Barcelona Day 2-5

Day 2

Thursday we started the day with a show in one of the plazas of the city with four other friends of ours from the Hostel (all Aussies). There five teams competed to form “Human Castles,” or stacks of people up to about 8 people high with a cherry - I mean child on top. It was thoroughly entertaining particularly when the “castles” would fall (is that wrong to say? I mean come on…you have to agree just a little.) There was a crowd of probably a thousand people in this plaza watching the Human Castles Competition….pretty amazing to see in person (this is an event normally televised but was much more enthralling to live it). BUUUUT it was ridiculously hot, so sadly we actually left before the competition was over so as not to die of heat exhaustion. After refreshing ourselves with some ice cold water, we took a stroll through Parc de la Ciutadella where in (fun fact) lies a fountain that was featured as the backdrop for a photo shoot on America's Next Top Model!

Later that day we went to watch “The Magical Fountain of Montjuic.” Ok they definitely could have chosen a more original name for this…but I will give it to them, it was quite magical. It is a fountain located in front of the National Museum of Art of Catalunya (Which looks like a castle almost) near Plaza Espanya. The fountain is lit with colors and cued to move in an array of shapes and arrangements set to music. Think Bellagio in Las Vegas. Pretty much just like that but way cooler. I an convinced Bellagio ripped off the idea from this fountain. There is no way to describe this other than it was so beautiful it was completely mesmerizing. Probably my (Michelle’s) favorite site in all of Barcelona. That’s saying a lot…

After the Magical Fountain business and after I was snapped out of my trance, we went to check out the fireworks. There was a fireworks show every night from Thursday through Sunday - all the work of a different country each day. The locals of Barcelona were asked to vote on which fireworks show was the best and there would be a winner…. we were not interested enough to find out who won but my vote was for the French.

Day 3

Friday we had the pleasure of being graced with the presence of my (Michelle’s) friend, Jordan who flew out from Monaco to spend the day with us in Barcelona! What a guy, right? The day was great minus all the ridiculous hills we walked up. By the way, this whole trip Michelle has had a messed up knee. But Jordan, the gentleman that he is, brought Michelle a knee patch-type thing with medicine which I can only equate to icy hot (But this was from Italy so it made it all the more exotic). It was amazing and I think it was made by fairies because it worked miracles - of course after taking the brunt of all the grandma jokes that day. Aaaaanyway, we hiked through some gardens ….with not a lot of greenery actually… to see the Olympic Stadium built for the 1992 Olympics, and then we hiked to Montjuic Castle. The views from the top of this Castle were pretty remarkable. After this we got lazy/Michelle’s leg might have fallen off, so we took a sky-taxi or whatever you want to call it (I call it a gondola but clearly that is the wrong terminology) anyway it’s a pod you sit in and it hangs from a cable and you can see the whole city below. Beautiful! When we got back we stopped for some churros con chocolate (Mmmm). Then we went back to the hostel hung out for a while and Jordan and I got to pray together which was such a blessing!! After Jord had to go, Rachel and I met up with our friends from our first hostel to go to a fancy shmancy dinner by the pier. Rachel enjoyed some duck, the boys all got paella and I dimwittedly got pasta (the wrong choice) but it was a fabulous evening. We then got some gelato before watching the fireworks again - round 2.

Day 4

Saturday we went to see Gaudi’s Casa Mila - aka “Las Pedreras.” This is one of those places you just have to see to believe (kind of like Sagrada de la Familia). Its places like this that really make me wonder what it would have been like to have Gaudi’s mind. Must have been a trip. After seeing that we did some shopping. I bought a memory card for my camera because I had ran out of room and didn’t want to delete any pictures for fear something happened to my computer. The point of telling you all of this is because I definitely got a work out on my Spanish language skills as I had to talk to the sales people find the right card which then didn’t work later and I had to go back and explain what had gone wrong with the crap they originally sold me. ;) Jk it wasn’t their fault just an old camera…. K you are right, that story was pointless but I already typed it so just smile and nod…

Theeen, later that night, after stopping at La Boqueria (open air market) for some fruit, we went to see something known as “The Fire Run” this is a tradition to the festival - La Merce. This was by far the most fun/dangerous/ridiculous events of the festival. It consisted of an array of people dressed as devils carrying tridents that spewed fireworks in the most reckless fashion. The sparks from these tridents and crazy dragon floats, which also spewed fire and sparks in all directions, consistently flew into the crowd, peoples faces, into children, the whole nine yards. Another way to describe this event, aside from riot or anarchy, is “a lawsuit waiting to happen” in the US that is. Here it is perfectly legit and we could not be more grateful because it was a blast!! (Pun intended). I have posted videos on my (Michelle’s) facebook if anyone is interested… And of course, we had dessert afterwards. We went to Giovanni, which is well known in Rome and Michelle had the gelato while I(Rachel) had a gofre- waffle drenched in chocolate and condensed milk. It was pure decadence. I am definitely putting on some pounds while we´re here.

