Picasso and the Mediterranean Sea

This weekend was amazing! As I was sitting on the beach yesterday it suddenly hit me that I was sitting on a beach in Spain. No words can even describe how amazing that feeling was. Beaches in America are nice, but they do not even begin to compare to Spain.

On Friday, Carley and I decided to bravely make our way through La Ramblas to find the Columbus monument. La Ramblas is a street that is nothing but shops and is always full of people. We had been warned by many people that it is the worst place of pickpockets. (Don't worry. We are both very smart and resourceful.) While going to the monument we met some very interesting characters along the way.

If I could take him home with me I would.

 Then we finally reached the monument.

After seeing Christopher Columbus we met up with some of the other girls to go eat dinner at Rosa Negra. It was a very nice dinner, but we had to wait 50 minutes before being seated. The chances of me trying that again are very slim. By the time we finished dinner we had to make our way back home, but not before stopping for gelato. The gelato place had Ferrero Rocher flavor! My taste buds thought they had died and gone to heaven as I was eating this.

On Saturday I started the day by going to Park Guell with Carley, Cristina, Santi, and Blanca. Walking up to Park Guell was serious exercise. I did not realize it was nothing but hills along the way. My legs have been sore since we have been here from all the walking I am doing, and today they hurt even more due to these hills. What I was able to see of Park Guell was beautiful.

We were going to pay to get in to the monument area, but we were told the wait would be 1.5 hours. We all decided to just walk around the park instead. Carley and I are going to try to go back so that we can see the rest of it on a later date. After this event I was feeling a little disappointed. I felt that we had wasted most of our morning, but it all worked out. Once we left Park Guell, Carley and I went to the Picasso Museum while Cristina and the kids went shopping. The Picasso Museum was nice, but it was not what I imagined in would be. Although the museum had some beautiful paintings (and some not so beautiful ones) it did not have any of his most famous works. When we left the museum we met up with Cristina, Javier, Santi, Blanca, and Javi to go shopping and to walk the streets of the old part of the city. This part of the city is my favorite. It is beautiful and full of things to do.We saw many different shops that we want to try to find again. Cristina helped us find the Barcelona History Museum, Barcelona City Hall, Roman towers, and the Santa del Maria.

Barcelona City Hall

Roman Towers

Inside of Santa del Maria

After touring the city and meeting Cristina's cousin we went to Market Princessa to eat dinner. Carley and I both tried tiny fried fish, as well as eggs with mushrooms. It was definitely interesting. The food here is so different from America, but I am trying as much of it as I can.

On Sunday Cristina and Javier took Carley and me to the Torres Vineyard outside of Barcelona.

 We toured the outside.

And the inside.

This was the fist time I had been to a vineyard, and we went with three other families. It was definitely an interesting experience with all of the children there. After the vineyard we went to the beach in Sitges.

Carley and I braved the cold to put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea.

And we walked out on the port.

There were a few times the wind got so strong that I thought I was going to lose my phone. Luckily, we made it back without any accidents. We had a picnic on the beach with all of the families and we had a great time.