Barcelona... a city to remember

Wednesday morning we left for Barcelona, the furthest major city in Spain, it's a seven hour drive. Its crazy how much stuff can be so close together. On the way we stopped by Zaragoza to see the famous basilica:

 We also got on the ferris wheel, which is where I took the latter picture. As you can see Zaragoza is pretty cool but we pretty much did everything there is to do there. So we got back on the bus and headed for Barcelona. The first night in Barcelona we got something to eat and got ready for the busy days ahead. 

Thursday we started out with a bus tour and got to see alot of the city from the street and a tour guide showed us a few of the most important things in the city. La Sagrada Familia was the first thing we stopped to see. Its one of the most famous cathedrals, its architect was Gaudi who died in 1926 but its not even done yet. Here are a few pictures of the amazing building:

Gaudi had a huge influence on architecture especially in Barcelona, you could almost pick out every building he did. They were just so much different, this house we saw turned out to be his:

Gaudi seemed like an interesting man, he has alot of stuff around the city. Barcelona was one of the cities most impacted by the discovery of the Americas. When Christopher Columbus returned he came back to Barcelona and they have a big monument down by the port. A lot of the gold that they brought back was spent right here in Barcelona. Just looking at the buildings you can tell that it was a very rich city back in the day. 

Walking around the city these are typical things you see. The city has a lot of culture and style, I really loved our stay here.

Friday morning we went to Montserrat, a monastery in the mountains. To get up there we had to take a cable car. I felt really weird getting in without ski gear. As we went up we were completely encased in fog, we could barely even see the building we went to see but it was cool. We started hiking while the fog slowly burned off. Kyle and I decided to break off from the group and climb this rock face that didnt seem to steep. On the way back down I realized how steep it really was, especially when I saw this:

 At the top we had a really cool view of the monastery tucked into the mountain and Barcelona on the other side. The reason we hiked it was because we were looking for a good spot to read the book of mormon in peace. So we stayed up there for about an hour and then came down to see the monastery.

After Montserrat we had some free time, I went with a few others first to the chocolate museum and then to the Picasso musem. Then we finished the day with la fuente magica, the magic fountain is just like the on at the belagio in Vegas. With music lights and a water fountain show, all in front of an ancient palace.

Saturday morning we came home to Alcala De Henares, we all wish we had more time to spend in Barcelona. 

This week I feel more respect for uncle Steve and anyone that has served there mission in Europe. We went on splits with the missionaries. They are teaching a lot of people the only thing that surprised me is when went street contacting. I was amazed at how rude everyone was! I started out greeting people I did in Mexico saying "Hello brothers good afternoon!" with my arm stretched out. The first two I tried to contact didnt even glance over and just kept walking and then one turned his head around and said sharply "Were not your brothers!" I was appalled, I looked over at Elder Fish and asked if that was normal he answered with a smile "Yup! Your not in Mexico anymore." During an hour of contacting we only got one gospel related conversation and of course they were immigrants from Latin America. I had always heard that the work is tough in Europe, now I know a little better what that entails. Considering the fact the church was officially established here in 1969 I am very impressed with how big it is. Madrid has three stakes and a temple!

I hope you all have a great week!! Don't forget to share the gospel!! I realized once again this week street contacting doesn't work. 

Valencia

Hello!!

This week we have been to a few different places close to Madrid like El Escorial (an ancient royal palace) El valle de los caidos (national civil war monument) and Sierra guadarrama (national park). The week before we went to Valencia (southern spain on the mediterranean). I have a lot of pictures to share so I hope your ready. 

Here are a few pictures at the ancient royal palace El Escorial:

That same day we went to el valle de los caidos which means the valley of the fallen. Victor Franco built it in memory of all who died during the civil war back in the thirties. Many died and Franco a general of the army ended up as the dictator of the country. I really enjoyed this trip because we got to learn a lot about Spain's history. Their history is super interesting because its so much different. Oh and while we were there we saw guess who! Yup you guessed it Arnold Schwarzenegger! Haha how random right? Here is a picture:

Yesterday we decided to do something that you can't do in the states these days. We went to a national park! Its called sierra guadarrama, it was really cool but doesnt even compare to places like glacier, yosemite or even the uintah mountains.Here is a cool picture of it:

The coolest part about the national park was that to get there we had to take this really old train up the mountain. Oh and of course the nap at the destination point.