Day 5

Sunday Rachel and I took the liberty of sleeping in. We had leftovers from dinner the night before which we made in the hostel (pasta with mushrooms), and then headed to the beach! It was a beautiful day about 85 degrees but with a nice breeze. When we got to the beach it was like national geographic. Topless women everywhere. We definitely are not in the US - this was no Pirates Cove. Not to mention you could not lie on the beach 5 mins without hearing Vietnamese women calling “Ok Massageeeee, ya, quieres massageeee reina?” Why thank you for calling me your queen and all, but no I do not randomly want a message in the middle of the beach, thanks. It was quite entertaining though to watch them approach people and start giving random unsolicited messages and then watching the people freak out, I will give them that.

After the beach, and recognizing that I got the weirdest tan ever from my bathing suit tie, we took showers and then headed to the Cathedral around 6pm. I honestly could write a book about all the thoughts the flooded my mind as we were in the Cathedral de Barcelona. But I will give you the cliff notes version: The architecture was like nothing I had ever seen before (granted I haven’t done much traveling) but this place took my breath away. I was humbled by the ornate adornments that surrounded the image of Christ on the cross at the church center. It portrayed the closest thing I have ever seen to the glory, honor, power, and passion of Christ if any of those things could ever be portrayed in the slightest at all to human eyes. I was so humbled. We inadvertently made it just in time for 7pm Mass. Which was phenomenal timing and we stayed to experience the beauty of it all. Again I can go on for days here…but I will leave you with that…

Once we left the Cathedral we headed to dinner in a neighboring plaza. The name of the restaurant was La Crema Canela. This was the most delicious meal I think either of us had in Barcelona. Rachel ordered a dish with various meats over thai noodles and I ordered chicken curry. We toped the meal off with a dessert that was to die for - I would equate it with Tres Leche Cake but with Toffee… ohhhh man. Mmmmm.

After dinner we booked it to Montjuic to see the finale fireworks show set to music! There was a crowd of thousands and we randomly ran into our hostel mates in the middle of the crowd! What are the chances? We all watched the show and were wowed together. A fantastic end to our time in Barcelona.

Next stop Seville!!

Barcelona Day 1

Barcelona

Wowie! Barcelona was definitely an experience. Never have I (Michelle) visited a city so rich in culture yet so paradoxical - religious focused yet secular, large city yet still slow paced, amiable and helpful people yet the number one pick pocket prone city in the world. Oh Barcelona… we spent 5 days in the city and those 5 where no where near enough….
Day 1

Michelle and I arrived into barcelona on the overnight bus at around 730am into Barcelona Nord. From there we took the metro from the red line to the green line and bought a 10 ticket metro pass (7.70 Euros). We didn´t get too lost getting to Saint Jordis Arago, and we were allowed to rest and take showers before checking into our rooms. When we did, we took a nap till about 12 and got up to eat. Our room was a pretty roomy room for 7 and I felt the bunk beds had more space inbetween the top and bottom bunk compared to the other hostels we stayed at. There are only 4 rooms in this hostel with at most 25 people. It´s a nice sized hostel to meet people without feeling overwhelmed. Another person in our room just checked in as well and tagged along with us for food and siteseeing. We found this cafe near our hostel called cafe 7? I had the tortilla with tuna on a baguette with cafe con leche and michelle had the ham and cheese tortilla on a baguette with an oj. The portions were really big for the price (around 3.5 Euros) and I was able to eat the other half for dinner.

We then when on an adventure and went up to Parc Guell, where you can see a 360 view of Barcelona. We took the metro to Vallecarca and then we were suppose to walk up the hill (comparable to a SF hill). But, we were lazy and they just installed an escalator most of the way up. It was probably good that we took the escalator because we walked ALOT that day (I do not think I’d be going out on a limb to say that they probably installed the escalator for the lazy American tourists). At the top, there was this shady guy who sold Mojitos for 5 Euros and our hostelmate actually bought one. We ventured around the park to the surrounding attractions which consisted of a series of buildings which looked like something straight out of the smurfs as well as a series of benches finished with a mosaic of tile.

