We started in Barcelona on Sunday. We took a walking tour of the old city, saw the old city walls and looked at a lot of the historical buildings. Barcelona has very narrow streets and it’s pretty easy to get lost if you’re new in town and don’t speak Spanish.
Some of the sites we visited included the Picasso Museum and La Sagrada Familia – the church that architect Gaudi designed that’s taken 125 years to build so far and it’s still incomplete.
Barcelona is on the coast so I saw the beach for the first time in months. It was so relaxing just to lie on the beach, in the sun. I swear I absorbed more Vitamin D in those few days than I have in the last three months.
Then we continued on to Madrid, the country’s capital where it was time to live out the ultimate Madrid experience, visiting the Real Madrid stadium, looking at what must’ve been 100’s of trophies and acting like huge football (not soccer) fans.
While in Madrid, we visited the Palace and got to walk around inside the dining room, throne room, old pharmacy and armoury. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photos inside but it was beautiful, take my word for it.
We then went to the Prado Museum where we saw more Picasso and some work from Goya. To be honest, I feel like both artists weren’t quite right in the head but that’s just my personal interpretation.
We also went to the amazing botanical gardens that had a huge man-made lake where you could canoe. It was just perfect and the weather was gorgeous!
We also went to a flamenco show. The foot stomping and skirt twirling was so entertaining but our favourite part had to be the “flamenco face” – this stern expression that makes the dancers all look stressed or in pain. As the audience, it was hard not to have a little giggle.
So that was Spain! We flew back into London so I spent a few days with my lovely QUT friend Kim who graduated last year. She’s now living and working in London and I hope that maybe that’ll be me in a few years!
In two days I leave for Greece where I’ll be visiting lots of cousins, aunts and uncles who I haven’t seen in 12 years! I’m so excited to visit them all. Then Georgia and I are off to Turkey for ANZAC Day! I honestly can’t wait and I feel like this is going to be a once in a lifetime experience.