I started to write this whole fleshed-out post for my Montserrat adventure today but then I was suddenly talking about the public transportation system in Barcelona for like five paragraphs and it just didn’t feel right, so I decided to start over. I’ll tell you more about public transportation and why I don’t trust buses later :) Basically I had such a great time at Montserrat today and am thrilled I get to go back with the program in April. I knew I wanted to do something adventurous and fun today, but had not thought about what that would be until 2:00am this morning (Chat helped me plan and figure out logistics as my brainpower was falling fast), so I am proud that I woke up on time, stuck with it, and made it happen, because I can imagine an alternate reality where I didn’t and that would be very sad.

Although I didn’t see the Basilica or the Stairway to Heaven- the two main reasons people visit the mountain-, I saw so, so much more. I hiked from the town at the base of the mountain all the way to the highest point on the mountain (which I think might also be the highest point in Barcelona, or at least it appeared so from up there). There were definitely a few other hikers who did the same thing, but honestly I think most people who visit barely hike. The typical structure of a day in Montserrat might look something like this: arrive at Monistrol de Montserrat, the town at the base of the mountain, and take the gondola or funicular up to the Basílica. Explore the Basílica, grab lunch at the cafeteria nearby, and soak in the views and maybe take a quick hike around before buying ANOTHER 11 Euro ticket to take the gondola or funicular back down. I’m not hating on this itinerary at all, but for me personally, I was much more interested in exploring the mountain itself and getting lost amongst its nature and trails. That was why I committed to using my own two feet as my only form of transportation for the entire time I was up there. If it was going to be an epic adventure, it had to be 100% powered by me.

My itinerary ended up looking like this: Walk and keep walking. In more detail… I got off the metro at Monistrol de Montserrat and spent 10 minutes photographing this amazing mountain from behind the fence of the train station as I slowly remembered that places other than gigantic chaotic cities also exist in the world. I don’t know how many times I repeated some combination of “This is so beautiful. OMG It’s so beautiful here. I love this. I have to go hiking more often” as I walked through town and to the start of the trail, but it was a lot. There were three other groups of hikers that started at almost the same time as me, but I overtook them all hehe. They gave you no gentle introduction to the path- it was an immediate straight shot up. I climbed SO. MANY. STAIRS. Its not even funny, but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking (in the literal way, not the cliche way). It only got better after I arrived to the Basílica- the hike from there to Sant Jordí, the highest point on the mountain, was by far the most beautiful. And to think that 99% of tourists miss that! I will say that this section somehow had even more stairs than the initial ascent, but that does make sense if you’re hiking to the top of the mountain. Honestly it was more of a stair master session than a hike. But SO WORTH IT when you pop out at the top and are faced with a contender for one of the three most pretty things you have ever seen in your entire life. I could have sat up there forever just looking out over the landscape, but the wind was going absolutely insane and making it freezing cold.

I did meet someone at the top after trading phones to take pictures of each other, and we ended up hiking most of the way back down together. He’s studying abroad in France and randomly decided to come on this hike just like I did after seeing the mountains out of the airplane window. We saw a mountain goat family- another thing that you only get the chance to see if you hike up to the top- and hiked up to a bunch of little outlooks along the way. It was perfect timing- I got the solo, self-directed adventure I’d been craving and then just as I was starting to feel like it might be nice to have someone to hike with, I had someone to hike with!

I spent almost two hours hiking down from the mountain as the sun was beginning to set because I couldn’t find the way back to the Monastery and then, once I finally did, the descent seemed to have increased in length since that morning. By the end I was running down the (very rocky and treacherous) path with basically no light left to see where I was stepping. I managed to avoid any evil rocks or camouflaged snakes (my two main worries), and if you were to ask me how many times I almost sprained my ankle falling over a rock, I would answer at least 52. After my serene day in the mountains I was instantly stressed about the metro again once I got back into town. I didn’t technically have anywhere to be by a certain time (I had told Cristina that there was no way I was going to make it on time for dinner), but the metros out here only come every 30 minutes, so missing the next one would’ve been a huge bummer. I made it with plenty of time and transferred to my middle metro and my last metro without a hitch (but still with lots of stress), and was home by 9:30 for dinner!

So yeah basically it was a great day and if you were ever thinking about hiking Montserrat, DO IT! The hike will be way more fun and enriching than simply seeing the Monastery, and those views will haunt you in a good way for days and months and years.

More pictures to come later. I am just really tired and must go to sleep because we have to get up early tomorrow :)

Museums were free today! Hashtag first Sunday of the month :)

Picasso Museum First stop! I read every single plaque and description in the entire museum.

Museu Etnológic I de Cultures del Mon Very classic museum style. Lots of cool art from around the world.

Museu d’Història de Catalunya My favorite of the four. There was so much to do and interact with and such cool displays.

Museu d’Història de Barcelona Honestly I don’t know if this one should even count. I spent most of the time I was there trying to call US Bank.

Today (as in Saturday February 28th, when I began this post) the program was so kind as to take us on a day trip to the Dali Museum and the medieval town of Besalú. Natalie and I left the house at 8:28 and metro-ed to Plaza Espana to meet the bus at 9:00. It was a two hour ride to Figueres (the birth and death place of Dalí and where his museum is), but that was fine with me because I had plenty of time to talk to people and sleep. We got there at 11 and were able to recognize Dali’s Theatere-Museum instantly after stepping off the bus. It was this giant pink building with big yellow decorations (I don’t know how else to describe it) stuck to every wall and ginormous eggs crowning the edge of the roof. There were divers with baguettes on their heads and fake Oscar trophies added to the mix. If it sounds bizarre and a little crazy (and more than a little hard to describe), that’s because it was!

