Montserrat, La Merce & Valencia

View from one of the peaks of the mountain, my
iPhone camera does not do the beautiful view justice! 

So I am procrastinating doing anything useful this afternoon by writing a new blog post. Yet again I didn't realise quite how long it had been since the last post so I guess it would be rude not to fill you in with my latest adventures. So I am not sure where I left off, but the last couple of weekends have been lots of fun! Have been getting out of BCN and seeing some more parts of Spain.

One Saturday we took a day trip to Montserrat, which according to wikipidea is a 'multi-peaked mountain' and it was quite impressive. The views were really beautiful and it was nice to just get some fresh air!

We decided to take the funicular train to the top of the peak and it was well worth it. If you are ever in this area for a significant amount of time and you want to leave the city for a bit I would highly recommend a trip here (but make sure you bring a picnic - the 'supermarket' was not all that, and there are a lot of tourists in the main square near the church so there are many places trying to flog you crap but once you make it up to the top the veiws are amazing, and the walk back down to the bottom was much more peaceful.

From 19th-24th September La Merce was also taking place in Barcelona which is the city's annual festival so I am sure you can imagine there were a lot of things taking place. But paired with a lot of people everywhere so often you can turn up to an event on time and not even be able to see due to the crowds or miss the event all together becuase the metro was so full. However I did manage to catch some of the festivities.

I hope you can gauge just quite how impressive these towers
 are.Seeing them being constructed is obviously good,
but also seeing them being deconstructed is impressive - the
 teams are obviously so organised.

On the Friday night there were brilliant fireworks down at Barcelonetta beach. It was a totally strange but pleasant experience watching the fireworks in the warmth of a summer evening because generally in the UK fireworks are associated to the winter and watching wrapped up in a coat and about 10 layers (at least they are for me due to fireworks night and new year).

I also got to see the one thing I really wanted to which were the castell. These are the human towers which are constructed just of people, which are built up as tall as possible by teams known as colles castelleres, with a small child scrambling to the top to declare the tower complete. Well at least that is what I understood whilst standing in a very crowded square slightly hungover after celebrations at the beach the night before (but that's a different story including a live band and 4 slightly confused international students!). It was also an excuse for another day off, I could totally get used to the 9 day working fortnights but sadly I don't think there is another holiday for a while now.

Then last weekend I went for a couple nights to Valencia, which is about three and a half hours from Barcelona by train. I could probably write a whole blog post alone about this trip, and I know I am going on a bit so I will try and summarise quickly!

My first and most predominant opinion on Valencia is that it feels more 'Spanish' than Barcelona if that makes any sense to anyone! I think it is just due to the weather, look of the place and the fact that it is the home of paella. Whist we were there we looked around some of the old town and then walked along the old river bed which has been turned into a park (runners paradise!!) leafing to the science and arts park which itself a little bit Wall-e/scifi like! And obviously we fitted this all in around copious amounts of wine, coffee, nestea and hummus so all in all it was a lovely weekend away. I can't wait for the next adventure - but it might not be for a while due to a various parents/friends/other half's visiting over the next few weeks.

A little summary of Valencia! (the park; art & science park; fountain by the cathedral; coffee and pastries)

In other news, I finally rejoined the gym (surprisingly easy for Spain, they just asked me to pay for August and Sept easypeasy); the chemical I have been waiting for for about a month finally arrived Friday afternoon (sadly this was a highlight); I ate some Turkish food; a new flat mate moved in; and I am sure some other things which I can't remember.

And if you want daily updates on my life follow my instagram (@AMYLJ_) because this is about the only thing I manage to update of a regular basis!