Spring Break in Spain

I'm sitting here doing my laundry right now and I'm lucky enough to have a computer to use so I figure that now is as good of time as any to start my spring break story.

It seems like forever ago now, but On that first friday we got up and went to the airport to get on our flight to Barcelona, Spain. As we were driving there we still weren't convinced that this airplane was going to be there. We were flying RyanAir which is a discount travel service. We booked our flight and it came to $19. That's right $19 to fly to Spain. We get to the airport and sure enough, RyanAir does actually exist and we were scheduled to leave at 3. As we waited in the lobby for our plane I decide to head over to the airport casino with the 2GBP that I had left in my pocket. Since I couldn't use them at all I put them in a machine and just like that was up 13GBP. I cashed out with £10.

As we waited for our flight gate to be released we were joking about how people supposedly don't like Americans over here. An older Irish woman who was sitting next to us chimed in to simply say, "you think it's tough being an American, try growing up here Irish." Since we are all taking a history class on the topic we knew she was referring to the troubles between Ireland and Great Britain. It is a topic that I can't even begin to explain but any history channel buff knows a bit about The fight for Irish independence, the IRA terrorist organization and fighting between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Everyone assumed that peace had been finally brokered 10 years ago between the two sides...that was until last Saturday night. While I was in Morocco still, two men stormed a English military base in Northern Ireland and murdered 2 British soldiers. A group of the IRA claimed responsibility. In class today our professor took the whole 3 hour period explaining the significance, and you could see and hear in his voice that he was worried about what may happen. The IRA bombed London for 24 years, and he lived through it so he was worried about what this may start. After that lecture we get home to see on the news that a bomb plot was broken up as someone from Ireland was trying to smuggle a bomb into Northern Ireland. I promise everyone that I'm safe, but it's been a strange couple days over here in that regard. Anyway back to spring break...

The flight to Barcelona went very smoothly. We landed and after searching for our hostel for a while we got all situated and I set out to find the other half of the group that was in Barcelona. I met up with them and we wondered the city for a while taking in a couple sites. The girls asked me to switch hostels and move in with them because there hostel was a bit sketchy. Since I was going to be traveling with them after Barcelona that made sense, and after all the searching moved hostels again. Just to throw some names out there for you guys. I spent my days in Spain traveling with Suzanne, Kelly, and Molly. We definitely had a lot of fun together. At the end of the night we walked down to the beach and I instantly fell in love. I decided that I'm a beach person. The waves and the sand were just awesome. As you'll soon see I spent a lot of time there. The next day we did some more touristy things. Went to the markets and then went to view the Sagrada Familia. A church that was designed by the architect Gaudi. I'm not even going to begin to try and describe this thing to you. My pictures will have to explain for me because this thing was just over the top amazing. After this I went back down to the beach in the afternoon, I convinced Suzanne to come keep my company and it was awesome. It was cloudy but I couldn't care less.

The next day was by far the best day in Barcelona, we went to the Gaudi Park and it was just beautiful. The architecture and gardens and music and mosaics were all just so amazing. I would love to show you pictures but in probably the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life...I left it at home. We then took a ride up to the top of Barcelona, a place that overlooked the entire city and visited the castle in Barcelona and then went to view the Olympic Stadium for when the Olympics were there in I believe 1992 or 1988. At night again I went back to the beach, this time I convinced Kelly to come along and we relaxed and listened to the waves. The next morning we got up and headed for Madrid.

Madrid was very different than Barcelona. We spent our two days there taking in all the sites. We spent a lot less time in Madrid but two very exciting things happened while there. On the first night the three girls were all exhausted so I grabbed my camera and started wandering the city at night. I got to take some pretty cool pictures when I stumbled upon the castle where the King and Queen of Spain live. This is when things got kinda cool. As I'm walking two police officers with what look like AK-47's jump out and scream at me to stop. I freeze as they explain to me (in spanish which I'm not very good at) that I can't go back here. I then notice a small crowd gathering around the corner I get over there and wait. Eventually I hear someone in the crowd speaking English, I run over and ask what is going on. They explain that the King of Spain just got done with dinner with the President of Russia and they will be coming out soon. I waited with the crowd and snapped some pictures as they exited the castle. I took video of the motorcades as they left and snapped some very blurry pictures of the King and the President. Talk about right place right time. The second thing that made Madrid awesome was getting to meet up with my friend Miguel. Miguel is from Madrid and studied abroad at Madison last year. As luck would have it he lived right next door to me. We became friends over the year but when he left back for Spain I was pretty sure I'd never get the chance to see him again. But, sure enough, a year later we are sitting in a bar in Madrid, talking about all the fun times we had back in the States over a mug of some horrible tasting Spanish beer. I felt bad for everyone who had to listen to us talk on and on, but we agreed to make a thing of this and at least every couple years will get back together for a bit and chat.

Overall the food in Spain was just amazing. They serve tapas there, which are basically bite sized foods. You order like 7 or 8 of them and you get to try so many different foods. I managed to have cod, potatoes, lamb, chicken, ham, tuna, and steak all in one meal. And it only cost me about $12. They also have Sangria in Spain. I drank it with dinner all week there, and had it back in the states when Miguel and the guys made it for us to try. I still have no idea what is in it, but it is just delicious. I know for sure there is Red Wine, and about 35 pounds of sugar, but have no idea on the other ingredients.

Spain was a blast. The beaches, the food, the people, the sites, Gaudi, all of it was just so cool. There is so much more to tell but the pictures will have to do that (if i ever get a computer).

That next morning we woke up and I headed to Tarifa to catch a ferry to Morocco. I'll have to save that for my next post though because my laundry is done and I'm exhausted. I'll just say though that I'm going to have to do a lot more traveling if I ever want to see something as naturally beautiful as Morocco.