We met our tour guide a few minutes later- she was great and it was really helpful to have someone to explain the significance and double meaning behind everything (trust, everything Dali did had like five layers of meaning behind it). She showed us some notable paintings including the bread basket and a bunch inspired by his wife Gala, a few crazy optical illusions (there was one that you could only see if you looked through your phone camera!), and some wacky but really cool gallery rooms. It’s called a theatre-museum because it was originally a theatre, but Dali kept that sentiment alive by making the space so much more than a museum. It’s sculptures, displays, and hidden meaning with museum elements showered in. Every room is a theatrical experience: ordinary objects and ideas juxtaposed together, bathtubs and boats hanging from the ceiling, and faces made out of furniture that can only be seen from a particular angle.

We learned a lot about Dali himself and even got to walk on top of him (he requested to be buried under the museum!). Although most people can agree he was un poco loco, he was a good kind of loco. He never failed to make life interesting and to make anything that interested him an obsessive part of his life. He lived in the space between dream and reality, and our guide explained that his wife was so important to him because she was able to ground him. After she died he lost his ability to create and spent the last years of his life living in the house attached to his museum and reveling at his popularity as he watched the crowds lining up to go inside. He was a great, but never known for being particularly humble. I also found it funny that the famous melting clocks piece, The Persistence of Memory, is not even at this museum but at the MOMA in New York, and is scarcely bigger than a postcard.

Quite sadly we didn’t get any time to explore after the tour ended. We got right back on the bus for another 30 minute ride to Besalú. Everyone was confused when the bus pulled into this tired looking town off the side of the road, but its medieval charm became apparent after we left the abandoned parking lot and walked into the heart of the city. We had two hours to have lunch and explore on our own (I don’t understand why they never give us more time in these towns- with two hours you always spend the majority of it at lunch). Natalie, Ellie, Kieran, and I ate together at an Italian restaurant. I had a cheese pizza which has been my go-to meal out in Spain (I didn’t realize how much I would miss pizza… meaning I must eat a lot of it at home. Honestly I didn’t expect to miss it at all!). After lunch we strolled through town and across the medieval bridge on which I commented ill-intentioned invaders had probably been killed hundreds of years ago. We walked down to the water and met an adorable duck family and wandered into a few cute shops. I may have found a few cute gifts! We walked past this frozen yogurt place as we were leaving and somehow were just magnetically pulled towards it- it looked so delicious there was no way we could not go! There were two remarkable things about this yogurt shop: It really was frozen yogurt, not ice cream by a different name. It was basically like we were eating a fruit and yogurt bowl! That was the other thing- they had so many toppings including fruit, fruit sauces, chocolate, chocolate sauces, and everything in-between, and you could add as many as you wanted for no extra cost! Made my day.

We were speed walking back to the bus because, thanks to getting sidetracked by literally everything, we were running quite late. Due to our inhuman speed, we almost didn’t realize that we zipped by our trip leaders and a bunch of other students finishing up their lunch! It was already past the time we were supposed to leave and they were leisurely enjoying their dessert- honestly a perfect reminder of how time works in Spain (and great proof that we needed more time to explore because all that group did was eat lunch). We got to join them in leisurely enjoying our dessert, and then shopping even more while we waited for them to be ready!

It was quite a fun day and one of my favorite- maybe my favorite?- day trips so far. It’s so nice of our program to plan these excursions because I’m fairly confident I never would have visited the Dalí Museum if it wasn’t for today!

WOW. Just had the lemon pie cookie from El Desván bakery (they call themselves a bakery but all they make is cookies). Genuinely one of the best cookies I have ever eaten. I’ve been wanting to go ever since I saw a picture of one of their massive cookies online and I decided last night that today was going to be the day. The entire experience was great: I walked over as soon as I was free from my internship, stood in there for probably five minutes (no exaggeration) trying to decide which flavor to get (Kinder Bueno, Lotus, Nutella, Lemon, Macadamia nut, Ferrero Rocher, Peanut Butter, and so many others) while the lady patiently stared at me and waited, and then walked over to a nearby park for the experience of a lifetime. It was a (giant) lemon flavored cookie with a half tangy, half sweet lemon filling and white chocolate chips with meringue piled three inches high on top. Because it was so big, the cookie itself was underbaked and almost gooey- exactly how I like them! It was so good that I will openly tell you I was mumbling to myself the entire time about how exquisite it was. I can’t upload the picture right now, but I definitely will the next time I do a photo dump. I honestly wan’t very focused on getting a good photo anyways, as that meant I had to set the cookie down :)

What is Wednesday is such a fitting title, because what a Wednesday it was! Well, you won’t have to wonder anymore because I am here to wring out any worries and… tell you! I give up on the Ws.

My alarm went off at 8:00 and I was out the door by 8:30 meaning I was able to calmly walk down the street to school- I even had time to stop for a ham and cheese croissant for breakfast!- and walked into my classroom at 9:15 exactly. Couldn’t have been more perfect (or impressive if you ask me, because the last time that happened was the first day). Now, of course I had a good reason for being on time- we had our midterm exam. It ended up being super easy. Like, and this is not meant as an insult, about the level I would expect from a fifth grade reading comprehension quiz. The multiple choice section was directly copy and pasted from the practice kahoot she gave us to review, and I could’ve written books about the short answer questions with how much I’d drilled the answers into my brain. If you’ve got any questions about los métodos de preservación y porque las patas traseras son mejor, Ferran Adrià and his world-renowned El Bulli, or the first chapter of the novel Circe, I got you.