Afterwards, we decided to walk to Sagrada Familia. Right before we entered, we decided to get some cash since we were low. When Michelle tried to get cash out, the machine took her card! What a nightmare. But at least I have my ATM card so it was okay. (Mom don’t freak out I immediate called and cancelled my card). When we went into Sagrada Familia (which cost 11 Euros, 9 if you have a student ID) we also got the audio guide (4 Euro) and it was way worth it. There were things that I wouldn´t have thought of or looked closely at if we didn´t have the audio guide. We continued our walking journey to Plaza Catalunya to try to find a La Merce guide of all the shows that were going on the next couple of days. We also went to the supermarket so we could buy some food and snacks for the next two days. After only being able to rest for an hour, we went out again with some of the people in our hostel (10 in total) to see The Opening Procession in Placa de Sant Jaume. It was a parade with music that had huge figures of all different people, including Michael Jackson! There were also people walking with these figures and tossing confetti at the audience whenever we took pictures The group that we were with consisted of mainly Aussies, two from Wales, and one other guy from Chicago. One of the Aussies, Paul, decided to be our tour guide for the evening so we would occasionally stop and he would tell a story. Most of the time, he was totally lying but it was funny experience. He even ended up buying a Spain flag to be more tour guide-like and he got looks because in Barcelona, the Cataluyns don´t like being associated with Spain so Paul quickly tied up his flag to look like the Catalan flag! After that, we went to Chupitos (at the end of Las Ramblas) and it was so random but I saw my friend Lily from Cal Poly there! We knew we would be in Spain at the same time, but we weren´t in Madrid at the same time and I didn´t know she was still in Barcelona. She was leaving for Madrid the next day! Such a small world/coincidence!!

San Sebastian

Where do we start???

San Sebastian might be one of our favorite cities in Spain. The bus ride from Bilbao to San Sebastian only took about an hr and a half (and only 9.55 Euro) in a clean well maintained bus (this detail is for our mother's ease). Our hostel sort of deceived us in how long it would take from the bus station, and therefore we ended up taking a city bus after walking for about 20 mins along the river. However, once we got to the hostel, we were welcomed with open arms. Our hostel, Ocean View is literally 30 meters away from the beach! From the common room, you can see the beach and the consistant perfect surf. The hostel was an apartment on the 2nd floor that had 5 rooms and had a very cozy homey feeling to it - but that feeling was amplified by the unparalleled company. The place is owned and run by a man by the name of Sebastian (from Argentina), Gabby (the mother figure who is also from Argentina) and Naeski (dont know if I spelled his name right but he´s from San Sebastian). Right away we met some of the guys who live there on a long term basis because they are currently attending the uni in San Sebastian(SS). They were from from Italy, Germany, France, and Rhode Island (I suddenly have a desire to pursue a degree in engineering in SS...Mom, what do you think? =]) We really enjoyed our stay and they made us feel like family.

Ok so we guess we should talk alittle about what we did there. The weather wasn´t so great when we first arrived. It was raining on and off so we just walked around Centro, Parte Vieja, and all along La Concha beach. It is a pretty beautiful beach, not as big as I (Rachel) thought it would be but still nice. If only the weather was better we could have laid out. At night, I went with a couple of the other hostelers to get pinxtos. Michelle didn´t come along because she wasn´t feeling too well and it was probably better that she rested (Swine Flu). We went to this tapas bar called Gandarias.They had amazing pintxos. I had a pintxo with patete and shrimp and a lil bit of caviore and mayo. There was another one that had like a mixed crab or lobster with mayo and a piece of salmon on top. I also had the salted cod, and this delicious small piece of steak called solomillo. Of course it was paired with red wine (Side note: you can get a 1.5 liter bottle of Sangria at the supermarket for 1.09 Euro, that´s dirt cheap!) Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to round up other people to go down to the bar called On Darra on the corner to just hang out. It was also where Jennifer Logue, our new friend and soon to be famous indie artist was having a show on Tuesday night (this girl has some pipes!).

