No Pasa Nada: March 2012

...What a lonely little place my blog has turned into, eh? You would think with all the "no pasa nada"-ing I've been up to I could find a little more time to dedicate to bragging about the 8 (...what???) magical weeks I've spent exploring Europe thus far, however, I've recently been choosing to spend my time doing other things, like taking naps, reading the Hunger Games, ~~occasionally~~ doing classwork, and planning all that must be planned for summer and upcoming semesters upon my return to the real world.

Oh, and did I forget to mention HANGING OUT WITH MY SISTER????!!??!!

Yes, that is correct. For the past 2 weeks my beautiful/wonderful/non-Spanish-speaking sister has been visiting me in southern Spain and running around with me like chickens with our heads cut off through Europe! I had been looking forward to this time since last year when she told me her plan to take off 16 days of her life to spend with me, and it is safe to say that after 3 weekends spent in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Sevilla, along with 2 weeks spent hanging around Granada (if you could even call it "hanging"), my expectations of how much fun we were going to have were far and away exceeded (don't you love when that happens?). Somehow we managed to find every single place we were looking for, ride about every single type of public transport, and eat, drink and be merry with the incredible ease that only two American sisters who've watched too much reality television could fake. However, we decided that everything working out so perfectly should be attributed to our good friend karma - we must just be really awesome people!!! ....Right?

Anyway, our excursions were all amazing and the places were all so different (nothing less than par for the course since I've come to the other side of the Atlantic), but I'd have to say my cherry on top of all the cities we visited was the first one we saw:

Barcelona!!!!

It was so beautiful and bright and fun and had everything you could ever want in a place to live (namely a beach and amazing seafood, among other things) and, thanks to our women's intuition, me stopping a man from pick-pocketing Jill on the Barcelona Metro, and Jill's Lonely Planet books, we saw everything we needed and wanted to see in the 2 short days we enjoyed there. My favorite part of the trip was eating dinner right on the water our first night there...we drank sangria, ate calamari and watched a HUGE and beautiful Mediterranean cruise ship make its way into the port as I twirled my seafood pasta on my fork. Any time I get to hang out with my sister is enjoyed time, but I made especially sure to physically reminded myself more than once that night to always remember how happy I was right then.

The next day we slept a little late, and after breakfast went on a leisurely stroll to see whatever sites we happened to stumble upon. That stroll ended about a block away from our hostel when we suddenly found ourselves in front of La Sagrada Familia! After assuring Jill that the church was not named after a family who's last name was "Sagrada" but actually meant "The Holy Family," we got in line, paid for our tickets and prepared to be amazed. And amazed we were! Everyone and their mother should be see how beautiful and amazing that architecture is, both on the inside and out. The inside of the church is supposed to resemble a forest, with the pillars being the trees and the ceiling the branches and leaves, and the outside has more detail than my neck could stand to look up at. We saw a lot of buildings like that, including the ones in Park Guell, and the old Olympic buildings from Summer 1992 were awesome to see as well, but I'm not sure any building I'll ever be in again will hold a candle to La Sagrada Familia.

Barcelona has been the first city I've been to that I really, really, REALLY want to go back to with a burning passion, but for now the 2 days spent there will have to suffice, because we had to leave so I could return to Granada for a 3 day (no that is not a typo) school week, and then ship ourselves off to the Netherlands (or the Naderlands, as the locals call it)!! I know I sound like a broken record when I say every city is so beautiful and unique, but remember that I'm supposed to be working on my SPANISH skills here, not my English ones! Anyway, Amsterdam was so cute and quaint, and I'm pretty sure the dollhouse I had when I was little was a Dutch house, after seeing all the houses that border the canals here that looked extremely similar. It turned out the Land of Nether could also be called the Land of Museums, as Jill and I ventured through the Anne Frank museum, a Van Gogh museum, Rembrandt museum, a diamond museum and some other art museum that I can't remember the name of whilst there. What well-educated/classy ladies we are, right?! After visiting Amsterdam it is safe to say that we have become art, diamond, and pastry-eating buffs, though maybe not in that order.

After only 2 days spent in the wonderful city of Amsterdam it was yet again time to go home, but not before spending a day in Madrid while we waited for the bus that would take us on the 5 hour journey back to Granada (sans bathroom, we were horrified to find out)! It's unfortunate how tired we were from all the walking we'd been doing basically since Jill arrived, as we were pooped whilst walking through The Prado in Madrid. It is the biggest museum I've ever been in, and it had a lot of paintings that I recognized which were cool to see, but it was hard not to think about how badly we wanted to nap!

...which is what we did a lot of, up until this past weekend, in which we decided to make a spontaneous trip for a day and a half to Sevilla, Spain! Hello 80 degree sunny weather!! Sevilla is beautiful, and I especially loved seeing the Cathedral in which Christopher Columbus is buried, as well as the Giralda which is the attached bell tower that gives an awesome overview of the city, if you can make it up the 35 ramps it takes to get there! While wandering through a park to get to the Plaza de Espana (wait until you see it) we were lucky enough to stumble across one of the only things that could have made the trip that day any better....an outdoor beer festival!!! There is nothing like being an American in Spain drinking Belgian beer, let me tell you!

Anyway, Jilli left this morning, and after a tearful goodbye she left me still feeling so thankful to have someone who loves me enough to want to hang out with me for 2 weeks straight!! Next time she sees me I'll be 8 weeks older and wiser, and maybe next time I see her she'll have brushed up on her Spanish speaking skills.....but actually, who are we kidding? :)

That's about enough adventure-telling for now I'd say! After all, I need to give you some time to digest all of that before I tell you about my trip to BRUSSELS NEXT WEEKEND!!! Woo!!!

In the meantime....look how cultured we are!!!!