Biking around La Barceloneta

 After breakfast, we walked to this bike tour business and hopped on a bike and rode our bikes to the beach! Don't worry, I asked for a helmet. Safety first, the beach second! 

 There was a marathon going on where we were riding! We had to wait until there was a gap, and then ride really fast between the runners! 

 We rode on the boardwalk of La Barceloneta, a popular beach in Barcelona. The beach is so beautiful! I was acting like I had never seen a beach before. Ha. I had just never seen a beach in Spain yet. At one point I asked our tour guide, "Can I got touch the sand?" and he said "Okay, sure. If you want to, we can ride over there."

 So, I went and touched the sand! And the sea! More then I wanted too... the wave washed over my foot... and my sneaker was soaked. But that's okay, I got what I asked for. I took some pretty shells to take home! Yay!

 Disclaimer: I took a lot of pictures of the beach. A LOT. Get ready. I couldn't help it! It was so beautiful!! 

 These are my friends with our director, Agustina! She is from Argentina and she is so kind and cool! 

 After the beach, we rode throughout the city a little bit and found some cool parks. This was an interesting bench designed by Enric Miralles. We decided it was strangely comfortable. 

 After our long bike ride, we got a Catalan lunch at El Reloj. We had lots of little appetizers to share first and then ordered our own meals. The first dish is eggplant with red bell peppers on top. 

 This is codfish with olives and peppers on top. 

 This is bread with crushed tomato and olive oil. I actually had that for breakfast too! 

 I honestly don't remember each type of meat, but there are Iberian ham and blood sausage. 

 This is the Catalan version of Paella, called Fideua. It has noodles, oysters, shrimp, squid, and veggies. It was so delicious. However, I do regret putting so much garlic aioli sauce on it. It was way too much... 

 We had Crema Catalana for dessert, which is like Crème Brulée. 

 After lunch, and saying goodbye to everyone, Agustina and I took the metro to drop me off at the train station. The movie, "Tolkein", was playing on the train and I decided to watch it. It was really good! It was neat to see his creativity and passion for languages and writing. 

 Around 9 pm, I got back to Toledo. I unpacked everything, had dinner, and relaxed. Time for classes now. 

 Kthnxbai!

Two Beautiful Houses & Filipino Food

 This morning, we got up for breakfast and a tour of the gothic quarter. 

 This is the view of the city that we had from the window in our room. 

 The hostel was so cute! I love the decorations and the breakfast was really nice. I got a ham and cheese omelette and some toast with jelly and nocilla, which is like nutella. 

 This is my director's favorite vegetarian restaurant. It's called Flax and Kale. It's cute! And the Kombucha Lab sign is cool. 

 This is a really pretty theater and music venue. It is called Palau de la Música Catalana and it was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. 

 This is a statue of a Catalan composer, Lluís Millet. 

 This picture above the box office refers to the Orfeo Català, which is a choir that was founded in 1891 by Lluís Millet and Amadeu Vives. They invited people who worked in factories all day to come together and sing. 

 Those statues up there at the top are of famous composers, one of them being Beethoven. 

 These are some giants that we saw in a workshop. They are used in parades for a holiday in September. Some of them have pacifiers in their hands because it is a tradition for toddlers to walk up them the giants to give them the pacifiers, signifying transitioning into the next stage of their life. 

 This is a popular market in Barcelona called Mercat Santa Caterina. Enric Miralles designed the top of the roof to look like a pixelated picture of fruits from a market. We went in and checked it out. 

 This tree is just really neat. It's huge and the roots are awesome. It's called an Umbú tree. 

 Our tour guide said that this is the best bakery in Barcelona. Apparently, she is right. It seems really popular. 

 This little guy was waiting on his owner outside and I said hola and pet him. 

 This is the Church of Santa Maria del Mar. We went inside and witnessed a choir practicing. The interior of the church is so beautiful. My favorite parts are the organ and the colorful stained-glass windows. 

 These are my friends from the Granada program! They are so cool and kind! They really included me! It was so awesome. From left to right, their names are Wes, Dillon, Maggie, then there's me, Maddie, and Emily. 

 This is the oldest candle shop in Barcelona! It is called Cereria Subirà. It was founded in 1761.

