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After arriving at 7am (1am my time), I got my baggage and proceeded to wait until 11am for everyone to get there. Then me, 9 other girls, and one lonely boy made the trek to our hostel. At first it was a little overwhelming, but once we figured out that the train symbol is not the same as the bus symbol...life got easier.
We took a bus to a train and then walked 4 blocks with all of our luggage --- the weight limit was 50lbs for the plane and I used 48 lbs. Oh yeah buildin' those muscles...kind of. Once we saw the hostel we were so excited that we found food and took a nap! We had been up for 26 hours because no matter how hard you try it is impossible to fall asleep on the plane. I mean I could of had wine or something, but I didn't want to arrive drunk and/or sleepy to place I had never been before. Besides the girl next to me on the plane had enough for the both of us (3 bottles!). This is the same girl who cried at take off and any time we had
Outside of Sagrada Familia
This is just one side and it is supposed to celebrate the birth of Jesus and his young life with his parents. turbluance, which was frequently. At one point, I pretended to be asleep because I would ask her if she was ok but she just sat there and cried.... Once she looked out the window and asked if we were still in the air. We were flying over the Atlantic, so I'm pretty sure she would have noticed if we were suddenly not in the air, but heading towards water!
After we took a nap, we went to a Salsa Club for free because our hostel paid the cover fee for us! It was so interesting to see everyone dancing and they were all ages from our age to mid 40s. We didn't try to dance, but we watched long enough to say, "Wow! They actually dance here!" In America, we have a lovely dance moves most of which are some form of grinding. In Spain, they salsa and ballroom dance! What a relief! And the guys are actually gentlemen...it's such a change. Although, college boys are probably a little unfair to compare sauve Spanish men.
The next day we decided to explore. We went to Sagrada Familia. It is a bascilla that is so
detailed that has been under construction since before 1900s! And we thought Indiana was slow to build roads. The bascilla was designed by Antoni Gaudi. Americans get the word "gaudy" from this man's last name. His structures are so over the top is amazing and somewhat mind boggling. My grandparents would love this place. Everything you see inside and outside has a meaning...all of them tied to religion. Gaudi wanted the entire church to be a representation of nature. So, there are gaint pillars inside the church that look like trees. At the top of the ceiling where the trees end, there are about a 1000 little holes that will, one day, be filled with stain glass. The stain glass will reflect all over the ground giving off the feeling that you are in a forest. I would explain more about the symbolism, but that may get boring. If you want to know, ask me when I get back to the States. Oh yeah, if you ever travel to Europe and someone asks you where you are from...say US! No one knows where Indiana is. Also, everyone thinks of the US as New York so be prepared!
Next, we took a train and walk up one gaint (as in from the pictures we were really high up), to see another one of Gaudi's masterpieces.... Park Guelle. It was amazing and so beautiful! There is a lot of hand painted pieces that were broken and then tiled back on. It's all over the park. I can only image how long that took Gaudi to complete! Fun fact: Gaudi died at 74 by car.
Last stop....the beach! We went to the beach which was freezing! It was also very blue, white sand, and beautiful besides the awkward nudity. Hey, I am in Europe. As Americans, I think we just can't imagine going to the beach and being like man I really hate swim suit lines, so let those girls out. Umm...yeah no. They may be ahead in fashion, but they really need some modesty lessons.
Everyone is really nice and they know that we don't speak a lot of Spanish, so many try to speak English or do speak English.
I arrived in Pamplona at 1300h today. We finally got to the dorms and unpacked. Now, I am looking out
my 5th floor view of Spain. It's really cold out today, but hopefully it will get a little warmer. We are all pros at buses now! So far, Spain is great!
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