Calella de Palafrugell

As of yesterday, the SYA Spain summer program has officially ended. We spent our last week on a trip in Catalonia. I didn't get a chance to blog about the trip while it was happening because I was super busy and the wifi was pretty weak in the hotels we stayed at. However, I don't think its right to leave out such an incredible week, so I'll be rolling out posts about my time on the Costa Brava and in Barcelona. I'll also write a bit on my experience showing my family around Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Madrid, as I am currently still in Zaragoza with them.

In the evening of Friday, July 19th, all the students, host families, and teachers got together at colegio for a final farewell party. There was a talent show, a viewing of the music video us students made to commemorate our time here, and gift giving. It was a great way for Spanish families and American students to get together and celebrate all the incredible things we'd learned and experienced during our time together. Here's a link to the video: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-dhs2s9Q8JxOFBxQkxiSEV3a3c/edit?usp=docslist_api

My host sister Carla, me, and my host mom Inma at the farewell event.

On Saturday, we took it easy by simply lounging around the house together in the morning, going to a pool with my American friends and their Spanish host siblings in the afternoon, and going out to eat together one last time in the evening. At 9:30 on Sunday morning, I said my last goodbyes and boarded the bus for the four-hour trip to Catalonia.

Our first stop in Catalonia was a beach town on the Costa Brava called Calella de Palafrugell, which is what the majority of this post will be about. We arrived in the afternoon with enough time to go to the beach before our excursion. The beach was absolutely gorgeous. The Mediterranean was crystal clear, and it was fun to swim out and see the seaweed and rocks underneath. There were also lots of rocks jutting out into the sea, so we often climbed out and then jumped off them to swim back to the beach.

A first look at Calella de Palafrugell and the sea from our hotel.

Just as we started to head back to the hotel that night, a rain storm started to blow in. Despite the wet weather, we boarded the bus and drove to a nearby pueblo called Púbol to visit the Castillo de Púbol. This castle was especially interesting because, although it does date back to around 1065, the interior is pretty modern. Why? It belonged to Gala, the lover of Salvador Dalí, the famous surrealist painter who lived in the nearby town of Cadaqués. The decoration inside the castle was pretty unique, as Dalí helped to decorate it. Gala is actually buried inside as well. Although it was cool to be in a place with such cool connections to both modern art and mideval history, we were all pretty cold, wet, and hungry during the tour.

Púbol in the rain

View from the castle

The rain stopped by the time we got back to Calella, so two friends and I went out and found a really cozy Catalan restaurant and enjoyed croquetas, calamares, and crema catalana (a sort of catalan creme brulee).

The next day, the weather was much better. We had free time all day until we had to get back on the bus to go to Barcelona in the evening. The majority of the students in the program decided to just relax on the beach and in the town. It was fun to just sit and enjoy the scenery and each others' company, as we were all pretty exhausted from our last week in Zaragoza. Before arriving at the beach, my 7 closest friends and I all invested in matching bucket hats. David had been rocking them all trip, so the rest of us decided to make bucket hats a things. Here's Sam, me, and Whitney modeling the ever so stylish bucket hat in Calella: 

After making this monumental purchase, we continued on to the sea! Here are some pictures of Calella and its beach:

After a few hours at the beach, we walked up into town for lunch, but of course we sat outside at a restaurant with a view of the beach!

After lunch we walked back to the hotel to get ready to leave for Barcelona. I really enjoyed our beach trip because it was nice to relax for two days after leaving our host families so we were rested for Barcelona. I'll be uploading a post or two about Barcelona sometime soon!