The exam ended at 11:00 (although I just described to you how easy it was, never fear: I was the last one to finish by a good long ways and still scrambling to finish writing as time ran out). By the time I packed my things up and left it was 11:05, and I had a 20 minute metro ride between me and my next class, a field study for Cross-Cultural Psych at El Casal dels Infants. We had to be there by 11:30, but out of curiosity I asked Google Maps how long of a walk it would be. As soon as I read 38 minutes I was dashing down the stairs and running red lights- With a little running I could surely fit Google Map’s fat 38 minutes into the 28 I had. I made it on time, and my professor led us inside the center and to a classroom for a very intellectually stimulating conversation with a psychotherapist who works there. She talked a bit about her career and explained how she creates this super complicated family tree diagram for all of her patients to better visualize their situation and relationships. Then she walked us through the diagram of a Moroccan family she works with, confounding us with just how complicated things can get. It kinda made me wish I was studying psych.

As soon as class got out I was rushing once again, this time hopping on the metro towards one of my favorite cafes near school called Boldú. I got a chicken sandwich which was a delicious lunch but also my ticket to being able to sit in the cafe and study for two hours. I claimed a giant table in the back where I could spread my backpack and papers out and started madly transcribing all of my notes from my sustainable development class onto an exam cheat sheet (it was midterm day today) onto a fresh sheet of paper in the smallest handwriting I could still read. My heart was pounding the entire time because I didn’t think I was going to get through them all in just two hours but somehow I did! Although it would’ve been a better lesson if I didn’t finish: maybe don’t leave the most important things until literally the last minute. Maybe. It honestly served me well, though, because everything was very fresh in my brain for the actual test! I bullet pointed, diagrammed, and mind-mapped like crazy just like he wanted us to, and I’m pretty confident I turned out an exam that my professor is going to enjoy reading/deciphering.

With a throbbing hand (so much writing) I left the classroom and met up with my friend Gracie to go pick up our ceramics pieces from a workshop we did a few weeks ago with the program. It was a relief to finally be able to walk normally again and not have to think about any more midterms. I like my piece, but it turned out a bit streaky, like how it might look if a little kid just slaps paint on and doesn’t pay any heed to layering. I blame the fact that we only had an hour to paint our entire piece! Honestly, finishing was an accomplishment. I did really like my mini giraffe that I pained just for fun in the 30 seconds before we had to start cleaning up. Somehow he has one coat of paint and is less streaky than my other piece.

Gracie and I wandered around for a bit and she bought tape and bread before catching the metro back home. I wanted to walk, and I knew that el Desván Bakery was nearby, so we parted ways and I went off in search of a gigantic cookie. I was going to need a snack before dinner anyways, so I just called it a little celebration for myself for finishing midterms :) I tried the Happy Hippo flavor- chocolate chip cookie stuffed with white chocolate hazelnut filling (like a Kinder Bueno) and topped with Kinder Bueno pieces in the shape of a hippo. I’d been really wanting to try this one because I can’t get enough of anything Kinder Bueno flavored, but I think I preferred the lemon pie one I tried yesterday.

Next it was time for the trek back home. I ended up following almost the exact same route I’ve walked for the past three days now (I keep starting from almost the same location). I popped in my Air Pods- Mumford and Sons Prizefighter, of course, complimented with a little Jonah Kaegan, this new guy I found out about who I’m worried may be a Noah Kahan copycat but is nonetheless pretty good- and enjoyed the relative warmth and bustle of the streets.

We had dinner a few minutes after I walked in the door, and it was one of my favorites: Chicken and vegetable gnocchi. I could eat that every night. Tonight we also had these chicken and veggie wonton things and bread, and oranges for dessert.

That brings me to right now. Writing this blog post is procrastinating doing what I really need to do, which is work on a presentation I have to give in my psychology class next Monday. As I’m going to be in Switzerland over the weekend (oh yeah, if you didn’t know that I’m going to be in Switzerland over the weekend so there you go) and there’s absolutely no chance I’m going to get anything done while I’m there, I really need to finish it by tomorrow night. It’s just really unappealing when the first step is reading a 20 page academic journal article to THEN create a presentation on. But don’t fear- I chose my slide template and the title page is 100% complete!

I am also attaching some random photos here. You’ve got (in order): My lemon pie cookie from yesterday, a quaint street I walked down, the one picture I took inside El Casal dels Infants, my sandwich and the bakery where I studied, my cheat sheet (don’t you dare copy it), and my Happy Hippo cookie from today (adorable I know). Be on the lookout next week for some crazy Switzerland adventure updates! I’m not prepared- eek! If any of you know what’s coming, you know what I mean. Anyways, adios!

