Hello blog reader! I hope all is well with you and you had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I had a great Thanksgiving, minus being in America, the (tofu)turkey, mashed potatoes, etc.. but I was able to be with my family and be very thankful.
Saturday, November 21st, after a day trip to La Garrotxa--a "volcano park" which was very cool, I returned to Barcelona to meet my parents at their hotel!! It was so very wonderful to see them, I am so glad they made the trip over here. That night we walked around my neighborhood, Sarria, went out for a delicious dinner and caught up on life! My brother arrived on early Sunday morning. For the next three days, we did many touristy things and I showed them the city..we walked down Las Ramblas, went to the beach, went to a flea market, Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, the Gothic district, a cable car up to MontJuic...and so much more! We enjoyed paella, sangria, and lots of gelato many times throughout their visit.
I think the highlight was my family coming over for dinner with Maria. It went very well! Maria had spent the whole day preparing the house and the meal..which consisted of Tortilla Espanola (kind of an omelet, with onions and potatoes), Pan con Tomate (bread with olive oil and tomato, with cheese), and lots and lots of Jamon (ham). I was kind of nervous, seeing as a) she is crazy sometimes and b) she speaks no English..but there were no problems! My dad and brother speak some Spanish, and my mom can laugh, smile, and gesture just fine. We had great conversation and there were smiles all around. Maria loves guys, so she really enjoyed having my brother and dad in the house...fed them lots and lots of jamon. My dad really made her night when he left saying "Ciao Guapa!" ("bye beautiful!")..Maria is STILL talking about it.
On Wednesday, after Spanish class, we met up at their airport and rented a eurocar!! We then embarked on our journey to France! After a few struggles with the rental car (it took my dad about two hours to figure out how to put it in reverse!) and the GPS (which we named Rosa), we were on our way to Collioure, a small costal town that I had been to in my first month abroad. It's a beautiful, postcard town... it's dominated by tourism in the summer months, but empty during the rest of the year..so we basically had the place to ourselves. We wandered the streets and enjoyed the Mediterranean.
Thursday and part of Friday were spent in Avignon..an old walled city with the Palace of the Popes. It was a very neat town, with lots of history...and a Christmas market! We explored the town, checked out the palace and the Sur Le Pont de Avignon. We had an interesting drive back to Barcelona, listening to Taylor Swift (the only CD we had) with a broken GPS, so we had to rely on street signs and instinct to get us home. Luckily, only after one snag, we made it back to the airport and returned the car and all was well.
It was very sad to see the family leave on Saturday morning. It was a great visit..always good to see them during the holidays. It made me very thankful to be blessed with such wonderful family!
The big Christmas market in Barcelona started on Saturday, so my roommate and I went there during the afternoon and that night I saw the band Vetiver! I think it is kind of random they came to Barcelona, but I am not complaining. It was a great concert.
Next weekend: Amsterdam!
This marks the three week countdown.. in exactly three weeks from now I will be landing in the Cincinnati airport, immediately ready to go to Skyline and or Graeter's..
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