On our second day, the weather was a little iffy but we got up, went to the Lidl (supermarket) and bought some fruit and vegetables and gazpacho because we decided we needed to eat something besides bread and cheese. After we had lunch, we went to the beach and it was actually not that cold! It was nice just taking in the ocean breeze and relaxing (our student roommates would give us a play by play on the status of the weather "Oh we have about 30 mins then it will likely rain...they were always spot on!).

SS is also known for their International Film Festival. I'd like to say we planned it but we were lucky enough to experience the festival atmosphere - which takes over this tiny town. There were movies in Spanish, English, French, and German. Brad Pitt was there a couple of days before we got there for his movie Inglorious Basterds. We also heard that Dustin Hoffman was there too. Too bad we missed them! We tried to buy tickets to one of the movies that was playing- Los Secretos de sus Ojos but they were sold out =/. But, when we were deciding on what to watch, this lady came up to us and gave us a ticket for a movie she couldn't see anymore. So sweet of her! It was a movie about the chinese and japanese and what happened during the Rapings of Nanjing, but there was a guy in our hostel who wanted to see it far more than we did so we gave the ticket to him and he came back saying that it was depressing. I´m so glad we didn´t see it then!

So back the truck up, when we are on our way back to the hostel after trying to buy tickets, we are strolling along minding our own business and out of NO where this guy about 22 years old - walking to some phat beats playing on his ipod - who clearly had never seen an asian before, saw Rachel and I believe got SO curious he just had to reach out and ....POKE HER IN THE NECK. Really? C'mon. Who does that? A simple "hello" would suffice... geepers....

After we got over the sock of the poking (which someone should mention to that kid does not translate the same in real life as it does on facebook), we walked by the convenience store right below our hostel and caught the aroma of a chocolate croissants fresh out of the oven and we couldn´t resist, so naturally we bought one. Yummy!

We were able to do our laundry at the hostel for 5 Euros for washer and dryer and Gabby, being the sweetheart that she is, even folded all of our clothes (underwear included...). That night we went to this bar called Tas Tas and it was "popping" up in there. I, Rachel, was surprised how crowded it was on a Monday night and they had pretty decent music. We barhopped to a couple of other bars before heading back to the hostel for bed.

On our last day, we had to check out by 11-12 but left our luggage in one of the lockers until we had to leave. A bunch of us climbed up to Monte Urgull (a.k.a. The massive Jesus statue) and it was breathtaking. We sat along one of the walls of the castle and had a complete 180 view of SS! We hung out up there for about an hr just taking it all in....gorgeous! If the weather was a bit nicer we could have stayed up there all day. On our way back down we stopped at Bershka so Michelle could buy a very cool and trendy jacket and we had dinner at a burger joint. Yes, I know what are we doing eat burgers in SS? Sometimes you just crave one and it was fairly good! Mine was a hamburger with scrambled eggs, bacon, and mushrooms. Michelle had a hamburger with red peppers. We also bought gelato, toffee caramelo..YUM (Ok seriously, this was the best gelato in the world)! We went to see Jen´s show at around 830/9 and let us say that she is one talented girl! We were actually somewhat sad when we left the hostel for the bus station. However, we are going to Barcelona, another city another adventure.

Bilbao

Buenos dias todos! Soo we are a little bit behind in our blog updates but here we are - back and ready to update you all on our exciting adventures! You can now take a break from sitting in front of your computers pressing the refresh button every 5 minutes... :) jk jk

Bilbao

There was a quaint small town vibe to Bilbao and yet it wasn’t a small town at all. We arrived at around noon but were both tired from the early train ride and the lack of a proper breakfast. Finding our way to the hostel was a challenge as well. The Bilbao-ians were all very nice. They tried to help us find our way through this spread out city and left us a very good first impression of this town. However, they all speak Basque (Vasque) and we couldn’t understand them at all. It came to a point where it was kind of frustrating because they know how to speak Spanish but refuse to. Once we got to the hostel we ate our baguette and cheese that we bought in Madrid and took a well needed siesta. When we were rejuvenated we began our way through Bilbao.

The architecture of the metro system is seriously amazing. Its probably one of the nicer, and well designed metro systems: underground tunnels and escalators and all. It was a piece of art. From our understanding the architects of the city have tried to design its other structures with a similar aesthetic flare as the Guggenheim, so as to match. We walked to the Guggenheim Museum built by Frank Gehry which was inspired by carp (Ya you read that right…a carp, as in the fish, as in the weird relationship Mr. Gehry had with carp which extended to even swimming with them in his own bathtub….odd but the result of this freaky relationship was a beautiful piece of architecture). It was a structure quite different than anything else I’ve seen before. There was also a giant spider structure next to the river and a modern rendition of the golden gate bridge that allowed you to cross over to the other side of the river. We continued to walk around the town, taking pictures of beautiful buildings gardens, and plazas.

