Gira a Barcelona: Days 1 & 2

A long, long time ago, the school took us on a trip ("gira" in español) to Andorra and Barcelona. Hopefully I'll be able to remember most of the details as it's about two months now since we went. Yes, I hear the complaints about my blogging skills. Maybe someday they'll be better, maybe not. The world will just have to live with me as I am. :D

Anywho, so we left on a Monday for Andorra and after about 4-5 hours in the bus, we arrived in Andorra. En route, we stopped for lunch in a small town and discovered a circus that had all of its animals staked out for the afternoon. I held on the horns of a bull! Okay, so maybe it was just a cow with horns, but I can make it sound as cool as I want right? And he was scary enough looking to call a bull, so why not?

For those who don't know, Andorra is a teeny-tiny country on the border between France and Spain. According to Wikipedia, it has the longest life-expectancy on earth, is a tax haven, and is governed by both the president of France and the bishop of Urgell, Spain, but is still technically it's own country. Regardless, it was a pretty country with "mountains" of sorts (think of mountains of a size in-between the foothills of boise and the rockies). But probably the best thing was that while we were there, the school paid for us to go to a famous spa of sorts.

Called Caldea, it was basically a bunch of different hot tubs, warm-water pools, and saunas that was extremely relaxing and fun. Except of course that I couldn't get my head wet. That kind of put a damper (ironically, lol) on things. And why couldn't I get my head wet? The same reason that I look funny in all my pictures from the trip, I still had the steri-strip/paper stitches/things on my face from the volleyball accident. Unfortunately, the trip to the ER to have them removed occurred in Barcelona AFTER we went to Andorra. And although I should have gone to the doctor sooner than Barcelona, Andorra's its own "country," which means it doesn't have the same socialist medical system that Spain does. But no worries, it didn't affect the trip that much and I was still able to enjoy all the different areas at Caldea except for the wet sauna. Just had to make sure I didn't go under water or let any of the random fountains hit me.

(Random cool horse/knight statue in Andorra)

Anywho, carrying on. We were only in Andorra for one afternoon and night and did nothing but wander around the town we were in and go to the spa. And no, I do not know the name of the town we were in, they never told us. However, in that wandering around, Sharon and I wandered into a snowboard shop so that I could drool over all the pretty equipment. They happened to have some funky mannequins with huge heads so of course we both posed with them (out of sight of the salespeople :P ).

After we decided that we had walked pretty much everywhere on the main strip, I caved to Sharon's craving and we ate supper in KFC/Pizza Hut. It was my first time actually using an American restaurant chain for something other than a potty break (Yay for McDonald's free bathrooms!). Good fast food but with the same price number as in the States, which with an exchange rate the way it is, translates to really expensive food. :( oh well. Oh and another bummer note from Andorra was that apparently we didn't walk far enough up on the main strip cause we missed seeing a yarn store. Boo! Yes, I'm a yarn nerd, and no, I don't care. :)

The next day we took off for Barcelona. On the way, we stopped at Montserrat.

This is a monastery up in the mountains that you get to via a really curvy road right on the side of a steep mountain. And I would just like to add here that I'm glad Spanish bus drivers know what they're doing. Anyway, this monastery has the first found/oldest black virgen statue there is within the Catholic church system and that's basically why the place is famous.

While there, we listened to the boys' choir, which was a bit of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, they had great voices and it sounded really cool in the cathedral, but I was expecting a bigger choir, not just 20 or 25.

What I DID really enjoy from Montserrat was their chocolate. Apparently their monks have been making chocolate for years and they still do today. And let me tell you, their dark chocolate was GOOD. Mmmmmm.... I'm really sorry now that I didn't more bars as souvenirs for friends and family. Sorry guys!

After Montserrat, we drove and drove some more until we arrived in Barcelona. It was late afternoon and they took us to Tibidabo. This is a cathedral up on a hill that gives you an amazing view of all of Barcelona and the ocean and the hills behind. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. As we were walking up from where the bus parked, we passed these fences that I thought were really cool. However, when I commented so, one of the guys asked what other satanic inclinations I had. Which I have no clue where that comment came from considering it's just a cool spiky fench. Who knows? You be the judge.

The cathedral itself has amazing architecture with cool arches

and nooks to hide in.

And look! There's even a bench mark for Dad.

For those curious, "Generalitat de Catalunya" is the region/province of Cataluña, kind of like a state. "Institut Cartográfic" is pretty self-explanatory and "Senyal Geodésic" means that it's a benchmarker (more or less). I don't know what exactly the numbers stand for though. Oh, and it's written in Catalán, another language that they speak in Cataluña, which is like a mix of French and Spanish.

The cathedral also has a big Jesus statue at the top, kind of like a imitation of the huge one down in Brazil.

I'm curious which one was constructed first. And speaking of Brazil, here's a random fact that I learned while here in Spain. Did you know that Brazil has the largest Adventist population of any country in the world? Quite interesting, I thought.

Back to Barcelona. Before arriving at the hotel, we stopped at the hospital ER so that I could have my steri-strips removed. Yay! Refer to previous post for more information on that adventure. After arriving at the hotel, we all had free time to go eat and roam the city at night. Kimmy and I went with Erin to try to find an instant photo booth so she could get pictures taken for a new passport (Hers had gone through the laundry AND gotten ironed so she was going to go visit the American embassy in Barcelona the next day). The first metro station we went to that the hotel worker had told us had a booth didn't have a booth so we went wandering on our own to try and find another metro station that might have one. In case you're curious, almost every airport/metro/train station in Europe has those photo booths like you see in the malls in the States. Only these booths are more for getting passport/ID photos taken than just goofy pictures with your friends. During our search, we came across a yarn store (it was closed, poo!) and the Spanish version of the Arc d'Triumph. I also was able to sample my first roasted chestnuts from a street vendor and they were quite tasty.

After getting the photos, we started searching for some place to eat. We came across this bar/cafe place that was amazing! It was 5-star service for a 1-star price. Quite the experience especially since my pear was served on a plate with a dessert fork and knife. And no it wasn't already cut into a dessert-looking serving, it was still whole. But I decided to go for the authetic experience and thus ate the pear with fork and knife. A difficult task that I challenge you to try sometime. After that restaurant, we asked the bartender for directions to a nearby grocery store. Since it was really late by then, we had to run to get there in time. But we made it and I had my first dark chocolate KitKat and it was amazing, just like everything else here.

And that's all for the first two days! More to come later...