Quick Post: San Jose and San Francisco

For my birthday, my parents sent me out to California to visit Krista! I had loved visiting California a few years earlier for a trip to San Diego, and loved it again this time around. We hung around San Jose, Krista's home city for a while, then headed up to San Francisco for the night with her little dog Gypsy to see the sights.

Spain is My Soul Sister

Barcelona rekindled my love affair with Spain. 

I adore Italy with all of my heart, but Spain speaks to my soul. Somehow (you know, with all that studying/partying/traveling downtime) I never made it to Barcelona while studying abroad but after my visit with Holly I am just head-over-heels for the beautiful, colorful, sun-shining city. Prepare for a gagillion pictures, I couldn't choose my favorites. 

Flower market on Las Ramblas

Outside Boqueria Market

Inside of Boqueria Market

I did my best with booking our rooms, despite trying to stay within a budget and making plans pretty last-minute. 

I’m going to go ahead and give myself a high five because all of our hotels were in the perfect location! In Barcelona, we were just off Ramblas, which put us on one of the main streets of the city. Walking for ten minutes in any direction brought us to the port, Place de Catalunya, or through Barrio Gotico to the Cathedral. It was perfect! The Boqueria Market was right down the street from us and I do love a good market! A man selling fish at the market told me that while it is a destination frequented by tourists, the winding maze of food stands really is where many locals do their grocery shopping. 

If you, like me, have never taken a tourist bus, I’d highly recommend it, even just once. 

Holly and I saw them around Rome but decided to wait until Barcelona. Yes, it was more expensive than a metro ticket, and yes sometimes the route took much longer, but there’s something about sitting in the front seat, top deck of one of those busses that’s pretty fun! We enjoyed hearing the history of some of the places we were visiting, and it gave us a nice overview of the city as a whole. It might not be something I’d do in every city, but definitely worth the cost of a two-day pass! We took the Bus Turistico route, and mostly stuck to the blue route, which covered a few of the main Gaudi destinations.

Comparing the facade of, from left to right, Barcelona Cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, and the Church of Santa Maria del Mar.

I’m so obsessed with Gaudi now. 

We spent time at Casa Batlló, Park Güell, and the Sagrada Familia, and each was incredible. Casa Batlló looked like Floop’s house from Spy Kids, and it blew my mind to think that it was really someone’s home. The shingles on the roof looks like the scales of a multicolored dragon, and I had read that it is meant to be the dragon that was slayed by Saint George. I thought it was such a cool story to begin with, but apparently Saint George is the patron saint of Catalonia and that makes it even more interesting!


Park Güell was built to be a garden community and was originally meant to have 60 homes. After walking through the beautiful gardens, the organically inspired arches and pathways, and appreciating the breathtaking views I have absolutely no idea why the idea was unpopular and eventually abandoned.

Finally, La Sagrada Familia, one of the most awe-inspiring places I’ve ever seen. 

First of all, it is ginormous; the sheer size is enough to make it impressive, but it’s so much more than that. The inside is like a colorful forest, with the columns as trees reaching up to the roof. The stained glass windows were more abstract than I’ve seen in any other cathedrals, and filled the space with rainbow light. For such a colorful and creatively designed space it is surprisingly relaxing and serene, truly a place of worship and reflection. Something I found especially pleasing was the fact that it is still being built. You hear of beautiful monuments or cathedrals being built over generations, but we’re a part of a generation building this one. The cathedral is entirely funded by donations, and tickets bought to enter go towards the building project. Feels good to contribute!

Another, possibly less exciting, major highlight of Barcelona was coffee. 

I’ve mentioned my tiny coffee pot in previous posts, but I don’t know if I’ve expressed how much I miss a huge, steaming mug of coffee in the morning, or, more importantly, iced coffee. Yes, Italian coffee has a wonderful taste, but it’s more the atmosphere of savoring a cup of coffee that I miss. Italy doesn’t have Starbucks, but Barcelona does! Needless to say, I was highly caffeinated for pretty much all of our trip to Spain and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Iced caramel macchiato fo lyfe.

This little cutiepie lobster

When Holly and I would split up for an afternoon, I liked exploring different areas of the city and loved going into the beautiful cathedrals. Barcelona Cathedral and the Church of Santa Maria del Mar are both worth visiting! It was incredible to see how much they varied through the years, especially compared with the the Sagrada Familia. The port area was also beautiful to walk through. On one walk, I found a tiny antiques market, and walked down the Passeig de Colom to the surrealist Cara de Barcelona. It was a nice afternoon and gave me a to-do list for my next trip to Barcelona: visit the aquarium, the Picasso Museum, the Maritime Museum, and travel up the port cable car. Next time…

Cara del Barcelona, by Roy Lichtenstein

Spidey

When I’m home, I’m going to be honest, I’m not really into sports. 

