Sofia Somewhere

April came along, and before I knew it, I was down to my last two months in Spain. In between my last couple of weeks at work, I took the weekends off making trips to visit friends and see more of Spain, to make the most out of it all. A quick round up below :) 1 - In the first weekend of April, I made the long train ride down to visit two friends in Huelva . I was excited to visit since it's the only province in Andalucía I hadn't been to yet, and of course, I was missing some Filipino company. I arrived on Thursday evening and caught up with my friends over dinner and white wine. We eventually had to call it a night for the next day we headed to Aracena , a town in the Huelva province. I made the trip with my friends Lia and Nice, plus her coordinator who had invited us, another colleague of Lia's, plus two interns who were working at her school. Quaint Aracenas Aracena is famous for its Gruta de las Maravillas (the Cave of Wonders) which is a 1km route of li...

For Spring Break this year I decided to go to Prague and Barcelona with two friends. Julie and I were going to fly out of Barcelona to get to Prague. I took the overnight train from Granada leaving at 9:30pm and arrived in Barcelona 11 hours later. My ticket was a bit more expensive (€30) than the last time I took the overnight train. The promo tickets were sold out, and I was in the prefrente class. The seats were much nicer though than in the turista class I was in last time. They were much much more comfortable, and I was able to get a good night's rest. Fancier seats I was amused because it had controls to recline your seat and put up the leg rest We both arrived in the morning and our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we decided to spend the few hours we had in the city exploring Parc Güell. Parc Güell is one of Barcelona's famous parks. The area was owned by Eusebi Güell and was originally planned as an estate for well-off families. Güell asked Gaudí ...

I ended my Christmas trip with a visit back to one of my favorite cities Barcelona to visit my roommate from when I lived in Pamplona, Marina. Be it Gaudí's colorful and modernist buildings or the sunny Mediterranean feel of the city... there's just something about the Barcelona that captures my heart every time I visit. Marina had work on Friday so I spent the day sightseeing and walking around the city. First up was la Sagrada Família , Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece. Construction of la Sagrada Familía started in 1882 and is still ongoing (its anticipated year of completion being 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death). Gaudí designed the church to be an expiatory church meaning that its construction has and continues to rely on donations. He claimed that "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people." I didn't realize how pricey all of Gaud...

(Sorry for the lack of updates; had no internet connection nor computer for the past few days) When I couldn't sit still anymore, I left the apartment and walked a bit before I had to meet Maya's friend. We were going to meet outside the metro, so I went to the station and waited outside. I sent her a message saying that I was wearing jeans and a Barça shirt. I looked around and realized that everyone was wearing jeans and a Barça shirt. Haha. So I added that I had sunglasses on and that I was reading a book. She came at exactly 6:15 (on time, not bad for an Española!) and we walked to Camp Nou together. She was very friendly and we got along well. We arrived at the stadium, found our seats (Thank you, Pol! - We used the season tickets of Pol and his dad) and settled down. Since it was still early we saw the players -- I spotted Messi easily -- warming up. The game started at 7 (actually pretty early for a Spanish league game) and it was a bit hot at first. But by the seco...

On our last day in Lisbon I planned for us to visit the Oceanario. We took the metro to get there; it was in another district of Lisbon -- Parque das Nacoes. This district was actually the site of the World Expo in 1998. There was this avenue of flags that had flags of all the countries that participated in the Expo. We walked along the river to the Oceanario. It was colder in this area because it was by tbe river. The outside of the Oceanarium was not very impressive looking but the actual aquarium was neat. It was cool how everything was arranged and we saw three cute sea otters!! The Oceanarium was cool but I'll have to admit that with what I've read while researching, I expected a bit more. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the aquarium and with that done, I completed my checklist of things I wanted to see in Lisbon.