Day 7!

Today we went to an art museum that was in Valencia. This place was huge and many different sections of different kinda of art. It ranged from the kind of pictures you see of meadows to people to Jesus's life and many, many more. You could literally spend at least a full day in this museum!
Tonight we went on the Catamaran Sunset Cruise! It was so fun to sit on a boat and watch the sunset! This boat wasn't just a regular boat, but it had trampolines on it. It wasn't the kind you jump on, but instead you could sit on these and the water would splash up from underneath you! We all had so much fun on this boat! We talked and took many pictures as well as one of the girls put made a play list and the people who were steering the boat let us play it over the speakers! It was so much fun!

Tomorrow we get to go to the Bio Park! A.K.A. the zoo but better!

Day 6: The Sagrada Familia

Today was an awesome day, but very long! We started off on a long bus ride to Barcelona to visit the Sagrada Familia! One our way, we took a little detour to "Ramble" down the streets of Barcelona! Rambling is a big deal for this city! It is a huge side walk in the middle of old buildings and there are little booths as well as people dressed up! Here is a picture of one of the people that we past while we made our way down the street! Every person we past was very dramatic and it was awesome to see how they dressed themselves!

Once we made it down the street, we were off to see the Sagrada Familia! If I could pick out one word to discribe the Sagrada Familia, it would be amazing! The design is so detailed and beautiful! It also follows along with Jesus's life very well I thought! Now I understand why a lot of cathedrals have many pictures in them! Back then many people could not read or write so in order for them to understand the bible, they looked at pictures! The Sagrada Familia is fulled with such amazing pictures that really gives you the idea of what Jesus's life was like!

 Here is just a few of the many pictures that I took while I was there! Isn't it beautiful! It won't be finished for another 20 to 25 years, which mean I'll be in my 50's so I have decided that I will be visiting again to see the finished product! The second picture under the picture of me in front of the Sagrada Familia is a box with numbers. At first I didn't understand what that meant, but then I found out that any row that you add together will equal 33 which represents the age when Jesus died! Isn't that awesome?
The third picture is a picture of a door with many words on it. As you can see Jesus is written in gold. This door hand many words on it in several different languages that had to do with Jesus! I thought that was so awesome to see how they represented him in different words! Underneath this picture is a picture of the Nativity Facade. This is where we entered into the church and it represents Jesus's birth. As you can see Mary and Joseph are in the picture as well as the three wise men, the angels, and the shepards. I love how Gaudi did this side of the church and represented Jesus's birth! Also on this side was what Jesus did while he was alive! It was amazing! The next picture is just one picture of many of what the inside looked like! It was beautiful! Most of the windows are the stain glass windows with many different colors as you can see!
The last picture is of the Passion Facade which is another entrance to the Sagrada Familia. This side represents the crucifixion of Jesus. As you can see that is Jesus on the cross. This side of the church was very detailed as well. There was many different sections that represented everything from the last super to Jesus on the cross. I feel like for visual learners, it really helps to see pictures to get a better understanding of what went on.

Once we finished touring the Sagrada Familia, we made our way back to Valencia! It was a very exausting, but fun day!

Day 5: The Royal Palace!

Today we went to the Royal Palace that is in Valencia. It was so pretty inside and awesome to see what it was like to live there! There were beautiful chandeliers in almost every room! Each of them were very different as well as every ceiling was painted or had pretty architecture! The second picture is just a little glimpse of what the kitchen looked like back then. It was small, but cute! This room had a very pretty chandelier that was different colors! By far my favorite! The bottom picture is the bedroom that we saw. It was a small bedroom, but I thought it was very pretty!
Today we also got to visit the supermarket that they had there! It was huge and very much different from the supermarket at home! There were different sections for different kinds of food. They had a meat section with mainly ham in it; as you have read before, Spain loves their ham! They had a fruit section that was by far my favorite! They had the best cherries and strawberries! I have never tasted a strawberry that was so sweet until today!

The rest of the day we got to explore this part of the Valencia and shop as we please! It was so fun to just wonder around the town and find new things as well as getting lost! I feel like getting lost opens the doors to finding new awesome things that we would have never found if we just stuck to the areas we were familiar with! Today we also got to experience riding the underground metro system! I thought it was fun to ride underground! I feel like riding the metro and walking around we get to really experience what it is like to live here in Valencia as well as to experience their culture!
Tomorrow we are off to Barcelona to see the Sagrada Familia!

Day 4!

Today we to a bus to Morella, Spain! It took about 2 and a half to 3 hours to get there and I slept most of the time! Once we got there is was so pretty! We were surrounded by a bunch of hills and and grassland! The reason why we went to Morella was to see this huge castle!

