Barcelona

The visit of the French track was the highlight of our time in Barcelona. We met for the first time at the Battlo House - a wonderful example of Gaudi´s original architectural style. 13 euros later, we found ourselves in a bizzarre building with interesting arches, unusual shapes, and millions of shades of blue and green alluding to an aquatic medium. The following day, Christian and I went to the beach in Sitges, a tourist town which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea and is located 40 minutes away from Barcelona by train. Lots of unisex pairs and topless women....

At 10pm, we took the last train back to Barcelona, to join the Spanish and French tracks on Playa La Mar Bella. The night was fabulous, despite the strong smell of marijuana which lay like a cloud over every hippy group on the beach. Everyone left at 1am, but I stayed for a long conversation with my very good friend Kirk. At 5am he walked me back to the apartment, only to end up being robbed by a street guy who had stopped me as I was trying to catch a taxi. We had no idea what had happened until the following day, when Kirk realized his wallet had dissapeared, and almost $2,000 had been charged to his 2 credit cards. Unbelievable!! Barcelona, packed with tourists and pickpocketers, feels very unsafe in summer. My expectations were definitely too high...

On Monday, we visited the historic center, which I loved, and several points of interest such as Sagrada Familia, Barcelona´s famous cathedral designed in the Gaudi style. The lights had been out since the morning, and as it was difficult to see the inside of the building, I decided to visit it at a later time. I ended up returning to the apartment and preparing the documents for my lawyer (apparently green cards are again available!). In the evening, I went to Gaudi´s Guell Park with Jeff. It was absolutely fabulous, Gaudi´s imagination seems to have no limits!!! On Tuesday we visited Vueling, a dynamic low cost airline carrier which I would love to do my internship with next summer :) That same day, we also visited the Freixenet winery - loved the trip!! Wednesday it was again beach day in Sitges - this time I went with Jeff as everyone else had left the city to visit other places. Ah the perfect temperature water and high, foamy waves were to die for! The day ended with our farewell party at Basilica, an amazing restaurant chosen by Liana. Fabulous food, great atmophere, lots of tears! Our time in Spain has almost come to an end, but we will never forget it!!