Sun and Sangria

I was lucky enough to spend this past weekend with Adam in Barcelona, Spain! We left Angers around noon on Friday and arrived in Barcelona around 6:30 pm. It was a beautiful sunny day and after only being slightly lost we found our way to our hostel. After some down time after the day of traveling we decided to take advantage of the remaining sunlight and went out to explore the town a bit.
We walked to the main square ‘Place de Catalyuna’ and took a couple of pictures and looked around a bit. By then it was about 9 and we decided it was dinnertime. We found a little place on a side street and got some delicious food and a generous jug of Sangria, which helped cool the night off. Perfect first night in Spain.
Day two we were out and about by 10 and decided to go see the Sagrada Familia:
the Cathedral that started being constructed in the mid 1800s and is still undergoing construction today. It was very neat and unlike any other Cathedral I had seen before with such interesting details. We took lots of pictures and headed off to walk La Rambla, the famous street in the middle of downtown Barcelona. It could best be described as the Champs Elysées of Barcelona. There were lots of stores, vendors, street performers, and other visitors like us enjoying some cold beverages at various street side cafés. We walked through a neat little market just off the side of La Rambla that had every fruit and seafood imaginable. It was so colorful!

At the end of La Rambla ran into the Port of Barcelona. Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine and all shapes and sizes of boats were docked. In the distance we could see the sails of dozens of sailboats bobbing on the clear blue Mediterranean. (Dad – the boat definitely needs to make it to the Mediterranean!)
After exploring the port we luckily stumbled upon the beach and took the opportunity to get our feet in the sand and cool them off in the water. It was so tempting to jump in but I decided dry clothes was a better option and there were also a few jellyfish floating around which was terrifying for me. They are sneaky.

Cooled off a little and ready for more we walked to the Parc de Catalyuna where we found some really neat fountains and a statue of a Mastadon. I am not entirely sure what it was doing there as the sign was in a language I do not speak, but it was neat nonetheless. Finally we made our way to the Arc de Triomph of Barcelona and it was back to the hostel for a bit of a rest.We found another good restaurant with more great Sangria and it was time for bed!
Day three we were greeted yet again with clear blue skies and sunshine. We started the morning off by going back down La Rambla and checking out the old Barcelona Cathedral. We wandered the streets for a while after that simply enjoying the weather and then decided to head up the hill and see the Olympic Village from 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. We went up and saw the stadium and all of the main venues. The stadium is still in great condition and it is clear they still use it.
We walked back down the hill and took a long stroll back down one of the main roads in search of a house we had seen in the guidebook. After about an hour we found it, took some pictures, and then it was siesta time!

We had a big lunch that day so we decided to just grab a couple of things at the grocery and call it an early night so that we would be able to wake up for our 530 am shuttle to the airport.
This morning we woke up just fine and made it back to Angers, which greeted us with equally sunny weather! It is supposed to continue to be nice and warm here throughout the week.
This is my last week of classes and then next week is finals. I really do not understand how time passes so quickly but I am not ready for this to come to an end. It has been such an incredible experience and I would not trade it for anything.
I will be hitting the books hard this week so wish me luck!

The Small Things...

Like actually finding an open bakery on a catholic holiday when everything else is closed. The Baguettes were definitely worth the walk and the search.

La Discothèque

So the past two weekends I have become well acquainted with a certain Discothèque in Angers called Le Dome. Last weekend a few of my friends and I just decided to go for fun. A few of us had never been to a nightclub before and decided it was time since we have been here for a few months and our weekends are running out.
Friday night we had a bit of a gathering at a friends house and headed to the club around 1. It was a lot of fun we all just danced until around 330 in the morning and caught a cab home and were back home by around 4.
The atmosphere was a lot of fun and it was just fun to dance. I am pretty sure the last time I really danced was my senior prom - so it was time!
This past Friday was one of our friends, Nicole's, birthday. We all met up at the bars around 11pm and headed to the Le Dome around 1 or 130. This time there was a group of about twenty of us all ready to celebrate Nicole's 21st.

The nice thing about Le Dome is there is a shuttle that takes you from downtown Angers to the outskirts where the club is. It is cheaper than a cab as it only costs a Euro each way. So all twenty of us pile into the bus and are ready to head out. We are loud and excited of course and the security guard on the bus just gave us that look and said "vous êtes tous américains?" (You are all American?) with a quizzical brow....yea he caught us. Then he said "Américains boivent beaucoup" (Americans drink a lot)...a generalization that isn't entirely false. But we all used our best french and convinced him that not all of us were drunk and so he gave the bus driver the OK and we were on our way!
The night was a ton of fun, everyone danced and had a great time. This time we stayed a little later and took the 5am shuttle back to Angers. Jayne and I had our bikes locked up downtown so we unlocked our bikes and started our chilly 530 am journey back home. The sun was definitely starting to peak its head out around 6 when we made it home. We were hungry, as we usually are, and our host mom already had breakfast out so we had some delicious bread and butter and crawled into bed.
Unfortunately our sleep time was limited due to an excursion we had saturday afternoon which I might as well talk about now.
Yesterday we had a tour of the Cointreau factory in Angers. Cointreau is an orange flavored alcohol, much like triple sec, that has been produced in Angers since 1849. The distillery has always been located in Angers and even with the high demand for the liqueur the distillery has remained here in Angers. We toured the facilities and I have never smelled anything so good in all of my life. Cointreau is made from both bitter and sweet orange peels and the whole factory smelled like delicious oranges. We saw where the distillation takes place, where it is bottled, and all of the advertisement campaigns over the years. One interesting thing about advertisement in France is that they are not allowed to have a picture of a man or woman holding the alcohol in the advertisement. It has to be advertised in another way. When they do make adds like that it is for other countries like the United States.
After the tour we had a tasting which was very involved and really interesting. We had a bartender and he had us first try it neat, then with ice, and then in two different cocktails. The first was called CointreauBubbles which is cointreau, sparkling water, and a little lime. The second one was a CointreauPolitan which is a cosmopolitan with cointreau and without the vodka, because our bartender informed us that the French do not like strong cocktails.

After the cointreau museum Jayne and I returned home and attempted to rest up for another night out for our friend Tyler's birthday. We got home, both probably looking like zombies, and our host mom just looked at us and laughed. We had told her on friday about all of the parties we were going to this weekend and she simply said "profitez bien pendant que vous êtes jeunes" (Enjoy it while you are young). After we rested a little we were ready for round two and Annick wished us "Bonne Chance" (good luck) on the way out. We both got home in the late morning again this morning. We are tired but we are enjoying it while we are young and in France.