 This is the entrance of the castle and inside was a little town! It was a cute little town with stone roads and cute little apartments! We climbed all the way to the top of the castle to see the view from there! It was beautiful! You could see so much of the land! We stayed and had lunch at the top of the castle, then went down and explored the little town! Most places were closed because Monday is like our Sunday at home, which is their day of rest.




When we got back to Valencia, Spain we all wanted a good burger! We ended up going to this restaurant that had what we thought was a burger, little did we know that our views of a hamburger and Valencia's view of a hamburger are completely different. We ordered our food and the waiters started to bring it out and we were all excited. When the first person got their burger, she freaked out because she thought it was uncooked. Then a few more people got their burgers and we realized that it was ham instead of beef in the burger! The restaurant literally meant HAM-burger!

We were all so upset that it became hilarious because we were all so wanting a actual hamburger and instead got a meal that had more ham in it! In Spain, they eat a lot of ham, so by this time we have had more ham than we could take! Now that we look back on what had happened we laugh because of how funny it is!

Over all this day was good, full of laughs!

Day 3!

Well today was interesting! It started off with a knock on the door from a friend on the trip asking if me and my roommate were up! That is never good! We ended up sleeping in, either my alarm didn't go off or I shut it off in my sleep, missed breakfast, and were late getting to the meeting room to leave to tour Valencia, Spain. I find it quite funny now that I think about it, but this morning it was not fun getting ready in 5 minutes and having to put my make-up on at the metro stop!

Anyways, we rode the metro for the first time here and we went to the older part of Valencia and toured some cathedrals, and saw the Holy Grail! It was really awesome to see all the art work! We also climbed over 300 steps to the top of a cathedral where you can see all of Valencia! Climbing those steps definitely made me feel out of shape because it was tiring and by the time I reached the top my legs were shaking, but it definitely was worth it! Here is what we saw when we finally reached the top!

We also got to do some shopping! On Sunday's it's like a little flee market in the older part of Valencia and there are little booths everywhere where you can find cute clothing, jewelery, dishes, and many other things for not that expensive! It was awesome! It was interesting when trying to speak with the people who were selling the items because they did not know any English at all and I only knew a little bit of Spanish. So that was fun and definitely made me think about how people who do not speak English visit our country and have a hard time communicating with us! I now understand how that is!
While we were in this area we also got to see a wedding that was just ending and the bride and groom were leaving the church! It was cool to see everybody dressed up for the event and see how they celebrate it! (The bride is in the middle of the picture and the groom is to her right.)

After a long day touring and shopping and lots of walking, I spend the afternoon and evening at the beach with some friends! It was really relaxing and there were not as many people there as there were yesterday when we went! We also had a little taste of home....Burger King! It was very good after eating other foods the past couple of days there were not familiar to any of us!

Oh and I had gelato today!! It was yummy!!

Well tomorrow we are going to Morella! It should be fun!
Have a good day!

Day #2!

Well, I can now say I have been on a 9 and a half hour plane ride! We flew into Paris on Friday morning after a long plane ride. It was a very nice plane though, each person had individual T.V.'s to watch movies or T.V. Shows, we each got a pillow and blanket, along with dinner and breakfast! It wasn't bad at all! I ended up getting to see the movie Puss and Boots finally! It was a cute movie!

When we got to Paris, France, it was much different then the United States! It was very busy and people there were not the best drivers I thought! There were people on motorcycles zooming in and out of the traffic! It was crazy! I'm pretty sure I would have been a nervous wreck if I was driving!  It was also pretty gloomy for the most part, but it felt nice!
Here is me at the Eiffel Tower!

It was so crazy to think all the times I have only see the Eiffel Tower in pictures and now I finally got to see it in person! We were not able to go up the Eiffel Tower because the line was 4 HOURS LONG! Crazy! So instead we got to go on a boat ride that traveled around Paris so we could see all the cool things about Paris like Notre Dame!
We finally arrived in Valencia, Spain Friday night and got settled in our dorms! It's crazy to think that we are 7 hours ahead of Texas! Our day is almost over, when back at home everybody's day has just started! I also realized how much nicer Valencia is from Paris! It is not as busy and feel's much more safe! Or at least in the areas I have been at!

Today, Saturday, it's about 7pm and here they do not eat dinner until 9pm! It seems so late compared to the time I normally eat at home! I also found out that you never want to miss out on lunch at the dorm! Today we had spagetti and it was awesome!!! I also figured out that lunch is the biggest meal that they have during the day! So I'm assuming that it will be a good meal all the time!!

We spent most of the day exploring Valencia doing a scavenger hunt that our teachers gave us! It was awesome to explore and see other things! I definitely like Valencia much better than Paris! We ended up at the beach and spend like 2 or 3 hours there! The beach here is awesome and WAY better than it is at home! The sand is clean and the water is clear! I have a feeling we will be here a lot while we are in Valencia!

Well, I think that is all for today! We are going to see the Holy Graille tomorrow so that should be fun!
Have an awesome day!!