I AMsterdam, are you?

Tuesday, July 11. I just boarded the high-speed train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. Had a surprisingly tranquil time here in A'dam, especially compared to my days in Pamplona/Zarautz.

On Saturday afternoon, Peter and Esmee (pronounced EZ-mey) met me at Centraal Station when I arrived around 3:00 p.m. They are some of the best hosts I've ever stayed with! Their clean and straight-from-Ikea 1-bedroom apartment is in the center of the city in an area called Leidsepslein (always made me think of Led Zeppelin). Even though it's only about 25 meters from loads of shops and restaurants along the canal, their side street is very peaceful. Here's a view from their balcony toward the hustle of the neighborhood:



Esmee and Peter showed me the cozy bed they'd made for me and left to go grocery shopping.
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Alright, yet again I've let several days go by without finishing a post. I want to go into so much more detail and let you relive my journey, but my thumbs get awfully bored typing away on this little phone. so here's another quick overview:

-out to dinner with Esmee and 4 of her sorority sisters for one of their birthdays
-got offered to join some handsome Dutch guys ;) on their boat in the canals, but had other plans
-birthday party at the birthday girl's new apartment that's right in the city center and overlooks 2 intersecting canals
-to me, Dutch sounds like British English played backwards! everyone spoke English really well and always included me in their convos. so nice!
-sun didn't go down until 11:30
-out to a club called "Bubbels" to dance to Dutch house music
-Esmee and I met with Peter and his friends to get a late-night döner kebap and then home
-saw the beginning of the sunrise around 4:00 a.m.!
-Sunday: brunch with Esmee and her sister, Imke
-explored a bit (Red Light district, the "9 streets")
-I had no idea that Amsterdam (A'dam) was built on pillars and is mostly below sea level. Thank you to my friend Jake for educating me. here's a view of a canal:


-A'dam is bursting at the seams
with bicycles. I heard that there are more bikes there than Dutch people.
-lots of solo city walking in the afternoon, then Esmee made us a delicious veggie stir fry for dinner and we watched the Tour de France
-Monday: Van Gogh museum. saw "Sunflowers" and a model of his famous room:


-canal tour with lots of other tourists.


-tried to get lost in the city, but basically ended up walking in circles
-out for Italian food with Esmee and Peter for my last night there
-bought myself a piece of cake for dessert from The Bulldog (Virginia told me to take advantage of my time in A'dam, so I followed her advice) ;)


-Tuesday: caught the 7 a.m. train out of town to head to München (Munich)
-great advice that I got from a poster in A'dam on how to have a fantastic day (which I think I follow very well): "smile, slow down, dress up, keep it beautiful, join in, you are the party, discover. yesterday is history, today is a gift, tomorrow is a mystery."

~peace, love, and adventure~

Ubicación:Amsterdam, Netherlands

"Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters" (I beg to differ)

Since I'll have internet off and on over the next weeks, I'm going to do lots of entries all together and upload them in just one post once I find wi-fi. So it will be more like short journal entries all lumped together. Here goes my biggest adventure yet: backpacking alone through Europe for 3 weeks!

I just boarded the train at Barcelona Sants headed to Pamplona. I guess 2nd class was all booked, so they put me in "preferente," first class for the same price! They gave me a magazine that lists all the events for the week and also a red "pañuelo," the handkerchief everyone wears around their necks along with all-white attire.



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I'm now on the train from Paris to Brussels, where I'll get a connection to Amsterdam. The past two days have been inolvidables, increíbles, mejor que nunca había soñado. Unforgettable, incredible, better than I could ever dream.

I arrived in Pamplona and easily found my way to San Sebastián by bus. Getting from San Seb to my campsite, though, definitely tested my navigational skills. I took a city bus in San Seb, wandered the streets in the rain looking for a bus to Zarautz, never found the bus, went to the wrong train station, then finally got a train to Zarautz and a pick-up by the Stoke van to go to the camp. vaya! what a trip.

