The Spain Trip

Hey Everyone,
I returned from my Spain Trip on the 18th February and I had the time of my life. I was on a bus for a week with 40 other exchange students as we travelled from Paris to Barcelona and back. It's amazing how you can get on a bus with 40 other people and have an almost immediate friendship. Spending time with the other exchange students is so much fun because we are all experiencing the same thing and they are the only group who understand what the exchange can be like.

Day 1 - Nantes, Paris & Futuroscope

I woke up at 6am to catch the TGV to Paris to begin the trip. The TGV only took 2.5 hours to get to Paris and i slept most of the way. We arrived in Paris and were picked up by the bus. We went for a brief tour on the bus before going to the Eiffel Tower. My first impressions of Paris were not that great but I think it's a city that must be explored to be appreciated.
We visited the Eiffel Tower which was very cool. It feels a lot higher than the Sky Tower just because its all outside. It was freezing at the top. The view from the top is good but not fantastic. You cant see very far, not like in New Zealand.
We got back on the bus and drove for hours before arriving at the Futuroscope hotel.

Day 2 - Futuroscope

Futuroscope was quite boring. None of the rides are very good and the only one that is good causes so much pain that you can only do it once. The park was just about deserted so it was fun to have the park to ourselves. Matt and I fell asleep on one of the rides, It was a great sleep.

Day 3 - Carcasonne

We all got on the bus to start our 500 km bus trip to Carcasonne. When we arrived we had 4 hours to look around the castle which has a town inside it. There were bars and a cafe and even a haunted house. It was fun to just walk around and explore by ourselves.

Day 4 - French-Spanish Frontier, Gerone & Lloret de Mar

We stopped for Lunch at the French-Spanish border. We continued on to Gerone in Spain. We had a guided tour of a Cathedral there which was amazing. We had a look around Gerone and then continued on to Lloret de Mar.

Day 5 - Barcelona

We started the day by visiting "Parc Guell" which was designed by Antonio Gaudi. Its a very beautiful park and it was very nice to just walk around and listen to all the Jazz Musicians busking in the park.
After the Park we went to visit the "Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada" which has been under construction since 1882, its completion is planned for 2026. Just about every Cathedral you can find in Europe is either under construction or being repaired. We had lunch and then we had some free time so we went for a walk down the main street. There were lots of stalls selling all sorts of different things. We came across stalls selling pets like Hedgehogs and Ducklings. It was quite strange.
That night we went to the beach for a while with some of the other students then we went back to the hotel and played cards.

Day 6 - Barcelona

We visited the Football Stadium which is one of the biggest in Europe. We went on a tour and got to see the Changing rooms and the media room. We also visited the Picasso museum. It wasnt very interesting because it wasnt any of his very famous work. It was still interesting to walk around and look at how his style change though.

Day 7 - Return to Paris

We got on the bus to return to Paris. It was a long journey and we stopped on the way to visit the Dali museum. It was a very interesting museum with a lot of abstract paintings and artwork. We stopped at a canteen for dinner which was really gross. The meat was more pink than the Tomatoes so nobody ate much. We all got back on the bus and continued our bus ride back to Paris.

Day 8 - Paris & Nantes

We arrived in Paris early so we could all get our trains back to our own cities. It was very difficult saying goodbye to everyone. I had the most amazing week. I find it hard to remember and describe everything that happened because we did so much. I caught my train back to Nantes and slept for the rest of the day and night.