Paris con mi padre :)

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to spend a long weekend in Paris, but what made it even better was getting to spend it with my father. Yes, he flew all the way to Paris to spend the weekend with me :) I know I have the world's best father!

I have definitely been homesick since being here and getting to see a familiar face was amazing! We spent the weekend doing as much as we could and seeing as much as we could, but I learned quickly that Paris is a big city and there is no way you can see everything in four days, but we did our best and I think we covered quite a bit of territory!

Once we had both arrived in Paris on Thursday and checked into our hotel, our first destination was the Eiffel Tower. Now I have obviously seen multiple pictures of the Eiffel Tower, but those couldn't even begin to show the beauty of this structure. For one it is absolutely HUGE and just breathtaking! I couldn't believe I was standing under the actual Eiffel Tower in Paris when I was there and every time we passed by it I felt the same way.

Me and my daddy in front of the Eiffel Tower :)

After seeing the Eiffel Tower we headed to the river to take a boat tour, which gave us a glimpse of the major sights to see and a view of the different bridges that connect the two sides of Paris, all of which have a story behind them. After the boat tour we headed back to the hotel to rest a little because my dad had had an extremely long flight and I had been up since 3 that morning so we were both just a tad tired. That evening we headed out to dinner and then walked down to see the Eiffel Tower again, but all lit up and it was of course incredible! We decided to call it an early night, so we walked around for a bit more than headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we decided to go see the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre, so we headed out (an extremely long walk from our hotel). On the way we found a very cute cafe/pastry/restaurant where I was able to get a cup of coffee since I've found that I don't function well without it these days haha, and from there we walked through the gardens of the Louvre and then up to the Louvre itself.

Enjoying a cup of coffee in a cute mug!

Now the Louvre used to be the royal palace and it is HUGE! It's hard to believe that people actually lived in a building that could easily house most students at my university in Texas, but the most interesting part about the Louvre is that the majority of it is underground. There are shops and even a Starbucks under ground, which is insane to me. When my dad and I got to the main entrance of the Louvre the line was ridiculously long so we decided to come back in the morning so that we would be some of the first people in and wouldn't have to wait, so we took some pictures of the outside and then headed to Notre Dame, which was on my list of things to see in Paris.

My dad and I in front of the Louvre

Notre Dame is another beautiful structure in Paris with it's big, colorful stained glass windows and gothic style architecture. You always hear about the gargoyles, but it's really neat to see them up and close. We were going to take a tour of the towers, but once again the lines were ridiculously long and we decided that if we had time before our trip was over we would try to get up there, but that for now we wanted to continue walking around and seeing the city. For the rest of the day we walked around and visited the American Church with it's Tiffany stained glass windows, the Eiffel Tower once again and some beautiful gardens.

The back of the Notre Dame

The Tiffany stained glass windows in the American Church

That evening my dad and I walked down to the Arc de Triomphe at the entrance of the famous Champs Elysees. The Arc was beautiful and walking down the Champs Elysees at night is so pretty with all the lights and the buzz of all the restaurants and people. We ended up eating at a small pizzeria near our hotel that night though because everything was extremely expensive along the Champs Elysees, but it was delicious and very filling :)

A cool building along the Champs Elysees

The next morning we woke up early, grabbed a Starbucks' coffee (yes of course I found a Starbucks in Paris haha), and headed back to the Louvre. When we arrived there wasn't a line so we were able to walk right in and because I'm a student I got free admission which is always a good thing! I think we spent over three hours in the Louvre and even with that much time we didn't see everything by any means, but we were definitely museumed out by that time. It was an amazing museum though and seeing the REAL Mona Lisa was incredible. I had to laugh though when I saw it because it is a lot smaller than you expect it to be and it's behind a lot of glass so taking pictures of it is difficult haha, but I'm glad I can say "yes i've seen the actually Mona Lisa" :) We also saw many other paintings, sculptures and artifacts from all over the world.

