Winter Break: Rome and Barcelona

Last week I was on winter break so I went to Rome and Barcelona with some friends from the program.

We left Stockholm on Sunday and after a little "flight canceled" incident, we arrived in Rome via Copenhagen. While in Rome we saw the Trevi fountain (in the day and at night), the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and Vatican City. Everything was gorgeous and so detailed it blew my mind.

Trevi Fountain

St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

 While in Rome we also ate lots of pizza, pasta and gelato (7 times in 3 days...). And drank lots of wine. It was raining pretty much the whole time we were there, but it was okay, it was still a beautiful city.

As much as I loved Rome, Barcelona was by far my favorite place I have been in Europe. We saw a lot of the Gaudi designs (Casa Batlló, Sagrada Familia, Park Güell), which i loved, and got to go to the beach! We also went to this fantastic market and bought cactus fruit (because how many people can say they've eaten cactus?), and then a GIANT mango, bread, cheese, and wine for lunch. It was delicious. We did some less cultural but equally fun things as well, like went to Espit, a shots bar where they had hundreds of different shots, including Harry Potty and Boy Scouts, both of which included fire. It was pretty cool.

The only bad thing about Barcelona was that a lot of people kept trying to rip us off (cab drivers, waiters, etc.). It lead to a pretty frustrating last night there, but I think in general it was still a spectacular city and trip.

My favorite part was probably the veiw from the top of Park Güell, because you could see the whole city and the ocean in the distance.

Hanna and I in Park Güell with the city behind us

Janie and I at the beach

The cactus fruit we bought at the market

Casa Batlló

Sagrada Familia

Now I am back in Stockholm with only 5 weeks to go, 7 hours (or less) of sunlight per day and hopefully a few more adventures to come.