Yes you are reading correctly. It is the final week of my program and I am just now updating about my Spring Break trip! I cannot believe how fast these past four months have flown by. I have done a horrible job at keeping up with this blog, so I’m going to start off by discussing my wonderful week in Spain.
On Easter Sunday my roommate Carley and I went to Palma Mallorca, Spain with our two other friends on this program Erin and Molly. We arrived late in the afternoon and were immediately in awe of the beautiful island. For those of you who don’t know, Mallorca is a small island off the eastern coast of Spain. It is full of mountains and breathtaking views. We arrived and easily found our hostel, which for 15 euro a night, wasn’t bad at all! We had private rooms and even our own balcony.
We immediately set out to explore. We walked down the strip and noticed a lot signs in……..German? Apparently, Mallorca is very heavily concentrated with Dutch and Germans. It’s a very popular vacation spot. We found this odd and somewhat amusing that we were in Spain seeing schnitzel restaurants. We found a TexMex place (also weird) and immediately tried the delicious Sangria. We ended up meeting a group of Swiss guys who were hilarious and we later learned they went to the same restaurant everyday that week!
The first day we spent on the beach and it felt amazing. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We had a nice little girls dinner at a new restaurant on the strip. We ended up going there two nights in a row just because we had so much fun talking to the friendly Dutch staff!
The next couple of days we explored the city because it was a little cloudy. We took a loooong bus into Palma and walked around. We found a cute little restaurant and had some delicious tapas. We also climbed a mountain to see Castle Belver!! This was my first castle and the view was absolutely breathtaking. We walked up about a million steps but it was definitely worth it.
Our last day we spent on the beach even though it was about 65 degrees and cloudy. We were determined to enjoy the weather and scenery as much as we could before heading back to gray Brussels.
On Thursday we flew out to BARCELONNNAA to meet up with our friends Bonnie, Paul, Michael and Ry. They had been there for a couple days already and I have to admit I’m pretty jealous I didn’t get more time in Barca. It is definitely my second favorite city in Europe (besides London) We got to our hotel and were definitely pleased. For the first time this whole semester we were in a nice hotel room with our own bathroom. It actually looked like a place I would stay with my family! Props to Molly for finding the wonderful Hotel Guillermo Tell. That night we explored the Barcelona nightlife and it definitely lived up to its reputation!
On Friday we woke up early and headed to the famous Park Guell. Park Guell was designed by the renowned Catalan architecht Antonio Gaudi. Words really can’t describe this place. It seemed like a giant playground. It led up to the top of a mountain with views overlooking the entire city of Barcelona. It was simply beautiful. After that we hit the Barceloneta beach which was easily the coolest beach I’ve been to in my life. White sand and clear blue water, with an amazing W hotel jetted out in the water. It was pretty surreal.
The next day I met up with my friends Hillary and Emily who were visiting from London. We hit the beach again, obviously, and just sat and caught up. It was so refreshing to see them and it really made me realize how much I miss the people from home. All it takes is one familiar face to make you feel homesick.
By the end of spring break I was really dreading going back to Brussels. I remember sitting in the Barcelona airport with tons of other American kids, wishing I had a one-way ticket from Barca to Chicago.
These last few weeks have been a complete whirlwind at work, so I think I’ll need to do a separate blogpost about all of the crazy stories we’ve covered!
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