Tibidabo

Tibidabo!  Or, the mountain overlooking Barcelona with a church which glows at night (okay, maybe it's just lit up, not glowing) and a children's theme park.  What a great combination!  This place was the last on my touristy-things-to-do-list in Barcelona.  I went with one Cornell friend from my program, a Cornell friend on a different program (but also in Barcelona), and the friend of the second friend who is on the same other Barcelona program and also from Cornell.  (Confusing, eh?)

Getting to Tibidabo was an interesting adventure.  It involved 2 different trains, a tram, and a funicular.  Wow-- that's three different methods of transportation!  Here's the tram:

Goodbye dinner

It's time to say goodbye!  At least one person from my program seems to be leaving every day... and my turn is coming up soon this Thursday!  Unfortunately I still have some school work to do before then... ugh, I'm not quite done. But CASB was smart enough to organize a goodbye dinner for all of us last Friday-- the last day of classes.  We traveled a good amount of time on the metro to get to a restaurant called La Mamasita.  We had a 3 course meal (as per the usual program dinner) and it was quite filling for obvious reasons.  So much food!

Palau Güell

The very last Gaudí creation I will see in my time in Barcelona! (I leave Thursday-- so soon!!!)  This Gaudí has been under renovation for the last 4 years and it just opened its doors back up for visitors May 26th, so of course I had to go!  It's most like Casa Batlló-- nicely decorated on the inside, and a fantastic roof.  Also, an audio guide was included in the admission price.  Although the audio guide wasn't as interesting as Batlló, it kept playing music composed by Eusebi Güell's daughter... who cares, honestly?  This 'palace' (i.e. mansion) was built for the Güell family (obviously very rich people) before both Casa Batlló and Casa Milá.  So it was one of his first real art-nouveau/modernist pieces and served as a precursor to all the other ones.  I toured the house with 2 friends from my program.  Here's a picture of the outside:

Barcelona 3, Manchester United 1

The biggest game of the year: FC Barcelona vs. Manchester United at Wembley!  Normally, I'm not very excited for soccer matches, but this was the big Champions League title, so of course I had to participate in the fun with everyone else.  One of my hall mates reserved a table at a sports bar nearby so we could get there close to when the game started and not have to worry about finding seats.  Ironically, the sports bar (less than 2 blocks away from my residence) is an American-themed sports bar.  Note the Wrigley Field sign in the background:

Palamós - La Costa Brava

Our last CASB trip!  I can't believe I only have 2 1/2 more weeks left in Spain... too much to see and do and too little time!  However this weekend trip was a great way to end the semester as a group (we do have one more group activity left- a goodbye dinner).  It was much better than Madrid because all we did was relax under the sun and the hotel was fabulous.  Super yummy food!  And excellent weather.  Also we left at a reasonable time on Friday (5pm) as opposed to the regular 7 or 8am of previous trips.  And the ride up the coast was only 2 hours on a bus, so not bad at all.  (Beats the 3 hour flight delay we had going to Menorca).

As soon as I got there, I dumped my belongings in my room and wandered along the beach... right in front of our hotel!

L'aquàrium Barcelona

Jordan and I went on a short trip to the aquarium see the fish of the Mediterranean up close and personal!  Just a warning for future Barcelona Aquarium-goers, the entrance fee costs more than any Gaudi building entrance fee, so you need to really want to go if you're thinking about visiting.  Also consider the time of day you go-- Jordan and I went in the middle of the day on Monday, the same time as a lot of highly energetic Catalan schoolchildren on a field trip.

When we entered, employees snapped our picture in front of a giant plastic shark so that we could buy the picture after our visit for 8 euros.  We did not buy the picture.  We could take photos, but no flash, so sorry for many of the blurry photos this blog will contain.
Walking in:

Casa Batlló

While Jordan was in Barcelona this past week, we went to see a Gaudí creation that I haven't visited before... Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia!