Oh! The places I've gone...

Barcelona y Mallorca

Sorry it's been so long to get this last post out there, but it's a big one!
I'm not going to go into too much detail, but more like a little summary of all that happened in the nine days of my Mediterranean travels.

BARCELONA

Day I
-Geological/Zoological Museum
-Chocolate Museum



Oh, the wonders of CHOCOLATE!!!

Arc de Triumf














Sagrada Familia













The famous Gaudi Lizard














Yes folks, everything to the right was made out of PURE CHOCOLATE!!!

We later met up with one of our friends who was in Barcelona at the same time as us and we went to the fairy bar for some sangria and saw some more Gaudi architecture.

Gaudi, Gaudi EVERYWHERE...even this lady was dressed Gaudiesque. Actually, this practice is pretty popular down La Rambla, the major tourist row. People dress up in wild costumes and put on shows and performances.


But for those of you who don't know, Gaudi was a very famous architect from Barcelona and had a very avant garde, wild style. Unfortunately, his style never really spread to far, but Barcelona is wild about him. They have apartment buildings, offices, parks and even a cathedral designed by him. The Sagrada Family, as shown above in chocolate, is the cathedral designed by him. Even our hostel was designed in a very Gaudi style:

Our hostel was the craziest we stayed in throughout our entire trip. We shared a room with twelve other people, half of the beds were lofted, everyones bed was walled off and given privacy via a little curtain. It was a cozy place, interesting concept...


We bought a "Barcelona Card" which gave us lots of freebees and transportation for three days. Included were a bunch of entries to museums, discounts to others, a free lift on the Mirador de Colom (nice view of the port) , aaaaand, a lovely cruise on the Mediterranean.

Lookout of the port from the Mirador

Lookin' cute on our little cruise


Beautiful Botanical Gardens


Picasso Museum


The most peaceful Cathedral I have ever seen

We saw many, many beautiful things and exhausted ourselves sight-seeing. On the last day, we finally awarded ourselves with a day on the beach. Every single day we were in Barcelona, the weather was absolutely perfect. Good food, wonderful company and stunning sights.

Want to see more pictures?

Barcelona Part I

Barcelona Part II

So when we first started planning out this trip, one of our friends was going to join us. She decided she couldn't come after we had made the reservations for the hostel in Mallorca, so we had to try and change them. Several times I tried contacting the hostel, and I had absolutely no luck. Finally, just as we were getting on the airplane to leave Barcelona, my phone rings. The hostel was calling to make sure that it was still only going to be two of us, and if so, was it OK for them to switch us to a double room- it was a bit cheaper, had a balcony with a brand new bathroom. Trying to hold back the laughter of excitement, I confirmed with "Colin" saying it sounded just fine.

MALLORCA

I'd like to start off with this picture:

The view from our hostel

The first day we started talking to the owner of the hostel, Colin. He told us of some good beaches and highlights of things on the Island. We headed out in search of the perfect beach and on the way, we decided that the best way to find that perfect beach would be to rent bikes. We find a little place and rode over 15 miles in either direction. The first direction we hit rocky, hilly terrain and found ourselves a lovely little cove which we explored for about an hour. Seeing the weather wasn't ideal beach weather, it was a little chilly to go swimming. The attempt was made, but the unknown prevented me from diving right in. There was a little too much "nature" for me.


We headed back, relaxed at the hostel for a bit and headed back out in the opposite direction. We hit a lot of beautiful beaches, lots of tide pools for Matt to explore. We got a little lunch at a supermarket and enjoyed it on a beach. Before we knew it, our bikes were due back to the shop and our first day on the lovely island of Mallorca was coming to a close.

Matt, Flying like a Eagle

The next day was rainy, so we headed to the city of Palma. We had gotten a late start, so we missed seeing the Cathedral. We explored the city for awhile. Amazingly, we ran into a Lichtenstein exhibit which is very, very unusual and the little artist in me was very, very excited.
We took some time to explore the exhibit and then continued on our way.

We wandered around the outside of the cathedral

Look! A black swan!

My Spain on a Budget book told me of a little diner in the city run by and based on the American

tradition of: The Diner. So of course, we had to scope that out as my book told us, "a great deal for those of you craving that good old American cuisine!" After a bloomin' onion, some buffalo wings and a grilled cheese sandwich,my craving was long gone.

The next day we pulled some strings and rented a car so that we could explore the rest of the island. We drove straight to the top to Formentor to check out the stunning view and the beach.

Doesn't it look so beautiful? It was FREEZING!! Surprise!- didn't pack for anything below 20c!

Goats?

We drove along the coast line- Matt made a detour for me to go to the Majorica Pearl Factory! We got to take a little mini tour around to see how they are made and then an exhibit of things like crowns and such...then of course, the gift shop!