The camp was by Stoke Travel, a group of rowdy, well-traveled, San Fermín in-the-know Australians who run campsites and host trips around Europe at various festivals. The camp reminded me of the Harry Potter quidditch world cup: well over 100 tents all squeezed together with excited travelers buzzing about and celebrating non-stop. For €50 a day, you get a spot in a tent, sleeping bag, mattress, breakfast, transport to and from Pamplona (about 1 hour away), plus unlimited beer and sangría. Within a five minute jaunt down the mountainside, there's a wide and clean beach that faces north into the Mar Cantábrico. I AM IN LOVE WITH NORTHERN SPAIN AND ITS LUSH COUNTRYSIDE.



Here is the view from the edge of the campsite out over the sea. The small town of Zarautz is just outside of the frame to the left.

I stayed at the camp on Wednesday night so I could rest up for going in to Pamplona the next morning. I didn't do much resting. My night was filled with barbecue, sangría, meeting and laughing with lots of ozzies (Australians), and only 3.5 hours of sleep before I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to head to Pamplona. They made us one-eyed monsters (fried egg inside a piece of bread with the center cut out), one of my favorites!

Here's my outfit I wore into town. Everyone has to wear all white with a red handkerchief around their neck.


It was really chilly when we arrived in Pamplona at 6:30. I went with my tent-mate Billy (an Australian girl who's also traveling solo) and a young Australian couple (Nathan and Kiana) to watch the encierro from inside the bull-fighting arena. The encierro is the actual running part, when they bring the bulls who will be killed that afternoon to the bull-fighting ring and the daring locals and tourists run ahead of them. My group and I sat in the 3rd row and had a really good view. There were 2 giant screens in the arena so we could watch the whole run, which only lasts a few minutes.

Nathan ran and us girls watched from the stands. Since this was the first day, the atmosphere was especially hectic and full of ready-to-explode energy.



This is my wineskin. Fits well over 1 bottle of wine, only 3 euro for a bottle of Spanish wine from any cafe in Pamps.

I'm nearing Amsterdam, so I need to shorten up my
descriptions so I can finish this post before I have more adventures in a new city!

After the encierro:
-chocolate con churros for breakfast
-bought a wineskin and filled with with wine
-wandered Pamps for a bit then bus back to the camp at 11 a.m.
-beach exploring/failed attempt at cliff-jumping with new friends from Australia, Canada, and U.S.
-swimming and beach-lazing with Texan twins Josh and Jake. (If you've read The Sun Also Rises you'll know how cool it is that I spent San Fermín with someone named Jake.)
-sangria-drinking and card games
back at camp
-headstands and baguette/chorizo sandwiches on the hillside overlooking the sea during sunset
-bus to Pamps at 10 p.m.
-street-wandering and partying until about 4:00 a.m. then cold/uncomfortable sleep in the depths of underground bus station
-7:30 wakeup and run to the arena to watch the encierro that started at 8:00
-more choc and churros for breakfast
-souvenir shopping for my Hemingway and Pamplona-obsessed father (you're going to LOVE your souvenir, Dad!)
-bus to camp at 11:00 a.m.
-immediately to beach with giant bottle of water and sunscreen
-headstands on the beach
-homemade sandwiches again for lunch
-pack backpack, read book and recover in the shade, chat with new friends who I will never forget (and hope to visit and travel with again someday!)
-pry myself away from my
new favorite place in the world (camp) for the train station
-train to Hendaia, town just on the other side of the Spanish/French border
-night train to Paris. much-needed night of replenishing sleep in my comfy sleeper car
-transfer from Paris-Austerlitz to Paris-Nord at 7:30 a.m. to catch my train to Brussels, where I got on another train for Amsterdam

Just like this quickly-written post, my time in N. Spain blurred by before I wanted it to end. I could spend weeks at that camp and at that beach. I'm dead serious when I say I want to live in that area--I'll make it happen!