For dinner, we decided to go to Old Town for Tapas with a hostel mate. We took the metro which was only a couple of stops away. We were pretty lucky that it didn’t rain during the day, but it did rain at night. We first went to a tapas bar called Santa Maria Bar and then one called Irrinitza. The tapas at the second place were way better. I had the salted cod (which they are known for) and it was pretty delicious. Michelle and I split an apple pie; you can never go wrong w/ dessert! We went around to the other bars for a little while longer and then called it quits around 130am. It was kind of awkward getting into our hostel room. The hallways were dark, and there was a couple making out in a corner on the way to the room. Also, we couldn’t see anything in the room so we had to turn on the lights which woke up the 3 other people that were sleeping. We felt so bad! We took our sweet time getting up the next day, ate breakfast, and then checked out and made our way to the bus station. Bilbao was a nice town with a lot of potential but unless you have an extensive amount of time in Spain or happen to be in the area, I wouldn’t stress too much about fitting Bilbao into the itinerary. Now we’re off to San Sebastian where we hope the weather is beautiful so I can get a much needed tan!

Last Days in Madrid

iQue tal amigos!

Currently we are on a train from Madrid to Bilbao (home of the Guggenheim). The train ride is beautiful as we get to enjoy the view of the country side… er at least I do (Michelle) because I again lack the ability to sleep on public transport, unlike Rachel who has mastered this skill artfully.

Last night we went out with a giant group from our hostel to check out the Madrid nightlife but came home relatively early in order to get enough sleep for our 6am wake up call to get on this train…our “early” bed time did not pan out quite as planned as we were awoken countless times by our joyful roomies as they stumbled home and soon after began snoring at unimaginable volumes. Did I mention one guy fell straight out of his TOP bunk? Yep. That happened. Haha. Right about now is when I desperately wish I had Rachel’s sleeping skills….(except she can’t seem to be able to have uninterrupted sleep at night so I guess it balances out the same)

Instead, let me tell you about our last couple of days in Madrid!

Thursday we went with another girl from our hostel named Anne-Marie (she is from Montreal) to check out some more museums and see the sights. We explored Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, the Cathedral, The Basilica de San Francisco, the Arch de Toledo, and spent a couple hours in Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Renia Sofia (which holds Pablo Picasso’s Guernica). Needless to say we were pretty tired after all of that and we could barely feel our legs from walking all around the city. And yes, it was raining again but it didn’t stop us one bit. Our siesta was well embraced that day. For lunch, we ate at some cafeteria next to the Museo- Renia Sofia and Michelle had a Calamari baguette and I (Rachel now) had the Jamon Serrano baguette. I would have to say, proscuitto is way better but jamon is still delicious.

For dinner, we decided to hit up a popular tapas bar called Le Tigre. We ended up getting 4 other people in our room (one Canadian, one Aussie, one from Wisconsin, and an Irish) and 4 others (a Venezuelan, two Brits, and one from Chicago) from another room to join the fun. By the time we got there the place was PACKED. Le Tigre is this small bar with minimal bar tables and even fewer seats and heads of a boar and moose hung above your heads. Most people are standing around, shoulder to shoulder, (some butt to butt) while enjoying their drinks (Sangria, Mojitos, or Mahou-Spanish beer). The drinks were cheap and came with an array of tapas- croquets, tortilla, chorizo, patatas in some spicy sauce, and queso over bread - gratis. Le Tigre had a very fun atmosphere even with the mounds of second hand smoke that was being inhaled (a huge change from our highly regulated California air).

Friday we decided to take it a little bit easier. In the morning we got a cup of café con leche which almost makes Michelle want to start drinking coffee regularly, aaaalmost. Then we went to Plaza del Sol and did some shopping. Two observations: is it really necessary to have 5 of the same stores within the same 1 mile radius? I.e. H&M, Zara, Bershka, Lefties. Apparently so. Also…if you plan to visit Spain, beware of street vents. These things are not your typical small grate on the side of the roads like in the states. These are massive grates that blow large amounts of hot air upwards… note to travelers: avoid these vents if you are wearing a dress….enough said.

