This past week has been Carnaval in most Spanish-speaking countries and Tuesday night was the big finale of the week. It all coincides with the week before Lent begins and Tuesday was "Fat Tuesday" as we call it in the States. So, instead of Mardi Gras they have Carnaval.... Anyway, the biggest celebration in the area on Fat Tuesday is in Sitges, a small-ish town about half an hour away by train. Four friends and I bought pretty masks and made our way to Sitges, along with thousands and thousands of other people. Everyone was dressed up like Halloween and they had lots of creative costumes. We saw a group of Spanish guys dressed as American football players, but their jersies were for a hockey team, we got a good laugh out of that.

Sitges was packed with people when we got there, every bar, restaurant, and dance club was full and so were the streets. We found a good place to wait for the parade to come instead of fighting the crowd to see it at the beginning. When it finally got to where we were waiting it was AMAZING! Sitges is known for being a popular place for homosexuals, so parade had tons of women in traditional Carnaval costumes but there were lots of men in flamboyant costumes as well. Every float had it's own music playing and every group of participants had a different theme for their costumes and dancing. We were right up next to the fence so dancers would stop and take photos with us, it was awesome. All of the parade participants were drinking as they danced up and down the streets and you could tell they were having a good time, too. All of the floats had a secret cabinet with mixers for drinks and one even had a bartender.

The parade lasted almost two hours and after it was over we wandered around Sitges enjoying the scene. It was just one giant party in the streets (and the streets were therefore filled with everyone's garbage and empty drink cups/cans/bottles). Even the beach was full of people having fun, it seemed like everyone was getting along with everyone else and just celebrating all together. It was unlike anything I've ever seen, definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I'll put the link to my two albums of photos at the end of this post.

This weekend we'll be in Dublin, so I'll have more photos and stories when we come back. We'll be staying with a friend of Adriana's who is studying there and living in an apartment. We don't have a lot of plans made yet, except to tour the Guiness factory and have a mug of the freshest Guiness in the world when we get to the top of it. The rest of our touristy plans will probably be made when we get there.

I hope all's well back home!

Ashley

¡Carnaval, te quiero!

¡Carnaval, te quiero más!

Hey everyone! This was a busy weekend for me, so of course that means there are new photos to check out. This Saturday we took a group excursion to Girona, a very old city about an hour or so north of Barcelona. We took a somewhat dull walking tour through the historic center of the city and saw Sant Feliu Church from the 13th century, The Cathedral from the 11th century, and the Monesterio de Sant Pere de Galligants from the 12th century. We also saw the ancient Arab Bath which wasn't used by Arabs in the area, it was only named that in recent history because the architecture of the structure was identical to how the Arabs built their bath houses centuries ago. The locals used it as a place to bath, socialize, and enjoy the ancient version of a sauna. We had a nice sack-lunch picnic along the river and then took a bus to Figueres.

The only mention-worthy thing about Figueres is the Salvador Dali museum. Dali was a 20th century surrealist artist who worked with just about every medium imaginable, including a medium I'd like to call "random things bought at a flea market." Some of his most famous work was there and it was a real treat. It's always incredible to read about a painting and see a tiny black and white version in a book and then walk into a room to find the original actually fills an entire wall of a huge room. On the other hand, one of his masterpieces "The Persistence of Memory" or "Soft Watches" was tiny. In any case, it's impossible to describe his work so you'll have to look at the pictures.

Today a friend and I took a tram-like thing to Montjuic, or Mount of the Jews, a small mountain near the ocean here in Barcelona. I don't know a whole lot about the history of how the Jewish people used the mountain before they were expelled from the country in 1492, but today there are many imporatant museums, botanical gardins, the 1992 Olympic site, and the National Palace with it's nightly Magic Fountain display. We didn't have a map so we kind of wandered but we did see one of the gardens, the Olympic site and the Palace. None of the museums were open today so we had to skip that. The view of the city from the top of the mountain was breathtaking... I keep forgetting how HUGE this city is. What makes Barcelona so interesting is that everyone lives IN the city. There aren't a bunch of suburbs nearby where the working people live and then they commute each day. Barcelona isn't filled with skyscrapers, it's filled with small businesses and residential areas.

If anyone needs to send a package of any kind, please do not send it to the apartment I'm living in. The only things I can receive here at the apartment without a hassle have to be the size of an envelope or smaller. If you have to send a package by regular mail or anything via Fed Ex or UPS, it's best to send it to the study abroad office where there is always someone there to receive packages. Address packages to:

I.S.A. OFFICE
Attn: My Name
Calle Trafalgar 6, Segundo Piso, Puerta 21
08010 Barcelona, Spain


Photos:
Girona y Figueres
Barcelona By Day IV

Barcelona By Day III

Barcelona By Day IV

Sorry for waiting so long to post again, but there wasn't anything worth posting about for most of the week last week. I got over my little cold and spent the rest of the week going to school, coming home for dinner, and sleeping. Well, there was one night of sangria and Mexican food with friends, but generally speaking we had pretty dull lives. My roommate went to Paris on Thursday so I had the room to myself all weekend and I took advantage. I spent some time writing in my journal, reading my book, and exploring the city on my own. Oh, and I got lots of sleep!

I never explained my photos from last weekend, but really the most important of them were of La Sagrada Familia. That building has been under construction for well over 100 years and it shows in the detail that covers every inch. When we came up the steps from the metro we were smack dab in front of the church and it took my breath away. La Sagrada Familia is certainly the symbol of Barcelona. Most of the other photos are from Las Ramblas which is a long street that goes from Placa Catalunya, the most important plaza in the city, all the way to the ocean. Down the middle are little kiosks selling all kinds of things, including small pets, flowers, souveniers, what have you. Then off to both sides on the actual streets that mark Las Ramblas are some of the more popular and famous stops in Barcelona like the huge marketplace and the only Baroque church.

This Saturday I spent most of my early day, 12-3ish, at Parc Guell, a park that was also designed by Gaudi and was intended to be part of a ritzy housing development. The housing development idea failed, but there is still an unbelievable park filled with mosaics and incredible landscaping. I can't really describe it in words, you have to look at the photos (which I'll be posting later and will put up a link to soon). The best part was the awesome view of the city. Saturday evening I took a walk through the Gothic Quarter with my friend Matt and we saw some of the oldest parts of the city. When we visited the cathedral Santa Maria del Mar there was a wedding going on and we got to watch some of it. When we visited the Barcelona Cathedral there were services going on. And while we were walking through some of the streets we were surrounded by a parade with musicians and people wearing giant costumes in honor of Eulalia, the patron saint of Barcelona.

This Saturday we're taking a group excursion to Girona and Figueres, two small towns near Barcelona, to see some history and the Dal í museum. School is still going fine. I still don't really have much homework, but I'm not complaining. I'm booking my flight to Paris tonight... Ummm... Oh, address update. If you mail me anything, put my homestay mom's name on the top and then ATTN: my name. And I misspelled her name on all the info I gave you guys, it's actually Lanaspa. I transposed the letters at the end. So it should be:

Silvia Lanaspa
ATTN: My Name
and then the rest of the address.... This will help alleviate any confusion with the postal carrier about whether or not the mail should actually come to this apartment because my name isn't on the list of names outside.

That's it for tonight :)

Love, Ashley