Now, my time in Amsterdam begins. My lovely friend Sarah, with whom I studied in Murcia 2 years ago, has introduced me to her friend Esmee, an Amsterdam native. I'll be staying with Esmee and her boyfriend in their apartment for the next 2 nights. We should be meeting at the central station as soon as I arrive in about 10 minutes. Blogging from an iPhone is time-consuming and somewhat creativity-constricting, but I'm glad I got to share my experiences. hasta luego!

~peace, love, and adventure~

Adios, Barcelona. It's been real.

My last week in Barcelona has been just as much of a whirlwind as the rest of the month has been. I've met more people, seen more places, and stretched my hours to fit as much as possible into my final days in the concrete jungle. Here's a photo summary of the week:

On the last day of English classes with EduRed, we had a end-of-course celebration. This is me and Chelsea with our younger students. It was terribly hot in my little classroom, and I swear that every person in the room wanted to get their own copy of each pose with their own camera. After nearly half an hour of a sticky, stuffy photoshoot, though, we had a delicious potluck feast.

For the potluck, I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. No one here eats peanut butter, much less this delectable creation that we Americans enjoy very often. The jar of peanut butter cost me about seven dollars, and I had to buy strawberry jelly because I couldn't find grape. Everyone loved it! Other food brought for the potluck included anchovy-stuffed olives, sliced meats and cheeses, Spanish omelet, croissants, and a few desserts.

On my first free day without having to teach or go to Italian class, I went on a tour of Campe Nou, the soccer stadium for F.C. Barcelona, with a group of interns. I don't follow soccer regularly, but this visit still got me so pumped. I could feel the excitement of all the years of games that have taken place here. As I walked through the locker rooms, press box, and onto the field, I could tell how much passion and raw energy are poured into this place. It made me want to go to any sort of professional sports game: baseball, football, basketball, anything! So, Dad, if you're reading this, let's go soon!

We got a picture taken with a replica of the Champions League trophy that F.C. Barcelona just won last month. From left is Herman, Zach, TJ, and Jordan, all interns with my program who work in other places in Barcelona.

After the visit to Campe Nou, those of us who were only doing a month-long internship met with our director for a farewell lunch. This is me, our director Rich, and Jamie in front of the Greek restaurant he took us to. Afterward we had a meeting to reflect on our internships. It was very helpful! He gave us specific questions to reflect on and helped us look at our experiences from a new perspective so we can talk about what we've learned and how we've grown while working in Barcelona. If you ever want to do an internship or study in Barcelona either for a summer, semester, or year I highly recommend Barcelona SAE (study abroad experience). I've studied abroad with several different programs and also gone solo, and this is by far the most well-organized program with the most perks. Here is their website if you're interested: Barcelona SAE. Look for a video testimonial by me on their website in the near future!

The next day I went with Jamie to Palau Guell, a palace in the middle of the city that was designed for the Guell family by Antoni Gaudi. It just opened back up in May of this year after being closed for over a decade to completely renovate the entire place, so everything inside was pristine and good-as-new.

On Saturday night, I got to experience "Montjuic de Nit," an art, music, and cultural festival in Barcelona. This photo is of MNAC, the national museum of Catalan art. Several of the city's museums waive the entrance fee and stay open until 4:00 a.m. for this once-a-year festival. Each museum has a schedule of live performances, movies, etc. throughout the night. The ones that I saw were a Bob Marley cover band (who sang in broken English and Catalan); the Doors documentary narrated by Johnny Depp called "When You're Strange"; DJs playing house music and techno in the moat of Montjuic's castle; and a live flamenco show in Montjuic Castle's courtyard.

This is just before watching the flamenco show in the castle. I was with RJ, Sunil, Herman, and also Nauzli who's not in the picture. We each ordered two beers because the line was way too long to just get one.

I spent Sunday on the beach at Barceloneta with the same group (really fun and genuine people!) and then did some souvenir shopping for friends and family on Monday.

