Barcelona - Part Dos

On our second day in Barcelona we headed down to the Gothic Quarter or "Old town".  This was definitely one of our favorite days! Seeing building and walls that had been there since the Roman settlement of the area was incredible.  It's really almost impossible to describe the beauty of the buildings, churches, and even the walls here.  Old town is made up of narrow, winding streets and makes you feel like you stepped back in time. 

City Hall

Carrer del Bisbe Irurita

 

Adorable narrow streets full of balconies

 We stopped at the famous Barcelona Cathedral for a tour. The Cathedral was constructed from the 13th-15th centuries and is a piece of art! It is dedicated to Eulalia of Barcelona, co-patron saint of Barcelona.  The story says she was a young virgin who suffered martyrdom during Roman times in the city.  She was reportedly exposed naked in the public square and a miraculous snowfall in mid-spring covered her nudity. The enraged Romans put her into a barrel with knives stuck into it and rolled it down a street.  Her tomb lies in the cathedral and there are 13 white geese in the center courtyard that are representative of the age at which she died.

Gorgeous stained glass windows

One of Eulalia's geese

Fountain in the courtyard for drinking water

For 1 Euro you could light a fake candle/ligth bulb....kinda weird

Up on the roof

We basically wandered around all day taking in the glorious scenery.  Everywhere you turned there was something beautiful to look at.  These winding, small, alley-like streets were filled with shops, restaurants, and more.

Cute little bake shop

Just chillin'

Love, love, love these quaint streets

Chad can I have one of these???

This little chihuahua was guarding his balcony and barking his little head off!

 While wandering the streets we stumbled upon a Carhart store....yep right in the heart of Old Town Barcelona.  Well of course we went in and got Chad a couple pairs of jeans. It was a little snazzier than our Carhart stores...no coveralls or hunting gear.

We also stopped for ice cream and let me tell you...Barcelona has some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted. After our first taste we were repeat offenders everyday - we were on vacation after all.

My tiramisu ice cream....worth every calorie!!

On tomorrows agenda....Day 3 and our Barcelona Bus Tour : )

Bienvenidos a Barcelona - Part Uno

The day after I returned from camp Chad and I left for a "mini break" in Barcelona, Spain. My recent Spanish refresher course at camp came in handy for sure.  We didn't have an agenda which was great....just enjoyed the time together, slept in and managed to see most of the amazingness that Barcelona had to offer.

Our first full day there we decided to head to the beach.  Since we haven't seen much (or any) sun-bathing weather in Dublin we were both anxious to soak in a little sun and maybe get a tan : ) We walked along the boardwalk to the Olympic Village to buy some beach mats and then found a spot in the sand.  I had heard rumors that the Spaniards were not a modest folk...ie it was perfectly acceptable for women to be topless on beaches.  Well, let me tell you it took me by surprise for sure to see so many half naked women walking around without a care in the world. I suppose when you're used to it it's just no big deal...moms, grandmas, kids....didn't matter how old, young, fit or not-fit. Needless to say I kept it all concealed beneath my bathing suit. 

Once you were able to look past the excess flesh, the beaches themselves were pretty nice. No comparison to Hawaii for sure, but the sand was soft and warm and the water cool and refreshing.  No shells to be found though....always disappointing to me.

Beautiful blue water of the Mediterranean Sea

Busy beaches!!

walking along the boardwalk to the Olympic Village

After spending most of the day out on the beach we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before dinner.  For dinner we decided to head to Las Ramblas....the main strip in Barcelona. We stopped in a little cafe and had paella (a traditional Spanish rice dish) for dinner. Chad was brave and ordered the "Arros Negre" which is prepared with squid ink.....yuck!!!  I had less exciting, but much tastier, chicken paella.

Las Ramblas was a very touristy area and other than this meal we really tried to avoid it. It was filled with people trying to sell junk and cookie cutter restaurants which all had the same menu. We headed back to the hotel with plans to visit the Gothic Quarter the next day!