After the Louvre, we headed out once again to explore and came upon a bridge with locks all over the gates of the bridge and I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. There were so many locks, each one different and each one saying something, whether it be names, a message or just a picture and I knew I had to add to that. I happened to have a small lock that I had used to lock my suitcase that I had checked onto the plane, so I decided to write a little something on it and add it to the thousands of others on the bridge.

A heart shaped lock on the bridge

Me holding our addition to the locks :)

A, B, C and D for my family :)

That night we ate at a really cute little pasta restaurant where the owner was one of the nicest people we had met since being in Paris and had a nice time talking with him and eating delicious pasta. After dinner we headed to the Eiffel Tower once again to take a trip up to the top and see the city of Paris. When we got to the very top of the tower I couldn't believe how high we were, but the view was breathtaking! Unfortunately it was a little rainy so the pictures we took didn't turn out very well, but you'll just have to take it from me that it was amazing :)

My daddy and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower :)

On our last day in Paris, we decided to take it easy, so we walked down the side of the river and went to see the small Statue of Liberty that is on an island in the middle of the river. I thought it was interesting how it is facing in the direction of where the real Statue of Liberty is in New York. We took quite a few photos and walked around the city a little bit more before heading back to the hotel for lunch. After stopping at a few chocolate stores to get gifts for my mom and sister we headed to dinner at a nice little restaurant where we enjoyed a glass of wine and a delicious salad. After dinner I took my dad to a gelato shop where they serve these amazing waffles with chocolate and powered sugar (an extremely delicious desert here in Europe) and he loved it, which I had no doubt he would haha :) We then headed back to the hotel to pack since we both had early flights home in the morning.

I was sad to say bye to my dad on Monday morning, but in just six weeks I will be arriving back in San Antonio and the rest of my time here is going to fly by! I had an amazing time this weekend and I couldn't have asked for a better person to spend it with! I do wish that my mom and sister could have come too, but at least I got to see a familiar face for a weekend! Thank you daddy for coming to see me and exploring Paris with me! I love you!

Love y'all!

xoxo

A weekend in Sevilla with a side trip to Cádiz

My second trip out of Barcelona was two weekends ago and it was to the beautiful city of Sevilla in the south of Spain.

The trip started out to a rocky start since we had to meet on Friday morning at 4:30am and it just so happened to be St. Patty's Day Thursday, so you know everyone went out, thus most didn't go to bed at all. I wasn't one of those people though because I know how I get without sleep and I definitely did not want to be grumpy and sleepy all day. Needless to say, everyone was exhausted regardless of the amount of sleep or no sleep people got, so it was a pretty quite plan ride and bus trip.

Once we got to the Hotel, which I must say was probably the best hotel we have stayed at since arriving in Spain, we had a two hour period of free time before our tours of the Cathedral and the Palace, so we all grabbed something to eat at the nearby grocery store and headed to the hotel lobby to relax. The hotel lobby was a sight to be seen. Every chair, ottoman, couch and table was occupied by someone in our program and every one of them was knocked out. It was hilarious! I tried to snap a few photos, but I felt kind of like a creep and decided to just lock the images in my head.

After a nice little nap for most, I didn't sleep but rather played on my iPhone for two hours, we headed out on our tour of the Cathedral and the Palace. The Cathedral, which is the third largest in the world, was very beautiful. The architecture, like most gothic style building, was amazing to see and the view from the top of the tower of the city of Sevilla was breathtaking.

Cathedral in Sevilla

View from the top of the Cathedral overlooking the city and the river

Inside the Cathedral is the tomb of Christopher Columbus, well actually one of his tombs. He has five tombs altogether, which each hold a portion of his ashes. His tomb in Sevilla is held up by four statues because he said that he refused to be buried under Spanish ground.

The tomb of Christopher Columbus

After our visit to the Cathedral we headed over to the Royal Palace where the king and queen of Spain stay when they visit Sevilla. It was a gorgeous palace with so many beautiful gardens and decorations on the buildings. I will admit that during the tour I split from my tour group and wandered around with a few other students to see more of the gardens and outdoor sights because the weather was just absolutely perfect and I had no desire to stay inside, so we explored the gardens, fed ducks and fish, and took lots of photos.

