So today is going to get a short entry because it was mostly a travel day. We did, however, do some important stuff today, #1 being finally having a real swim in the Mediterranean! We started the day with a trek to the local “Chinese Store” (apparently a genre around here, as that’s what people called it everywhere) that had everything in the universe at decent prices, including adaptors for a fifth of what we had paid for them the night before : ( I nabbed some decent-looking long shorts, an “athletic” shirt and some sandals and was ready to take [View Full Entry]

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A few weeks ago (ya, I know I am doing this entry a little late), I went on a daytrip with my program to Penedes, Sitges, and Sant Piere. About 20 of us hopped on a greyhound at 8 am and headed to our first destination, Codorniu, a cava and wine vineyard in Penedes. This was about a 30 minutes bus ride from Barcelona. We started with a tour of the plantation and factory, and then we learned about how cava is made and went underground to check out the whole process. Cava is the spanish name for champagne. If it [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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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 [View Full Entry]

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So last Tuesday, February 5th was the last night of a huge festival in Spain called Carnival. Barcelona doesn’t really celebrate it, so all of our teachers said that we should go to Sitges, a small town 30 minutes outside Barcelona to experience it. Carnival is a huge celebration lasting from the previous Thursday to the middle of the day the next Wednesday. It is similar to Mardi Gras, but without beads. I had class till 5:30, so once I got out of class, I went directly home to change and get ready to head out there. I had a cold, [View Full Entry]

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I have no photos to do this experience justice. Being such a crazy night, I didnt bring my camera for the high chance of it getting pick-pocketed. However I was able to get a few before the night begun! In spain, they have this week long celebration called Carnaval. The weekends and last day are the best nights to celebrate and although Barcelona enjoys the festivities, no one does it like the town of Sitges (probably because the towns population is something like 45% gays, and we all know gays know how to have a good time!) So, some friends and [View Full Entry]

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On a whim we decided to take a train from Barcelona to a small beach town about 25 minutes away by train (or an hour if you get off on the wrong stop like we did on the way back) called Sitges. It is gorgeous and the atmosphere and scenery is much more what you think of as "Spain" than Barcelona. It was cold (no, not as cold as Indiana... but cold) however we managed to meet a few gentleman locals (I would say they were old, but that would be an insult to a few relatives. Alright, they were old.) [View Full Entry]

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Vilanova i la Geltu A very welcome break. On the beach. Barcelona, Sitges and Vilanova i la Geltru. Getting cooler but beautifully sunny. Making a great new friend, Stefan. Resting. Sleeping. Eating. Reading (at last a book that grabs me. I know!) [View Full Entry]

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well off we set to barcelona spain....on our easy jet flight....all was well...had a good flight.....then caught a train from the airport to sitges for the bears weekend.....on our way we met other bears on the train who had been to sitges before....and they told us that it was straight person friendly.......well it was more like "gay wonderland".....never had jason or i been to any where in the world that was this gay.....and probably never will....it was packed with all walks of life bears....and a huge party town that didnt go off untill midnight....went to our 1st foam party....fire works [View Full Entry]

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We have quickly acclimated to the Spanish culture of eating lunch and dinner at typically later hours, than we are accustomed to in the US. Due to our late night last night, we didn’t start the day until after 1pm today. It was a cloudless, clear, and sunny day, so we decided to go down to the coast to spend the day at the seafront town of Sitges. Christian (the hotel concierge) recommended Sitges based on the short amount of time we had, since it is only a 40-minute train ride down from Barcelona. This would leave us enough time to [View Full Entry]

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