 We stopped for about fifteen minutes and I got a Magdalena Poma, a muffin with pieces of apple in it. It was really sticky but so delicious. 

 We went inside this history museum for a minute. The architecture of the building was so neat!

 This is an official building, but I honestly can't tell you what it is exactly. We got so much information on this tour. So much... 

 This is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia.

 This and awesome and random mural of Alice from Alica in Wonderland! 

 This is a market called La Boquería, located in Las Ramblas, a popular shopping center. It was so crowded and had a huge variety of foods. 

 From there, our tour ended and we had free time for the rest of the day. We walked around to find something to eat for lunch. 

 Some friends and I ate at this place called FrescCo. It was a nice buffet that had both Spanish and American food. I got a salad and pasta to start off with and then some paella and pizza. For dessert, I got a small piece of plum cake with chocolate sauce and cookie crumbles. It was all for 12.95 euros! I think it was a pretty great deal! 

 Have you ever been to the store, Uni Qlo? I went there for the first time on Saturday. I'm pretty sure it was the fanciest clothing store I have ever been to. 

 Next, I said, "Goodbye," to my new friends and I walked over to La Casa Batlló, because I had tickets for a tour with an audio guide. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí for the Batlló family. It is thought that Gaudí made the top look like a dragon on purpose, telling the story of Sant Jordi, who kills a dragon because it is eating all the animals in the town. A rose is grown where the dragon dies and San Jordi gives it to a princess. On April 28th, San Jordi's Day is celebrated, and roses and books are sold on the streets of Barcelona. 

 The inside of this house is so cool! Antoni Gaudísaid that in nature, there are no straight lines, so there should be any in art either. Every corner in the house on rounded. Living there would be incredible. I can't imagine it. 

 There was this book for anyone to sign. Someone from Alabama signed it! No, it wasn't me! It was there before I signed it. So cool! 

 This picture was 12 euros, but I wasn't going to pay that much for one picture. So instead of buying it, I took a picture of the picture. 

 Then, I went to a Chocolate shop that was founded in 1797. It is called Chocolate Amatller. I got a hot chocolate and sat outside under a heater. It was so nice. 

 They are ready for Christmas. Are you ready? There are 28 more days until Christmas day! 

 I had a few hours until the guided tour of the Casa Milà that I had tickets for, so I walked around the city aimlessly. 

 I spend about an hour in this bookstore trying to figure out what book to get. I finally decided on La Heredera, or The Heir, the fourth book in my favorite series. 

 A random, cool cow outside of a restaurant. 

 A cute store with products from Ecuador. 

 Then, I realized that I had to rush to La Casa Milà because I had about 20 minutes until the tour, and I wasn't very close to it. I power walked over there and somehow made it on time. 

 I freaked out when I got in line because I remembered that I had purchased tickets for the tour in Spanish. I thought, "What if I don't understand what the lady is saying?!" But it turned out fin! There was only one sentence that I didn't understand. The tour guide was awesome and the light show in the end that was included was pretty cool. 

 This is where the Milà family lived. They had the whole floor to themselves, with 35 rooms. 

 The tour included a dessert and a glass of champagne. I had water instead because alcohol is bad. I'm just kidding; I don't like alcohol because of the carbonation, like soda. The dessert was good, though! It tasted like fortune cookies with chocolate drizzled on top! 

 I thought the tiles on the sidewalk outside was cool because it is a reference to Casa Milà. The tour guide said that Gaudí used these tiles in the house because they are like bee hive cells. All throughout the house, he was inspired by different aspects of nature. 

 Next, I walked to a Filipino restaurant that I had found online a week ago. 

 Here it is! The name of the restaurant includes sarap, meaning delicious in tagalog, the filipino language. And the food was definitely sarap! 

 As I walked in, I could smell the rice being cooked and I felt like I was at my Lola and Lolo's house. There was a big Filipino family there celebrating a birthday. They had cake on the table and there were kids running around and laughing. It was so cute! I ordered Lumpia Shanghai and Pansit Guisado. It was so warm and tasty. It was pretty cheap, too! I was so happy. 

 Finally, I walked back to the hostel to take a shower and sleep! 

 24,656 steps. 11.1 miles. Wow. What a day.

 Kthnxbai!