BARCELONA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark and I went to Barcelona this past weekend, and it was the best weekend yet, and my favorite place we've been so far!!!
 We took at bus to Madrid on Thursday afternoon, walked through the city, had dinner at Fridays(mmm fajitas) and then went to our hotel near the airport. Mark was a beast at figuring out the metro, so no troubles there! We did have troubles though when we got to the hotel and I had booked a room for a day (for when you have long layovers) and not the night, I was kind of freaked out! But, they had rooms available, and it was 20 extra euros, but it all worked out!
We left Friday morning, bright and early and arrived in Barcelona around 9, and took a bus for 5 euros, from the airport into the center of the city (3 blocks from where we stayed!). When we got to the Plaza de Cataluña (center of the city), we found a starbucks and had some breakfast, then after a little bit of wondering found our hotel! The room wasn't ready, but they let us leave our stuff there. So we headed out and explored the city! We found Las Ramblas, which is this touristy street with all these street performers and shops, it was awesome, and took us all the way down to the water! At the end of the ramblas is the huge statue of Christopher Columbus pointing towards the sea, and also there is a bridge(the one with the waves on the top), that takes you to the aquarium and a mall. It floats, and it moved while you were on it, and we got to see how it opened to let boats through which was cool. We walked across that, then grabbed some lunch, and headed back to our hotel to check-in. We relaxed that afternoon, then headed back out that evening to see Las Ramblas at night, it was neat! We took all the way to the ocean so we got to see all the boats and the statue lit up. We then went to a restaurant called Tapa Tapa, and got a bunch of tapas and shared them, and people watched, it was awesome! Sidenote- our hotel was right around the corner from Gaudi's Casa Batlló, the roof like scales, so it was in a prime location!
Saturday we woke up, and headed to the Plaza Cataluña and got on the blue line of the Bus Turistic of Barcelona! We saw a ton of awesome stuff like the Casa Batlló(which was right down the road from our hotel) Gaudi's La Padera ( the stone building that looks like waves and has wrought iron balaconies) built between 1906-1910, Gaudi's Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's church that is still under construction, the inside is finished and the Pope is blessing it this weekend as a Basilica), Park Guell, Palau Reil- Pavellons Guell(wrought iron dragon front with a functioning mouth!) Futbol Club Barcelona Stadium. After we went and road the bus all the way through the blue line we went back to the Sagrada Familia and went inside and through the museum. It was amazing, the inside (and obviously the outside) is unlike any church I've seen, it was soooooooooooooooooooooooo AWESOME!!! After the Sagrada Familia, we went to Park Guell, which is Gaudi's park, where Gaudi's house was located, which is now a museum. It was awesome because Gaudi's work just mixes with nature. Mark and I walked around all the park, it had some awesome views of Barcelona. We then headed back to our hotel, relaxed for a while and then went out for dinner!
Sunday we woke up (with bug bites AHHHH) and headed onto the red line of the bus tour. We saw a ton more awesome stuff around the bottom half of the city, near the ocean. We saw the Estacío de Sants (the large sclupture by Joan Miró that is actually a slide!), Plaza de España (two towers, that mark the gateway to park of Montjuic, which was where the 1929 International Exhibit and the 1992 Olympics!) Poble Español (the walled in city) MNAC ( the huge building at the top of the hill, it's now a museum of Catalan art), Anella Olímpica( The Olympic ring for the 1992 olympic games, Olympic Stadium, Palau Sant Jordí, telecommunications tower, swimming pool) World Trade Center, Port Vell (Las Ramblas, from the first night we saw of this :)) Pla de Palau (Ribera district, medieval area, one of the oldest of Barcelona, Museu Picasso) Barri Gótic( origin of Barcelona, built on the old roman town, has the cathedral de Barcelona). Mark and I got off and saw the MNAC, and got some amazing pictures of the city, then we went to the Olympic area which was awesome to see and walk around through! We then went to the Picasso Museum, and saw awesome Picasso art from the blue period, cubism, and his version of Las Meninas!
We got to see so much of the city on the bus tour, but when I looked at other peoples pictures from the trip it seems like we missed a lot too! Which is crazy because we saw a ton, but Barcelona was amazing and I absolutely loved the city! I already want to go back!  Despite the bug issue in our hotel and having to wrap everything up and deal with itchy bites, it was sooooooo worth it!
We left Monday morning, with more bug bites, but having loved everything about the city! We got the airport super early, and hung out there, grabbed some lunch, I fell asleep on the ground because the anti-itch medicine they gave us knocked me out! Our flight was an hour late, but we had plenty of time between getting to Madrid and getting to the bus (no repeat of Santiago!) so we made it back to Salamanca (kind of late, we weren't on the express bus) after a great weekend!!!

So an update with life in Salamanca, all is well. We have 16 days until families come and we go to the south of Spain with everyone, and Im uber excited for that! We've had our first 3 tests here, two today, and I feel that I did great on all of them, and I wasn't even worried about them :) Tonight I start Flamenco classes with Kelley and I'm uber excited for that!!! Oh, and my birthday's monday (21 ahhh as anita says Im old ahahah) and Mark and I are going to Madrid for the weekend, so Im uber excited for that too!
This last month is going to fly by, and I've had a great time in Salamanca so far, through all the ups and downs, and sketchy meals ( I had tuna pasta again today hahaha) it's been a pretty awesome experience!
Love you all! Miss you!!