BCN does not know how to handle natural disasters…

such as heavy* snowfall. Jaja

There are layers of ice on the street, and I almost fell down three times walking the 100 meters to my metro stop.





I had to walk around obstacles such as fallen tree branches.

Monday night the metro shut down during rush hour for 2 hours. Buses and ferrocarrils (another fancy word for metro trains) shut down completely. The government ordered reduced rates in all hotels for the stranded commuters who could not get home. Girona, a city two hours away, lost all its electricity.

I’m just happy my Tuesday morning class got canceled, but that meant more time to work on studio stuff...

But then Plaza Catalunya and all of southern Barcelona was gorgeous with no sign of snow...

At least I can tell people I was in Barcelona during the worst* snowfall they’ve seen in 25 years jaja

*relatively speaking

This is not my life.

begining of January, when asked if it snows in BCN
“Very rarely. It snows in Barcelona once every 7 years.” -Magda Bernaus

2 months later…
View outside my window.

1 hour later…

Words cannot describe my anger and disappointment for this “(a)typical Barcelona weather.”

I signed up for blue sunny skies! la playa! dresses! warmth! I was supposed to leave Chicago and Pittsburgh weather behind. So far we’ve had lots of coldness, rain, and now snow. Only a handful of sunshine and days above 60.

What happened? I miss this day!

This really makes me want to cry because everyone's fb status is about Aruba, Florida, Cancun, or other warm and sunny places. ;( Mother Nature, why do you hate on BCN so much?

Alhambra, you’re so cold! Gypsies, you’re not so bad.

I’m behind by like 6 posts :( and this weekend I’m heading to Madrid, so I couldn’t leave without trying to catch up on past trips. The sad part is, I forgot all the funny anecdotes that I try to write about vs. a sharing a boring recount of my experience.

Therefore, enjoy the photos! And first ever video post :)

Alhambra! got to love the artsiness of photostitch :)

Below are a series of pics from our walking tour...

Say hello to Alfonso! He's so cute and I love his accent when he spoke english!

Los Reyes Catolicos! They built this beautiful Capilla Royal (Royal Chapel) for themselves in Granada since they were the ones who won over this last arabic city and joined the nation together with their marriage. They've also left enough fortune to have a mass held in their name everyday.

strange... a used mattress and a broken exercising machine. typical.

A sneak-peek into someone's "carmen" which means a house and a garden in arabic? maybe. you have to be pretty well off in Granada to have a carmen.

It's like mini-Morocco over in Granada. Even though they expelled the arabes and Jews, a lot of customs stayed behind.

like traditional tea houses! they were super mono (cute).

view of the "Caves" where gypsies live(d).

Pudding hot-chocolate and churos. super intense! but best hot-chocolate ever, IMO.

friends: Liliana and Hannah-Hunt

Tour of Alhambra photos

I'm trying to say warm. My feet froze in this arabic castle. While sunny Granada was much warmer than BCN this time of year, the Alhambra was freezing!

Now imagine this painted in red, blue, yellow, and green colors! That's how beautiful this place was 500 years ago.

The 11 lions around this fountain are MIA for restoration purposes. They tired to take the fountain out of the Alhambra too, but couldn't get it through any doors! So they built this display case for it instead for restorers to work in.

The Generalife Gardens, aka the summer place where it was much cooler for the arabic princes, sultans, etc to say in.

They say it's prettier here in the summer when the flowers are in full bloom, but this was beautiful enough for me :)

Enjoying a menu del dia price fixed lunch with some Magda-bucks.

Yay for friends and pitchers of sangria :)

Saturday night flamenco dinner and show!

The show was great!

Had tons of tapas for dinner but the dessert was the best. This was shared with 4 people, and the ice cream with pomegranates brenched in liquior was delicious! We stole everyone elese's left overs ;)

Did you know: Granada means pomegranate? It's the fruit of the city!