The one about 10 days with nothing but my backpack and my camera…(part 3 and 4)

Barcelonaaaa!

Barcelona, 2012

 

Next stop on the spring break adventure was Barcelona. Helloooo sunny with a high of 70! Finally we were somewhere warm! Not that Amsterdam and Paris were cold (and they were both sunny) but the weather didn’t compare to Barcelona’s. Just like Paris and Amsterdam, I loved Barcelona. We arrived and immediately saw some crazy architecture (I wish I could have seen some more, but we had a time crunch). While in Barcelona we got to spend pretty much an entire day on the beach, and it was a nice change of pace. We could relax and just soak up the sun. Unfortunately it wasn’t warm enough to swim or beach it up, but we could still have a picnic on the beach! We also got to eat more delicious food. One night I actually had Mexican (I know, it’s not Spanish food) but my chicken fajitas were delicious and not pasta which is all that mattered in my book.

Our hostel, which was an adventure within itself (ask me sometime and maybe I will tell you about it)…had an amazing view of the beach being that it was on the 9th floor or something crazy like that, and I got some great pics. We spent one day pretty much just soaking in the sun. It was too cold to actually go swimming, but we put our feet in! We also wondered around the city, and got to see the cool cathedral and such! All in all Barcelona was amazing, and I am sick of writing about it so I am just going to show you pictures!

first architecture I saw!

view from the room...

Beach!

Palm Trees

The warm sun!

hello blue sky, and birds!

a view from the beach

me and my girls

The water was chilly!

we gave in and got starbucks!

I forgot to mention, we went to the picaso Museum.
it was weird.
no pictures allowed inside

pretty cathedral

Sagrada Familia Cathedral

NICE!

As for Nice, part 4 of our spring break, that too was amazing. It only confirmed my love for the country of France. I got to speak in French again, and I did surprisingly well. I am still shocked at how much I remembered. They were having there Carnivale while we were there. So I got to experience a big huge parade at night that was pretty much a big party! It was a lot of fun. The next day we got up early and we went to the beach again. It was bellissima! So beautiful, I loved it. It was the perfect way to end spring break. Soaking up the sun and sitting on the (rocks)…because they don’t have sand. It was also nice because we started off spring break with a lot of walking and it was exhausting but we ended on a slightly more relaxing note. We then flew from Nice to Rome, and took a train home! We arrived back late Sunday night and soon it was back to the real world.

Let the Carnivale Parade begin...

Obama? What you doin' here?

We soon figured out the theme was Olympics

I can't wait for the Summer olympics.

This one is for you Mama

Its the queen, and Prince Charles...and Kate and Will
No Harry!? 

The beautiful beach (pictures do it no justice)

it was a beautiful sun shiny day!

bonjour

pink nails! of course.

the lack of sand. but pretty rocks (and they were comfy too)

cute little puppy playing with the waves and a tennis ball!

one last look at the beach...

bye spring break...

we had lots of fun

and don't want to go home :(

All in all, I am so lucky to have gotten to experience such an adventure, and see such diverse places! I love Europe and can’t wait to come back someday!

Grazie,

Arielle

The one about 10 days with nothing but my backpack and my camera…(part 2)

Amsterdam:

I AMsterdam

After our adventures in Paris, it was time to continue our spring break in the Netherlands. So we hopped onto a train and arrived in Amsterdam about 2 hours later. Amsterdam was very different from that of Paris, not a good or bad different…just different. The weather was a bit more chilly, and the architecture was quite different, but then again all of the places on our spring break itinerary were very different from one another. We arrived and immediately found our Hostel which was strangely obsessed with dolphins. Yes, that’s right, the friendly marine creature that swims around and used to be the mascot of my high school swim team. The Flipper Hotel was nice, the bathroom was a bit small (but private so can’t complain) and, wait for it, wait for it…there was dolphins on the toilet paper! We were also fairly close to the center and I liked the area!

While in Amsterdam we got to eat good food (not Italian!), which was a nice change. We also visited some museums. One such Museum being the Van Gogh museum, which was awesome and Brit (our little Art History girl) was in all her glory! We only spent a short time there, but it was wonderful while we were there! The city itself is quite a biking city. That’s an understatement, everyone there rides bike and you better watch out or you might get hit! As for the people, they were all uber nice, and everyone spoke English which was a blessing because none of us had any previous knowledge of Dutch—and it doesn’t look like an easy language! Normally, I am all for trying to get around using the language and such, but here that would have been an epic fail. On a side note, Amsterdamians (as I liked to call them) or to be more politically correct Dutch men are extremely attractive (I find all Europeans to be, mostly because of their style)! All in all, this part of our trip was another success. The food, the beverages and the sights were all fun! Brit, Marissa and I continued to laugh spring break away enjoying the break from school!

Pictures anyone!?...here ya go!

first glimpses of the city, cool benches to sit on...

sadly, it had rained so no sitting on the benches, just browsing!

My Favorite bike...of course its red!

Architecture

I AMsterdam!

Helloooo

"A" For Arielle, or Amsterdam, or Amazing (because that's what I am)....

All of us in front of the sign!

Van Gogh!. Sadly no pictures were allowed inside

but they had some remakes hanging "outside"

cheesin' big for the camera

Apple pie. YUMMM!

lets learn this language.

Amsterdam at night

lots and lots of bikes!

Crazy faces...were weird I know

Amsterdam was fun! Now onto Barcelona!...Keep checking for a blog update, and if you would like you can check out FB for more pics (Although currently on Paris is up...and not all of them)

Ciao!

Thank You,

Arielle