ESPANA!

We arrived in Barcelona at 8 am. By 10:30 we were allowed off the boat. The first thing Emily and I did was have breakfast in a little square off of Las Ramblas (the main promenade in Barcelona) with our friends Jancee, Kandice, and Stephanie. We had some Spanish omelet’s, which were way different than what I thought they would be. We also enjoyed a pitcher of sangria together. After having breakfast we went and sat at another outdoor café and had some more sangria. Then, I went on a city tour of Barcelona. We first went up to the top of a hill that overlooks all of Barcelona. It was an extremely beautiful view of the city below. We had views of our ship down below, which was so tiny compared to the other ships in port. After taking a few pictures, we continued on back down the hill, passing the Olympic stadium from the 1992 Olympics and also the Royal Palace in Barcelona. Once back in the city, we took a driving tour of a couple of the main attractions. We saw the two famous houses designed by Gaudi, Casa Batlo and Casa Mila. 

We then went to the Sagrada Familia. We didn’t have time to actually go inside, but we did take a few pictures outside in front of it. The style and architecture of this building amazed me. It is so unusual, but so beautiful at the same time. After spending some time at the sagrada familia, we returned to the boat. That night I went to a flamenco dance performance. We were served a traditional Spanish meal of seafood paella. The performance was amazing. The music was so beautiful and the performers were so passionate about the flamenco dances. After the performance I met up with Emily and some of our new friends to go out to Las Ramblas for the night. The second day in Barcelona, I went to Montserrat.  This is a cathedral that is situated on the side of a mountain. It is a very beautiful cathedral, and the views from the mountainside were breathtaking. As far as I could see was Spanish countryside. When I returned to Barcelona, we went to the market on las ramblas. We walked around for a while just looking at all the brightly colored fruit and interesting meat and seafood they had.  That night, Spain was playing in the world cup so we went out to a bar to watch the game.  The third day in Barcelona, I went on a paella tour. We went back to the market I had been at the previous day. We learned about traditional Spanish cuisine and what ingredients were needed to make paella. After leaving the market we went to a restaurant right on the harbor. We watched the chefs make the paella, and even got to help them make it.  watching them cook the paella, we sat down for our lunch. We were served bruschetta, cured ham, cheese, paella, crème Brule, café con leche, and wine. The food was absolutely amazing. That night tons of sasers flocked to razzmatazz, a huge nightclub. We had a blast, but definitely had to adjust to going out way later than we do at home and being up until sunrise. The last day in Barce I really wanted to go to the FC Barcelona stadium, but we ended up having an extremely long lunch with plenty of sangria and decided to just go to the beach until we had to get back on the ship. I was sad I didn’t get to go to the stadium, but Em and I ended up having a great time on the beach. Right Em? On ship time was 6 pm, and if you’re late back on the ship you get docktime, which means you either cant get off the ship in the next port with everyone else, or you have to get back on the ship at next port super early. Either way, not a good deal. So we returned to the ship around 4 and immediately passed out in our beds from the first whirlwind port. We were soo sad to leave Spain, but super excited to get to ITALY