Nov 24- Andorra

Yesterday, 2 of my friends and I took a 3 hour bus ride to Andorra. Andorra is a tiny country between Spain and France located in the Pyrenees mountains. I think the entire population is about 86,000 people. We pretty saw pretty much the entire country in one day since it isn't very big. We couldn't figure out what the primary language was but people were speaking Catalan, French, and Spanish.  It is really good for skiing and they have a ton of shopping. We walked around the town, saw the old part of the city, ate some delicious crepes, went shopping and bought some bagels because they are nowhere to be found in Spain.

Nov 18-23 Adventures with Tyler!

Last week Tyler came to visit me in Barcelona, which was the sweetest thing in the entire world. We had so much fun and he got to meet some of my friends. We went to Park Guell, the castle at Mont Juic, Sagrada Familia, Barceloneta beach, and ate lots and lots of tapas. It was so great to see him since I miss him like crazy out here! We had so much fun together and I can't thank his parents enough for helping to send him out here for Christmas!!

 Sagrada Familia

 Barceloneta Beach

Park Guell

At "Chupitos", a bar with 100 different kinds of shots. We had some that one that was on fire, one that had a chocolate bar on top, one that you had to roast a marshmellow over before you drank it, and one with a cherry gummy candy inside. They were all so delicious!

Nov 9-11 Brussels and Bruges, Belgium

Last weekend I traveled to Belgium with a few of my friends. We stayed in Brussels on Friday and on Saturday we took a train to Bruges for the day. Belgium is the most amazing country ever- every store either sells chocolate, waffles, or french fries or all of the above. When we got to Brussels we walked around the Grand Place, which is the main square with a bunch of shops and restaurants surrounding it. We also went to a chocolate museum and got to watch a demonstration of how they make their chocolate. The man giving the demonstration was the happiest person I have ever seen in my life- how could you not when you get to play with chocolate all day? There were free samples all around the chocolate museum so we loaded up on chocolate there. I actually reached a point where I did not want to eat any more chocolate, which I don't think has ever happened in my life. My friend ate so much chocolate on Friday that she was actually sick on Friday night. Haha, when in Brussels I guess. We also saw the famous Belgian statue called Manneken Pis, which is a small 2 ft tall statue of a little boy peeing. I don't know why this statue is so famous but he is the mascot of Brussels- there are chocolate statues of him, figurines of him, and pictures of him everywhere, usually eating waffles.

On Saturday we went to Bruges, which has been my favorite city that I have seen so far. All of the buildings are gorgeous and there is a river that runs through it, so the people in Belgium call it "the Venice of Brussels". The square is gorgeous and the town just has a cute, quaint feel to it. And a lot of chocolate of course. I had the most delicious waffle in the entire world there, I don't know if I will ever eat anything as amazing ever again!

In the Grand Place, the main square in Brussels

Me with Manneken Pis- I am just so confused why this is famous

The happiest man in the world making a chocolate bear

Look at those giant nutella jars!! 

View from a street in Brussels

We went to the Cathedral des Saints Michel et Gudule and there was a choir practicing so we stayed and listened to them. They were absolutely amazing, all of their songs were in French and it sounded so pretty, the acoustics were wonderful. 

After a hard day of chocolate eating, hanging out in the square at night

The city of Bruges

There are shops like this everywhere in Belgium! It's so dangerous

Us by the river in Bruges, pretending that we are in Venice

Bruges

Bruges

We found more fall leaves! 

Bruges

Bruges

Bruges

Oct 31-Nov9 Spain with the Family!!

My lovely parents came out to visit me last week and we had the best time ever! They turned out to be traveling champions and almost kept up with me on all of our adventures! They even learned how to take the metro by themselves when I was in class, I was so proud of them! They were also staying up until midnight and sleeping until 9:30 like true Spaniards. They are quick learners.

We went on a lot of adventures while they were here. We walked along the beach, visited the Castle and Olympic stadium at Mont Juic where the 1992 Olympics were, ate a lot of tapas, visited Casa Batllo (a house designed by Gaudí), went to the city of Girona, ate more tapas, went to a church on the top of a big mountain called Mont Tibidabo and did a lot of shopping!

Every time we went out to dinner we had no idea what we were ordering, so we were always surprised at what the waiter brought out. My dad called it "Shut Up and Eat It" in honor of our friends Rick and Tina Ermish. Some food experiences were more successful than others. One day we made the mistake of having our waiter bring out 5 of his favorite tapas. His favorites happened to be scary sea creatures with eyeballs and antennas still attached. I was nauseous just looking at it. Our waiter could tell that we didn't like it so he took one of the plates back and brought us out something else. Still a whole sea animal with eyes and flippers. How sweet. We did eat some delicious tapas and gelato though and decided we should open up a tapas restaurant in Colorado!

The one on the right is Casa Batlló, the house that was designed by Gaudí that we visited. The one on the left is called Casa Amatller and was designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. This area is called The bLock of Discord because of all the distinct architecture styles in such close proximity to one another.

Museo Nacional D'Arte de Catalunya

Las Arenas- It used to be a bull fighting arena but it is a shopping mall now

My dad being a professional shopper and carrying all of our stuff while my mom and I looked around. We couldn't have done it without you dad!

 My parents in front of the Girona Cathedral 

Oct 26-28 Dublin

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been busy with school and traveling and being a tourist in Spain! But a few weeks ago I went to Dublin and had such a great time. I have wanted to visit Ireland ever since I was little and was picturing green rolling hills, castles, and sheep everywhere. It turns out that Dublin is a city, so it wasn't exactly like that. The city was very cool though, every pub had live music with violins, guitars, and people singing Irish songs. We also took a train to a city called Malahide to see the Malahide castle, so I got my fix of greenery and sheep in. On the last day we were there we took a tour of the Guinness factory, which was very fun even though I don't like beer. I took one sip at the top just to say I did, but that was it. I am a letdown to al of the Irish people. Arthur Guinness, the founder of Guinness beer signed a 9,000 year lease for the Guinness factory in Dublin so they will be making ber there for a while!

Saint Patrick's Cathedral

In the garden at the Dublin Castle

The garden of the Dublin Castle

In honor of my father!!

View of the city from the Temple Bar area

In a forest at the Malahide Castle

Malahide Castle

THe 9,000 year lease at the Guinness factory