Madrid

We also traveled to Madrid for 3 days during this trip and it was a pretty cool city even though I like Barcelona better personally.  We hit the main art stops of course, I wouldnt miss either of them for the world.  First we visited the Prado museum and witnessed a spectacular exhibit by Sorolla followed of course by their extensive collection of the masters.  Saw work by Goya, Velasquez, Tintoretto, El Greco, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van der Weyden, Raphael, and Titian.  I'm kind of an art nut if you can't tell.  We also went to the Museo de Reina Sofia and were able to see Picasso's studies leading up to Guernica and Guernica itself as well as plenty of other great works.  Besides art and great food, there was also a worldwide photo exhibition that was going on all over town.  So, seeing as we are studying photography, we definitely hit quite a few of these spots.  At night we went to a concert to see Telephunken and Obli-que, the prior being kind of like a european electro-rock daft punk.  Needless to say it was an awesome show and other than that our Madrid trip was pretty much art galleries the rest of the time.

Amsterdam

Ok, here we are.  Attempting to catch everyone up before I actually get back to the states.

Amsterdam was AWESOME.   We stayed in a 4 star hotel in the city centre so we were wicked close to everything.  We rented bikes for the first two days so we could get around the city a bit easier and it was definitely worth it.  First stop after we got into town was of course a coffeeshop.  We went to one called Abraxas and it was probably our favorite the whole trip.  Good atmosphere, music, and whatnot.  After a couple hours there and some grueling games of chess and checkers we decided to go explore the town a little bit more.  So next up we visited the I amsterdam sign for some awesome touristy pictures of course.  After that we went to the Van Gogh museum which was absolutely amazing, I was able to view Starry Night for like the 5th time in my life and it never ceases to amaze me.  Across the street after 2 and a half hours of van gogh was the House of Bols.  Bols liquor is the company that makes all different types of flavored liquors and liquers.  So we went in to find out all about their taste process and how all the five senses play a part in their creation process.  At the end of the visit we got to go to their awesome bar for a free cocktail and 2 free shots... righteous.  Then we explored the town via bicicletas and probably ended up covering about 10 miles before we decided it was time to go back to another coffeeshop.  That is where the day ends for me haha.  Saturday we went out to get started again and took a wicked sweet boat tour of the canals and then had some tapas and listened to some concerts in the square.  There was a really drunk german guy dancing by himself with some of the weirdest dance moves we had ever seen, so clint decided to pay me to go dance with him.... Needless to say I did and it was hilarious and I'm fairly confident i'm in around 2 dozen foreign youtube videos now.  We ended up meeting a kickass Aussie friend who hung out with us for the rest of the trip.  So the three of us went and coffeeshopped, barred, and clubbed for the rest of the night.  Good times for sure.  Sunday before we left we kind of just took it easy most of the day other than our epic visit to the Heineken brewery.  Coolest tour ever and three beers are included in the price.  At the end of which we were just drinking our beers in the world bar and decided we wanted to stack our glasses.  Apparently noone had ever done this there so it earned us about 3 more beers, good times in Amsterdam...

Under Construction

Expect updated blogs by tomorrow, final presentations are time consuming.  My apologies.

Lo Siento

Alrighty, well first off I'd like to apologize for sucking at this whole blogging thing.  I anticipated having a lot more time to devote to this but i've been mega busy.  So, here is my attempt to catch everyone up.

Classes so far are cake, mega easy, and fairly interesting.  We travel all around the city of Barcelona with our professor in order to catch a better glimpse into the culture and history of the city.  I've taken around two thousand photos so far and i still have over three weeks left here, so it's going to be a little ridiculous by the end of the trip.  The internet here BLOWS so it makes it difficult to upload pictures and do anything else that requires moderate bandwidth.  So if you are ever talking to me on facebook or email or anything just because I didn't answer doesn't mean I bailed, I probably just can't respond and am in the process of cursing the internet.  So bear with me.  

The nightlife here is awesome, as well as the actual schedule of life here.  People usually eat breakfast at like 10, then they have a 3 course meal for lunch in between 1 and 5, then they have a siesta and hang out til a late tapas dinner around 9 or 10.  After all that they hit bars until about 2 and then clubs until about 5, followed by an awesome sunrise on the beaches of Barceloneta.  So needless to say, it is an experience.  I've met people from all over the world in my travels here so far.  Made friends with people from Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, England, and the states.  

Living here is so much fun but it also gets to be a tad expensive.  Worth every penny i'm draining from my bank account though.  

So in Barcelona so far i've traveled pretty much everywhere and been to loads of museums.  Personal favorites were the Picasso museum and the Joan Miro Foundation.  We also went to the olympics museum which was pretty freaking sick.

Getting ready to go out for the night tonight though.  Tomorrow I'll try to catch up more, Amsterdam and Madrid still need to be explained!  

Hasta luego!