Back home!

Ok, so my lovely friends, it's been a while since I have blogged. Last you heard, I was going to Croatia to visit my father. Well, that happened and it was the best experience ever. I mean, I saw my daddy! Of course it would be. I spent the weekend with him and his long-time girlfriend Jadranka. We had some really great food, enjoyed each others company, relaxed and went sightseeing a bit. I didn't get many pictures mainly because I was more focused on spending the time with my father than anything else.We went to the country and just spent some time taking pictures. These pictures were taken in two different places. One is a town built completely on waterfalls called Slunj and the other is Karlovac. Both gorgeous and full of greenery as you can see. 

Well once I left Croatia, I came home to Barcelona and spent some much needed time on the beach with my La Garriga girls. We had a party at SEK the very last days and invited our friends who live downstairs. We all enjoyed our last days and now wish we can go back. 

Once I got back to the States, I was very excited to see my friends and family again, but was very sad that I had to leave Barcelona. It still brings tears to my eyes that I'm not there right now. :(

I spent a whole day with my family and before I knew it graduation was here. It was a very busy day for me and my family both. Lots of cooking, cleaning, greeting people and socializing. All in all, it was a very wonderful day for me. One of the happiest, besides my days spent in Spain. 

I was so glad my brother was there and some friends showed up as well (we won't specify who, so we don't shame the ones who said they would be there and then didn't show up).

Graduation day was a very happy time for me, and now I am on the job hunt. I am applying for teaching jobs as well as summer jobs and hopefully it works out for me to work with one of my friends. I could sure use the job over the summer to get back on my feet from Spain. I broke the bank with that one, but wouldn't have it any other way.

Finishing my tourist list with Susana :)

 Guess where Susana and I first went? I'll give you a hint. Look at the picture!!! Oh my God, we were so excited when we saw the beach. We acted like two little girls in a candy store. I absolutely love the beach because where I lived in Croatia, my house was 4 houses away from the beach so it was at my disposal whenever I wanted it. :) My daddy always used to call me a fish, because I'd never get out of the water when he'd tell me to.

 We didn't just stop at the beach. We also took the Gothic walking tour (our own tour instead of the paid one) and saw the cathedral of Barcelona which is also called Santa Maria del Mar (Saint Mary of the Sea). Again, I am an amazing navigational guide because the metro is now under my command. Considering I do not live in Barcelona, I think this is pretty darn good. Once we took the tour and actually saw a lot of the buildings mentioned online, we came to a placa where some guys were breakdancing. Of course I am in love with people who can dance and love observing any kind of dance so we stopped to watch. They were showing off, dancing and were really talented. I believe one of the guys was a gymnast but this didn't get proven til later. The one boy who I believed was a gymnast pointed to me and asked me to "come here" with the movement of his finger. I stood still for a bit and he motioned for me again. I stepped a little hesitantly up to him as he picked 3 more girls. One of them spoke Spanish, one of them spoke German only and two of us were American.

He lined us up in a row, showed us off to the crowd and then had us bend over and touch our toes. At first we were wondering what the heck? He explained that he was going to jump over us, to which all of us were like "Uhm, No!" But he assured us this is 100% safe. We got into our position, and he did his trick. Voila! No one hurt and he shows off his amazing skills. Great experience! Til the next adventure, toodles!!!

Tourist day out con Kristi :)

Adventure time in Barcelona! Since I was traveling last weekend, and I am going to be traveling next weekend, I thought it would be good if I actually explored Barcelona a bit. Kristi and I woke up and left La Garriga at 11:35am. We got to Barcelona about an hour later and decided our first stop would be La Sagrada Familia. On the train, we got off two stops before we were supposed to, transferred metros and apparently I am a professional at this metro thing (even though I don’t live in Barcelona) because I found all stops just fine. 

 

We arrived at Sagrada Familia and bought our tickets, only to find out our time for the lift is not for another hour and a half. We went inside to explore and take pictures but after we were done, we sat down on one of the pillars outside and played games on our phones until it was our time for the lift. 2:40pm finally came and we went up. In the lift, the guide lets us know we will be walking our way back down. WHAT?! Do you not know I am phobic of heights, woman? Oh dear God. At this point, all I’m thinking is “Gabi, please don’t freak out. Please don’t freak out.” My knees are weak, but I still manage to walk out of the lift. So terrifying to be up this high, but the air is exhilarating and the view..oh the view! 

 

The view is breath-taking. My feet are planted firmly into the ground as I make my way across the small stone bridge. I feel a little better because I am being brave but it’s still scary. I finally cross the bridge and it’s time to go down. The stair case that you walk down is completely closed in by stone walls, but the middle part of it is open. I literally slither down the sides of the stair case walls all the way down. We are OUT! Freeeeeeeddddoooooom! Even though it was terrifying, I’m glad I went because the view is something you don’t want to miss. 

 

Next stop was Montserrat. When we got to this metro stop, the guy we asked for directions with the tickets told us that it would be pointless for us to go now because we’d only have 45 minutes to explore. So we decided to go to Park Gϋell instead. It was gorgeous as well. The walk up the hill is a definite tester of your strength, but once you make it to the top, the entrance to the park is gorgeous. The different colors, the architecture and the different mosaics built into the stone makes you forget you walked all that way up the steep hill. As you enter the park, if you want to see all the way to the sea, you have to walk ALL the way up to the top. Again, this is a test of your strength. Kristi and I went all the way up and the view is astonishing. 

 

From the very top, you see Sagrada Familia and Torre Agbar towering over the city and if you look further, you see the sea which made me giddy. At this point, I promise myself I will see the sea before I leave Barcelona and I don’t care what the weather is like. We explored the park for about an hour and a half, then walked back to our metro stop and went to Placa Catalunya to meet Logan for coffee and some shopping before she goes off to travel for the weekend. Kristi and I came back very happy but very tired on the last train. Overall, the day was amazing. We saw some of the sights, did some shopping and finished souvenir haggling for some of our family and friends back home. 

 

When I came home, I skyped before bed, which finished my amazing day off with a cherry on top.