the sevillana never seemed so cool

Day 48:

Sevilla welcoming us :)

Next stop: Sevilla.
We trekked to our next hostel, The Garden Backpacker.  Again, super nice and everyone was friendly again.  There were way too many Asians (ahem, Koreans..) there though.  They even had Seoul's clock time on the wall, and someone had drawn a South Korean soccer player on the whiteboard.  Our Korean roommate made it clear she did not really feel like conversing with us, so we left her alone too.  Ehh, not a fan.  Plus, they completely hogged all the toasters and made like, eight slices of toast per person during breakfast.  So I ended up just eating plain bread and butter.

Seoul clock.  why.

Anyway.  Sevilla was a very easy city to sight-see.  We basically followed Rick Steve's again (best travel buddy ever) and walked around the old parts of town again.  I loved the drapes that hung from building top to building top, as they sheltered us from the scorching sun.  Amazing how cool it kept the area even during mid-day.  We visited the Alcázares Reales de Sevilla, originally a Moorish fort.  Again, more beautifully decorated Moorish architecture.

We continued touring a zillion more plazas in the town and got pretty tired.  I remember feeling the most dehydrated I've ever felt in my life.  After downing tons of water, we walked into the shopping area of the town..which was crackin'.  We sat down at a touristy restaurant and had a really crappy dinner, which included a poorly made paella.  Sorry to Stella, who had a bad first paella experience :(  But it felt good to sit down after another long kill-feet day.

We returned to the hostel and got a little more dressed up for our flamenco show!  We walked over and all bought Don Simon juice boxes due to more lack of fruit.  We're such dorks.  Got seated at the theater and ordered sangria!  It was really entertaining to watch the real sevillana, after imitating it in high school spanish 4.  How cool that we actually learned the same steps (although they looked way better doing it than we did..)!  Flamenco was so amazing.. how do they make it so intense yet so beautiful at the same time?

Day 49:

The next morning we headed to the Cathedral of Sevilla before our bus ride to Madrid.  We got to see the tomb of Columbus, and the craziest altars ever.  We also climbed to the top of the tower to catch a view of the entire city.  I love the rooftops in Spain.  People have swimming pools and cute little dining areas and stairs.  We barely had time to do anything else and had to rush to the bus station.

That evening, we arrived in Madrid.  I remember thinking it was perfect weather as we came out of the metro station.  The air was still warm from the hot summer day and there was a slight cool breeze too.  Way Hostel was right next to the station, which was extremely convenient.  This French guy helped us check in and he was really nice too (what's with Spain and friendly people!  LOVE IT).  Our roommate on the other hand, was a little bit TOO nice.  Hah, oh Dave.  Never got the hint to back off.  Anyway, we headed to the grocery store and made a delicious stir-fry filled with vegetables and chicken.  Then we indulged in fruits.  One of our favorite meals of our trip!  That night we went out and only had to wander for a few minutes before being swooped into several bars by promotors for free drinks.  I loved our neighborhood.  Sunset was one of our favorite places just for the people we met.  :)

heart melt in granada

Day 47:
Granada.  Everyone said I would love it, and I did.  Cherilyn and I arrived and got a little lost finding our hostel, but we didn't mind being in such a beautiful city.  As you can imagine, I was snapping shots of everything that day.  The unique historic buildings, the colors, the amazing detail on every piece of architecture.  Yes, it was hot - hotter than we were used to in Barcelona - but it was only dry heat and bearable with our free tourist maps to cover the tops of our heads.  Our hostel, Funky Backpacker's, was extremely nice to my surprise - it was my first real hostel experience!  People were all extremely nice - not just in the hostel either.  This old lady attempted to help Cherilyn and I find a landmark in Rick Steve's.. not so successful, but the fact that she went out of her way to help us made me feel really good (and she assumed we knew Spanish!  score.)

 

After our tour of the old town, we met Stella up at La Alhambra. Alhambra was everything I thought it'd be and more.  So huge, so much to see, such great architecture.  Mostly I was amused by the detail in every window, door, wall, etc. and how long it had been around (14th century!).  There's not much I can say that will explain it well enough, so I guess all I can do is post photos.

