Barcelona and Girona

And my last stop, Barcelona. My Travel buddy actually decided that she really did like Ireland too much to leave it, and so she stayed to tour other part of Ireland. I would have loved to do this but it was going to cost a very large sum of money that I wouldn't be able to explain to my folks...But Barcelona was fantastic. I stayed at a Hostel called Kabul where many young travelers are traveling alone and want to meet others. Plus happy hour at the hostel bar starts at 6, so by the time I arrived at the hostel around 9 everybody was really friendly. I met a bunch of nice people and we went out to a couple of other bars and pubs during my stay. During the daytime in Barcelona, I toured the city where I saw a beautiful cathedral, a cliff-hike, and the lovely coast. I learned that all the palm tree's in Barcelona are not actually native, but are rented from Hawaii (they wanted to pretty the place up for the Olympics many years ago and ust decided to keep renting).But one thing I didn't expect was the Gaudi buildings! If you don't know who Gaudi is, the best way to explain his architecture is for you to see it! I consider him the Salvador Dali of architecture (which is great because Dali was also from spain).

I also spent one day In Girona which was a lovely city, kind of like a smaller Barcelona (only it has canals). I spent the day exploring the city and hiking along an ancient castle wall that extends around a portion of the city, surrounding beautiful gardens and at the top there is an amazing view of Girona and the surrounding mountains! Sadly that was mostly the end of my adventure, though I did run into a friend at the airport and when we discovered our flight was and hour delayed, we had a bit of sangria (to go out Spanish style).Arriving back in Florence was surprisingly comforting (I almost said ahh, home sweet home), and the weather is perfect here, 70's in october!