach for last but enjoyed laying among all the other people enjoying the beach.

We found some boys from Peru, or well they found us, and they sat with us and even bought me a coconut because I commented on how I wanted one. I think one of them liked me and he even brought me a fabulous Poke bowl from the restaurant he works at that’s on the beach. Actually I know he loved me because he kept telling me. First my Czech boyfriend Viktor I met at a coffeeshop and now this boy, I was having more luck with boys abroad than I ever will at home. Sigh.

We dipped into the freezing water and worked on our tans until it was time to venture back so I could catch my flight back to Prague.

I can’t imagine a better way to end my trip than a beautiful trip to Spain with good friends. Our last day enjoying the beach topped off my last little getaway. Now, it’s back to Prague where I get one last evening in my little hotel room before I leave early tomorrow for Colorado. Another side note, I am amazed by the company on this plane. A group of too many young boys is being absolutely obnoxious and now the dad is holding a raffle for posters on the plane without any shoes on in the middle of the aisle. I tried to sleep but no way was that going to happen.

Anyways, I can’t even begin to describe how unreal it feels that this semester has already gone by and to think that I’ll be meeting my beautiful mother at DIA in just twenty four hours. It seems like yesterday I was telling the Norwegian mom on my plane about how I was so excited to be going to Prague for three months. I was months ago I was in Budapest flooding our bathroom, in Amsterdam seeing the Weeknd in concert, and paragliding through the Austrian alps in Innsbruck. I’m excited to get back to my friends from home (that I miss more than I will ever admit to them) and to probably eat a vegetable or too and work off this chub, but man will I miss picking up my bags to experience a new country every weekend with some amazing people that I have gotten to know during my time in Europe.

Sorry sorry, I’ll try not to get more sentimental on you all, so I’ll end my little blog on my trip to Spain by saying thank you Spain for the amazing weekend that had it all from delicious food to dancing to relaxing on the beach. Adios for now!