Love In Barcelona

For my mid semester trip a few friends and I packed up our backpacks, almost didn't make our plane and somehow got to Barcelona, Spain.  It was late at night I have haven't been that scared or stressed out for a long time.  Very soon after we had arrived, an old man told us to wear our backpacks on the front so we wouldn't get pick pocketed.  To be safer and to save on costs, we fir 6 people into a 2 man room.  I have no idea why they called it a two man room because we could have easily fit more- not comfortably.  

After wandering around the city the first day we were there we climbed up a hill and had the best views of the city.  It was perfect, and so was the weather.  

I am going to completely omit the second day because it rained so hard and long I about cried, and the only pictures I have from that day are showing just HOW wet we were.  

And I will take up any opportunity to get a picture of old men.  I LOVE them, and I do not know why but they are just drawn to me.  I couldn't tell you how many random conversations I have because I always wave or smile at old men.  Plus these guys were just super cute. Although I wish they were playing chess or something.

Yes, I swam in the Mediterranean Sea. Booya.  I will not post the pictures of the old men that I took at the beach.  yikes. 

The Arc de Triomphe.  

PALM TREES! I had not seen palm trees in months.  

1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  

At the Columbus statue there were lions, just like at Trafalgar Sqaure.  This one I named Azlan. For Narnia!!!

We rented bikes for a few hours and rode around the city.  The weather was wonderful and we were the only people out in t-shirts and shorts.  My favorite part was the bell on the bikes.  And I got to use it a lot!

I loved the Barcelona was so small because I feel like I saw everything and I totally knew my way around the city.  When we were on our bikes it was neat to ride everywhere and see all the places we had been.  And it was just fun to be with 5 other people on bikes.  We should have named our gang.  

Yes. I have mad skills.  

Stourhead

Also located in Wiltshire is Stourhead.  Not really a big tourist site.  That day there were 40 girls from BYU and about a thousand geriatrics.

This old couple almost ran us over.  They were going about .5 miles an hour and she stopped every 4 feet so he could take another picture.  I wonder how long it took them to make it around the lake, and how many people were injured. 

It was also another place where the most recent Pride and Prejudice was filmed.  The wonderful rainy scene where Darcy confesses his love to Elizabeth in the Temple of Apollo on the hill, and just our luck the temple was under refurbishment.  What are the odds, I’m sure that temple has been there for hundreds of years and it is not going anywhere.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but these definitely are not.  But they are beautiful. 

Stonehenge

While here in London a bishop told me the difference between America and England.  In America everything is big! Houses are big, monuments and tourist attractions are big, i.e. The GRAND Canyon.  He said in England it is much different.  England itself is about the size of Utah, but instead of 3 million inhabitants England has 62 million.  He said rather than attractions and historical sites being BIG, they are old.  It does not matter how big the tree is, it is how old.  Many British people always joke and ask how old our country is.  It is quite bothersome. 

So in going to Stonehenge, of course being American I was imagining in my head HUGE stones spread out so one would have to be a quarter of a mile back to even get them all in one picture.  I was mistaken.  Stonehenge was small but beautiful, mindboggling even.  It may have been small but the stones themselves were huge and they would have had to been carried from a long ways away.  It’s crazy.  

Stonehenge is located in Wiltshire, it is a circular set of stones that are believed to have put there around 2500 BC.  It is not known who put the stones here, so that is where the fun was, making up our own crazy stories- but it could have happened. 

And of course- no trip is complete with out the matching sweatshirts.