We visited wild life reserves and then to caves on out on the coast. We drove back into town and had a nice relaxing evening. The next day, we headed back into the city and went to see the Cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful. In the sacristy, they even had part of the Veracruz (the real cross)
We headed back to the hostel and got some beach time in. We did some reading on the beach (although I was quite chilly) and Matt collected little itty bitty sea shells.

We watched the sunset and enjoyed our last night in Mallorca. We had a drink with Colin to thank him for all the help he had given us and we went for a nice dinner of paella and gazpacho.
The next morning we got all of our stuff packed up and ready to go, left everything at the front desk, and headed out for the first and last real good beach day on the island. The sun was strong and it didn't take very long to get some good color. Mid-afternoon we packed everything up and headed to the airport.

We waved goodbye to Palma, promising that we would someday be back.

More Pictures of Mallorca:

Mallorca Part I

Mallorca Part II

Back in MADRID

Madrid was hot, hot, hot when we got back. We of course had to go to El Rastro one last time and get the rest of our souvenirs. The streets were packed in the baking sun. All the stands closed down by 13.00 as the heat became nearly unbearable.

That's just one of many, many streets that are encompassed by el Rastro

Transportation was made tricky for us, as they suspended our line on the Metro the day we got back from Mallorca.

We finally made it to the Thyssen Museum, which was absolutely facinating and I can't believe we hadn't gotten there yet!...but still very happy that we did actually make it before leaving Madrid. We had Montaditos one last time, visited our bookstore and played one more round of Scrabble.
Tuesday we had a picnic in the park with Sarah and Joe before they left for Florida...they were heading out a few days before us.
We had some fun in Plaza Mayor, met up with Alex and his friend from Holland, enjoyed one of our favorite garitos one more time, and headed to the movies. The next day we met up with Sara G and went to see Volver, which was fabulous and did some last, last minute souvenir shopping. Matt got to complete his goal of ten kebaps in two weeks for lunch and then for dinner, we had a lovely meal at Botin. (So pretty much all of that is out of order...it all blurred together, all the events actually did take place, just in a different chronology).

I got to say goodbye to my friend the gypsy with tourette's (I think she may be a prostitute) who lives in our Metro station. I took a picture to remember her, but I don't think she was too happy about that, as she started to come after us...fortunately she's a little on the heavy side and she was easy to outrun.


We packed our bags (mine of course were waaaaayyyy overweight) and said our goodbyes to our temporary abode. We also said goodbye to the obras...although they weren't going to be missed all that much.

Obras! how we will not miss you!

Thursday morning we woke up at 5.30 to get everything ready to leave at 7.00 with Matt's senora. She was taking her to her office to show us what she did for a living (managed the fourth largest video conferencing company in the world) and also bring us a bit closer to the airport so we didn't have to pay quite as much in cab fare. We boarded the plane and had an enjoyable 7.5 hours with pleasant company, lots of leg room, decent food and good entertainment. We were greeted with banners and balloons and warm smiling faces. It was good to be home.

Despedidas.

Classes are over, all finals have been taken, and it's time for goodbyes. Where did the time go?! We had a very busy few weeks studying, researching, writing papers and taking exams...and i won't deny some partying. We met some really fun people, met up with our friend Edguardo again, had some fun at the book store as Scrabblistas. Tonight we leave for Barcelona until Monday afternoon and then we are flying to Mallorca.
Yesterday was very bittersweet...as we had a time to relax and enjoy some copas with our professors, it was sad to say goodbye. We had had a copa at the beginning of the semester as well, and I can't believe how fast it all went. Now I'll finally have a chance to show you some of my professors:

Fatima and our friend Adi...doesn't she look so nice and happy? It's a lie.


Our favorites: Carlos y Augustin. They kicked Matt out of this picture.


Augustin allowed Matt in this one:


Best candid shot ever:


Another favorite: Monica

Glamor shot waiting for the bus

(p.s. Sara has the pictures of Domingo- the one that looks like Antonio Banderas/Jeff Goldblum- I'll post them as soon as I get them)

We got home with nearly five minutes to spare. We rushed to get ready and then headed to Cafeteria Jumor. It was the same place we had eaten the very first night we had gotten here. Once again, bittersweet. Delicious food, good company, excellent drinks annnnnd.....a tuna! Margaret brought them out of retirement just to play for us.

Some of us went a little crazy:

Joe's Senora showing him some moves:


Meghan's Senora playing some air guitar on her cane:

Meghan dancing with a tuna



Our hot senoras:

(Left to right: Mauri- Matt's, Juani- Laura's, Ana- mine)

Juani, Ana and Margaret (the director)


Guapisimos:


Me and some Tunas

After dinner we went out to Ego with a group of people from our group and some of the people who work for Margaret. We got in around 3.00 and I slept until 13.00 today. Our flight tonight is at 23.30. I have to pack for Barcelona/Mallorca and get my stuff ready to go home home. We're leaving Thursday, June 8th at 13.00 and will be back in New York 15.00 the same day.