Monday, June 23, 2014

Catalonia


Oops, I forgot to post last night, but it's early this morning still, so this can kind of count.   Yesterday started off with a free walking tour around Barcelona that our hostel offered.  We had a really good guide who was very knowledgeable about the city's history.  He took us to many historical churches and walls throughout Barcelona and explained their significance back when the Romans were conquering the land and Barcelona and Madrid considered themselves separate states.  We also learned about the different flags we could see flying throughout the area.  Along with the Barcelona and Spain flags, there were two for Catalonia.  Catalonia is the area/county that surrounds Barcelona.  It currently is trying to fight the monarchy to become independent from Spain.  Therefore, there was the normal Catalonia flag, and then another with a blue triangle and star on it to represent their fight for independence.  This explained the shirts that street venders were selling that said "Catalonia is not Spain" and other variations of the statement.  After the walking tour, we made out way back to the hostel slowly, stopping for lunch on the way.  Once back, we checked in for our flight (to avoid another fiasco) and located the bus stop we thought (we were wrong) that we needed to be at in the morning.  We also located the Plaza Catalunya where the buses start their routes, just in case we were wrong about the other stop.  The fountain above is at that plaza.  After that we shopped a little more at the craft fair along the street that we had visited yesterday and then went to dinner at a tapas place.  That was closely followed by ice cream cones of course.  When we returned, all of our roommates were also back, so we spent a decent amount of time all just talking and sharing stories.  Most of the other girls are going to be or have been in Europe for a month or two atleast.  They were all also Americans, three younger than us and one older.  After they left to watch the USA soccer game, we turned off the lights and went to bed, since once again we had an early flight.  Now we're at the airport getting breakfast and waiting to find out what gate our flight is at.  Security took all of 5 minutes to get through, so we're very early this time - and much more relaxed!

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