Barcelona & Figueres

I was really lucky that just as homesick-ness began to kick in, one of my best friends from home was able to make a trip to Europe under the guise of a summer study abroad program and was able to stay with me for several weeks before that program began.

With a budget of basically nothing, we decided to trip-plan to the best of our ability and came up with a 10 day trip to 3 European capital cities: Barcelona, Rome, and Paris.

Ryanair: We'll get you there on time and in one piece. Mostly.

We started out by taking a Ryanair flight to Barcelona, and spent a couple of days there. The weather wasn't perfect, but because of the drizzling rain, it was cool enough to enjoy. We saw some sights and took a(n admittedly terrible) walking tour in which the tour guide was Swedish (...um, okay?) and very unenthusiastic about all things "tourist-y" in Barcelona. He also made us learn some terrible dance moves that were "local" and I hated it.

Arc de Triomphe of Barcelona! 

Myself and my companion decided to take a sunrise walk along the beach which was cold and traumatic, because we were not aware that the beach nearest to our hostel was actually a nude beach, apparently frequented by leather-skinned old people who had definitely seen plenty of sun but ne'er a drop of sunscreen.

Sunset beach picnic; photo courtesy of my boo
who is a vampire and does not appear in photographs.

The next day, we decided that we wanted to visit the Salvador Dali theatre--the museum created by Salvador Dali himself and also where his body is buried. This museum is in the town of Figueres, a couple of hours away from Barcelona by train. Off we went, making it there by early afternoon.

Salvador Dali time in Figueres

All those eggs made me nervous, y'all

After wandering around this small town for almost an hour trying to find this museum, we stumbled upon it and began the journey. We seemed to be followed around the museum by more and more older people using their iPads as cameras. If you are this person, I probably dislike you because you are obnoxious.

After touring the entire museum and purchasing a few souvenirs (including a 'melting clock' replica), we made it (barely) back on the train to Barcelona, going to sleep early in preparation for our flight the next day to Pisa, Italy.