This whole week has been semana cervantina here in Alcala de Henares. Miguel de Cervantes is the most popular spanish literature writer. He lived in the medieval age and the start of the renaissance and wrote the most printed book in the world not including the bible of course. The book is called "Don Quijote de la mancha" and as a part of this week long festival celebrating Cervantes the city put on a reading of it. Volunteers come to a really old theatre and take turns reading it. So  our profesers told us we would get extra credit if we did. Without even thinking twice we signed up. The first person to do it was... the mayor! Everybody was dressed in suits and ties and we had gone in normal clothes thinking random people from the city would have volunteered. A bunch of people from the government read and even one from france. yeah it was kind of a big deal. The good thing is that it took a long time and we were last. So by the time it was our turn it was lunch time and just about everybody had left except for us. It was awesome we pretty much just read to our group. Here is a video of me reading and a bit of the old theatre that we are in. The closest equivalent of reading this book in this place would be like reading "romeo and juliet" in "the globe" the theatre just isnt quite as big or famous. The book is even more famous, in spanish at least.

During this week long festival we also rode camels, ate octopus, saw a jousting tournament, and danced with bag pipes and arabian dancers. jaja what an awesome week!

We also ate some awesome medieval food, as you can see in the pictures. 

The week before we went to Valencia and I went to the largest aquarium in eruope. Here are a few pictures of us there:

I am super excited for this next week because were going to Barcelona! This trip could be one of the most exciting. Barcelona has a huge reputation and is way different from the rest of the country. I hope you all have a good week too!

A week in Madrid...

This has been a very exciting and busy week! We didn't go on a trip this week, but we had lots to do here in Madrid. One of the things we spend the most time on is called: Madrid walks. We just walk around Madrid with a paper telling us where to go and what to see. Then afterward we write about it and get graded for it. It's kinda nice to get graded just for going sightseeing. The people we talk to are always surprised at how well we know the city. Its my first time living in a city where I have to take buses metros and trains everyday. Here are a few pictures of what we see everyday:

The most exciting part of the week by far was the half-marathon on Saturday. On Friday night we decided to splurge and go to a place where they give out huge rations of food. Of course this was necessary preparation for the half-marathon:

Yeah we were there for awhile. I couldn't quite finish it but I was proud of how close I did get. Throughout the past month we have gone running a lot, but we didn't really officially train. So my goal was just to finish and to not stop running the whole time. When I got there I didn't understand why a few were surprised that my first race ever would be this half-marathon.  I understand now. Here are a few pictures before the race:

As you can see we were all pretty excited for the race. Soon after this picture was taken it started raining. Which made us even more excited. The cool rained just made it seem way more fun. Just before we started all 250 of us runners got out of shelter and out on the wet pavement. In the pouring rain waiting for the race to start everyone started to scream and jump up and down. So I joined in on the screaming. With my adrenaline pumped so high I had no doubts about the finish line. So we all started running. I started off nice and smooth like everyone had advised me to. After a while we got off the pavement and onto the mud. I'm not sure if you've ever run in heavy mud before but it's like running with snowshoes on. My feet got really heavy with just a few steps and we had lots more to go through. Before this moment I wasn't exactly sure how to swear in Spanish but all the old guys around used words in ways I had never heard before. At this point we were about 3 miles in and I thought "There is no way I'm finishing this thing!". Somehow I just kept carrying myself on and didn't stop running. About halfway through the sun went down and it got dark. That's when I realized that not one of us had brought a flashlight. So I had to stick with other runners the rest of the way through. After about an hour and half in I felt like I had been running for 10 years and that it was never going to end. I finally realized that I had gotten back to the start line two hours and four minutes after we had all started running. I was dead. My whole body was covered with mud and I was thirsty. They only had three stations of water throughout the whole race. I was surprised to see that out of the 250 I placed 103! A lot of people got to the super muddy part and turned right around. I was impressed with myself I not only finished it I hadn't stopped running either. Two hours was a pretty long time but in those circumstances it wasn't too bad. One of the girls in our group took third place out of all the girls and won a trophy! Here are a few pictures after the race:

Even though it was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done it makes me want to run a marathon. Just one with out mud. 

That was pretty much my week. This week were going to Valencia! Which is in Southern Spain it should be a fun trip. We leave on Thursday and get back on Saturday. Have a great week everyone!