Soccer (‘football’) isn’t a sport I can honestly say I pay much attention to. The world cup, however, is another story. Keeping up with how the world is doing, choosing favorite teams along the way, and being in a bar full of divided, cheering fans is so much fun! The World Cup final between Argentina and Germany took place while Holly and I were in Barcelona, and we spent some time that night seeking out the perfect atmosphere to spend the evening cheering along with… well… whoever, we really didn’t care. At first, we saw an Argentinian couple completely painted in blue and white and tried following them, assuming that whatever bar they ended up at would be a fun one. They were going to a friend’s house though, so we hopped in with a German group who looked like they were having a good time. Unfortunately, we mistakenly mentioned that we hadn’t picked a team and they did NOT want our company. Luckily we found a great bar, full of fans from all over the world. When we met a new group we didn’t make the same mistake and, noticing their colors, cheered along for Argentina with them. It’s so great meeting other travelers because you all have that one tremendous thing in common: an intense desire to see the world. Anyways, that night was one of our most fun in our summer adventure.

Notes for future Jesye: When I live in Barcelona, I’m going to church every week at the Sagrada Familia, doing my grocery shopping at Boqueria Market and having a picnic every weekend either at the port or in Park Güell.

Inside Church del Santa Maria del Mar

Inside Church del Santa Maria del Mar

Barcelona Cathedral

Barcelona Cathedral

Questions and Comments from Flight 2359

Maybe I'm becoming cynical, maybe I'm mean, and maybe I'm just incredibly jet-lagged. But yesterday on my flight to see Krista in San Jose, I found myself sitting next to an 18-year-old who I had absolutely no patience for. I had planned to spend the time finishing up a few blog posts, reading, and working on some teaching things for next year (you can find a few in my new teachers-pay-teachers store! I made my first sale!). Anyways, after a layover in Minneapolis and on my second flight of the day, I found myself with a finished book and a dead computer. How to occupy my time? Why, make a list of all the ridiculous questions, comments, and actions of the boy who'd sat next to me on the previous flight of course!

Anastasia just gets me.

image by 20somethingsproblems


*Quick note: many, maybe even most, of these are perfectly acceptable questions to ask while getting to know someone. But when rapid-fired over the course of two hours when it's not even 7 in the morning? No. Italics will represent actions.

*Other quick note: Yes, I do have boundary issues when it comes to flying. There is only so much space in those little seats and I get territorial. I also don't like strangers touching my face.

• You wear contacts.
• Is your hair red or brown?
• Touches hair on right side of my head This part of your hair that has light on it is red, but over here without the light (touches other side) is just brown. 
• What's your favorite subject?
• What's the best part of college?
• Why do we even have to buckle in on an airplane? If we crash it's not going to do anything.
• If you could be in any movie what would it be? What about show?
• Do you like trees?
• Your nails and folder are pink. What other pink things do you have?
• What are your dreams for the future?
• If you could do anything today what would it be? (We're on a flight to California that I'm really excited about so I say go to California). What about world peace?!
• Do you have to shave your legs everyday?
• Where'd you get that scar?
• Do you want a cookie? (Keeps putting cookie on my tray, I say no thank you, I don't want your cookie). Why won't you just eat the cookie!?
• You'd rather read than talk?
• You have humongous eyes. But not like an alien!
• Leans directly into my seat to look out the window.
• Are you wearing socks? Don't your feet get sweaty?
• I'm sorry. I keep looking in your eyes. Some people don't like that.
• I have a friend named Jesye and you both look the same. Except her hair is darker and she doesn't have freckles. Do you know her?
• Are you a right brain or left brain person?
• Can I watch you type?
• What's in that desktop folder?
• What does that mean? (Pointing at something I'm typing)
• The face you just made just made my day. (I ask what face?) I don't remember.
• Hopefully you look the same when you're 50.
• Why are you a teacher?
• Don't you think teachers should do a better job and actually make sure kids learn important things?
• I can tell you're a teacher because you smile a lot.
• Since you're short does your neck hurt when you fly? 
• How to you sleep on a flight? Shows me different ways someone might sleep. Like this? Like this?
• How many inches tall are you?
• Do you like flying?
• Boops me on the nose because that's apparently where most of my freckles are.
• We're probably going to crash and die.
• Are you a democrat or republican?
• Who did you vote for in the last election?
• Brushes hair off my face.
• Why did you buy that ring?
• What did you go to college for? (I say childhood/early childhood education and literacy) Am I literate? Was that not a literate thing to say?
• Jesye. Jesye Jesye. I just like saying your name. 

I tried my absolute hardest to be friendly the whole time but oh my gosh, GRKJDPASOIJFPOQIEJPKEJD:QWKLJD:WQLKJ:KQLWJ!!!!

Me on the inside.

image by howdoiputthisgently?