An idea that stuck with me from class this week was the fish out of water concept that we revisited from the first day. In particular, I found this impactful: “When you’re in your water you know how to swim really well. But who do you become when you’re not in that environment any more? Your routines and actions are going to change meaning your purpose and, undoubtedly, your identity will too.” This was something I thought a lot about when I first moved to college, but in the opposite way. I was intent on constructing a new identity for myself and knew that I would naturally become associated with the clubs and activities I participated in. By my second year I was a member of the running and rowing club and worked at the climbing wall and as a SOAR leader. Since then these things have become my water- they start and end my response anytime I am asked to describe who I am; they give me a purpose. Moving to Barcelona completely detached me from this purpose. Right now I don’t have any jobs or belong to any clubs. The superficial layers have been stripped away, leaving my purpose bare for everyone to see… It’s just me! This realization is exciting and fun and terrifying at the same time: Without all that extra stuff latched on, what does “Hi, I’m Mazie!” even mean anymore?

• 4:35 - Alarm goes off. All Mazie wants to do is go back to sleep. Sad.
• 4:53 - Walk out the door of the hostel. Refill our waters.
• 5:10 - Bolt car to bus stop
• 5:22 - Bus stop to Zürich HB train station
• 5:37 - Spend a while being really confused, finally ask a train conductor and the helps us find our platform.
• 6:02 - Train leaves to Bern. Didn’t realize we were sitting in first class and almost had to pay an 100 CHF fee. Whoops.
• 6:58 - Train arrives to Bern. We walk to Platform 10 to board the next train.
• 7:04 - Train leaves to Interlaken.
• 8:00 - Arrive in Interlaken. First destination is the hostel to drop our bags off in their “storage room”.
• 9:00 - Walk over to a nearby bakery for a light breakfast. I got a delicious pretzel bun.
• 9:30 - Walk into the city center, shop around, stop for coffee at Dunkin Donuts
• 10:00 - Stop at this really expensive and fancy chocolate shop but of course I’m gonna get chocolate. The Dubai chocolate here was amazing.
• 11:30 - Photo shoot at this cute bridge with incredible views.
• 12:00 - Stop at Toblerone and Lindt stores. More and more and more chocolate (and free samples!)
• 12:30 - Brief rest sit at a bench
• 1:00 - Long rest sit in a park watching paragliders land and talking about politics, power, and the history of Barcelona (and practicing our Spanish and eating a lot, lot, lot of really amazing chocolate)
• 3:00 - McDonald’s for a late lunch (don’t worry I didn’t get anything)
• 3:30 - Stop at the Edelweiss gift shop again. I bought some people some things…
• 4:00 - Walk back to hostel to check in. Everyone else takes a quick nap, I take a walk and sing (because finally there’s no one to see me being loud and obnoxious).
• 5:10 - Walk to a really pretty lake to watch the sunset. Sky was very foggy/not clear, but we skipped rocks, had more good conversation (this time about car accidents), and took quite a few pictures despite the lackluster colors in the sky.
• 7:00 - Walk back to hostel. Includes (probably illegally) climbing a fence (ish).
• 7:30 - Drink water, colect more layers
• 7:45 - Walk to bus stop
• 7:50 - Bus to train station
• 8:00 - Train to a lake with the gigantic floating boat that we selected as our dinner spot (they have.a very nice restaurant on board however it is only Gracie and Mya who eat because everything is insanely expensive. The water was tasty though).
• 9:45 - Catch the bus to the train station.
• 9:50 - Stop in a small supermarket for Natalie and I to buy dinner right before they close (we kinda didn’t think about the fact that things may not be available to us 24/7 in a small ski town.
• 10:10 - Walk back to hostel. Commotion in the hall
• 10:30 - Get ready for bed
• 12:00 - Almost ready for bed

Goodnight!

Again another rapidfire timeline because I am attempting to get more than 5 hours of sleep :)