Barretstown....A Serious Fun Camp

Hi y'all and sorry for the blogging hiatus!  We have been buuussy! Now that things have settled down a bit I will try to catch y'all up on the recent happenings. July 31st I left Dublin to spend 8 days at Barretstown, a camp for children with serious illnesses. 

To give you a little background...the camp sits on grounds of Barretstown Castle and was founded by Paul Newman in 1994.   The castle and land were previously owned by Elizabeth Arden who extensively reconstructed, redecorated, and refurnished the castle in the 1960's.  The door of the castle was supposedly painted red at that time after her famous brand of perfume Red Door.  At some point in time, Paul Newman visited the castle and thought it would be the perfect location for one of his Hole in the Wall Gang Camps which he originally started in Connecticut.  In 1994 the camp was founded and the rest is history.  The camp has been serving children from all over Europe since then. 

The famous "Red Door"

To be honest I was a little a nervous to go to camp.  I had no idea what to expect, who I would be working with, or what I would even be doing.  Well let me tell you, my nerves flew right out the bus window and I had one of the best weeks of my life! The first day and night at camp was spent getting to know all of the volunteer caras (their word for counselors) and learning what our responsibilities would be.

Uisne and the bus....on our way to Barretstown!

My camp session had children from Russia, Spain, Poland and Ireland and we had volunteers from those countries and more. I can now say I have friends all over the world!!  After we had been fully "oriented" to camp policies, etc we had the rest of the evening to socialize.  We walked around the grounds and explored.

My cottage #13

The main part of camp looked like a little village

The theatre

Maura, Uisne, Rebecca, Sue (and me of course)

Posing in front of the castle

The lake in front of the castle

Portrait of Paul Newman drawn by a previous volunteer

There were sheep all over!

This group of people had incredible musical talent and we spent the evening playing songs and singing.  Despite the fact that we were from all over the world we all knew the same music!

The next morning we had to get our cottages ready for campers. That meant making welcome banners, posters, bed labels and place cards for the dining hall.  It was like middle school art class and I was in heaven!!! It's not common that I have an excuse to paint, draw and use glitter these days.  The girls in my cottage were Spanish (age 7-13 years) so our art projects were in English and Spanish

The arts and crafts room full of volunteers

Laura (Spain), Me and Anne (Ireland) with our welcome banner hanging and ready!

That day we were also taken down to the stables to get a quick lesson on how to lead a horse and to play with Daisy, the camp lamb.  The camp has at least 15 horses and ponies, sheep, pigs, rabbits and guinea pigs for the kids to ride and play with.  Chad was so jealous that I got to pet a lamb.  Every time we drive by a field of sheep in Ireland he says how soft they look and how much he wants to pet one...Well let me tell you they aren't that soft and they stink! Daisy was pretty darn cute though!

Me and Daisy : )

Later that afternoon our campers arrived and the camera was put away. We weren't allowed to take any photos of campers or when campers were around for their protection and safety. The next 7 days were filled with re-learning Spanish (my campers spoke little English), archery, canoeing, arts & crafts, dressing up, high ropes courses, horse back riding, board games, fishing, putting on shows, singing, dancing and laughing!!  I haven't danced so hard, laughed so much, sang so loud or acted so goofy in years.  But that was MY JOB for an entire week....to be a big kid and help these little girls forget they were ever sick.

It was amazing to me to see these kids who had come from all over the world, speaking different languages, but all affected by similar circumstances. What was even more amazing was that after the first 5 minutes we had all forgotten they were sick because who has time to think about that when you are having so much fun.  Below is the only photo I got during the week at camp....I couldn't help it. These two volunteers were putting on a skit about Australia and it was hilarious!!!!

Anne as Kenny the Kangaroo, Nuria as the Koala, and Hanna

Tons of new friends!!!

A drawing one of the campers made depicting all of the things she got to do at camp : )

Needless to say, I had an amazing week and I will remember the girls in my cottage for the rest of my life! Barretstown is a magical place where sick kids can just be kids and adults can be kids right along with them.  Let me also tell you I was EXHAUSTED when I got back!!