Perfect example of Spanish architecture

One of the gorgeous gardens

Me feeding a duck haha

The rest of the day was spent sleeping and being lazy since everyone was so tired. Then a nice dinner and bed.

The next day we headed to the small city of Cadiz, which was absolutely amazing! So beautiful and the weather was perfect. We did a little sight seeing at first, but everyone was very anxious to get to the beach, so we soon split away from the tour guide and headed to one of the beaches. I couldn't believe how warm it was and how many people were in the ocean. I of course didn't bring my bathing suit and was stuck wading in the sandbank because I couldn't go any farther without getting my capris soaked. I really wanted to go out to the first sand back and take pictures with my friends, so one of my friends gave me a piggy back ride to the bank and we had a good time taking pictures and fooling around. Then it came time to head back to the beach and of course my friend who had gotten me over to the bank had already gone in, so I called for one of my guy friends to come get me. And of course who comes to my rescue? The birthday boy who is already a tad tipsy haha. I knew it was a bad idea from the get go, but he promised me he was fine so I hoped on his back and what do you... he drops me straight into the ocean and I am soaked. This really wouldn't have been such a bad thing except for the fact that I had my camera in my hand and that also landed in the ocean :( So since I was already soaking I waded through the water back to the beach and thankfully one of the boys offered me there shorts to wear on the ride back since there was no way my jean capris were going to dry in time. The trip was overall amazing though and even though my camera didn't make it I still had a blast and the birthday boy had the best birthday ever! We headed back to Sevilla that afternoon and that night we celebrated Peter's 21st birthday.

Cadiz!

Holding up the birthday boy!

On our last day in Sevilla we went on a bike tour of the city. Now I haven't ridden a bike since middle school, so I was a little hesitant to get back on one. It was a little rocky at first and I definitely had to get back in the rythm of peddling, but it came back to me and I had a blast. The weather again was perfect and we had a great time seeing different parts of the city and getting exercise at the same time.

Me on a bike for the first time since middle school haha :)

Par of our group on the bike tour :)

After the bike tour we had some time before we headed to the bull ring for a tour, so I met up with a friend from high school that is studying in Sevilla. It was really good to see her since I hadn't seen her since our Spanish class senior year! After a short visit and lunch with Molly, my group headed to a tour of the bull fighting ring where we saw the ring and the museum of how bull fighting came to be. It was interesting, but I have to admit I don't really think it's something I would ever watch or really approve of, but then again it's a culture thing.

The bull fighting ring

After the tour, we headed to the airport where we were informed that our flight was delayed an hour so we had a nice three hour wait for our plane back to Barcelona. We eventually did make it back though, and with enough time to catch the metro :)

Love y'all!

xoxo

Carnaval en Sitges

So last weekend was Carnavel here in Spain, which is a major holiday and event for people of all ages here. You may be wondering, "What is Carnaval?" well think of a mix between Halloween, Mardi Gras and Fiesta and you have Carnaval! I was a little skeptical at first when I heard about this, but I figured I'm in Spain and I might as well experience everything it has to offer, so on Sunday night (Monday being a holiday) some of my friends and I headed to a small town called Sitges, about 30 minutes south of Barcelona, known for its amazing celebrations of Carnaval, and let me say, they did not disappoint!

As soon as we got off the train all you could see were hundreds of people dressed up in crazy costumes walking all around the streets, in the bars, and on the beach, not to mention the crazy parade that was going on right down the middle of the street catching everyones attention. I don't think I have ever seen so many people in one place before, but that could just be because everyone was jam packed no matter where we went haha, but it was fun regardless and we all had a great time! It was something that I would never have gotten to experience or even known about if I hadn't come to Spain, and I am grateful for every opportunity I am given here and I'm not going to let them go to waste!

