Vivian in Europe: Vivian Goes to Barcelona

Barcelona is an amazing city! Its definitely tied with Prague for my favorite European city so far. I spent two days there, one day going to Montjunc (Catalan for Mountain of the Jews, since they used to occupy the mountain) and the beach and the next seeing all of Antoni Gaudi's works. At the top of Montjunc, there's a castle where you can get a nice view of the city. Also on Montjunc is the Olympic Plaza, where Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics, and the Montjunc Palace. I went to the beach, which was quite empty compared to during the summer months. The thought of being here during the summer terrifies me. I'm here in mid-November and there's already a lot of tourists. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like during the summer. Though the beach here is nice, I definitely wouldn't go to Barcelona for the beach. There are way better places to visit if you just want to go to the beach. Barcelona has way more to offer.

On my second day, Sara and Mariella, two of my close friends from UNC, both of whom are studying for a semester in Sevilla, flew into Barcelona and joined me. It was so great to see them since it has been months since I had last seen them and they're my closest link to home. We just spent the day together exploring Barcelona, seeing all of Gaudi's works (Barcelona would probably be nothing without Gaudi) and had a fantastic time. I think I just love Barcelona so much more because I had such great company. Unfortunately, we only had about 8 hours together since I had to catch a flight back to Oslo Saturday morning. It sucks but the good thing is that we're all going to London together for three days next week so I'll get to see them again for much longer in a few days. Seeing them definitely made me even more homesick. I'll be going back to the U.S. in less than five weeks. I really do like Europe and all but I'm just really exhausted from traveling. I've been here for three months already and have traveled to 10 countries and I'm just worn out. It's just really stressful planning all these trips, being in foreign places where you don't speak the language all by yourself. And I just miss my home, my family and friends, my school, my job, etc. On Monday, I'll start my next and last trip. I'll be flying to Paris, spending three nights and two days there. Then I'll head to London for three days, Edinburgh for 1.5 days, and Dublin for 1.5 days. I'll be back in Oslo the following Wednesday and be finished with my travels. I was going to go to Denmark so that I could say that I went to 15 countries, but quite frankly, I'm too tired. I have a layover in Denmark on my way back if that counts...