Today I enjoyed the pleasure of waking around 6:30 to be at the bust to depart towards Besalú. The bus ride was about 2 hours long and most of the students were sleeping. I was very excited for this trip because I really have never seen anything medieval which I thought would be interesting. Besalú is one of the most interesting and well-preserved medieval towns in Catalunya. The unique buildings and monuments simply explain the beauty of this city. The origins of the city lie in the Castle of Besalu and has been dated back to the 10th century. It was built on top of the hill where the remains of Santa Maria lay, in the late middle ages. Besalu's architectural importance, and its unity make it one of the most important and unique examples of Catalunya's medieval towns.
We walked around and enjoyed a long tour by a Catalan woman who definitely knew what she was talking about. Besalú was a very interesting town and as we strolled through its history-stepped streets I realized that I have never seen anything like it in my life. I took many more pictures but it is rather difficult to post pictures on this sight. I will definitely be uploading all of my pictures on Facebook and possibly another website as well. I will provide the link once I create the sight. Me and a few of the people that I met stopped in one of the small caffes for a croissant and a cappuccino. We sat there for a while and relaxed then got lost trying to find our way back to the bus. Finally we ran into somewhere who knew where he was going and we made it back there. Now we were on the way to Vic, and most of us were pretty tired. Unfortunately it was a very gloomy day, and most of the sights looked much more beautiful with the natural sunlight. It was rainy and pretty chilly all day long which kind of took some fun out of the trip.
The bus ride to Vic was pretty short because I met some more students and talked for most of the ride. When we finally got to Vic we decided to grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant in town. There were about 7 of us and the one aspect I have enjoyed most about my trip has been meeting new people every day. I met some students from New York, Penn State, Washington DC, and California. We all had a good time and ate some local Catalan food, which really wasn't that good. Vic was much different than Besalú and had less history behind it. Vic is still a very important part of Catalunya's culture. After relaxing at the restaurant for some more time we finally made our way back to the bus terminal. I don't think anyone was really looking forward to the tour but it turned out alright. Vic was a very interesting town but much more shops and caffes than Besalú had.
Finally the tour was over and we made our way back to the buses. Everyone was exhausted and I'm almost certain that I was the only one that didn't sleep. Once we got back to Barcelona we had to take a detour because there was a "dangerous" protest in Plaza Catalunya, which we had been advised to avoid. (Barcelona constantly has protests and police usually must intervene. We are alerted by IES whenever there are potentially dangerous situations that we should stay away from). Me and four other friends stopped in a little caffe to have a few drinks and relax before we hoped on the metra to part ways. Once we did, we actually ran into some protesters which was pretty crazy. Finally I arrived to my stop, Maragall and returned to mi casa por la cena.
I ate the usually salad, lentillos con chorizo y jamon por mi sopa, and an excellent dish that was in the shape of a quesidilla but it was made with tortillas, eggs, onions, olive oil, potatos, and a few other ingredients that I was unsure of. This was the best dish my senora has made for me yet. For dessert I had flam vanilla, an orange, and a clementine. Then I relaxed and had some tea before coming to my room to hangout.
I'm debating whether or not to go out tonight, the club event I was planning to attend got canceled. People out here usually don't go out until 12-2 so it's much later than in the US. Usually people will get home at 6 or 7 in the morning which is interesting.
Tomorrow more study abroad programs will arrive, which is cool so I can meet some more people. I'm hoping to go to the city and possibly see La Sagrada Familia, visit Las Ramblas, and go to a tapas bar.