• 4:35: Somebody’s alarm goes off and I wake myself up thinking its morning. Sigh.
• 7:00: Alarm goes off, pack backpack
• 7:27: Leave room
• 7:30: Throw backpack in secure storage aka hostel basement
• 7:32: Grab breakfast. The hostel had a free, home cooked breakfast that was my favorite meal of the trip. I grabbed a giant hunk off freshly baked bread, cheese, and cucumbers.
• 7:34: On the road- bye bye hostel!
• 7:51: Meet our paragliding instructors at the park
• 8:00: Hop in the van and drive 20 minutes up the mountain. We randomly draw for instructors. Mazie gets incredibly nervous the closer we get.
• 8:25: Five minute walk through a somewhat snowy forest to the hill we’re going to be jumping off (it was more like running until you lifted into the air but its cooler if I call it jumping off the side of the mountain). My guide Lea got everything ready while I put on more layers, looked over the side of the hill, and finished getting properly nervous and excited.
• 8:45: 1-2-3 Take off!!! It really was not even that scary and it was SO FUN OMG! I will have to write another post about paragliding, but I can say it made me want to get my pilot’s license.
• 9:05: Land in the park. From the experience of the passenger, landing is no biggie at all- you kinda just stand up.
• 9:10: Caved and spent $50 to buy the photos of me in the air. All my friends were doing it…
• 9:15: Walked over to Dunkin’ Donuts with Gracie and Natalie for coffee while Mya left to go paragliding (she booked a later time)
• 9:40: Watched Mya land. Exquisitely done!
• 10:00: Walk around town a little bit more.
• 10:30: Mya and I split off for a hike! We began our quest to Harder Kulm wearing three layers each. Five minutes in we were both down to our t-shirts and sweating. It was absolutely beautiful and very much uphill. The highlight was encountering a natural drinking fountain part of the way up right when we were about to wisp away of thirst
• 1:00: We’re still not at the top and are wondering if we should turn around because we need to be back at the hostel in less than two hours. But that makes us sad because there’s a cheap fondue restaurant at the top with beautiful views. We befriend this guy on the trail who tells us that the restaurant is closed for the season and the funicular is also closed, so we had to get a move on down the mountain.
• 2:10: It took us less time to get down than we thought. We randomly run into our new friend at the base of the trail again and ask him for a fondue restaurant recommendation to which his answer is all of them are tourist traps and suck.
• 2:30: We find a place serving fondue and get some anyways. It’s quite insanely expensive but at least they let us share one (they’re usually very strict about prices per person)! The fondue itself was pretty good but the bread left something (many things, actually) to be desired. I kept wishing we would’ve saved fresh hostel bread…
• 3:00: Walk back to the hostel
• 3:30: Grab our stuff and refill water bottle
• 3:40: Insanely full bus to the train station. You know when you cram toys or books into a closet and slam the door closed so they don’t fall out but the next time you open the closet you forget that you did that and everything comes crashing out? That was what was happening on this bus, and we were the last toys haphazardly thrown on top.
• 4:05: Arrive at Interlaken Ost. Walk to train.
• 4:15: Train departs, heading to Basel. I pull out my laptop and work on the presentation I have to give in class tomorrow that I am not done with, of course. We invent SIDES syndrome. If you’re confused you should’ve been there.
• 6:15: Arrive in Basel. We all instantly like it here.
• 6:30: Bus to the Euro Airport. We had no idea beforehand, but the airport is technically in France so it was all of our first times visiting France together!
• 6:50: Arrive at the Euro Airport. Scan my location just to make 1000% sure there’s no Airport POAP here.
• 7:15: Get through security and find a nice corner to sit in. My laptop is back out and never have I been so appreciative of good, fast, clean airport WiFi.
• 9:00: We board the flight. Gracie and I are sitting next to each other with Mya and Natalie one row away!
• 9:15: The takeoff usual: AirPods in, Twenties game out
• 10:45: Land in Barcelona 25 minutes ahead of schedule! The Swiss will make sure you are there on time.
• 11:15: After a wild goose chase of random airport signs, we all hop on the Renfe. Natalie and I transfer to the L5 and then the L7, getting off the train a few minutes before it closed for the night.
• 12:00: Back to Cristina’s!!
• 12:15: Decided to save my “un sandwich” for breakfast tomorrow, but I had a banana and unpacked.
• 1:00: Sat on my bed furiously trying to finish my presentation that is now technically late
• 2:00: Realized I could not form sentences in my head anymore and couldn’t even read the words I was typing so I decided to just go to bed and wake up early to finish. Of course by the time I brushed my teeth and everything I felt awake again and couldn’t fall asleep, so I got a few more minutes of work in.

That’s it for Switzerland! One of my favorite trips so far! What can I say, the land of cheese, chocolate, and paragliding never disappoints.

Well this one is super after-the-fact, but better late than never and I don’t want to make the first day of our Switzerland adventure sad by not giving it any recognition.

• 3:30am: Alarm goes off. Once again, Mazie must get up even as everything wants to drag her back into bed. Throw the last items into my backpack.
• 3:50: Out the door
• 3:53: Catch the night bus to Plaza Espanya.
• 4:15: Catch the A17 bus to Airport Terminal 1.
• 5:00: Arrive at airport.
• 5:30: Through security, meet Mya and McDonald’s and wait for Gracie. Eat breakfast (whether that’s McDonald’s or the random snacks in your backpack)
• 6:15: We realize that we should probably head to our gate because the plane is boarding.
• 6:40: Make it to the gate just in time!
• 6:55: Flight leaves.
• 8:55: Arrive in Zurich
• 9:15: Linger at the airport while we figure out a plan. Decide to buy the Zurich card which allows us free public transportation, free or discounted access to many museums around the city, and discounts at select restaurants.
• 10:00: Catch a train into the city center.
• 10:30: Visit the National Museum which was conventionality located right outside the train station and was such a cool museum! I’m really glad we went. The design was very Swiss- simple but effective, hands-on but clean, and they had some really niche exhibits like fans and accessories, a whole bunch of crazy rings from different places around the world (that one was a group favorite), and exhibits covering the historical and current political and environmental landscape in Switzerland.
• 11:30: Walk over to the old town. Walk along the main street in search of a coffee shop. Natalie, Mya, and Gracie got iced lattes at this one place where we (sort of) made a new friend, and then we went to a second coffee shop where Mya, Gracie, and I got a feta and spinach quiche kinda thing for lunch. Of course we forgot to use the discount from the Zurich card- oh well.
• 1:30: Mya left for a tour at the Lindt House of Chocolate (I was tempted but tickets were quite expensive and I have already had the privilege of sticking my spoon under their chocolate fountains). The rest of us continued walking around the old city and shopping.
• 2:30: 30 minute trek by train to our hostel. Free access to public transportation was great, but no one ever checked our tickets anyways :)
• 3:00: Check in to hostel. The room took a little adjusting to as there was nowhere to lock anything up and no curtains. I guess Switzerland is just a very secure place.
• 3:45: Bus to the Museum Reitberg. Free access again thanks to the Zurich card! Was cool to walk around and see art and sculptures from all over the world, and we got to make our own Japanese postcards!
• 4:50: Walk over to the FIFA Museum. Mya rejoined us :) The National Museum was really cool, but the FIFA quickly stole the prize for my favorite museum of the day. Their exhibits were beautiful, really cool, and highly interactive. I set a new high score for this soccer dancing battle thing, and the last room (which we very sadly only had like 10 mins to play around in) was basically a human-sized soccer arcade! They had mini games like soccer pinball, shoot out, dribbling, hit the target, and once you created a player you could go around to the different stations and try your hand at the games. There was a line for everything so I didn’t get to try all the games, but it was a lovely set up and I could’ve spent much longer in there.
• 6:00: FIFA museum closes and we head to the big park overlooking the city. I remember catching our fondue ride here last time (I think)! We watched the water and these adorable ducks as it started to get dark.
• 7:00: Wandered back into the city towards the Pandora store so Natalie could take a look at the charms.
• 7:30: Randomly stumbled across this pretzel sandwich street vendor on the way which ended up being the perfect dinner, and for a much cheaper price than we were going to find anywhere else! I got a lettuce-mozarella-tomato sandwich and it was genuinely so good and inspired me to look into pretzel sandwiches in the future.
• 8:00: Natalie ends up buying a cute box of chocolates charm!
• 8:15: We end up in a Swatch store which makes me remember my old Swatch and marvel at the really fun, chunky ones on display in the store. Gracie caves and buys a pretty green swatch!
• 9:00: After some more aimless wandering, we decide to grab a bottle of wine (consumed by all but yours truly) and head back to the park for some deep conversation.
• 9:30: Although it was really dark and really cold (especially sitting next to the water), the deep conversation we had on the park bench was one of my favorite parts of the trip and was a great bonding moment.
• 10:30: Caught a bus back to the hostel because we (mainly Gracie and I) were freezing and extremely tired.
• 11:00: Back at the hostel, got water (sooo thirsty), and got to bed as quickly as possible. We got to listen to the dad who was also sharing our room talk to his kids on face time which was really cute.
• 11:45: Legit go to bed (destined for a night of about 4 hours of sleep, but that was at least an improvement from the night before!)

