Barcelona June 27- June 30 Today's my last day in Barcelona, and I'm sad to be leaving, but am SO excited to get to Italy on Saturday. Barcelona has been amazing. It's an amazing city filled with tons of people, amazing architecture, and chocolate churos. It was fun to be back in Espana and to see a new city that I have never seen before. (You would love it here Kayla... I bought you a little something in El Parque Guel that I think you will like a lot). On Monday I went to Montserrat, a monastery in the mountains of Barcelona. Although the church was jam packed with tourists (not what I as hoping for), the view from the top was beautiful, and made it worth the trip up there. That evening I enjoyed a delicious dinner of Paella and Sangria. On Tuesday I went to El Parque Guel with all of my amazing, wonderful new friends. We shared some jamon y queso sandwiches, multiple bottles of vino and had a wonderful time walking around and enjoying all of Gaudi's funky architecture. After that I indulged in a wonderful siesta followed by a night out at the Dow Jones bar where we celebrated my friend Jenny's birthday. Yesterday I walked around the city of Barcelona... I had chocolate con churos and a wonderful cup of coffee for breakfast, then went to the market and let me tell you how awesome the market was. I walked around it for a good two hours just taking everything in... I wish we had markets like that in the U.S. I was in awe of all the fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meat that surrounded me. I could of stayed there all day. After that we went to La Sagrada Familia... the church that has been under construction since around the 1920s and isn't going to be finished until 2025. It is the church that Gaudi started building and lived in until he died. It is now getting finished, and let me tell you... it is HUGE. I have never seen such a big church in my entire life, and it is not even finished yet. It is so beautiful and incredibly detailed. After that we walked around and visited the protest that is going on right now. People are protesting the government because of the economic recession. People have vandalized Barcelona's statues, monuments, and walls. They have built tree houses and are camping out in the center of Las Ramblas. It was an amazing thing to see... I still can not believe that the government would let these historic monuments be ruined like this. (I am going to post pictures of this after this post). And today I've been taking in all that I can on my last day here. I went to the market again, walked the main streets, and went shopping. It has been an amazing week.
We leave Barcelona tonight and get to Naples on Saturday... I am so excited.