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For those of you who don't know about my travels this summer, here's a little prologue:

I'm living in Barcelona for the month of June to do an internship and get the rest of my Spanish credits for MSU before I graduate in December. I'll be teaching English, computer, and "personal image" classes to women who've recently immigrated to Barcelona from South America. After I finish up at the end of June, I'll be using my Eurail pass to travel by train around Europe and visit friends that I've met in my other travels and in Springfield. So far, my destinations include Pamplona, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Budapest, Zurich, and Venice. I'm sure it will change by the time I make concrete plans, though!

I named my blog after this quote, which really captures the way I feel about travel and exploring our Lovely Mother Earth:

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”

That said, here we go!
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After 26 hours of driving, flying, waiting around, sleeping (poorly) in an awkward corkscrew position, and then battling the Barcelona metro system while towing three backpacks, I finally arrived at my hostel around 2:00 p.m. today. Big THANK YOUs to my dad for driving me to St. Louis for my flight. He's the best dad I've ever had! :)

As soon as I could get my stuff locked up in my room, I got online to let Adam and the fam know that I arrived okay. The hostel is great--Yellow Nest. I knew I wanted to stay here because two years ago I stayed at its partner hostel in Valencia, Purple Nest, with my dear friends Virginia and Sofia. The atmosphere here is just as great with bright and colorful people and decor.

Yellow Nest Hostel's common room

I ventured out just far enough to find some lunch at the grocery store then crashed for a while. I'm staying in an all-female dorm with 5 bunk beds. It's really clean and each bed has its own locker. After my nap, I met a few girls in the room who are from Massachusetts that just graduated college. I went along with them to the "Font Magica de Montjuic"--the magic fountain. Hundreds of people were gathered around a giant fountain that's situated down the hill from a marble palace-looking building. The "magic" part must have been the show when it got dark: lights made the water look colored and different water formations went along with music that boomed from around the fountain.

There's me in front of the Magic Fountain, Fanta Naranja in hand.

Since I had slept through dinner, I went to one of the street vendors and got a "bocadillo de lomo y queso" (grilled lamb and cheese sandwich) and an orange Fanta. Such a typical quick meal in Spain! After the watching the fountain for a while, the Massachusetts girls and I wandered to a nearby cafe and sat outside for a couple of pitchers of sangria. I got to tell them all about the menu and the different tapas--I really hope they try some new foods while they're here!

The Massachusetts girls: Rose, Aubrey, and Nikki.

I've loved being able to take the Metro today. No driving for two whole months! yippee! I've got to buy an unlimited month pass for the Metro so I don't go broke.

Once back at the hostel, the other girls went to bed and I went downstairs to the common room and hung out with some of the other night-owls. I ended up staying awake until 4:00 a.m. just chatting, playing pool, listening to the many guitar players show off, and drinking some beer from the vending machine.

Though very exhausting, today has been a perfect first day of my adventure!