Love and Life

BARCELONA
*Note: Pictures to come soon.

After the girls came back a different RACE from their Barcelona trip (when I went to Italy a few weeks ago Anna, Kim and Holly went to Barcelona) I was estactic for my trip-- planning on going back to California the way I left it; a perfectly even beautiful shade of natural TAN. However, clearly the weather didn't agree with my plans and decided to sandwich my warm weather with RAIN. Yes. you read that correctly RAIN. In AUGUST. IN SPAIN. sigh. my last views of this beautiful place were blurred with me trying to get to the metro without ending up like a wet rat. My efforts failed, but i survived.

On a much brighter note, I fell in love with Spain. Luckily my time spent in London not only prepared me for long days of walking and walking and walking (10-15 miles daily...at least) but also for large amoutns of rain. So when the rain came I told dad, meh no big deal we'll walk it off. I know. You all must be shocked. I will come back to the states a changed woman.

Anyway, back to Barcelona. Our first sights of this beautiful city were of course the beach. However, not realizing it we ended up on the trashiest beach Spain had to offer, ok so that is harsh, but lets just say mom was ready to go before we even laid our towels down. Apparently Barcelona women dont buy full bathing suits. At least they dont wear them. I know thats how it is at a lot of places, but lets just say that there were other reasons why Mom was ready to leave. After the beach we decided to do a little site seeing. We walked through this AMAZING park, by the zoo (sorry kelse we didnt go in) by the Arch de Triomf (not quite as large as Paris but still really cool) the Music Hall (which was CLOSED for cleaning --boo) the Cathedral and the Picasso Muesum and La Rambles. OH and I had the best drink EVER. A Mango Pinapple smoothie--only the whole thing was mango and pinapple. Probably doesn't make sense, but I'll be perfecting the art of it and will show it to you soon enough.

Thursday I had my heart set on the beach all day. However, like i said before ... our trip was sandwiched with rain SO we did some more site seeing. Ok so really we did some Barcelona seeing. We basically scaled the city for anything we could find built by Gauidi ... Starting with the Sagrada Familia, then we had the most amazing chocolate filled churros, then made our way up north to the Parc Guila, only the coolest park ever. Mom and Dad like to describe it as a Dr. Suess Park -- or think Candy Land. that is how the entrance, gates, and everything of the park is. It was huge, on a mountainside overlooking the city and the ocean. It was so beautiful. After the park we walked down through the city and found some houses that Gaudi built, and then walked down the "Rodeo" of Barcelona ... oh and did I mention Gelato?...

Friday THANK GOODNESS was beach day. Only we headed south to Sitges. I love Sitges. Almost as much as I love Florence. It is a quiet little town and totally local. Dad and Ash were totally disturbed by the "Color" the city had to offer, but like i mentioned earlier... I see the beach and everything else fades away. It was a perfect day for the beach. Not too hot, slight breeze, and the water was pefect temperature. Refreshing, but not freezing. After everyone else got over the UV Rays we walked around the city, shopped, ate and enjoyed the people the city had to offer. I love Sitges.

Saturday Mom and Dad had to leave, but luckily Ash and i got to stay. The plan, of course, was to lay out on the beach... so we got up early, got all ready and... drumroll please... it was raining. However, like I said before, I am a changed woman. I strutted right onto that beach and laid out. Yes in the rain. Ok so it was just sprinkling, really, and I had my book. We watched the old people do push ups on the shore, frolic in the ocean and enjoy the beach probably more than we did. After it got cold we headed back and got ready for the day. Of course that is when the sun came out. Oh well. The rest of the day was spent savoring our favorite things about Barcelona... oh and meeting 25 London Bachelors in an Irish bar. (Ironic that I met more Londoners in Spain than the UK?) They were in town for a Bachelor Party and had a goal of getting as many different nationalities into the bar. Of course that meant beautiful women nationalities.... we went in for the free drink and when the boys brought me Bacardi's instaed of the DIET COKE I asked for I laughed and refused them. Confused, I explained i really wanted Diet Coke. The guys were surprisingly cool guys and Ash and I ended up talking Religion, ok Mormonism with them for a while... although they were a little glossy eyed I'm sure they wont forget the time the invited a couple of Mormon Americans in to their bar. And if we didn't teach them a thing or two...they definitely taught us.

As previously mentioned I ended my Spain experience with rain. Ashley and I woke up to Thundering this morning and the rain poured as we ran to the metro 2 blocks from our hotel. I was soaked by the end of this excursion and grateful to be in the safety of the metro.

Until Next Time Spain...