Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona, Spain with one of the girls that lives in our apartment building. It was quite the adventure taking the bus from Florence to Pisa, flying to Girona, and then taking another bus to Barcelona. But we had such a wonderful weekend exploring Barcelona. When we arrived on Friday, we spent the day walking around taking in all the Spanish architecture:

These are just a few random buildings in Barcelona. They aren't particularly famous for anything, but I found it very cool that even some of the "everyday" buildings had such intricate and unique architecture.

This is the Barcelona Cathedral (also known as La Seu). It is an excellent example of Catalan Gothic architecture, with its graceful spires. I was thoroughly impressed with the intricacy of one of the doors.

The bull-fighting stadium.

Camp Nou Stadio- the athletic stadium.

Arc de Triomf, which sits at the end of this beautiful promenade.

Casa Batllo. The local name for it is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), which is so fitting considering its skeletal look. The house was designed by Antoni Gaudi, the most well-known architect in Barcelona.

Later in the afternoon, we took the metro to go see the most famous building in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia:

Some Spanish ceramic art of the Sagrada Familia.

The real Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia was designed by the one and only Antoni Gaudi. Initially, the building was designed by architect Francesc de Paula Villar, who proposed a simple church in a traditional neo-Gothic style. Gaudi took over the project and completely changed the style to express his strong religious and nationalist feelings. He abandoned secular art and devoted himself to the project for 40 years, until his untimely death (he was run over by a tram). He is buried in the crypt of the La Sagrada Familia. Work on the project continued, but was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1935. Construction began again in the 1950s, and has continued ever since. Progress is slow, but estimated completion dates range from 2017 to 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

We happened to be in Barcelona on the weekend of the La Merce festival, so we saw a few random, but cool things:

Some Spanish dancing.

Some entertainment in front of Town Hall. This is a stack of 7 people (you can't the bottom person). It was nerve-wracking to watch them pull off this stunt, but incredible. They would crawl up each others backs to the very top.

On Saturday, we went to see the Spanish Village. On the way we ran across the Palau Nacional:

They were getting ready for a concert, which slightly ruined the aesthetics of the picture, but how awesome would it be to go to a concert in front of a palace?

This is the first thing you see when you walk into the Spanish Village. The walls of this building almost look like wallpaper.

Two of the streets in the Spanish Village. It was so quaint and cute, Gina and I were instantly in love. We spent hours here, wandering in and out of unique shops with lots of ceramic artwork. We also had churros, which were absolutely delicious.

I even found another door I liked!

On our way back to our hostel, we wandered through all these little streets of Barcelona, looking at shops and markets and scoping out restaurants with good paella and sangria for dinner. One of the markets had a honey stand, with more kinds of honey than you could ever imagine:

We also found a shoe store that sold the same exact shoe in every color you could ever dream of:

A glimpse of heaven on earth.

Sunday was our pier/beach day. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and I realized that I am such a beach girl. Maybe I should have figured this out sooner, considering every weekend since I've been here I've made it to the beach. There is just something about coastline that is so exciting and soothing at the same time for me. Also, I know if I am near water, there is good seafood, which is my favorite food :)

The statue of Christopher Columbus located at the place where he returned to after his first voyage to the Americas.

The huge lobster statue down by the pier.

The fish statue, also down by the pier.

The professional volleyball game that we caught glimpses of on our way to the beach.

After a wonderful afternoon in the sun, we found a place to have seafood paella and sangria:

Seafood paella... incredible :)

Sangria on the beach.

Later that evening, we found a place to have churros dipped in chocolate:

Another glimpse of heaven on earth.

Overall, Barcelona was amazing. Another weekend at the beach, another weekend of amazing food, another weekend of adventure.

A Barcelona sunset.

I just spent my first weekend in Florence (aside from the first weekend we were here) and am uploading pictures so I can blog about that soon.

Ciao,

Sarah

Amalfi Coast

Ciao bellas!

I had the most amazing weekend last weekend. My roommates and I took a trip down the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy and it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I saw so many beautiful little towns and I did so many cool things!

On Thursday night, we left Florence on a bus. We stopped in Rome to pick up some other students and continued our journey to Sorrento. There, we stayed in these little cottages in a hotel that looked almost like it was in the middle of the rainforest:

It was so nice to see so much greenery. The next morning we got up very early and took the ferry over to the island of Capri, a cute little place with lots of colorful buildings:

In Capri, my roommate and I decided that we were going to be adventurous. Our tour guides told us about this extremely strenuous hike up to the very top of the island of Capri:

That top peak is where we hiked to!