There were a lot of pictures taken during the night (of which I was probably smiling in only two of them haha), but out of all the pictures this has to be my absolute favorite...

Part of the Carnaval group :)

The only downside to the night was that we didn't arrive back in Barcelona until almost 8am Monday morning, so of course Monday was spent asleep, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything! I had a blast :)

Love y'all always!

¡Viva España!

Okay, so I realize that it has been awhile since I have posted anything and I am very sorry for making you wait. I have been quite busy the last two weeks and of course when I have gotten a chance to sit down and chill I usually end up either sleeping or catching up on my tv shows that I finally figured out how to access over here, so again I apologize for the long wait. The good news though is that I have a lot to share with y'all and with stories also comes great pictures :)

First off I will talk about two weekends ago where I explored Barcelona further and found more amazing sights that makes me love Barcelona even more! My roommate had a friend come in for the weekend so we decided that instead of showing her things that we had already seen, we would explore new things. The first thing on our list was the Arc de Triomf, which is a gorgeous arc in the middle of the city, and when you look through it you see the entrance to a park that is even more beautiful than I could really explain. I'll start off the pictures with one of the Arc...

So after we walked through the Arc, we made our way to the park on the other side of the street because we had heard that there was a pond there where you could rent a rowboat and just relax out on the pond and enjoy the sunshine. The park was absolutely beautiful and full of people just laying out and enjoying the amazing weather! As we walked we finally heard the sound of water and came upon this gorgeous site...

Now this definitely wasn't the pond our friend had told us about, but in my opinion it was even better because it was just so unique and gorgeous. I couldn't take my eyes off of it for the longest time and took several pictures to showcase the beauty of this pond/fountain. While we were staring at the fountain a bike tour congregated in front of it and the tour guide began talking about the fountain as well as other facts about Barcelona and of course the one fact that we heard loud and clear was this "It is 100% legal to walk around Barcelona naked, but you must have shoes on." As soon as I heard that I started laughing hysterically, as did everyone with me. We later looked that fact up online and indeed it is legal... Not something I plan on doing, but interesting nevertheless.

The next day we decided to check out a labyrinth that we had heard about, thinking it would be just like Harry Potter in the Goblet of Fire haha. Now I have to say the outside of the park where the labyrinth resided didn't look promising, but as soon as we got inside the park and started walking around I realized just how wrong I was. It was absolutely magnificent, so many plants, flowers, statues and fountains that I just wanted to take pictures of everything (which I ended up doing). Once we had explored a little bit we decided to take on the maze thinking that it couldn't be all that difficult, but we were wrong! The maze wasn't huge, but all of us managed to get lost and turned around multiple times before we finally made it to the end :) And this was the view from the top...

So after our adventure in the Labyrinth we made our way to the Magic Fountain, also know as Font Magica or Montjuic, where we saw a brilliant show of lights and water! A little background on the fountain... Every Friday and Saturday night between the hours of 7pm to 9pm this fountain becomes a show of lights, music and water magic. We made it to see the entire show, which consisted of several short music montages (one being Disney movie music, which was by far the best). Each time the music would start the fountain would begin to change colors with the mood of the music and put on a fantastic show! It was one of the best things I've seen here in Barcelona so far because it was just so magical and there were so many people there mesmerized by the whole experience.

The group in front of Font Magica!

The last big event for the weekend was a trip to the famous bar called Chupitos where they have the most outrageous shots. It is a small bar and of course always crowded, but we managed to get in and the first thing you see is a wall full of names of shots that they offer, some of the names are absolutely ridiculous, but also very creative...

We ended up taking the Harry Potter shot and it looked a little something like this...

As the flames were going the bartender was sprinkling cinnamon on them which caused sparks just like Harry Potter's wand! :)

So all in all that weekend was a big success and I look forward to visiting all those places again before I leave! I realize this is an extremely long post and I don't want to make it any longer, so I will write another one very soon to fill you in on this last weekends entertainment because it something I wouldn't want you to miss out on :)

Love y'all always!