On Monday night, we all went to a hookah bar called La Concha, named after a movie that starred Andalusian Sara Montiel. This entire bar is covered in photos and movie posters of this Elizabeth Taylor look-alike. She's gorgeous! I really want to see some of her movies, which seem to have mostly come out during the 1930s and 1940s. This photo is all of us with the bartender, who calls himself "DJ Volkswagen."

Today, my last full day in Barcelona, I went to the Salvador Dalí museum in Figueres, which is a two-hour train ride from Barcelona. I took this photo through a huge magnifying glass near the ceiling of the living room. The couch is the lips, the fireplace is the nose, the artwork the eyes, and the hair is the archway to enter the room. Dalí is buried at this museum, which used to be an old theater. He had his first art exposition there, was baptized just around the corner, and he grew up in Figueres. I loved seeing all of his outrageous art; he's one of my favorite artists and visiting this museum has been on my to-do list for years.

In the morning I leave for my 3-week trip to visit old friends throughout Europe. Train itinerary: Pamplona, San Sebastian, Amsterdam, Munich, Budapest, Venice, Florence, probably a random coastal town in France, and then back to Barcelona to fly home on July 27th. From here on out, I'll be posting to my blog with my iPhone, so the posts will definitely be shorter with fewer and lower-quality photos. I'll do my best to keep up with it and let everyone know how it's going! Much love to all of you <3

The Barcelona Young Adventurer's Club (I'm the only member so far)

The above advert implores passers-by to take advantage of this life, because you don't know what you'll be in the next one. Thanks, little frog, because sometimes I get caught up in the hubbub and forget. Though, to be a frog might be kind of fun. And if I don't like it, frogs don't live that long anyway and I can try being something else.

Here is a quick review of my day-to-day adventures in Catalunya (the autonomous region of which Barcelona is the capital), which I now see as a separate country from Spain. The language, culture, and energy of the people is much different than that of Spain. I am learning to love it.

The ever-lovely Rowan George and the infamous doughnut man. He runs around the busiest beaches with a huge tray of doughnuts balanced on his head while singing and playing the triangle. Sells them for a euro a pop (about $1.45). He probably makes lots of dough...nuts. Eeek, bad joke. He was in the Shakira music video for Loca, so at least he's got that going for him.

Yes, I count this as an adventure. I got to visit the sepulcher of Santa Eulalia, the patron saint of Barcelona. She's beneath the Gothic cathedral. I lit a candle and thanked her for helping me grow through her wonderful city and for keeping me safe while I'm here.

The cathedral up on a mountain above Barcelona, in the town of Tibidabo. I went with a group of interns from my program. We had such great views from the top! I honored this place for its holiness and beauty...then on to the amusement park at Tibidabo.

The Aeroplane of Tibidabo...been spinning since 1928. We all bought ride tickets so we could ride the Aeroplane...like our own private jet over Barcelona, except that there were other people and it only went about 5 m.p.h.

Making my grand exit from the "private jet," movie start/presidential style.

This is Jamie and Nauzli playing on some springboards we found hidden in the depths of Tibidabo's amusement park. Probably the funnest ride of the day.

If you ever need to make your inner child happy, I recommend this: go to an amusement park on top of a mountain in Spain, get your face painted, and eat a candied apple after taking an airplane ride. Seriously, isn't that every six-year-old's wildest dream?! I was thrilled.

Here's my group of fellow Adventurers for the day (from left): Jamie, Nauzli, Daniel, Herman, me, and Rowan. We all got our faces painted...the guys' paint was the coolest. Daniel got open eyes painted on his eyelids so it always looked like his eyes were open. Herman got an eye patch and then all the girls gave him kisses on the cheek after we got our lips painted red.

What a happy ending to my fantasy day at the amusement park. We all went out for tapas and paella on Las Ramblas.

That same weekend, I went to the beach with some more of the interns. DJ and I swam out to the huge concrete blocks that break the waves before they reach the beach. Sea urchins don't scare us.

