Back...For Real...I Swear

Mark and I have been back from Spain for about 2 months now and since I'm AWESOME at blogging, I'm just getting around to the recaps now. My favorite blogging motto remains: Better Late than Never.

Our Spain trip began in the beautiful city of Barcelona. In my first art history class, my sophomore year of college, I vividly remember studying modern architecture--specifically Gaudi. Upon learning that most of his work was in Barcelona, I vowed I would get there before I die. Spending 3 months in Ireland put me on the right side of the ocean...now I just needed to get to Spain. Since Mark wanted to do the Camino I knew getting to Spain would be easy. BUT, the lovely city of Barcelona is not on the Camino. Commence Operation Detour. With small amounts of coercion I was able to convince Mark to start our Spain journey in Barcelona--where we could then pick up a train to Pamplona and begin the walk. Let me tell you: This detour was and still is one of my best ideas to date.

Barcelona definitely makes my top 5 list for most beautiful, fun, interesting and exciting cities. Mark and I were able to cover a lot of ground in just 3 short days so a play-by-play would make for a LONG blog post. Here were the highlights...


Palau Musica Catalana

Roy Lichtenstein sculpture by the water (at the end of Moll de la Fusta), one of the many crazy awesome street "artists" on La Ramblas, and Pulpo Carpaccio! 

Casa Battlo and Sagrada Familia

 Inside Sagrada Familia--Absolutely BEAUTIFUL

 The other side of Sagrada Familia and the entrance to Park Guell

Park Guell (looks like something out of Dr. Seuss, right?!), Mark and I in the Park and the view from the top

Mark at Poble Espanyol, view from the front of the art museum, and a cool sculpture in Miro Foundation park
 

The Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Mark and I at the botanical gardens, and me at a restaurant in Plaza Real with my own wine cooler

The Marina and Columbus Monument at night

As you can see, it is a great and beautiful city and I would LOVE to go back in the future. Three days was definitely not enough! On our 4th morning in Barcelona, Mark and I woke up and went to the train station and took a nice train ride to Pamplona. And thus, our camino had begun!

The posts for the next few weeks will mostly be about our camino, our walk, from Pamplona to Santiago de Compostela! Stay tuned!

Where in the World Is...

...Jess Hotness and Mark Jay?!

If only we had red trench coats with matching wide-brimmed hats.

Well, in a week, Mark and I will be embarking on a 48 day journey from Ireland to Spain. Whilst in Spain, Mark and I will be visiting Barcelona (a city I have been dying to go to for a long while now) before embarking on the Camino de Santiago.

Some of my you may have heard of this familiar pilgrimage route before, but most of you probably have not. Mark has been wanting to do this "walk" (I put walk in "" because walk seems too leisurely a term) since before I knew him and since we met he has been talking about wanting to do this. I am no equally as excited and we cannot wait to take on this journey.

For the benefit of our family and friends, I figured it would be wise to provide a map of all our upcoming travels. At first, I thought about getting a map of Spain and--using some Paint-like program--drawing a line across the North end of it. Mark and I will be walking 701.6 km or 435. 95 miles, so that's a lot of mapping. BUT, since I'm anal-retentive, I powered through and created a detailed Google Map.

For those of you not interested in checking out my sweet Google map, I will inundate you with computer screenshots that Map our our journey. I am so technologically savvy. (Sorry for the blurriness though--my savvy-ness is apparently not savvy enough.) NOTE: You can click on all these images to get a much clearer and detailed representation of what we're up to.

Full Journey--From Galway to Dublin to Barcelona to Pamplona and on to the Camino.

First Leg of Camino de Santiago

Second Leg of Camino

Third Leg of Camino

Last Leg of the Camino.

The Whole of the Pilgrimage, as spread out as I could get it on the screen. This is was 436 miles looks like on Google Maps, in case you were ever wondering.

Although we may seem crazy, Mark and I are truly excited about this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We will obviously miss Galway and Ireland when we bid her adieu in a week, but Spain offers an opportunity like none other.