Last weekend, my program took us all on a trip to Costa Brava, which is in Northeastern Spain. It was a really great opportunity to meet the other people in our program as I have mostly been hanging out with Santa Clara kids since I've gotten here. I made some really good new friends but feel bad for people when they meet us because our names are: Katie, Kaylee, Kristian, Casey, Kate, Kelsey, and Kathleen haha.
The first day we arrived in Figueres to visit the Salvador Dali Museum. It was really cool! He was a VERY weird guy but incredibly talented and created some really neat pieces of art. I'm still trying to figure out how to put pictures up on here but when I do, I'll upload a few pictures from the Muesum.
After that we got back on the buses and went to Port-Iligat where Dali and his wife Gala lived. We then walked towards the little beach town of Cadaqués which was very quaint but lovely. My friends and I got invited to a Spanish wedding but unfortunately we were only going to be in the city for a few hours and the wedding was that night..it would have been quite the cultural experience. We then drove to Girona to our hotels - they split us up into 4 hotels, ours was the only 5 star one :)
(if you squint at the last one, you'll see a certain famous someone...)
The next day we had a guided tour of the city of Girona including Arab baths, the cathedral, and the old historical walls that separated Catalonia from the rest of Spain back in the day. The city is basically half historical and half extremely modern but it all fit together really nicely. We then went to Empúries for a tour of the old Roman and Greek ruins. There was not a whole lot still intact but it was really cool to see the layout of what their town centers looked like. And then it was back to Girona for the night.
(The first is Kelsey and me in Girona, the second is from the ruins, and the third is all of the K's)
Our last day was by far my favorite (other than the Dali Museum). We went to La Jonquera to visit the Exile Museum (the Republicans exiled themselves because they disagreed with Francisco Franco because Franco was a socialist). After that we went to the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It's a small town in the south of France: Collioure. It's on the water, has vineyard covered mountains, the most breathtaking views, and the best crepes. We were able to explore the city and lay on the beach and just take in the serenity. It was the perfect end to a great weekend.
(The hillside/vineyards and TOMS in Collioure, France)
All in all, the weekend was fantastic. We traveled to some amazing places, learned about the great history that Spain has, met lots of new friends, and now I can't wait to travel as much as I can. There is so much out there for me to see and I'm going cram the most I can into these next 3 months.
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