One of the amazing views along the way.

The hike was one of the hardest physical things I've ever experienced, but it was completely worth it when we got to the top. You could see the entire island as well as miles and miles out to sea. It was incredibly beautiful and I now feel so accomplished considering I can say that I've climbed to the top of an island!

So happy to be at the top!

These are a few of the views from the top. Unbelievable!

After hiking back down the mountain, we took a well-deserved boat cruise around the island. Check out how blue the water was:

This boat cruise involved many exciting things:

1. Swimming through the green grotto in the Mediterranean Sea

2. Holding a non-stinging jellyfish

3. Taking a trip into the blue grotto

Overall, our Friday in Capri was extremely eventful. I think we went to bed at 9:30 that night.

Saying goodbye to Capri. The highest peak is the one we hiked to!

Saturday, we took the bus to the small, seaside town of Positano:

We spent most of our time there just laying on the beach, relaxing after our adventurous Friday. We had a beautiful view of the church in Positano:

On Sunday, my roommates went to Pompeii. I had already seen Pompeii, so I lay by the pool until we had to leave to return back to Florence. My roommate and I got really lucky and got the front seats on the top of our double decker bus! The view was fabulous:

As a kind of sidenote, my roommate and I had our first "random hostel roommates" experience while in Amalfi... and it turned out fabulous! We lived with two other girls, Jackie and Gen, who were so nice and so enjoyable to spend the weekend with:

We also spent the weekend with our honorary Amalfi roommate, Megan:

I was very excited when I found out that Megan was born in Rochester! She goes to Iowa State now, and it was so nice to meet someone from the midwest. Also, we were both very amused to see each other Saturday morning in the exact same outfit. Fabulous midwest minds think alike!

I leave in a few hours for Barcelona, which I am very excited for. Expect a new blog post in a few days!

Ciao,

Sarah

Pisa and Cinque Terre

Hello again!

This weekend we had our first excursion with our program to Pisa and Cinque Terre. It was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of sunshine, lots of laughter, and lots of beautiful scenery. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to ride the bus to Pisa. At the beginning of the weekend, I was only mildly excited about going to Pisa, but I really enjoyed my time there. We took a short tour around the Piazza dei Miracoli:

The tour also included a trip to the Arno River, which is the river that also flows through Florence:

Some fabulous girls on the Arno River!

And then of course we saw the leaning tower of Pisa. I was in absolute awe of this building. While it was slightly shorter than I imagined, it also leaned quite a bit more than it seems to in pictures. Not to mention, I've seen pictures of it hundreds of times throughout my life, and then I was finally standing right in front of it, taking my own pictures. It was an incredible experience, and I highly recommend seeing the tower if you ever get the chance.

I had to do the classic picture. I had to.

After Pisa, we spent the afternoon at the beach in Viareggio, another seaside town. It was so nice to lay on the beach for a couple of hours with some girls, just chatting and laughing.

Molly, Natalie and I at the beach in Viareggio.

On Sunday, we spent the day touring Portvenere, and Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre are five small villages (Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) that line the coast of Italy. They are all comprised of beautiful terraces built on the steep landscape, and all of them overlook the Mediterranean Sea in all its glory.

This is Portovenere. The Cinque Terre villages look fairly similar to this.

Between two of the villages, there is a half-mile path called Lover's Lane:

The story behind the path is that it used to be the meeting point for two lovers, each from one of the different villages. It now remains a short, but inspiring walk along the beautiful coastline. Many couples will come and write their names along the path. A recent trend has been to attach a lock to a wire or rope somewhere along the path and throw the lock in the sea:

The writing and the locks are symbols of your hope for everlasting love between you and your lover.

A cute little bench on Lover's Lane. You can see the hundreds of locks attached on either side.

Our walk down Lover's Lane was the end of our lovely weekend. We got back on the bus, exhausted, and drove "home" to Florence. I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

One more thing- If you would like to send me mail, my address is:

Sarah Bundrick
C/O Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici
Via del Melarancio, 6/r
50123 Florence ITALY

I appreciate any mail and will even write back!

Ciao,

Sarah