Well Well Well.

Soooo....I know that I haven't written in a LONG time, so I will do my best to catch everyone up with as much detail as possible.

I believe the last thing I wrote was all about the Southern Trip....directly after that we went on Spring Break to Barcelona and Paris. I STILL can't believe that that story is part of MY LIFE. I am sooo thankful to have had the opportunity to be able to travel throughout Europe. I really am.
Anyways, Barcelona was first, and I LOVED IT. I really could see myself living there, it was sooo beautiful!! The weather was warm and the people were friendly and the food was great! There was actually this one place down near the water called the Champañeria. It was just a little small place that bottles their own cava, which is similar to champagne, but they have both white and red and its really sweet. It was SO GOOD. And cheap!! They have sandwiches too with delicious serrano ham and such...so delicious. All 8 of us got sandwiches, split 2 portions of chorizo sausage, 1 plate of manchego cheese AND a full bottle of cava all for 40 euro. Only 5 euro each for all that food! And it was SO GOOD!! Oh my gosh, I could have stayed there all day long to be honest.

We also saw just about EVERYTHING Antoni Gaudi built in the city. That all includes the Guell park, Casa Batllo, Casa Mila and of course La Sagrada Familia. Everything was really really beautiful, but especially La Sagrada Familia. The church is so huge and the light is so amazing in the church with all the stained glass windows. I really really enjoyed being there (except for all the other million people there).













After visiting La Sagrada Familia, we walked to the park Guell. On the map, it didn't look too far away, but it ended up being super far and took us quite a while to get there considering it was all uphill. (ugh) It also ended up being pretty crowded, but it was really cool to see the famous colonnade where America's Next Top Model had their season finale a few years ago. It was much larger than I thought and much more intricate. Really interesting and beautiful. There were also multiple mosaic sculptures scattered around the park that were really nice, as well as the underside of the large viewing platform. The underside was completely colonnaded with tiny mosaic vaults.


After spending three days in Barcelona, we were off to Paris for three more days. The first stop in Paris was the Louvre. The five of us ended up splitting into a group of two (Olga and I) and three (Bernie, Olga, and Ellen) because we each wanted to see a few different things. Then, because our phones didn't really work in France, we ended up spending the day as a romantic couple in Paris. Neither Olga or I speak any French, so it was pretty entertaining going to bistros for lunch and finding our way around. I actually did something really stupid in the first place we went for lunch. As we were leaving, I saw a bowl of small wrapped cubes on the counter, which I assumed to be small pieces of bubble gum. It looked a lot like the Bazooka gum from home, so I asked the guy if I could have a few and he looked at me funny and said sure. Once we got outside, I opened it up and realized it was a sugar cube..........not the best moment on my part. We went to see the Notre Dame de Paris. It was pretty darn beautiful, but we didn't see the hunchback wandering around. We also saw the Pompidou Center as well as the Arch de Triomphe, Arch de la defense, Basilica of Sacre Coeur, as well as of course the Eiffel Tower!


We wandered around Paris for quite a while, but we very quickly learned the metro system because Paris is much larger than it looks on a map. Everything we saw was really beautiful and we had some really good food. We even tried escargot! Which turned out to be really really good! Turns out that at 8 every night, the Eiffel Tower sparkles for about 5 minutes. It was sooo pretty! And super romantic. =( This whole long distance thing is really tough...but I'm so excited to come home soon and see my wonderful boyfriend.


Since our return to Rome, we have been through midterms and a few weeks of classes. Nothing really too exciting, but soon I will update you on our recent trip to Northern Italy. PROMISE.