We love the Switzerland

Riley here, we had a very interesting past couple of days. On tuesday we were planning on getting on an early train to travel from Paris to Geneva, however to our great dismay what we had to have reservations for that train and the only other free option was to take a train that left at one in the after noon and was going to take 10 hours traveling time as opposed to 3...what?! When you are a poor college student, you do what is free, so there we were at 8 am at the Gare de Lyon with five hours until our ten hour train journey on the exceptionally slow train with a couple hour layover in Lyon. I guess this is where we started feeling like real backpackers. With the extra time we decided, why not romp the city and find a Paul's to indulge on one last hot chocolate. Sounds simple, but it ended up taking us two hours of walking around the city to find the right Paul's, not the hotel or the restaurant or the fruit stand, but the patisserie. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, Kendall was not a fan of Lyon, however I told her that she cannot judge a city by the view from the train station, but we were all a bit on edge so she can't be blamed, I'm sure Lyon has a lot to offer. We finally made it to Geneva where one of Karen's friends from get childhood, named Kim, picked us up. She was so sweet, took us to her apartment where she fed us delicious fruit and chocolate cake, talked to us about her days of living in Paris, and showing us her sons room (Quinton, 15), which we proceeded to take over. One of us slept in his bed and the other three were on the floor on twin mattresses, it was sleepover heaven. This morning we slept in a little bit. Once we it going Kim's daughter, Juliet (13), showed us around the old city, the cathedral, and cute park. After a little exploring we met up with Kim and her other daughter Madeline (10) for lunch at this yummy burger place. After lunch Kim dropped us off at a place that rents out bikes for free for four hours, so we rode them by the lake in a park. Of corse we layers in the grass with the wild flowers and took cat naps, it was a lovely afternoon. And to top it off on our way back we decided to stick our feet in the lake. Kendall and i were siting up on this stone wall watching our stuff when nicole took her turn to feel the water, she's standing on these rocks and mere seconds after she says "wow the moss on these rocks is really slippery", she is flat on her back in the lake. I could not stop laughing it was just too classic, and then she had to ride back home all wet it was hilarious. Once we figured out the bus system we headed back to Kim's apartment, where we met up with Avery who had gone home with Kim because she wasn't feeling well. Once reunited we got ready I go out to dinner with Kim and her husband, Lauraunt, and their kids. Just to clarify when I say get ready I mean brush our teeth and possible a t shirt change, we have become pretty grungy by this point, We take the Island of Misfit toys to a whole new level. Anyways then we went out to dinner, they wanted to show us a good Swiss cheese fondue experience so we went to their favorite place, which was quaint and delicious. We had the best time at dinner, Kim and her husband were inspiring to me. They met in college, got married after he graduated, then they moved to Paris where he is from, lived there for about 15 years until they moved to Geneva. They are just still so in love with each other and have a cute family, but thy still seemed like real every day people. I really enjoyed the time we spent with their family. They were so gracious to let us stay on their apartment, feed us, and show us the city. We are very grateful for their family! Tomorrow we are off to Interlaken to do some hiking and ever bungee jumping!

