Can't Buy me Love, but a Ticket to Spain Might Help

St. Patrick's Day was last week on Sunday.  I got back from my big spring break trip the night before and was exhausted but had to suck it up for the big celebration.

Festivities started at 8 AM with a group of my friends.  After we made an Irish breakfast, the 4 of us headed into town to watch the St. Patrick's Day parade.  We got into the city a little before the parade started but managed to get a front row space (until later when there was some chaos and we lost our spots).  The parade was fun.  It started off with random people walking but then the real parade started.  Near the front was the CSU marching band!  It was weird to see the familiar ram symbol and I got to see my friend Kat in the color guard!  From a combination of way too many tourists and the weather taking a turn for the worse, we didn't stay in town for that long.  The day was not as I had expected but I can now say I've been in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day!

For the next few days, I pretty much stayed in bed trying to recover from spring break part 1 and getting a little cold sickness.  I was going to work on an essay due when school got back in session but did not quite get around to it. 

Thursday morning after dealing with a shuttle bus that kept breaking down on the way to the airport, I caught my very quick flight over to Liverpool, England.  I met up with my high school friend Summer who I hadn't seen in a long time.  It was great to catch up!  She showed me around the city and we hit some of the big highlights.  Stores in Liverpool love The Beatles!

A little bit of Liverpool from the docks

That night it snowed...a lot.  Between the bitter cold wind and the side blowing snow, I was ready for Spain!

My flight to Barcelona was delayed about 1.5 hours due to the snow but I eventually got there on Friday night.  I had drawn out a map of how to get to my hostel but a combination of it being dark and street signs not being very noticeable had me wandering around Barcelona for a bit.  After asking for help, I found the hostel and met up with 3 friends who had gotten to Barcelona earlier in the day.

On Saturday, we made our way to Sagrada Família, a large Roman Catholic church designed by Antoni Gaudí (who seems to have pretty much designed Barcelona in general).  The church was very impressive!  We were going to go inside but the line was ridiculously long.

Sagrada Família

Our next stop was Casa Milà followed by Casa Batlló, both designed by Gaudi.  We then walked back to the famous La Rambla to get some lunch and walk around the many shops in the numerous alleyways.

That night, we went to the magic fountain show.  It was a fountain that had music and choreographed lighting.  Very impressive!  We also made our way to the top of an old bull fighting stadium (now converted into a shopping mall) and got a great 360 degree view.

Later on, we went out with some people we met at the hostel to a bar followed by a nightclub.  The Spaniards timetable is shifted about 4 hours later than what I'm used to so it was a late, but fun, night.

It was amusing to try and have a conversation with a guy that spoke hardly any English in the bar in my very broken 3 years of high school Spanish.  I actually understood a lot more than I was expecting to during the whole trip.  The hardest part was figuring out if people were speaking to me in Spanish or Catalan.  Being in Spain made me want to learn more Spanish.

The next day, we headed to Park Güell, also designed by Gaudi.  The park had spectacular views of Barcelona as well as some amazing architectural and mosaic features throughout the park.  

Barcelona!

That afternoon, I split off from the others and walked to the Picasso Museum.  However, the line was incredibly long and didn't move for the 10 minutes I stood in it so I decided to go to Parc de la Ciutadella and the Arc de Triomf.  The most impressive feature in the park was the Font de la Cascada.

Font de la Cascada

Arc de Triomf

Any trip I take would not be complete unless I survive a torrential rain and/or snow storm.  Barcelona decided on rain.  It started pouring at the park and as I made my way to  Barceloneta Beach.  After walking up and down the beach, the rain stopped for a little bit.  I actually really like beaches when it's overcast because there's hardly anyone there and it's more relaxing.  I wasn't able to lay out at all due to the insanely wet sand but walked back and forth a few times.

Barceloneta Beach: Don't be fooled by the picture...it was pouring when I took this!

A little later I met back up with my friends and we went to get Tapas followed by a free dinner, compliments of a coupon we got at our hostel.  It was a nice and wet way to end our time in Barcelona before heading back to Dublin for classes to start back up.

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So Spring Break 2013 is officially over.  It was probably the best 2 weeks of my life.  I got to go to something like 7 countries with a variety of good friends and got to see so many new things.  Reality of school is kicking back in (as much as it can when you're living in Europe) as I still need to do that essay I planned on doing after St. Patrick's day.  On Wednesday this week, my parents will be getting to Dublin!  It should be fun to show them some places in town and then we head up to Belfast in Northern Ireland to do some exploring.

***Happy birthday to my dad!!***