I really don’t like sausage. Like, not at all. Maybe I’m the crazy one, but something about chunks of leftover meat and fat collected from factory floors and stuffed into a clear intestinal casing just doesn’t sound too appetizing. Most of the time things I sweep up from the floor go into the garbage, so by my logic it would be fair to call sausage another form of garbage. I bet the Latin word for garbage was something like “saucsus”. Well anyways, guess what I spotted on my plate when I sat down for dinner tonight? Three long glistening (the intestinal casing makes for a really nice glimmer) speckled sausages. To add insult to injury, my roommate Natalie is currently on a week long trip in France so my plate was the center of attention; I had nowhere to hide and no other option (other than break my host mom’s heart, make the situation real awkward, and waste a poor pig’s life) than to eat the sausage.

The longer and the larger they are, the worse they are. These were probably 3-4 inches long and on the skinny side, so I had hope that they might be manageable if I really just dove in and embraced the garbage-loving part of me that surely had to exist somewhere. The moment I cut into the first one, however, I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. I had to saw at that casing to get it to snap and I didn’t notice the giant fat blobs until they were bouncing and squeaking between my teeth. But I put on a smile and tried to focus on how good of a blog post this experience was going to be. When the inevitable “do you like it?” came a few minutes later, I nodded and responded enthusiastically, speeding up my pace and controlling my face to make sure I didn’t accidentally resemble Emily Hobbs eating maple syrup spaghetti for breakfast in Elf. I was sawing, stabbing, and chewing like a lumberjack turned racecar driver. In fact, I probably looked like I’d been craving some good old sausage and no doubt my host mom made a mental note to serve it again soon.

I made a pact with myself that I only had to eat the middle of each piece. I could cut the ends off and leave them to the side (that would be weird, right? It would be like cutting the crust off of toast). Although they looked slightly more flavorful, that was where I assumed any extra casing would be hiding and I wasn’t about to take any chances. I discreetly shoved any fat bits I could spot into the same pile and covered it with my napkin when I finished. After washing my mouth out with the rest of my dinner (the beans, veggies, and bread I had all ‘saved for last’), I walked my plate over to the the garbage and returned those sausage bits back where they belong.

A few aesthetic Switzerland photos! My friends thought I was crazy for photographing my Lindt chocolate ball so intensely 😆.

And… a taste of what I’ve been up to since Switzerland! I’ll give a bit of context:

• Photo 1: Me in a shop between classes. I don’t remember which shop.
• Photo 2: I’m pretty sure this was later that same day. I randomly stumbled across one of Gaudí’s iconic houses while walking around el Barrio Gótico!
• Photo 3: To give you a sense of just how magical it is to walk into El Desván Bakery. Pictured front and foremost are the Linder Bueno and Nutella cookies/mounds of joy. I snapped this one during the HOUR I ended up waiting for my lemon pie cookie (I was told it would be 20 minutes until they were ready…)
• Photo 4: Me with my Turkish kebab at Parc de la Ciutadella on Wednesday. I like this one because I just look so happy!
• Photos 5-7: More from Parc de la Ciutadella. I’d been wanting to go for a while, but finally did it on Wednesday afternoon to finish an assignment for my sustainable development class. As you can see it was so, so beautiful and I must return.
• Photo 8: A street.
• Photo 9: My 99 Cheesecake pic from this week, of course. Sauces were Lotus and Kinder Bueno, toppings were Lacasitos (basically m&ms).
• Photo 10: Me leaving my house this morning prepared for a day of who knows exactly what, but something that was going to include running and walking.
• Photos 11, 12, 14: Sights I saw on my run/walk. I managed to exit Barcelona proper and got to see some of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Badalona, which are two immediate suburbs.
• Photos 13: Special for Friday the 13th! Ooooo! An ancient cool looking ship I passed that seemed photo-worthy.
• Photos 15-16: Streets of Santa Coloma de Gramenet (At least I think that’s where I was).