We came, we ate, we conquered

After packed days of living the Parisian life, our last day was a rather more slow paced. It was out last morning waking up in our individual comfy Marriot beds so we decided it would be smart to catch up on some much needed shut eye and sleep in. Rolling out of bed around 10am, we were so ready for a relaxing last day in the city. We took the metro to our favorite food square and begun our day of eating by sipping Paul's famous hot chocolate and chocolate croissants. We sat at the cafe for an hour or so, writing in our journals and taking in all the Parisian vibes. After Paul's, we were off to our favorite crepe stand. We all got our differing favs- nutella and
Banana, butter and sugar, and salted caramel. The man now knew us and made sure to load on the goods! We ate those up quickly and then made our way to our favorite chocolate shop. This place was dang good! Like out of this world, can't even put in words kind of good! The chocolate covered hazelnuts and almonds and the coconut macaroons were our top picks! Ah my mouth is watering just thinking about it. However, we didn't save them in our bags for later so don't be too disgusted...yet. What did we do next? (cue the gags and stomach aches) We went back to our favorite crepe place and got another crepe. We found ourselves eating such bad food because it was way cheaper then a salad from a restaurant per say. Yet we probably come out about the same from numerous servings of cheap food rather than one serving of a more spendy healthier choice. Whatever! You can loose the weight but not the memories and boy of boy I'll never forget that crepe stand or chocolate shop or the pure joy that came from their offerings. After eating our weight in sugar carbs, we stopped and the coolest bookstore in Paris. We sat at the upstairs nook next to the children's books and read books, found new favorite quotes, and wrote in our journals some more. We all grew quite fond of the this nook. It was comfy and surrounded by children's book, but our most favorite part was the one wall full of years of notes people who loved that nook posted up. Layers and layers of notes and photos covered the wall. We all decided we want a reading nook with a wall covered in nice notes that accumulate over years. After a few more hours in the Shakespeare and company book store, we wanted to go to Riley's favorite vintage thrift store. On the way we found a post office, where we all needed to send some post cards. Soon after we left and headed to a hipster paradise. This store was so awesome! Racks and racks of the most unique stuff everywhere. We all got excited and started scavenging through everything. After some fun dress up we went to check out and panic struck Nicole. Her money belt with her passport in it was gone. No where to be found. It had to have fallen out of her pocket or bag while she was throwing around hats and dresses. So we began to rip the store apart even more. The frantic was intense to be quite honest. Trying to get all the negative thoughts of what could happen out of my head, we were on our hands and knees searching everywhere. Riley and Kendall left to go check the post office where we knew Nicole just bought her stamps. Nicole and I continued to search and we were causing a scene haha the sweet worker man was so concerned and kept asking what he could do to help. We prayed an prayed some more. How tragic it would be if Nicole got her money and passport stolen. We'd have to postpone the duration of our trip and spend a few days in the US embassy trying to get Nicole out of the country. Feeling like ages later, Riley and Kendall come waltzing back in holding Nicole's life. The money bag was sitting on the table where Nicole sent her post cards, just sitting there, untouched, over an hour later!! We truly believe heavenly father was protecting that money belt. We looked at all the possible ways we could learn from this and we decided it was meant for us to be more cautious. We aren't invincible and that's that. Thank the heavens the money belt was found and we were safe and being watched over. After that almost tragic hour, we relieved our anxiety with some chicken and cheese croissant thingys from the near by patisserie. We then found ourselves window shopping at cute little boutiques. We found a "Lush" shop, it's an all natural body and skin shop. The lady working there was a saint and helped us for a good hour, trying all the different soaps and scrubs. We all smells so delicious and our skin was glowing by the time we left the store empty handed. Sorry Lush, we just can't fit any of your product in our backpacks! We wanted to finish our day off with the eiffel tower so we hopped on the metro and headed over. The rain began to pour and we really did get the full Paris experience. The Eiffel tower was surrounded by rain clouds and everyone around up whipped out their umbrellas. We sipped some hot chocolate and had a little photo shoot to wrap up our time in the city of love! Besides the money belt scare, today was such a glorious day. As we sat in the cafe and in the reading nook and as we walked around Paris in the rain, we were all so thankful and humbled to be here. We had the best of times in Paris and wouldn't have done anything different. Thank goodness for Riley and her inside scoop of the city! I really don't know what we would have done with out her. We headed back to the hotel and took luxurious baths, packed our stuff away and had group scripture/prayer time. Staying at the courtyard Marriot was so nice! We loved getting cozy in the bath robes and spreading our limbs out in our individual beds. We were sure gonna miss the hotel but we decided we would miss the beautiful French man working at the front desk. We all gawked over him and his circular glasses and French accent. We'll never know his name but we sure won't ever forget that face! Paris was good to us, maybe not good to our figures but so so good to us. Memories were made that will forever make me laugh, even Nicole's scare can now we laughed about. Silly silly Nicole! And off to switzerland we go! Until next time!

-Avery



Sent from my iPhone

Milly the Lemonhead Strikes Again

This is Nicole, fyi. To explain the title of the post...Avery got her nickname Milly the Lemonhead because, like the crazy dog Milly at Uncle Max's, Avery eats anything and everything in her sight. Also, she eats lemons like candy. No sugar added. So, if you read this post, you will see why we repeated this phrase at least 10 times today. This morning, we woke up and got ready for church. We stopped at our Patisserie and got a bite to eat for breakfast on our way to the metro. The ward here in Paris is extremely diverse. They have translators for English and Chinese and two separate rooms to participate in sacrament meeting. The first speaker was a convert from Africa and her talk/testimony was so powerful. But then, I am hoping that the translator got lost in translation, because one moment she was talking about a dream she had about demons and the next day she was on the metro and started having pain and was sweating and she didn’t know what was wrong with her. Then it was translated, “I had a baby that day. I put it in the baby carriage thing” and that was the end of the story….what? It was so confusing. And it went about 40 minutes overtime. But other than that she shared so many insightful and sincere feelings about the gospel and it was truly touching. Also a homeless man at church looked at me and said “you’re from California aren’t you. You from Laguna Beach?” Which was pretty crazy. Intuition I suppose.

