Easter break: Barcelona

This year for my Easter break, I did some traveling outside of Asia. I've never been to Europe before, and so I went to Spain with my sister and our friend Sara. I finally have the time and money to go, so I should do it before I move back to the US! Flights from here to London are relatively inexpensive anyway.

We spent about a week in Barcelona, taking a couple of day trips around the area. People keep asking me what my favorite part was, and I guess the best thing was just walking around the city itself and exploring. Barcelona is very modern, trendy, hip, and full of art and culture. It's a beautiful place. We saw the Antoni Guadi works (La Segrada Familia, Parc Guell, Casa Batll0) and took a day trip to see the Salvador Dali museum. We went to the Picasso museum on our first day and noticed the feel of the unique art in Spain as we just walked around. The Salvador Dali museum was one of the most interesting places I've been...Dali himself converted an old theater into a museum, so every space was designed by him.

We also went to a Flamenco dancing show, wandered around the ports of the Meditteranean, and spent a lot of time exploring the city, the cafes, the tapas restaurants, and drinking sangria. On Good Friday, we went to a parade in the old, Catholic tradition. The pictures below will show why this was one of the highlights of the trip...so interesting! We ended up having front row seats to it as well.

It was interesting for me to consider Europe after living and traveling in Asia for a few years now. For one, I expected Spain to feel different somehow, but it felt more like the US than I thought it would. There were more tourists than other times I've traveled. I guess Barcelona is a developed, Western city, and even though I live in a developed, semi-Westernized city, it still had a really different feel to it. We had a great time together and I really enjoyed my trip, but I feel like I got my fill of Western Europe for a little while, at least. I'm not sure where I'll end up next, but I'd rather explore the farther corners of the Earth if I have the opportunity.