I recently flew solo for a weekend getaway to Granada, and I have to say it was one of the best things I’ve done for myself here. I have always wanted to see the famous Alhambra and have heard tons of great things about Granada, so with only two weeks left in Spain, I had to go! The hostel I stayed at was centrally located, right next to the path leading up to La Alhambra and next to the most central plaza in town, Plaza Nuevo. Nearly everyone in the hostel had come solo from all parts around the globe. There [View Full Entry]

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When in Portugal, we explored Lisbon (the capital city) for a day/night and a small beach town named Lagos for three. Lisbon is very city like, although it’s definitely not your average city. It has a lot of old Moorish influence, which comes from the ancient Arabs and Moroccans. There is a labyrinth of windy roads with no names in the middle of the city. One of the explanations for this common street work with the Moors is that it was a self-defense tactic against any invading enemies. It’s very common in other places I’ve been too, such as Morocco and [View Full Entry]

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My school had planned a boat trip for us to all take together up the Costa Brava. We drove to a small town called Blanes, which is just north of Barcelona, and piled on a Catamaran from there. We spent nearly the whole day, or about six hours on the catamaran cruising north up the Costa Brava. Although the weather wasn’t very good for boating (as it was pretty cold and cloudy), that didn’t stop some of the kids from going for a swim, or a “bath” here in Spain. The boat had great speakers too - we plugged in our [View Full Entry]

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I took a daytrip to Penedes, Sitges, and Sant Piere. Penedes is only a forty minute drive from the Barcelona city center. Here we took a tour of the Codorniu cava vineyard, where we learned how cava was made. Cava is essentially champagne but it is technically illegal (in the world of wine laws) to call a substance "champagne" unless it’s from a specific region in France. Hence the name "sparkling wine" for bubblies coming from California. In Spain they call it cava. For something to be cava it must have two requirements; first it must go through a second fermentation [View Full Entry]

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I went to Seville for the last four days of my break which happened to be during the Semana Santa celebration. And lucky for us, Seville is said to have the best Semana Santa celebration - which we weren’t aware of until we tried to book hostels three weeks beforehand and not a thing was available. A week before Easter, they celebrate Semana Santa by having church processions all around the streets of Seville. The members of each church dress up in cloth gowns with pointy hats (not to be mistaken with the Klu Klux Klan) and parade through the streets [View Full Entry]

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Morocco was hands down the most rewarding trip I have ever been on. We went for six days with an excursion program called Discover Seville who had everything planned down to a t (including three fabulous meals a day!) Of course, we did have to buy our own souvenirs, but that was the only cost not included. It was great for us because we didn’t have to do or plan anything - all we had to do was sit back and enjoy Morocco. The fact that it was all inclusive made it completely devoid of any stress, which left plenty of [View Full Entry]

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My girlfriend’s roommate came to visit her in Barcelona and we took full advantage of the situation by touring her all around Barcelona and seeing all the sites we had yet to see. There is a ton of amazing things to see in Barcelona and being here for three months, I still hadn’t seen them all so I opted to play tour guide for the day. It worked out great for everyone. We walked around Park Guell, which is the park right in my backyard pretty much, where I go running. It was originally a community where the factory workers could [View Full Entry]

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Valencia is a town south from Barcelona, about midway to Granada. Our program went for a day trip to check out all the history that exists within the city. We even went to the church that houses the Holy Grail…yes the true Holy Grail. Unless of course, you don’t believe the grail is a cup and rather the bones of Mary M, a labyrinth map, or something of these sorts. Valencia is known for its new Museo de Artes y Sciencias, which has a very contemporary design and lately is what brings all the tourists, such as ourselves, in. They also [View Full Entry]

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Ciao! This past weekend I went to Rome, Italy for a quick four-day vacation. It was love at first site! So far this is my favorite city (besides Barcelona of course :) The people in Rome are extremely friendly, always smiling, and had so much Italian character in everything they did. And not to mention the Italians are much more handsome than the Spanish… but this is just my opinion. We arrived in Rome late Thursday night (past bar hours here), so we went directly to our hostel and called it an early night. Our hostel was basically one giant bed! [View Full Entry]

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My first Spanish meal! Last week a group of us americans went to cook our first Spanish meal at a cute little kitchen on La Rambla. It was a beautiful kitchen that overlooked one of the busiest streets here in Barcelona. We made all the traditional Spanish dishes. To start, we made a cold tomato soup with fresh tomatoes, peeled and pureed. Topped with parsley, pine nuts, cheese, and aoli sauce. Next we had "pan con tomate" which is served at every meal and at every restaurant here in Barcelona! It´s basically slightly toasted bread with a fresh clove of garlic [View Full Entry]

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