Apparently time has proven that only European inundation provides me the fastitidy to keep up with my nearly daily entries of what's happening in my world. There was a reason that I did not end my travel journalling as a I should have, because I left Europe a week early. After Andie and I spent some time in Spain, we found that daily travels were not nearly as fun, nor informative without the rest of our class and professors. Our days of discovering a city took longer and we were both travel worn and ready to have more than 3 changes of clothes. The fact that there were some problems in the Spanish government and we saw more than a fews mobs, not riots pressured us into changing our flights. I kept my coming home a secret to everyone but my family, and Jeff. Jeff would have been in the dark too, except that he needed to pick me up.
I spent my last day in Europe in the city of Barcelona. We went to see Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. It was quite fantastic and the fact that they are still working on the construction from over 100 years ago astounds me. Oh, and yeah, that day was my 22nd birthday. It quite truly sneaked up on me, as I didn't realise it until Andie wish me a good one. I got no physical gifts that day, but I am quite sure a nearly 3 month trip to Europe covers that one. Thanks. :) We spent the last part of our day at the beach eating hot dogs and drinking our last true sugared (not corn syrup) sodas. We went out to dinner on the main shopping strip in Barcelona called La Rambla surrounded by street performers and and tourists. We ate seafood paella and I had my first sangria. Afterwards we ate our last gelato and andie lit a match in it for me to make my wish in La Paca Reial. We then headed to the train station to pick up our bags and head to the airport where we spent the night repacking our bags to the best of our abilities and taking small naps until the Lufthansa desk opened up. We took a short flight in the morning to Frankfurt where Andie and I said farewell as we had different flights and I flew home. I landed in the late morning only to find that my bag had not mafe my plane, so I went through customs with no baggage, only a carry on and a paper stating what I meant to bring through. The people were so nice to me, and the spoke English! It was amazing! I took the shuttle to Union station and took the pacific coast starliner up the coast. 38 hours after getting to the airport in Barcelona, I arrived in San Luis Obispo, thus ending my European excursion.
