tour buses all over the city and tour it for two days. This worked out perfectly becasue we were able to see so many sites and only pay 27 Euro for transportation. If we were to take buses and metros it would have been much harder to figure out and much more expensive. Our first stop was Port Vell which was a beautiful waterfront view of the port of the city. After the port we crossed the bridge seen in the picture and found a bunch of people dancing in the street. Paola, Angela, Kristin and Elta all joined in and it was a very fun time seeing them all dancing. After the dancing we walked around the square a little more and then hopped back on the bus for a long cold ride to Sagrada Familia. 
One the way we saw the Olympic port, Playa de la Barceloneta and Torre Abgar. The Torre Abgar is a building home to the offices of Barcelona's water company. La Sagrada Familia is the greatunfinished work of the architect Gaudi. The building was not finished before Gaudi's death in 1918. The temple is still not completed but workers are trying to complete under the plans Gaudi left behind.
We were planning on going inside but the line was an hour wait so we decided to come back on Sunday or maybe Monday. After walking around a little bit and grabbing lunch we picked the bus back up and headed to the Parc Guell. This is another beautiful Gaudi design and an intense and very different building. We walked to the roof of the Parc and hung out there for a while looking over the city and taking many pictures and dancing to the melodies of the rooftop musicians. 
After the sunset we began to get very cold becasue most of us were not too smart and for once thought the weather man would be right. It was supposed to be in the low 60's but turned out to be in the low 50's high 40's the whole time, dumb. The second picture is one over looking Barcelona from the top of the Parc. For dinner that night we went to a Spanish restaurant down the road and got paella. I ordered a seafood one but was disappointed when they got my order wrong and gave me chicken
but it was still very good! We did not finish dinner until about a little past midnight so we didn't have much time to go out or anything. Instead we played cards and studied for finals for two hours back at the hostel. We needed to get to bed early for another long day of sight seeing. On Sunday we were out of the hostel by 10am. We took the tou
r b
us up the mountain to Jardins de Miramar. This area is part of a botanical garden that looks out over the port where you see a great panoramic view of the coast, picture to the right. Next we went to the Anella Olimpica where we saw the Olympic stadium, Calatrava Tower and the Palau Sant. Barcelona was home to the 1992 Olympic games. The Palau sant is a venue for gymnastics and volleyball. The Calatrava Tower is see left and the shaft reflects the axis of the earth. 
After the olympic area we wondered around and found the MNAC (Catalan Art Musuem) on the hill and and the Placa Espanya seen right. The museum over looks the plaza. By this time we were hungry again and found this place that offered 2 courses, dessert, bread, and a drink for 14EURO!!! I got Seafood paella (finally), a steak, flan and a Spanish beer. The paella we full of seafood, mussels, squid (tentacles and body still together and suction cups there too!!), scallops, and some other things. I also got steak which was so tender and juicy, it hit the spot. The flan was also very good. So happy I got my paella and flan finally! Once it got dark we headed back to our hostel and showered and tried to warm up a little and did a bit more studying. We went to a late dinner at a Tapas bar and got to try a bunch of different foods. Again it was a very late dinner so we just decided to get to bed since we would have to check out by 10am and wander the city until about 5pm to catch our 8pm flight back to Prague. 
Monday we went to La Casa Batllo which is one of Gaudi's most intriguing pieces of work. The house is a very unique design with curves made to look like it is flowing. It was a very cool place to visit. The price wasn't but since we didn't get to see Sagrada Familia we figured it was worth it. We also got audio guides so we got all the information on the house. After the Gaudi house we wandered around and people ate when they felt like it, stopped at souvenir shops. At around 4:30 we walked back to the hostel to get our back packs and get back to the airport. Angela, Nick and I stayed behind to help Angela get a cookbook and it ended up being cool for two reasons. I got to help her by using my Spanish and the bus we got on ended up hitting a Porsche and totaling it. I mean the car accident was not cool but how often are you on a bus in Barcelona and get in an accident. We ended up transferring to the bus the rest of the group was on and we got to the airport on time and studied for the rest of the time at the airport and on the airplane. We arrived back home at around 10:30 and studied for the rest of the night. This was by far the best trip besides Greece this term. Spain was great becasue I got to see so much of Barcelona and also put my Spanish to good use! I loved it so much!!
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