After killing our feet some more, we decided to go on a tapas crawl.  We went down a cute little street (forgot the name, ugh) that had tons of restaurants and tapas bars.  Our little "crawl" wasn't so successful since we were still noobs at ordering tapas at the bar.  So we just had raciones, which are basically larger  versions of tapas.  Eggplant (or aubergine), mushrooms, potatoes, so good.  Too bad almost everything was fried and/or oily.  We were so over fried stuff by then.  Nonetheless it was delish.  We headed back to our hostel in search of ANY fruit stands, but they were all closed by the time we were done with dinner.  Sooo lame.  Our bodies hated us, and we knew it.  We also walked by the small shopping alleys but they were also closing.  We pissed off this store owner by trying on dresses and almost buying them, but deciding not to.  Bummer.  Time for bed.

back in time

I'm in my comfortable bed in my little house in the 'burbs of Alameda again, but oh how I wish I could be back in Europe again.  Since I've been back, I have barely had any alone time to just sit and breathe and think about the crazy summer I had.  I've been distracted with people and places to see, things to do, delicious food to eat, and dreams to dream.  People continuously ask me how my trip was, but I can barely tell them a percentage of what I did and saw, the people I met, or the things I learned.  The best I can do is "it was great!" but I know that will never do justice.  I'm determined to continue my blog until I finish the 60 days of travel, but who knows how long that will take if I continue to be this busy.

Day 42:

Farewell dinner with the interns and Rich.  Took this panorama at the top of this fancy shmancy place in Raval where we had some champagne in cheap plastic glasses.  Meh.  The view was fantastic, as usual.  Stells arrived that night!  This marked start of our adventures together!

Day 43:
Last day of work.  It was quite hard to say goodbye, not because I got extremely close with them or anything, but because I didn't feel like I accomplished much at all during the six weeks I was there and I was leaving so suddenly.  Of course it was fine in the end - we all hugged and gave besos.  Though I don't have much to show for this internship in my portfolio as I wished, I did get to take away the "personal experience".  I learned what it was like to work in a real design firm.  with Spanish workers.  speaking Spanish and being exposed to Catalan at all times.  I also learned what interior design really entails and that I don't exactly like it as much as I thought I would.  Choosing furniture, lighting, and the material of every single detail isn't really my thing, actually.  Designing spaces is what I enjoy.  So I guess this internship helped me to clarify my passions a bit more. :)

After work, I met up with Cherilyn and my German friend, Vici to get gelato and get rained on at the beach.  Such perfect timing for a thunderstorm.  We scurried to find La Xampanyet and devoured delicious burgers and pink cava!  One of my favorite eats of my entire trip!  Chorizo, morcilla, mmm.  It was also fun getting smooshed between other españoles and foreigners and fighting to order (although we just had these Peruvian guys order our meals..!)  The Peruvian guys we met were surprisingly not creepy and carried good conversation for a good amount of time.  It was a jolly good time.  Later on, met up the posse for "last times" at our favorite places - the random bar on the way to Espit Chupitos, Espit Chupitos, and George Paynes.  Then we hit up the ghetts for some Razzmatazz.  Seven-story club was not so seven-story.  Only the first floor was open.  Drinks sucked, weird people.  But we somehow managed to make it fun anyway.

Day 44:
Slept in and waited for Fed Ex to come pick up mine and Cherilyn's luggage to be sent to Cambridge!  Spent a day shopping with Cherilyn, which was quite nice since I never actually had a day to just shop.  Bought souvenirs for friends, family, and myself; was proud to say I had not spent too much at all!  Then I realized I was pickpocketed on the metro and all the money I had "saved" was gone.  @$%&*$^!!  Oh Barcelona, how I hate and love you.  Spent the rest of the evening a bit depressed and stressed out.

Spent some time with the cats.

Day 45:

Last day in Barcelona.  Spent the day as a tourist with Stella and Cherilyn.  We went to Montjuic one last time and also went to the Olympic Stadium.  Stopped somewhere in the Gothic area to have churros and chocolate!  So deliciousssssinmytums!!!  Walked by the Cathedral, Mercat de Santa Caterina, Arc de Triomf, and Parc de la Ciutadella one last time.  I also did my last contemporary architecture "adventure" and saw this community center called Fort Pienc in L'Eixample district.  It seemed kind of dead, but it's supposed to have a variety of spaces for people of all ages - library, cinema, concert hall, conference rooms, and living space.  At least there were lively people around playing soccer and just enjoying the outdoors on scattered benches.  Gotta love people watching.  Headed to La Xampanyet one more time and ordered more amazingness and €2,20 pink cava.  Amazingness, I tell you!  Walked Barcelona one last time and then headed home.  I wanted to cry thinking about how much I wanted to stay longer in Barcelona.  My six weeks were up - did I do everything I wanted to do?  Of course not.  I could've done so much more.  But even if I lived in Barcelona my entire life, I know I would never be able to see every crevice of it.  I had my fun, my adventures, my experiences.  Living in Europe was one thing.  It was time for a new chapter - backpacking!

Ok, so there's Barcelona for you.  I promise next time I blog I'll cover what happened in Southern Spain and Madrid!