Hola! Para los que no quieren practicar su español, pueden usar el Google Translate :). Mientras que estoy en España, parece que debo escribir algunas blog posts en español!

Hoy fui al servicio de Misa Internacional en la Sagrada Familia. Es una oportunidad especial por does razones: Puedes atender una misa en unas de las iglesias mas famosos de todo el mundo, y puedes entrar al iglesia sin pagar (aunque no están felices si intentas sacar fotos o explorar fuera de tu silla). Aprendí de mis errores la ultima vez que intenté ir (no había espacio porque llegué en un espíritu optimista 5 minutos antes de que empezó) y llegué a las 7:45- mas que una hora temprano. Me admitieron, pero fue bien que no llegué mas tarde porque solo admitieron 20 o 30 personas mas después que yo.

Fue una experiencia muy bonita y estoy feliz de haber despertado tan temprano en un domingo para ir. La única parte desagradable de la experiencia fue sentando en mi silla para 50 minutos esperando para que el servicio empezara. Nos dejaron entrar unas pocas minutos después de las 8 pero el servicio no empezó hasta las 9, así que quedó mucho tiempo para mi sentar y leer mi libro de Kindle. Hubiera explorado el interior de la iglesia y sacado fotos pero las guardas se pusieron enojados cuando salías de tu asiento.

Jamás había visto el interior de la Sagrada Família; solamente he podido imaginar lo que pudiera tener basado en el extravagante que es el exterior. No me decepcionó! El altar fue decorado y iluminado con velas, había estatuas por todas partes, y el techo tan alto y intrincado fue muy impresionante. Pero mi parte favorito, sin duda, eran las ventanas. Eran tan grandes y muy, muy altas- casi llegan del suelo al techo- y de todas las colores del arcoíris. Los diseños fueron suficiente impresionantes, pero cuando filtraban la luz según el arcoíris fue una belleza de otra planeta. Tomé todas las fotos que podía antes de que las guardas me empujaron por la puerta.

Después de la misa salí de la Sagrada Familia para encontrar la calle llena de gente gritando. Tuve suerte de estar en el lugar perfecto al tiempo perfecto para ver los corredores del Maratón correr al lado de el Sagrada Familia! Entré en el muchedumbre y empecé a gritar y animar a los corredores con los demás. Fue divertido simplemente mirar mientras tantas personas pasaron. Había un letrero que dijo que los corredores habían ido 14km (8 millas). Casi un tercio del maratón!

Decidí que debía caminar hacia Arc de Triomf, donde completó la carrera, para ver algunos de los corredores élites terminar. No llegué a tiempo para ver las atletas mas élites, pero vi muchas atletas muy buenas (porque cada participante era buena!) cruzar la linea de meta. Entonces encontré otro calle donde continuó la ruta (todavía estaba relativamente temprano en la carrera; la gran mayoría de las atletas no habían terminado) y decidí seguir los corredores en la acera para sentir mas como una parte de la carrera. No aburrí de caminar y tres horas mas tarde, crucé la linea de meta con las ultimas corredores (quienes que, a este punto, hubieron transformado en caminantes también).

Pienso que caminé las ultimas 7-8 millas de la carrera al lado de los corredores. Al fin estaba sudando y motivando a mi mismo para seguir adelante. El calle siguió haciendo curvas y virajes, pareciendo como nunca iba a terminar, pero estaba intenta en llegar el Arc de Triomf usando mis propios piernas. Lo poquito de triste que había sentido al principio por no estar participando había desaparecido y fue reemplazado con un sentido de asombro por todos los corredores: si mis piernas me dolieron como resultado de caminar una sección de la carrera, como fue posible que ellos estaban corriendo todavía?!

No obstante, experimentar el maratón de manera tan intimo me hizo completamente seguro de que voy a hacer un maratón un día. Seguramente estoy idealizando la experiencia de hacerlo, pero quiero experimentar lo que estaban experimentando los corredores hoy y poder decir que lo hice. Podías sentir la energía del muchedumbre en cada calle, validando la lema del carrera y patrocinador oficial, Hoka: “Barcelona te hace volar”.

Hashtag our family is reunited in Paris! City of ❤️- We really planned that well :)

Disneyland Paris: The second leg of a wonderful weekend with some wonderful people!!!

Remy (our adorably hilarious mouse friend from Ratatouille) invited us to dinner at his restaurant. He himself prepared us a delicious three course meal and, because he has a special place in his heart for our family, reserved us the best table in the house. Hardest part was figuring out how we were going to fit in the mouse sized door as very much as not mouse sized humans.

I am not a fan of flying. In fact, I really don’t like flying and am continually annoyed by how takeoff puts half the plane to sleep while it only ever seems to jolt me awake out of fear. That is why, when the flight attendants buzz the classic “enjoy your flight” message over the loudspeaker as the plane is approaching 10,000 feet, I don’t expect to actually enjoy it much.

