Gaudí's Lizard made a friend

:) the beaded mouse I made in early grade school for Azumi who is accompanying me on this adventure of a lifetime. Thank you, lovely.

Oz, suse,

Cacao! Muahahaha.

Oh good lord. Am sitting next to the Picasso statue in plaza merced

And this one and a half year old darling African child is greeting Picasso and kissing his hand. "hola, picasso. Como estás, picasso?" I just about died.

Midterms all done and I scored an Aussie invite to quesadilla night.

Also, it's twenty and sunny (around seventy degrees). wearing a sundress and trying to keep it from flying up every half minute. Let's go Wednesday!

Alright, semana santa, bring it on.

Apparently these seats on the bus are reserved for potbellied ladies, dogs with a human companion, and pimps.

Guess that doesn't. apply to me

Barcelona won, claro, and we cheered

That was saint Patrick's day, so before the game we went to a very very legit Irish pub and had a pint with all of the super Irish guys there (my friend Caitlin almost got proposed to. oooh, Kenny. Poor guy didn't know what hit him). It was a red beer- Murphy's. And by golly I almost enjoyed it.

Yeeeeeeeah barça!

Got to see a fútbol game of fc Barcelona's. It was so neat!

Except when it started there was not a seat left.

Also, Carley Rae Jepson  started, so got to bop around to Call me Maybe with her. Sorry if I butchered that name. Also, think that this is roughly... One seventh of the amphitheater.

So many preteen girls.and then me and Rachel!

But I loved the heck out of it. It was great. Super strange when it ended, the lights came on and I'm thinking like "well that was fun. now we need to beat these preteens to the bus" whereas everyone else was sobbing into their friend arms. Whaaaaaa??

Such a massive line. You can't tell, but it was.

I don't remember where I even took this.

But it was somewhere in the main square of Barcelona on my way to my BIEBS CONCERT! so many young girls in purple hats... Ok, the best part is that when we got near the entrance when waiting in line, they said "everyone over fourteen can come to this closer entrance". Like,a third of the line moved. Aaaahhhhlriiiighht.

Roofline

And then there was this little room up there with a rounded metal water fountain and a light shining on it, which reflected back up on the celling. It was like living in a hypnotic waterfall.we just leaned back on the slanted floor for the most relaxing and beautiful ten minutes of the day.

Rooftop of casa batllo, designed by my pal gaudí

His was a genius and intuition absolutely unique to this world. I don't even know how to make the words for it. what. Yeah.

Chimney / roof at casa batllo, designed by gaudí.

We toured it, even with the steep entrance fee of sixteen euros. And it was amazing.

Good morning, Barcelona

Pulled up to this monolith at one thirty in the morning

It's as amazing as you think. Not as big, but just as amazing. More amazing. Sagrada Familia, baby.

Quote of the day from my host Mom, Elena

She'd gone out to the bar to watch the fútbol game (which málaga won-we are officially kind of a big deal) but had come home early because there were too many loud men (she doesn't much care for it anyway), and she saw that I'd made a pb and j for dinner ("didn't you see the paella and salchichas I had ready for you??") she asked what it was, and when I told her it was peanut butter she said "Oh, like in the movies!". It was so great. Also, she looked scared and a little disgusted when I asked if she wanted a bite. She said maybe another time. :) that sandwich was the best peanut butter and jelly I've had (except it was definitely lacking homemade raspberry jam). Good times in Spain.

This is where I live.

Bus ride

Bus ride back to málaga

Ended up in a Chinese restaurant where we got the soup we all wanted.

Brandi bombed my photo, but joke's on her- I'm posting that stuff.

Alhambra and the Albaicín below. (the old moorish city area)

Running true to frizz crown form with all that humidity, this is me eating a kepab. Note- do not eat two in one day. It is a mistake and you will not want to east another kepab for a long time because you will feel like throwing up

La Alhambra por la noche. They light that sucker really well.

Got up the next morning and ran from the hotel up there. Good hill workout, definitely felt like a smoker wheezing my way up. Oh, if I didn't mention it before, this was a two day trip to Granada.

A surprise flamenco performance!

Oh, what do we have here in this gypsy cave?

Nice Spanish y house at the top. Oops, guess I didn't get a picture of the view... :D

Forever.

Y otra!

Nice stone footing, but danger city when wet

Matching up a very steep and complicated series of roads to get to St Nicholas lookout

We were going for sunset there, but definitely got rain and clouds instead. Don't worry, we were all super grumpy from a long day of shopping and rain and things asi so we parked ourselves in this fancy restaurant for café con leche y a glass of wine. Much appreciated as we walked back down the mountain through a veritable flash flood of a river of a street.

Apparently I thought this door was super great, too.

Don't know where it goes.

La capilla real- where Ferdinand and Isabella were buried. I was three feet from their metal coffins.

Also, the collection of flemish paintings in that room... Bob Ross ain't got nothing on that stuff. Detail work and realism is absolutely impressive.

Sign found at my place of volunteering

A very beautiful reminder.

Meet Tula

A tree with it's own garden on it :)

Meeeeeh teeeeh!

Dude, I hope you see this.

Took a nap in a park. Made this friend.

It was so nice. Also, add to the "bad" section of Spain guys peeing wherever they want. Streets, parks, trees, corners of buildings, you name it they're peeing on it. STOP IT. just stop it already. To be fair it's probably not all guys, but still.

Walk around, look up, huge, super old cool building.

Our friend of a friend here showed us around again and We tried the local pulpo. Octopus. The inside meat is nice, but the fatty outer part is no bueno. Overall, not a fan. Then we had free tapas with our drinks (garbanzo soup and pork ribs + chorizo in the most beautiful of sauces) before downing a huge tortilla and bundling up for out hostel night. :)

Lots of bagpipe music here.

The native galicians are always arguing that the celts originated here, which I truly believe in taking the train through the area.

Showing both the type of ceiling and the massive incense burner thing

Crazy intricate

The lujo is a little overdone. TONE DOWN YOUR OPULENCE, CATHOLIC CHURCH.

But it was a lovely interior. Built in the tenth century originally in very Roman style, it was later (seventeenth century) redecorated  by a bishop that felt it needed to be more impressive.this cathedral is the destination for thousands of pilgrims every year making the famous Camino de Santiago trek.

Misa en la catedral

It was grand.

Well, it's a crap picture, but on part of my ten hour train ride to san seb and then the ten back to santiago there was so much green and mountain and deciduous tree cover

And I felt right at home. :) first train ride- NAILED IT! not much to nail, but at least I didn't suction myself to the toilet or accidentally press the SOS button in the bathroom that sends help running to the door like someone else I know. :) now safe and sound in a hostel bundled up against the cold having just ate yogurt, cherry tomatoes, and the closest I could get to ramen for dinner. The things you pick when you can shop for yourself in a different country! Then watched jeopardy with a British guy, US girl, and Irish lady over toast with marmalade and black tea. I also got to talk to dad today!! Great day, friends.

I love Mother England

Because the proximity gets me my black tea with milk and sugar AND SHORTBREAD. Brilliant.

Towering old buildings. We really have nothing like this stuff.

Why have I not known how amazing shortbread is before today??

Also, new shoes. :D

San Sebastian

I really wanted to call out to this guy and see if I could hop a ride on his sailboat. Buy it was a beautiful day-we walked on the beach, caught some great views, did a little shopping, hit a bakery, then straight up went to France for the best dinner of my life.