Some of the coolest cats I've met on this trip: Maria, DJ, and Herman. This is at Barceloneta beach, probably around 7:00 p.m. The sun shines brighter and longer here, it seems!

On June 23rd, I celebrated the country-wide festival of San Juan (or Sant Joan in Catalan) with a new group of friends. I "met up" with about 75 Barceloneces (people from Barcelona) to celebrate the summer solstice. Though it's celebrated differently throughout the country, the main themes are water and fire, which both cleanse you of the past year and prepare you for a prosperous and healthy new year. Some traditions include burning old furniture, jumping over bonfires, swimming in the Mediterranean at midnight, harvesting herbs for the coming year, and PETARDS. Petards are tiny explosives, much like firecrackers yet much more deafening. The entire night was filled with explosions on the ground and fireworks in sky, usually ignited much closer than what I would call a safe distance. SO FUN!

I got to participate in a couple of the San Juan traditions first hand. For one of them, I was given a flower, a piece of fruit (cherry), and a coin (1 cent euro). The flower represents good health, the fruit is for productivity in work, and the coin is for prosperity. Everyone stood with his/her back to the sea and tossed each item in one by one. Then we all turned around and let seven waves wash our feet. This is supposed to bring us good luck for the next year!

This is Carlos and Fortunato, the buddies that I ended up spending the most time with during the San Juan festivities. We found a dance club right on the beach, so boogied for a while before going our separate ways.

Yet another adventure-filled evening came my way not too long after San Juan. I went to a Catalan/Spanish cooking class and learned how to make (and how to wholly enjoy) gazpacho (cold tomato/vegetable soup), tortilla española (very thick potato, onion, and egg omelet), pan de tomate (crusty bread with garlic, olive oil, tomato, and sea salt), paella de pollo (similar to a chicken gumbo, but not sticky), and crema catalana (a dessert similar to creme brule but with lemon zest).

Here's me whipping up the egg yolks and sugar for the crema catalana after I'd separated a dozen egg whites. It was SO NICE to have a night of cooking and enjoying food with fun people! The cook was super fun, my program director Rich was there, and everyone helped to put together our scrumptious meal. I got compliments from the chef about how I cut my veggies for the paella. He said, "se nota que cocinas mucho. eres como una profesional!" or in Uh-Merican: "You can tell that you cook a lot. You're like a professional!" That really made my night! Yet again, I have to tell you that I am very much looking forward to being with good friends and cooking delicious food, both while I'm traveling and once I get home.

Well, dear readers, thank you for taking an interest in my travels. More to come soon!

testing, testing.

Just downloaded a blogging app for my iPhone. When I'm traveling in July, I'll only be bringing my iPhone rather than haul around my loud/hot/slow laptop. So this is a test to see how my on-the-go blogs will be. :)

dear fat, old laptop--I won't miss you while I'm traveling.





~peace, love, and adventure~

Ubicación:Carrer del Perú,Barcelona,España

Pretending to be a Big City Girl

It's been fifteen days since my last post. Time. Has. Flown. It took me a while to remember that (oh, right!) I'm not on vacation over here. Not yet anyway. My workweek in Barcelona is surprisingly hectic, even though I don't have a "real" job or take "real" classes.

My only free time is in the mornings--opposite of what I'm used to. I usually spend mornings reading, exploring my neighborhood, or sometimes going to the beach. That's early morning for me, by the way (before 10:00 a.m.).

This is what I see when I come out of my metro stop: Torre Agbar.

At 10:30 on most weekdays, I meet up with Estel, a Catalan woman who wants to brush up on her English before visiting an old friend in Seattle later this summer. We meet close to Las Ramblas (Barcelona's very touristy main drag with lots of restaurants, shops, etc.) and go to a different cafe each time. Estel pays me to just speak with her in English, and she buys my coffee for me too! I've been learning a lot about the Catalan culture, politics, and world view from our conversations.

This is Estel choosing some "peras de San Juan," the typical fruit of the summer solstice festival.

