Tossa de Mar

This weekend 17 Consortium members took a bus ride up to Costa Brava, to the town of Tossa de Mar.  We spent the time on the beaches (oh so much sand) and in the restaurants, not to mention the bars.

Some highlights/lowlights:

• The bus ride there: the view was of mountains and beaches.  Wish I had my bike….
• Briefly losing Kinneri and Zach. And Stephanie and Tanja.  Don’t worry, they just accidentally got off the autobús in the neighboring town of Lloret de Mar.

• Arriving to the touristy town to realize that all the tourists were Spanish speakers- we stood out fo sho
• Catalan Independence day (11 de septiembre)- Catalan flags everywhere

Flag flying from the medieval castle, over the beaches

• Realizing that our hotel was 3 km outside of town
• Realizing immediately after that our hotel was an awesome fortress of fun and family!!!
  

  Our Fortress

• Getting sunburned on my back after passing out on the beach for several hours on Friday (sorry Dad…)
• Taking the 9:30 evening shuttle into town, making it a fiestabús
• Eating Sangria and Paella Valenciana for dinner Friday, followed closely by cervesa and good company
• Watching the stars late Friday night on the Spanish countryside, chillin out to some Regina Spektor
• Waking up to Matt and Emmy, the energizer bunnies of our room, at 9 Saturday morning.
• Matt and Jeremy deciding my nickname is BFG, as in Big Friendly Giant… or Big (Effing) Girl
• Finding a 1 Euro store in town and buying a yo-yo.  Its given name: Extremity Storm!

lost in translation?

• Wandering around the real fortress of the town, la Vila Vella

Emmy and Matt photograph the nave and the town, respectively

• Tapas and Sangria for our late lunch
• Running 7 miles through the Spanish countryside with Katie and Aley (as training for the Mallorca Half-Marathon) and ending with a dip in the Mediterranean
• A dysfunctional dinner of tapas and pizza, followed by salsa dancing (I lack rhythm.)
• A late night swim in the Mediterranean.  (Costa) Brava to all that participated: Carpe Diem
• Waking up to clean our mess of a hotel room and back out to the beach
• Mass at Sant Vincenc Church- In Catalan.  I could understand it, vaguely.  Learned “preguem” which means “we pray”
• Cliff jumping (30 feet-ish) into the Mediterranean (and meeting a guy biking around Spain)
• Finding my name as graffiti on the beachside

Paige of the Rocks

• Our hour bus ride back home that took us directly through weekend-end traffic to Barcelona
• Making it home to our own beds and our plethora of emails

All in all a great weekend.  It was awesome to get to know different people, outside of la Residencia Onix and classes.  We truly needed this vacation from our Barcelona vacation, if for nothing else, the Mediterranean adventures.  M’agrada la Costa Brava.