But my flight back from Paris was different. To start off, we were the last flight out of Terminal 3 for the night which was equal parts fun and depressing. The people on our flight were pretty lively, which made the airport feel fuller than it really was. I noticed a few people sporting Disney Paris merch! Soon after we finished boarding, the pilot gave a full blown speech over the loudspeaker. He talked about many things, notably how two of the flight attendants had just gotten married (to each other, I think?) and how handsome they both were. He had the entire plane laughing and clapping.

He then went into a little section about how aviation is the safest mode of transportation nowadays but why many people are still wary of flying. I’m not sure a pilot should joke about the safety of their passengers, but there were plenty of jokes sprinkled in. At one point during his explanation of airplane safety, he said: “Well, we’ll see about our flight tonight. Hope for the best!”.

And then he repeated an abbreviated version of the same speech in English and French (actually I’m pretty sure all he said in French was “Welcome aboard, we value your safety…. I really don’t speak French”), meaning he was talking for close to 10 minutes. Definitely the most connected I’ve ever felt to a commercial pilot! Aside from the intense turbulence storm as we came into Barcelona, he did a great job flying the plane as well :)

• 8:45 Tammy wakes up
• 10:18 Tammy wakes Mazie up (almost 12 hours of sleep!)
• 10:50 Leave and walk to bus station
• 11:10 Buy bus tickets somewhat successfully
• 11:30 Bus to Klis
• 12:10 Get off at Klis Fortress and realize that we took the wrong bus, so hike down the hill to the bus stop we wanted to get off at and hike back up on the pretty path to the fortress.
• 1:00 Explore Klis Fortress. Thoroughly.
• 2:30 Leave the fortress and raid the local supermarket for European picnic supplies
• 3:00 Find a nice spot on the hillside to enjoy our European picnic. The cheese was incredible.
• 3:15 Realize that buses are scarce up in the mountains and the next one for a few hours is arriving soon
• 3:25 Run back down the hill in record time, successfully buy our second round of bus tickets, and hop on Bus 35. It arrived and left 8 mins early, which I didn’t think was exactly allowed.
• 4:00 Walk to Airbnb to drop off our extra bread and cheese.
• 4:30 Walk around town. We like the vibe when stores are actually open. Bought designer vibe t-shirts and gelato while exploring. Salted butter caramel and Kinder.
• 6:00 Began hike up Marjan hill
• 7:00 Reach the weirdly modern viewpoint at the end of the peninsula. Includes a bathroom. Begin hike back down.
• 7:30 Back down from Marjan hill
• 7:45 Dinner at Cicibela. Stone bass and pesto gnocchi with grilled bread and virgin mojitos. -8:45 Wander back to Airbnb. Stumble across Boris, a local guitar player and singer who entertained Tammy and Mazie until Tammy got tired and cold and went to bed.
• 10:20 Mazie stays and hangs out with Boris and Vivian (studying abroad in Madrid) until past midnight. Boris imparts a lot of wisdom, shares lots of very long stories, and plays lots of music for us. He even teaches us a bit of Tai Chi. We are joined partway through by three other students, including- get this- Maisie, who is studying (permanently) in Prague. At the end of the night we exchanged phone numbers and took a selfie together
• 12:15 Mazie back to the Airbnb and to bed :)

• 7:45 Tammy wakes up and goes for a run
• 9:10 Tammy wakes Mazie up
• 9:45 Leave our apartment- bye bye!
• 10:10 Leave luggage at a storage place on the harbor after finally getting cash. Walk to Cookie Lab pastry shop
• 10:40 Hazelnut eclair and hazelnut mousse dessert at the Cookie Lab. Tammy enjoyed the eclair “very much”.
• 11:10 Began the walk back to the Old City along the beach. Saw some crazy waves
• 11:45 Walked around the Substructure of Diocletian’s Palace
• 12:30 Tried to go to the Cathedral (oldest one in the word) and the Temple of Jupiter but they were not open :(
• 12:30 Smallest street in the world!
• 1:00 Ethnographic Museum of Split
• 1:30 Discovered a random staircase while trying to exit the museum. Led to a beautiful rooftop looking out across Split that was called the Vestibule Terrace. We were probably supposed to pay…
• 1:45 Uncovered some new streets!
• 1:50 Quick tourist stop for some souvenirs: Beach towel with Croatian boats and wooden boat wall art.
• 2:00 Gelato stop at the same shop as yesterday. Tammy tried the salted butter caramel flavor and we wandered around one last time.
• 2:30 Return to storage place and collect our luggage
• 2:40 Figure out that our boat is docked at Port 21. Board and sit there rocking in the waves for an uncomfortable amount of time.
• 3:00 Depart for Hvar island. It’s a smoothly rocky ride.
• 3:50 Arrive at Hvar Town.
• 4:00 Met with our lovely Airbnb host to get acquainted with our apartment. It is quite a beautiful place with a balcony overlooking the Adriatic sea.
• 4:15 Banana, trail mix, and marvel at the four chambered garbage
• 4:30 Left to explore Hvar Town. Walked through some quaint streets and along the shore.
• 6:00 Dinner at Mizarola, right down the street from our apartment. Vegetable Tagliatelle, roasted chicken breast, “pizza bread”, tiramisu- a Tammy standout!
• 7:40 Back to the Airbnb. Both Tammy and Mazie shower.
• 9:40 One episode of Young Sheldon before bed