After coffee with Estel, I have just enough time to run home for lunch before my workday starts. Other meals are provided by my host mom, but I have to take care of lunch on my own. I've been making different types of lentil salad with veggies so I can have something healthy and quick.

I have to leave home nearly an hour before my Italian class starts because my commute on the metro (subway) takes so long. Commuting underground is somewhat depressing for me. Sweating in the un-air-conditioned passages, being smashed in the crowds, and not seeing sunlight makes the metro commute pretty uncomfortable for me. Good things: cheap public transport, I don't have to drive, and the actual trains are air-conditioned. I never have to wait long for a train, either. They come every two to three minutes at every station. It's a really efficient and well-run system, but I will be overjoyed when I'm back in Springfield and can ride my bike to school, work, and downtown!

My metro stop, off of the red line. I prefer to travel above ground...

Italian class is fun but challenging. I have class at a small language school with a few other interns from my program who already speak fluent Spanish and a couple of students from Barcelona also. Halfway through the course, we switched instructors from Marianna to Andrea (male name in Italian), who are both from Italy. I can understand about 75% of what the instructor says (no English or Spanish is spoken in class), but actually producing the language is what's most difficult for me. I usually end up beginning in Italian and replacing words I don't know with Spanish words. Though I've just learned the basics, I know I'll be able to use a little bit of Italian when I visit Venice in July. We've learned hotel and food vocabulary, so that's all I need, right? :)

I teach English in a town outside of Barcelona in the evenings. In order to arrive to my class on time, I have to leave Italian about ten minutes early. I take the metro and then a larger regional train that goes out to Terrassa, where I teach. The entire commute (walking+metro+train+more walking) takes me about an hour and fifteen minutes each way. I am LOVING my English class. I teach the very beginning level, and the program I'm working for prefers me to speak only English during class. This is easy when teaching vocabulary or phrases because I can show pictures or use lots of gestures to explain what I'm saying. Grammar is what's difficult to teach without using any Spanish at all. My students and I both got frustrated when we had our first day of a difficult concept in English grammar, but we worked together and figured it all out.

I'm very satisfied with my career choice...this internship is EXACTLY what I want to do with my future: move around the world and teach English.

My students are mostly enthusiastic and very happy to have a free English course. They are all immigrants from South America and the Caribbean. I have a few adolescent boys and then six women ranging in age from 25 to 60. If you've ever taught or spoken to a diverse group of students/listeners, you know what a challenge this is! I have to plan activities and teach in ways that satisfy all my students' needs according to their learning style, previous knowledge of linguistic concepts, and even their general interests. One of the older ladies get frustrated quite frequently, because the rest of the class understands a new concept and is ready to move on before she's even understood what we we did the day before. Having students who learn at different paces is frustrating for me too, but it's helping me learn to balance how much time I spend on instruction and clarification and when I have to just move on to the next topic.

Some of my students: Kevin, Eva, Cecilia, and Oscar.

After my two-hour class, I take the train back to Barcelona. Walk, train, metro, walk some more, and then I'm home by 9:30 p.m. My host mom makes me dinner, which I am very thankful for since I'm so tired by the time I get home. She is the only elderly woman I've ever met that does not know how to cook. Here are some typical meals I've had: rice and meatballs with canned tomato sauce, lentils and peas with tomato sauce, and boiled peas and potatoes with butter. Once a week, she makes a chef salad, so that's the best day of the week for me. She doesn't eat (only has packaged shakes that she mixes with milk), and my housemate usually gets home later than me, so I eat alone. If you know me at all, you know that one of my favorite things is to cook and enjoy food with the people I love. I'm very much looking forward to visiting friends during my travels next month and eating delicious, homemade food together.

Torre Agbar at night

Sometimes I get to talk on Skype to my boyfriend Adam, my parents, or my sister before I go to bed. It's difficult to figure out a time to talk when we're all busy AND I'm seven hours ahead of everyone. I spend time figuring out what I'll be teaching the next day in English class (actually one of the best parts of my day!) and then collapse into my little bed. Then it's up the next day to do it all over again!

