Paris, Barcelona, Paris, and Athens

Lauren, my room mate, and I have gone on two trips since moving to Paris six weeks ago. Our first was a weekend-jaunt to Barcelona, Spain.

It was the first real cloudy, windy and wet week in Paris. And by Thursday morning we were sick of it. So, I wasn't too surprised when Lauren sent me a text wanting to know if I'd be up to hopping a plane to Barcelona that night. Why not? When in Paris, right?

After rushing home from work, and throwing some clothes in a bag; we were off to the airport for some sunshine and late October tans.

We didn't land in Barcelona till around midnight, and crashed into bed around 1:30 a.m.

Bright and sunshiny early, we headed off to the center of Barcelona-- La Ramblas. During our weekend stay, we pretty much spent our entire time walking up and down La Ramblas admiring the odd street performers and merchants. They sold all kinds of things, from jewelry to pets (bunnies, birds, chickens, mice, ect).

We also took a hop-on-hop-off bus around to all the touristy stuff. Our favorite was Park Guell, which was designed by the famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. It was beautiful with all the flowers, greenery and the tiled architecture -- very breath taking and original. The park is in a French film called "L'Auberge Espagnole."

La Ramblas is also known for pick pockets and even though we were on the look out, my purse was still almost stolen. While waiting for the hop-on-hop-off bus we sat down by a fountain to talk. There were many people around doing the same. A man sat down next to me and I didn't think much of it except he was rather close and breathing heavily. After awhile of him fidgeting, I glanced down and noticed he had his finger on my purse. I instantly grabbed it, placed it in my lap and told Lauren we should leave. I think while he was fidgeting he had managed to move my purse closer to him, because I had originally placed it in between our legs. As soon as we were in line for the bus, two men approached us stating they were police and saw the man had tried to steal my bag. Needless to say it was a little more excitement than I needed.

Unfortunately, it was not very warm. Even though it was sunny, there was a constant wind keeping it just chilly enough to prevent any sun bathing.

--more to come on Athens--