Got my chicas

Since I decided to move to Spain last summer, my friends Katie and Kristin have been planning to come visit me. About a month ago I met them in Barcelona. They're the kind of friends that whenever you see each other it feels like you're picking up right where you left off. And I do talk to Katie every single day so we never even left off. Spending the week with them reminded me how it feels to be with people who really know you. They made fun of me for taking too long to answer their questions (a bad habit I have when I'm thinking), that I keep things until they fall apart, and told me that I'm the same but I've changed. The weather in Barcelona was perfect. The first day we walked to Park Güell from where we were staying in Born.

Then we headed to the Sagrada Familia. We went up in the towers where Katie and I both felt a bit weak in the knees from the great heights and narrow, winding stairs. 

I've never seen anything like it. It's indescribable really.

The next day we walked around, chilled at the beach, and had tapas for dinner at Sensi.

After dinner we went to Bar Marsella. I tried absinthe for the first time and I absolutely hated it.

This picture was taken before I tried it, otherwise disgust would be written all over my face.

The next day we took the train back to Madrid and the first place I took Kristin and Katie was Bodega de la Ardosa, one of my favorite places in Madrid. The tapas are delicious. You know when you love eating somewhere because they make a kind of food that you've had a lot and you know what it tastes like and what to expect when you order it. But then you eat it there and it tastes so good like you've never eaten real tortilla de patata before. And they have vermouth on tap.

 We also went to the rooftop bar at the Cículo de Bellas Artes. The music was cheesy but the view and lounge chairs were perfectomundo. 

 We ate dinner at Bar Tomate and it was one of the best meals I think I've had in Madrid so far. 

After work on Thursday, we took the train to Sevilla. I love living in Madrid, but Sevilla will always be special to me since I lived there for a month when I first arrived. I was so happy to share the city with Katie and Kristin.

 We used the bike share and rode along the Guadalquivir River

 to Plaza de España

 and then to Las Setas.

 When we returned to Madrid, Katie had to catch a flight to Paris to spend the week with Elliott. Kristin and I had two more days together in Madrid. We went to Temple Debod and had chocolate con churros

 and back to Bodega de la Ardosa.

The week was full of serious conversations and laughing and inside jokes and hopes and dreams and fears. And a lot of listening to Barcelona by The Rentals.

Got absinthe Got Gaudi 

And I got Jamboree Got my chicas

Maria, Anna, Monica and I got Noemi

Got Picasso Blue and I got the Good Bar Crew

Got Bikkini and the New York disco

Got surreal Dali oh yeah

Lost and rollin', driftin' loosely on my own through

Barcelona, Barcelona Catalonia, take over Barcelona