I'm now in my last week of my time in Barcelona. It's gone by very fast, but I feel like I've taken advantage of my time here and have had some great experiences in and around the city. Next post: daily adventures in Barcelona! Enough of the boring daily routine already ;)

New Places with Nuevos Amigos

I had a great long weekend (Monday was a bank holiday) in Barcelona with a variety of new friends! Here's an overview of my adventures:

Although my host mom means well, she usually makes me pre-packaged and processed foods. I went to the store to get some fresh fruit and veg I'd been craving instead of wasting away on frozen pizza and meatballs. I made a lentil and sweet potato salad with garlic, thyme and cinnamon. YUM! Apparently my trip to the store was a hint to my host mom, and this weekend she's made me baked fish, zucchini soup, and some delicious salads. :)

On Friday night, I went to a birthday party at my new friend Lona's apartment. Her roommate, Jordi, was celebrating his birthday and had lots of friends over. He provided all the food (tortilla española, Iberian ham, manchego cheese...) and drinks for everyone. Very kind!

After hanging out at the birthday party for a while, I met up with some friends at Opium, a discoteca on the beach. I danced until after 5:00 in the morning! In this photo are Herman, Rowan, Jordan, and TJ.

Saturday morning (after only 3.5 hours of sleep since the discoteca) I met up with some other girls from my program to do a bus tour of Barcelona (Maria is next to me in this one). Our program coordinators gave us all a day pass to Barcelona's "Bus Turistic," which has a few routes throughout the city. With a ticket, you can get on and off the bus as many times as you want throughout the day. We got to see the Barca soccer stadium, the old Olympic stadium from the '92 Olympics, the marina, and so many other parts of the city that I've yet to explore.

Saturday night was more relaxed...Rowan and I went to the Barceloneta beach with a blanket and a bottle of wine. We swapped stories about life in the U.S. and life in the U.K. (she's from Bath). We also went to the beach on Sunday, which I have no pictures of. We went to a public beach that's further away from the tourist areas, so it was really calm and peaceful.

On Monday I went to Montserrat, a town about an hour north of Barcelona, with more girls from my internship program. This is me riding the cable car up to the town of Montserrat from the base of the mountain.

From left is Stephanie, Kristine, Jamie, and me. We made it to the highest point of Montserrat after hiking for about 3 hours on very steep inclines. Though it was a little cold at the top, we had a picnic up there to celebrate our accomplishment of the day!

Sant Jeroni, the highest peak at Montserrat. V for VICTORY!

Some of what we saw at the top.

Doing headstands on the mountaintop!

This is Santa Cova, a small chapel built around a cave that's been a holy site since the time of Christ. Fifty years after Jesus was born, St. Peter put an image of the Virgin Mary (carved by St. Luke) here in this cave. Though the icon was lost during the Moorish invasion in the 700s, it reappeared in 880 when something miraculous happened...

Some shepherd children were playing in the mountains and they spotted "celestial lights" and heard heavenly music coming from a cave up in the mountains. Although their parents were skeptical when the children told them, they went along to see what the kids were talking about. Sure enough, the lights and music were still there and lasted a month. When someone finally found the cave, the image of the Virgin Mary had returned.

Now there is a Benedictine monastery next to the Santa Cova chapel. Though I'm not Catholic, I could feel in my heart how holy and sacred this place is and how much love and devotion are given in that small space. I feel lucky to have been able to visit. Apparently it is the pilgrimage center in Spain second only to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most famous pilgrimages in the world.

I'm very thankful that I got to spend today immersed in the mountains and the trees. Like I've said before, being constantly surrounded by concrete has been breaking me down a bit. The hike up to the highest peak and then the hike to the Santa Cova all ended up being almost 6.5 miles. It felt so great to get sweaty and grapple with the earth!

Thank you for taking the time to read about my adventures...next post will be about my everyday life here in Barcelona. Peace and Love to you all!