Although the time has flown by, having practically nothing to do the past week has made a good close to my stay in Barcelona. It has given me time to spend with my friends and walking around the city to take it all in. Yesterday was "El Dia de Sant Jordi" which is the patron Saint of Catalonia. It is basically their Valentines Day but with celebrations more like the 4th of July. It is traditional that men give women roses and women give men books. It was incredible to see the city transform and a wonderful way to spend one of my last days. There are thousands and thousands of roses and rose stands all over the city. People generally do not work and there are festivities all along La Rambla and in the center ... read more

Okay so this is a little late, but just pretend like I wrote this 2 weeks ago. Martin picked me up from the train station and after apologizing a million times for his “bad English” we drove to his apartment. I was so tired that I felt like I was floating. We got to his apartment and I immediately took a shower. Not only was the train not very comfortable… it wasn’t the cleanest thing either. Martin’s wife, Natalia, had left us breakfast which was a meat plate, a veggie plate, and bread. Interesting what other cultures consider breakfast. On their behalf, the other mornings were eggs, etc. I didn’t even care at that point. About the only thing I wanted to do was sleep. So I told Martin that I was going to have to ... read more

{A little background before I start this one. My Grandpa (Dad’s dad) is from northern Greece near Thessaloniki. Around 10 years ago we got a letter from one of his cousins trying to make contact with us. When I decided to go to Greece for spring break my parents dug out the letters and looked up the name to see if we could get a hold of them so I could meet them. After a few weeks we got an email back, and they wanted me to come and visit. Eleni is my dad’s cousin and she is married to George. Eleni is the youngest of the 5 children of my grandfather’s brother. So they are all my dad’s cousins. George and Eleni have two daughters, Katerina and Anastasia, who speak a little English. They were ... read more

We had to get up around 4:30am to get our ferry. We wanted to get there early just in case... well I don't know just in case what. We just wanted to get to Santorini. However, Holly is a bit of an amateur traveler, so we got there 2 1/2 hours early... WWAAYYY too early. Anyway, we found 5 taxis sitting together hanging out and talking, and the drivers were very friendly for 5am. I was just waiting for my good impression of the Greek people to be ruined, but it really never did. I will say one thing, they are not the best smelling people. Anyway, we got on the ferry which really was like a little hotel. I am used to the ferry that goes from NC to the outerbanks, but this one had ... read more

Last weekend we went on a trip to the Basque Country. The weather was fabulous and we got to see both the countryside and the city. I would recommend visiting Northern Spain to anyone who makes it over here; it is an entirely different part of the country. We flew into Bilbao on Friday morning and took a bus to San Sebastian. It was a lot of fun getting to see the country from the bus. It was one of the first times I've seen a farm or lots of grass and trees since I've been here! Barcelona is such a concrete jungle! Once we got to the hotel we met up with a tour guide and got a short walking tour of San Sebastian, including walking along El Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimmage route along ... read more