We did it!

After class Thursday morning, I biked down the hill and we took the 5-hr bus ride to NYC. We were there until the next afternoon, when we took a flight from JFK. We stopped by Blossom and realized from the $30 entrees that it was not the same as Blossom Cafe (but the teeny tiny appetizer was very delicious), we went to Babycakes and had great gluten-free desserts, and walked across the Williamsburg bridge and back. Eight hours or so later, we went through Amsterdam customs (very easy and nice, compared to Mexico/Peru) and then finally to Barcelona. It was morning when we arrived there. Since we only had three days, we decided to tough it out and stay awake until night with the exception of a quick nap. The metro was clean, efficient and easy to figure out. We took it to our 4-star hotel, which we never could have afforded without the recession and our great package deal. Then the next three days we went to a variety of places--walked around the streets looking at buildings, went to a famous church called La Sagrada Familia, the best park I have ever seen--Park Guel--designed by Gaudi (he also did the church, but the park was a completely different style--whimsical instead of solemn), saw a great bike system (there are bikes all over that say "bicing" that you can hop on and drop off if you pay for a card--I would have rented one if we had more time), went down to the beach (sunny but freezing water), ate at a great vegan restaurant called Juicy Jones...then Monday morning woke up at 5 am, took a flight back, hung out around Union Square for a few hours, then back on the bus and got back in at 9 or 10 pm.

It was lots of fun and we are much better travelers than we used to be--we were better able to experience and enjoy the trip. Jet leg is not too bad. One mistake was the first day, I drank three americanos straight to stay awake, and slept one hour that night. I don't usually drink coffee so I didn't know that would happen--my heartbeat also got very fast. Kind of scary.