After church, we waltzed over to the metro to head up to Montmarte. We walked up to the Sacre Cour. The church was in the middle of a service so we walked through and listened to the hymns. Then we walked through the artist district and I got the coconut gelato that I LOVE-despite hesitation…it was just as good as I remembered. So shout out to Erica-it is still the best gelato I’ve ever had…but we still have Italy to hit up so I’m sure that will change in the next 2 weeks. We continued to walk and really wanted to get delicious crepes (we have a problem). Everyone stopped to get them at this little place that was really giving me the bad vibes. I could just tell by the font they used on their menu and their color scheme that this was not going to be a good decision. I started off saying I didn’t want to eat here and felt like we should keep walking, but then I felt too snobby and was blinded by the “chicken” option on the menu. I have eaten too much ham here and really wanted some chicken. Finally, I caved. Riley and I both ordered the chicken, cheese, and tomato crepe, despite the high prices. Hey, we’re going to treat ourselves. The second I placed my order, I had a terrible vision of them not using the fresh tomatoes on the counter, but instead some gross ketchup or something. Fears confirmed. After caking the crepe in shredded figments that did not look like chicken at all---SHLAP--- They plopped a runny red substance that looked like a cheap wannabe salsa on it. It was honestly disgusting. We felt bad enough spending the money on so many crepes but really wanted to splurge today! We were on a street swarming with creperies and we honestly chose the armpit of all armpits. Call us dramatic, but we were pretty bitter. Then, to make Kendall and Riley feel better, we went to a patisserie to get some giant macarons (clearly the only way we function here is with good food). How could one go wrong with a macaron in Paris? Even the macarons at McCafe were delicious (yes, we went there). But NO. These giant merengue and cream beauties tasted like dirt. This was our only bad food day in Paris. In fact, I think this was our only bad food day the whole trip. And at this stage of our dessert/crepe addiction, it was dangerous. We were pretty upset and even decided to rename this part of town, which I usually really like, (sorry for our immaturity) MontFart. Well, we needed to redeem our palettes. We fervently marched down to the metro stop by Moulin Rouge. We took the metro to the Bastille, where they supposedly sold crepes with Speculoos. But, to our delight, instead of a crepe stand, there was a giant outdoor market. It was swarming with food, fruit, hand woven sandals, Peruvian sweaters, Indian shawls, you name it. We loved walking around and watching the Parisians carry their bouquets of flowers and their baguettes. We bought a baguette to split and, after soaking up the vibes (we’ve been into vibes these days), head on our merry way.

After the market, we took the metro to Riley’s stomping grounds. She showed us the apartment she used to live in and then we walked to the park down the street. It was supposed to be thunder storming all week, but since we prayed for good weather again that day, it got so sunny, we thought there was a hole in the ozone small enough to set this park to flames. It was a magical park and everyone was out on this lovely Sunday afternoon. After watching the kids on the carousel, Avery and Riley got some cotton candy, and we found the longest grass to bask in. Apparently, it was off limits because we had to step over a small fence to get to it, but it was worth the risk. We got a solid 8 minutes in before the park rangers told us to move. We found a new spot in the short grass that was PRIME for people watching. We watched a group of rambunctious preteen pipsqueaks and pests make mischief with their water fights. We watched the world’s best looking couple have the cutest/most picturesque picnic that we have ever seen. And finally, we saw a middle aged woman climb a tree in rollerblades. And that’s real.