After some shopping we headed to Parque Retrio (a massive park located behind El Prado with large expanses of grass, lakes, trees, benches and walkways) since it did not rain…until we left... The park is gorgeous. We read there for a while and enjoyed siesta time under the trees and taking in the beauty of the area. We also had an extended siesta back at the hostel and then decided on having a good dinner on our last night in Madrid. We were recommended to try the Paella in this area about 5 mins away from our hostel. We ordered Seafood Paella, Patatas in Garlic Aouli Sauce, Fried Calamari, and Sangria. The food was delicious, however not cheap (12.5 Euro per person) and I (Rachel) have not had Paella before so we will have to wait till Sevilla to compare.

The train that we are taking to Bilbao is called the Renfe Alvia. It travels up to 150 km/hr and is fairly new actually. However, the transfer from the metro to the train station needs some work which could be easily fixed with a couple of signs or even a few more arrows (what Rachel means to say here is that we silly Americans got l-o-s-t).

Now..maybe it was due to the lack of sleep and the deliriousness of the past couple of days, but Michelle decided to use the end of an one-time use toothbrush to stir her yogurt once we were on the train because we didn’t have any utensils. She then proceeds to brush her teeth with the other end…with yogurt. I (Rachel) couldn’t stop laughing and the couple who were sitting directly in front of us (who probably thought we were odd tourists to begin with) were too because well, if you can’t see why then I guess you just had to be there to witness it. Later the same couple brought us, from another part of the train, 5 sporks, with a face that said “oh you silly tourists.”

Unfortunately we hear it will likely rain when we are up north in Bilbao and San Sebastian but lets pray the weather man is wrong! Funny… September traditionally has 6 days of rain a year. We happen to come for all 6. We can’t say it has put a “damper” on our trip in the slightest though. The beauty of this place is hard to mask, that’s for sure!

Until next time… adios todos!

<3 Rachel & Michelle

Bienvenido a Espana!

Hola Todos!

Llegaramos en Madrid esta manana a las ocho y media de la manana (tiempo de Madrid)! Being the geniuses we are, we thought it would be a great idea to stay up all of last night in order to get ourselves good and tired for our flight from SFO - MIA - MAD. This plan worked brilliantly for Rachel...me, not so much. But we couldn't waste our first day here sleeping! So what did we do? Explored the town of course! Getting lost 20 times along the way. But what would a first day in a strange city be with out that? So lets start at the beginning:

First we made our way from the airport to the hostel using Madrid's amazing metro system. Seriously, why do we not have this in SJ? It wasn’t more than 10 minutes on the metro before we witnessed our first theft. Hooligan kids stole an old ladies napsack. Made me want to weep a bit for humanity right then and there. Some other dude thought he could outsmart us by reaching for Rachel’s zipper on her duffle bag. She caught him red handed and he ran the other way with his tail between his legs. This isn’t to scare anyone, but just to make you aware that it can happen. Now you could call me borderline paranoid with purse safety. Welcome to Madrid.

Aside from this ill welcome we had a phenomenal rest of our day. We checked into our hostel and immediately went exploring. We ended up getting caught in an extremely random torrential down pour on the way to El Prado Museum but it certainly made our experience that much more fun - rolling up our jeans true highwater style (only Michelle…Rachel wanted to make that clear) with our plaid umbrella which apparently I do not know how to say in Spanish and flip flops (of course, we’re from Cali). We also went to the CaixaForum, which was a free art exhibit with tons of architecture models on past, present, and possibly future buildings in Europe, S. Korea, and Japan. Pretty cool, even for a non ArcE major. Later we got a chance to meet some of our hostel roommates - they all seem like very nice kids. All Americans and one from Britain! Upon entering the room, with no one there, we immediately could tell which of the bunks were claimed by boys by their mess. Lol.

We also got lost on the way back to the hostel from the Prado because we kept looking at and following the beautiful Spanish buildings and the tiny quaint alleys. The streets unfortunately aren’t exactly lined up like a grid but we were able to make it safely back.

A few first impressions: Spaniards are truly a gorgeous race. I feel like any of them could be on the cover of GQ tomorrow. The town is surprisingly immaculate. Cobble stone really dresses up a city. Spaniards are so relaxed and really seem to enjoy the moment - this is something we want to embrace and bring back to Cali with us…

Okay! This is enough of this, time for some tapas!

Rachel & Michelle