tered around the airport either sleeping or just staring off into space. In the main lobby area we sat at some Subway tables and stayed there for a bit. We eventually moved to some massage chairs since they looked a lot more comfortable. But there were windows everywhere so we were getting really cold. So we moved up to the second floor where it said departures and found a carpeted area where a cafe was. We camped there for the night but it was so cold! And the ground was super hard. I kept waking up throughout the night. 
Eventually a worker from the cafe had to have us move at 3:40 am because he was opening the cafe. So we found some seats by the security area at Burger King and stayed there until around 5 and then headed to security to get through. We made it through just fine and went to got get some breakfast. Once our gate number was announced, we took off to Gate 8 and stood in line to get on board. Once they checked our passports and plane tickets, we found our seats and settled in to fly to Spain. We probably got about 2 hours of sleep that night so Ashley and Teresa both fell asleep on the flight but I couldn't sleep, I was too excited! Once we landed, it was fairly warm and we got on a little bus to take us from the middle of the landing area to the area. We got through a line to have our passports checked, had them stamped, and 
we were officially in Spain! We found that we needed to get to the metro and take it to the street of Passeig de Gracia. The metro took about 30 minutes and there were a ton of people in it! We made it to the street just fine and found that our hostel was only two blocks away from the metro station! We got into the hostel and checked in. We ended up on the fourth floor and we booked a 6-person room with our own shower/bathroom. We even got security lockers in the rooms, a full room window, and a balcony!!!! Although we couldn't go on the balcony, it was still really cool! The hostel was super nice. Our floor was covered with pictures painted onto the walls and they were really good too! There was a spiral staircas
e in the center of the hostel with an elevator on either side. On the second floor there was a common area where they served breakfast, had computers with the internet, games such as wii, and they even had a bar. Once we got all settled in our room, we went out too explore Barcelona. We first stopped by McDonald's to have some lunch. After we ate, we stayed on t
he Passeig de Gracia street and walked the entire day. We saw Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, some church, Sagrada Familia, and the Arc de Triomph. We went back to the hostel and just crashed. We were so tired from sleeping in the airport so we slept for about an hour or more. We then signed up for a tapas tour hosted by the hostel that started at 8:30 that night. We started by walking to a restaurant that served tapas (appetizers that were pieces of bread with all sorts of things on them) and a cup of sangria. The sangria is red wine with sprite and some sort of fruit juice. And I'll let you know
that it was nasty! After the restaurant, we headed over to a flamenco show. It was quite an interesting show but still fun. After the show we went to a pub and then we ended the night with going to a club. The cost to enter most clubs are about 15-18 euros but we only paid 18 euros for the entire night of events! So we went into the club and hardly anybody was there. Apparently the time to go to clubs is at 2 in the morning and they don't close until 6 am! We were not going to stay that long. We actually only stayed for about 30 minutes or so because we were tired. But we did get a glass of champagne at the club. I have never had champagne and it was actually pretty good. We got back to the hostel around 2 and just crashed in our beds.We got up around 9:30 the next morning and got ready for the day after having breakfast on the second floor. We started the day off with taking the metro to the northern pa
rt of Barcelona called Par
c Guell. There are several buildings in Barcelona designed by Gaudi. Gaudi designed this park as well. The sun was shining so brightly here and we actually took off our coats for a while! We had to take a series of escalators up to the park (escalators outside!!!!) and then walked right in. There was a fantastic view at the beginning of the park and then we went into the more artistic part of the area. There was a season of America's Next Top Model located in Spain and in the finale they were in Parc Guell in the tunnel!!! And we saw it! We actually spent time doing fun model pictures in the area. It was a blast! We stopped in a souvenir shop outside of the park and I bought myself a pair of earrings and som
e postcards. We then walk
ed to a metro station that took us to our hostel and we took a nap for about an hour. I have never been able to take naps so when the other two were napping, I wrote my outdoor pursuits journal and read for Tecwyn's class. After the nap we walked down the section of town called Las Ramblas. Ashley had been to Spain to visit a friend last year and had some gofres. They are basically some waffles but covered in chocolate. She had been wanting to get some before we went back to the UK and we found a shop that had them! So we ate them sitting on a sidewalk watching people. They sure were delicious. After we finished those, we walked down the rest of Las Ramblas and ended up at the beach. It was starting
to get darker and a lot more chilly. We were tired from all of the walking we had done and very hungry (we had lunch at Pans and Company around 2:30) so we walked back up Las Ramblas and ate dinner at an all-you-can-eat buffet called La Vaca Paca. It was very good food. After dinner we found a pub called George and the Dragon. It was an English pub (we just can't seem to get away from the English!) and there was a huge soccer game on screen that we watched. We ordered drinks and then just sat around for a while. Then it was off to the hostel to go to bed.
