Barcelona, very good times!

So yes, blog #2 is SLOW in coming, no doubt. It's this city! I've never been someplace nearly so interesting with half as much character everywhere you look. And I'm living near tons of people I know and am part of a program that has constantly got some sort of surprise in store for us, so that's all adding up to a lot of interesting times.

I can't believe I last left off in London, but to pick back up, I didn't see much of the city outside of my hotel, Paddington Station (didn't get touristy and buy a bear there or anything...yet), and a couple places between Heathrow and Luton. Then I shot over to Madrid and got to see the Museo del Prado--lots of Diego Velazquez, this cool painting by Jose del Castillo (la pradera de San Isidro), tons of really great paintings and sculptures. Really enough to fill up maybe two full days or so but I only got to spend 3 or 4 hours or so. Sooo much more there to see. Anyway, I then made it over here to Barcelona and have let the good times continue from there.

Our whole program went to the island of Mallorca for 3 days of 'orientation,' where I got to see the cuevas del drach (some really cool cave systems with rivers flowing all throughout) and the Catedral de Mallorca, and a few other interesting spots. Gaudí was actually hired to direct a restoration of the cathedral so there's a quite distinctive portion of the interior that follows his ocean theme (seemingly somewhat out of place I thought, but cool nevertheless). Speaking of Gaudí, the only house that I have seen of his works here in Barcelona to date was the Casa Batlló. Amazing place, every room has more character than you could believe. Slats in the doorframes for airflow, a cozy little pod of a sitting place by an interior fireplace, swirling ceilings that look like whirlpools, and a skeleton-like outer wall facing the street. Just one of the many, of which I will try and see as many as humanly possible over the course of the next 6 weeks or so.

So as we speak I'm out the door, heading to Italy to see Florence and Rome for the next 3 days (just scratching the surface obviously). The Coliseum is right up there near the top of the list, but I won't give too many precursors. We'll see when I get back where the adventure takes me. I'm starting to settle in so expect updates plenty more often from here on in. I'm off to a slow start but I'll get it going next week.

Adiós!