TraciS4
Traci Spatz Joined: January 6th 2008
Logged in: February 15th 2008
Logged in: February 15th 2008
Travel Blog Posts
Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged, I have been a busy, busy traveler! On February 1st my friends on my program and I took the train down to Sitges for Carnaval, which is the biggest carnaval celebration in Cataluna. It is only a half an hour train ride to Sitges, and do to some rule involving the politics of the city it's free! We arrived on Friday afternoon and checked into our hostel (which was 1 block from the beach!) and left our stuff there and went to explore the city. It was interesting when we got there, because the city felt dead! It was during siesta, so almost all of the restaurants were closed. We explored the beach for a while, which was beautiful. I cannot wait to go back when ... read more
Last weekend I flew out to visit my two friends from Scripps, Liz and Charlotte. They are both currently studying abroud in Rome, so I left Thursday night and flew into Rome to meet them. This was my first Ryan Air experience (the cheapest airline in Europe), and it was pretty good. Their motto is that they are the on-time airline, and both of my flights were on time. However, they charge you for every little fee imaginable! You have to play $2.5 to buy water on the plane, I was afraid they might even charge you to go the bathroom! They don't fly out of the main Barcelona Airport, so you have to take a bus about an hour outside of the city to Girona. The planes were much bigger than I imagined, so it ... read more
Hello again! I had a pretty easy week this week. We started classes last Monday at the IES center, which is located in downtown Barelona. I take the metro almost every day to class (about 7 mins), and try to walk home most days, which usually takes about 20-25 minutes. Last Sunday night I went to watch the NY Giants game vs the Packers at a local English bar, one of the few places that shows the American Football games. At half time, 3 FC Barcelona players walk in the bar to watch the game. A few minutes into halftime, while my friend gets up to go to the bathroom, the come up to my table and ask if I mind if they sit there because these are much better seats! So I got to meet ... read more
I finally have had some time to wander around the city after being gone this weekend, and have seen a lot of the city sights. For the past two days I have been taking the tourist bus with my friends around the city. We saw most of Gaudi's work, as well as montjuic and port Olympic. It has been a ton of fun! We visited park Guell today, and I think it is the coolest place I have ever been, it looks like something out of a fairy tale! I have been out and about almost every night this week! It is completely exhausting. This Tuesday I went with a group of friends to see the FC Barcelona game against Sevilla. The stadium was completely sold out, and we got great seats last minute for only ... read more
Hello again, I just got back from my weekend orientation trip to Tarragona and Valencia, which are both south of Barcelona. I left early Friday morning and we spent about three hours in Tarragona visiting the ancient Roman ruins there. There is a huge cathedral, as well as an old gladiator ring just by the water, which was featured in the movie Gladiator. After visiting Tarragona we headed further south to Valencia, which is right on the water and the third largest city in all of Spain (behind Madrid and Valencia). It's very pretty, and the beaches are amazing, but I think it would have been more fun in the summer because they're did not seem to be many people there. We had free time Friday evening and I went out with two friends that ... read more
So I finally made it here! I had a long flight to London, followed by a shorter flight to Barcelona. I was completely exhausted by the time I got here, I slept for about two hours total on the plane. Despite being tired, I still went out my first night here! Its pretty much impossible to stay in if you want to meet people. My apartment is much nicer than I expected, I have my own room with a desk, bed, closet and balcony! We also have 2 bathrooms, a common room and a kitchen. We are located on one of the main streets in Barcelona, which makes getting everywhere very easy. However, the street noise is constant, and can be hard to sleep through sometimes. There are 9 different groups of students in my program ... read more
Hello Everyone! While I'm in Spain I'm going to be keeping a travel blog to keep you up to date on my various travels and activities throughout Spain and all of Europe. If you are interested in my whereabouts please subscribe to my blog, and if you think anyone else might be interest send me their email and I will invite them! I'll keep you updated! Traci... read more
