Barcelona, Insurance, Vegan.

Ok, it's been a while since I've done anything on the blog recently so I have a lot to tell you Reader! It's a long one so bare with me. I would also like to just say a quick apology to my parents and grandparents who are reading this for my use of swear words in previous posts! Sorry! Lo Siento! Désolée! Tá bron orm! ;)

So firstly, I'm going to start with my trip to Barcelona, Catalonia, con uno de mis amigas mejores, Rachel. After the sudden shock of my laptop being stolen was good to get away from Alicante and see some more of España and more of a chance to practice my Spanish... the latter however was not the case. I was pleasantly and also unpleasantly surprised to discover that Spanish is hardly used in Barcelona (or at least it was in our experience) I found myself having to rely on my knowledge of French, Spanish, Galician and Italian to decipher the street signs and notices, however I got by and it made me look forward to learning Catalan to which I start in two weeks. Marvellous.

Rachel at Park Güell

Me outside La Sagrada Familia

The sights of Barcelona were fantastically breathe-taking! Of course for Rachel and I the main attractions were all the Gaudì archictecture as we have both studied him in School. We saw pretty much everything in regards to Gaudì but I must admit that my favourite was La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell, they were just superb, and the views were wonderful. Whilst we were in Barcelona, there was a famous festival going on throughout the city called La Mercè, which is a catalan word meaning Our Lady, and this festival is a celebration that has been going on since the Middle ages, there is music and dancing and loads of culturally catalan things to see, to which we saw plenty. There were music events going on in every plaça and square! Among other things we saw, we went to see the Picasso museum which gave me a new view on Picasso and I´ve decided that I quite like his work actually. We also started to a journey to the Castle Montjuïc, but did not get there as the cable car workers were on strike and we didn't fancy the walk all the way to the top. We stayed in a great little hostel which Rachel found and the staff were really friendly and it was very clean, which I didn't expect as I'd never stayed in a hostel before now, so Lukas can now add to his list of life experiences "Stayed in a Hostel". Overall the trip was marvellous and I would definitely recommend Barcelona to anyone.

Catherdal of the Holy Cross
and Santa Eulalia, Barcelona.

We arrived back in Alicante a few days later, and Rachel stayed with me and my flatmates in our spare room. The weather was great for her first day here and so we took this opportunity to go to see La Castilla Santa Barbara, which is the castle that oversees all of Alicante and swamps the skyline. The views from the top were amazing and awesome. You could see for miles, and see all the mountains, the sea, the town, even my apartment building. The clear skys made the view even more magnificent. Unfortunately these clear skys did not stay... As you've probably heard in the news some people died in Spain this week due to flooding, and some of you may have heard Alicante was flooded... Well Alicante wasn't flooded but we did certainly have some rain and it poured... and poured... and poured some more. The first rain I'd seen in a month. And it was bloody horrible. So due to this fact, Rachel and I didn't get any beach time which is sooo sad but I'm sure she got over it quickly. And so Rachel went home after 3 days and I'm back to my normal life.

Well not really... Insurance matters where the next of my priorities to sort out. A nightmare to start with, but I would like to thank my great pals, Domino and Simie for letting me use their computers and Printer/scanner for these purposes. All forms have now been sent off and I'm presently just waiting for the check to come in now! Which I can't wait for, I've missed my Laptop and Camera! However, on the news of laptops... Nora (my German flatmate/mi compañera alemana) has TWO laptops with her in Alicante and has lent me one until I can get my hands on my own. Danke Schön Nora! What's quite amusing about this is that the Laptop is in German to which I have absolutely ZERO knowledge of, it looks like this could be fun... I am however learning some German from it, but nothing of use, only things like "to copy" or "click here"... nevertheless I am grateful I have a laptop! However we do still have no internet... but Shhh!! We are presently stealing some from somewhere, no idea where it's coming from but it has no password and very slow... better than nothing.

Now finally, you may all be wondering why on earth it says "Vegan" in the title of this post. Well... I've come to the decision that I'm going Vegan for a month with Nora in an effort to loss weight and be healthier. Now I know what you're all thinking, "you need protein and dairy", which is correct and I don't plan to keep on being Vegan for the rest of my life, just this month as detox and will still eat diary and meat when I go out for meals and when my parents visit, so fear not I will get protein into my system somehow... I'm just a bit gutted that I can't get Cheese (the most staple part of my diet) I'm really missing that. Fortunately, I can still eat Marmite, HALLELUJAH! I'm also back to running again, which I haven't done since I left Britain and it's really nice to go running along to beach when the sun comes up.

Rachel and Gaudì had a great little chat about Moderisme.

Anyway Reader, more later :) Hasta Luego!