Spring Break: Rome and Barcelona

            Where do I begin when talking about my spring break? Getting away from our normally 24-person group and getting to travel with just Lily, Lydia, Jessica, and Aubrey was a nice break! We finally got to experience traveling alone and have mastered taking trains, buses, and planes all by ourselves (kind of). We only had to run through the airport once to make our flight back to Prague, which wasn’t so bad.

We loved Venice

            Our spring break began in Venice where we spent one extra day after our group split up for their travels. As always we wandered around the city and soaked in the sun, sitting by the canal and eating gelato as we did everyday in Italy. We spent our last day relaxing because we had to be up bright and early the next morning to catch our 6-hour train ride to Rome. Lily slept just about the whole way but I enjoyed watching out the window passing by lakes and cute little villages! We had a little trouble finding our hostel once we got to Rome... Let's just say not having wifi is a little frustrating when you can't use the map on your phone to get you where you need to be. Finally an hour and a half later with all our bags and sweat down our backs we stumbled upon our hostel. The five of us had our own room and shared a bathroom with others in the hostel, it almost felt like we were staying in someone else's home. After we got settled in we grabbed dinner just down the street from our hostel and decided to roam the city! We quickly discovered how touristy the main parts of the city were and how annoying vendors trying to sell you selfie sticks were. The next morning we took a hop on hop off around the city to get to the main attractions such as the Colosseum, Capitoline Hill, Trevi Fountain and even with taking the bus around we ended up walking 15 miles throughout the day (you think I'd be skinny by now). Our last day in Rome was by far my favorite day that we had, we went inside the Colosseum, walked to Vatican City, and took a less beaten path away from the main parts of the city, found a delicious and cheap place to eat lunch at and even bought some cute jewelry! I absolutely loved not following a set schedule and being able to wander around the city without being on a time limit.We were absolutely exhausted after our long day of walking so we had to stop by the Trevi Fountain one last time to make a wish and then we headed back to our hostel for the night, considering we had to be up at 5am to catch our train to the airport we called it an early night. We were ready to take on Barcelona!

Inside the Colosseum

My lovely friends :)

The Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Vatican City

           I didn't think that spring break could get any better after having so much fun exploring Rome, but I was wrong. I can honestly say I have never been so happy in my entire life getting to see some of the most beautiful cities and explore all of these new places! Barcelona has by far been my favorite city that I have visited since I have been in Europe. It's close to the beach, modern, yet still has an old feel to it. It's huge, you can never run out of things to do or things to see and its a very youthful city! I could definitely see myself living in a place like Barcelona. 
           Of course when we first arrived in Barcelona we expected warm weather with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky, we were wrong. It was definitely evident that we were tourists because we were set on going to the beach the first day we got there and a little wind and cloudy skies was not going to get in the way of that.... And clearly it didn't (picture below v)

            The next few days in Barcelona had gloomy, rainy mornings, but by early afternoon the skies had cleared up and the days were perfect out! On our second day we took a skyline that overlooked the coast, the harbor, and the city and went on a little hike once we got to the top! The next day was strictly spent sight seeing, we saw the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Parc de la Ciutadella, and the magic fountain! Everything was so spread apart since Barcelona is such a large city that it took all day to get the sites we wanted to see, a lot of walking but definitely worth it for the fun we had.

View from the skyline

Sagrada Familia

Park Guell

Parc de la Ciutadella

             We decided to be lazy our last day in Spain and the weather was perfect to lay on the beach, so that's what we did all day! May have not been the smartest idea to not put sunscreen on and drink a jug of sangria all day but it was the most fun way. Us Americans are so easy to spot in a foreign country so we got suckered in to doing a pub crawl that night ;) The nightlife in Barcelona did not disappoint, out of all the pub crawls I've been on in Europe it was the most fun I've had! It was the best way to end spring break before having to head back to Olomouc. If you couldn't tell already I'm having so much fun in Europe and I am not anywhere near ready to come home! Only a little over a month left till I'm back in the U.S. and I'm really hoping this month slows down!

Barcelona Beach

Pub Crawl