rt of Barcelona called Par
c Guell. There are several buildings in Barcelona designed by Gaudi. Gaudi designed this park as well. The sun was shining so brightly here and we actually took off our coats for a while! We had to take a series of escalators up to the park (escalators outside!!!!) and then walked right in. There was a fantastic view at the beginning of the park and then we went into the more artistic part of the area. There was a season of America's Next Top Model located in Spain and in the finale they were in Parc Guell in the tunnel!!! And we saw it! We actually spent time doing fun model pictures in the area. It was a blast! We stopped in a souvenir shop outside of the park and I bought myself a pair of earrings and som
e postcards. We then walk
ed to a metro station that took us to our hostel and we took a nap for about an hour. I have never been able to take naps so when the other two were napping, I wrote my outdoor pursuits journal and read for Tecwyn's class. After the nap we walked down the section of town called Las Ramblas. Ashley had been to Spain to visit a friend last year and had some gofres. They are basically some waffles but covered in chocolate. She had been wanting to get some before we went back to the UK and we found a shop that had them! So we ate them sitting on a sidewalk watching people. They sure were delicious. After we finished those, we walked down the rest of Las Ramblas and ended up at the beach. It was starting
to get darker and a lot more chilly. We were tired from all of the walking we had done and very hungry (we had lunch at Pans and Company around 2:30) so we walked back up Las Ramblas and ate dinner at an all-you-can-eat buffet called La Vaca Paca. It was very good food. After dinner we found a pub called George and the Dragon. It was an English pub (we just can't seem to get away from the English!) and there was a huge soccer game on screen that we watched. We ordered drinks and then just sat around for a while. Then it was off to the hostel to go to bed.We woke up around 7:30 the next morning, got ready, had breakfast, then headed out for the day. We started with taking a tour of the Casa Batllo. It was expensive at first but when we showed the
m student id cards, they gave us a discount. That made my day. We went into the house and were handed these hand held devices that gave a audio tour of the house. We were taken in several differe
nt rooms with interesting and cool designs. We also went out in the patio and on top of the roof! It had a very nice view as well. We finished the tour and then went onto the metro to the west part of town. We got off at the station called Poble Sec and walked quite a ways to go see the Olympic Stadium from the games of 1992. We passed the Museum of Art along the way. Once we got to the stadium we walked around the whole thing. There were windows and we 
could see a little bit of the inside, so we stopped by one and took pictures of it through a gate. Little did we know that when we walked about five feet to our right, there was the entrance that had a sign saying FREE ADMISSION. We felt pretty stupid. So we got to go into the stadium and look around for a little while. We moved on to walking to the castle up on the hill. It was a very long walk that was almost 
uphill the entire time (no escalators to help us this time) and it felt like we were back in Bangor again. We made it up to the castle and noticed there was free admission as well. We went in and it had the most fantastic view but other than that, it was nothing. It was just a box with a courtyard in the middle and some walls. We were a little disappointed but it was still neat. We walked down to the Funicular Montjuic, kind of like a ski lift but each "bench" was enclosed. We wanted to ride down in it but saw that it was 6 euros to ride it and it wasn't even going to be for very long. We decided to stick with walking. We were getting extremely tired though and very hungry. So we walked all the way back down to Las Ramblas to find some lunch. We passed through a very creepy and sketchy part of t
he town to get there though. We didn't know the sign to Las Ramblas was going to take us through there. People were standing all over the place and we saw about 5 policemen come through. But we made it out just fine (don't worry mom) and found our lunch at a place called Bocatta. I got a ham and cheese baguette with fries and a drink. After lunch, we walked back up Las Ramblas to our hostel. On the way back I bought a little souvenir that was a statue of Sagrada Familia. We got to the hostel and just crashed. We were going to go shopping after our naps but we discovered that all the shops are closed on Sunday so we just hung out in the hostel for the rest of the night.
m student id cards, they gave us a discount. That made my day. We went into the house and were handed these hand held devices that gave a audio tour of the house. We were taken in several differe
nt rooms with interesting and cool designs. We also went out in the patio and on top of the roof! It had a very nice view as well. We finished the tour and then went onto the metro to the west part of town. We got off at the station called Poble Sec and walked quite a ways to go see the Olympic Stadium from the games of 1992. We passed the Museum of Art along the way. Once we got to the stadium we walked around the whole thing. There were windows and we 
could see a little bit of the inside, so we stopped by one and took pictures of it through a gate. Little did we know that when we walked about five feet to our right, there was the entrance that had a sign saying FREE ADMISSION. We felt pretty stupid. So we got to go into the stadium and look around for a little while. We moved on to walking to the castle up on the hill. It was a very long walk that was almost 
uphill the entire time (no escalators to help us this time) and it felt like we were back in Bangor again. We made it up to the castle and noticed there was free admission as well. We went in and it had the most fantastic view but other than that, it was nothing. It was just a box with a courtyard in the middle and some walls. We were a little disappointed but it was still neat. We walked down to the Funicular Montjuic, kind of like a ski lift but each "bench" was enclosed. We wanted to ride down in it but saw that it was 6 euros to ride it and it wasn't even going to be for very long. We decided to stick with walking. We were getting extremely tired though and very hungry. So we walked all the way back down to Las Ramblas to find some lunch. We passed through a very creepy and sketchy part of t
he town to get there though. We didn't know the sign to Las Ramblas was going to take us through there. People were standing all over the place and we saw about 5 policemen come through. But we made it out just fine (don't worry mom) and found our lunch at a place called Bocatta. I got a ham and cheese baguette with fries and a drink. After lunch, we walked back up Las Ramblas to our hostel. On the way back I bought a little souvenir that was a statue of Sagrada Familia. We got to the hostel and just crashed. We were going to go shopping after our naps but we discovered that all the shops are closed on Sunday so we just hung out in the hostel for the rest of the night. We woke up around 6:30 on Monday, got ready, and packed all our stuff up. We went down to check out and then went back up to the second floor to have some breakfast. Then we took the 30 minutes metro to the airport, got on our 2 1/2 hour plane ride to Liverpool, took a 20 minute bus ride from the airport to the train station. Once we got to the train station we had to take the train to Crewe, then to Chester, and then finally to Bangor. That took about 2 1/2 hours as well. We arrived back to the University around 5pm but only to drop off our stuff and head out to Tecwyn's class at 6:30. I came back to my room after class very tired and very hungry since I didn't have time to make dinner before class. I made myself some pasta with chicken and vegetables and then hit the sack. Overall, I had the best weekend ever! I absolutely love Barcelona!
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