We then had a great time getting lost and cracking ourselves up with silly jokes. Then we decided to go on the metro back to MontFart to let it redeem itself to get some dinner (apparently there was a good restaurant on the other side of the area). On the way, a creepy man with a hoop earing tried to impress us by flexing his pectorals. Yikes. Our dinner was AMAZING! What a relief. Kendall got a leg of lamb, as per usual, and the rest of us got a GIANT bowl of salad with avocado, chicken, delicious French cheese, tomatoes, and thinly sliced garlic potatoes. It was sublime. Then we went to the Arc de Triumph at sunset and walked down Champs Elysees all lit up at night in the rain. The girls got macarons at Laderre (I couldn’t. I actually thought my stomach was going to burst) and then we headed back to the hotel. We all felt miserable! We have eaten nothing but garbage, and there is no way we can stop these habits in Europe, it is just too hard.  So, we decided our only option is to try and exercise. We put on our workout clothes and had a dance party/ab workout/zumba fiesta in the hotel room and had the best time. All in all, a hilarious day that was filled with wandering, laughing, and eating, eating, eating. Hopefully you guys will recognize us when we get off the plane! It’s bad.

It's Kendall...2nd day in Paris

So pretty much I have had this song stuck in my head since we arrived to the beautiful city of lights: "j'ai deux amours: mon pays et Paris..." which means I have 2 loves: my country and Paris, and that is exactly how I am feeling! The other night when we ran into a little trouble checking into our hotel, I really had an overwhelming moment of missing my mom because I knew she'd be able to figure everything out in an instant. Then that got me going and I ended up having an hour long homesick pity party to myself and missed all my parents, siblings and friends! So yes...you got me to admit it...as much fun as we are having and doing all the fun things we write about, us 4 KARNies still think about home every once and a while and miss it :). But on the other hand..my second love being Paris... I could not be more thrilled to be in the place that I have recurring dreams of returning to and I am here! My two feet are planted on French ground at the moment! How crazy is it that when you look at a map, we are across the Atlantic ocean! It's been quite a crazy thing to wrap my head around haha but anyways...today!

Last night we got home a little late and were all ready for a good nights sleep...but because we all desperately wanted to go to the vintage market, we had to cut our sleeping a little bit short and wake up to go across town to go to that. Of course on our way to the train station, we picked up a couple morning croissants and other french delicacies from our local pâtisserie. We rode the metro (falling asleep on it all the while) to the other end of Paris and walked a little bit to find this "vintage market". Unfortunately, although Riley took us to the right place, the market had changed a little bit. Instead of cool old pins and other vintage knick knacks, there were aisles and stalls full of everything that you would get rid of in a spring cleaning.. Pretty much, it was a huge yard sale haha But it was still a fun experience to not be where the tourists go!...by any means! We did, however, find a little branch of the market that actually was vintage stuff! And we all scored on cool head scarves! Then we took a stop at a local grocery store slash French rite-aid and got some fruit and little snacks to tide us over.

Despite the weather forecast that predicted rain for the whole time that we are here, low and behold, another testament that Heavenly Father is making this the greatest trip ever for us, the sun came out!!! We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go to Versailles today instead of going in the miserable rain! So we hopped on the metro and took a long metro ride to Versailles! We were all put in awe when we saw the huge and glorious castle that Marie Antoinette once lived in and were even more amazed by the vast amount of beautifully maintained gardens there! We walked over to the area where people rent boats and row around, but we rented some bikes and were ready to get some blood pumping in our bodies! Avery and I tandem bike rode and Riley and Nicole went solo. We rode around through the beautiful grounds and loved looking around us and riding through the woods! We were taking pictures as we rode and were trying to capture the essence of the beauty that surrounded us when I heard a squeal, gravel bein moved all over the place, the sound of a metal bike crashing to the ground, a big "AH!", followed by Riley's hysterical laughing! I turned a round and what do I see but a mangled mess of metal, chains, tires, and Riley on the ground!! Hahah no worries parents...no harm no foul! She wasn't hurt a smidge but it was truly so funny!

We pulled ourselves together and continued our journey through the Versailles gardens. After we returned our bikes, we went over to the lake area where everyone was rowing around on their boats and sat on the grass and took a nap. I was cold and felt vulnerable to theft or worse, so I looked like a bafoon (or so I was told slash laughed at by Nicole) when I put on my black jacket, put on the hood with it zipped up all the way with glasses to keep the bright clouds out of my eyes as I slept (naturally because I forgot my sleeping eye mask at the hotel). I had a fabulous nap despite the weirded out looks I received from many, and was woken up I Riley's sweet voice saying "I'm cold, I'm hungry, and it looks like rain! We're leaving!" hahaha all 3 very good reasons that we all agreed on.
We bid Versailles farewell and began our search for some food to fill up our seemingly bottomless stomachs! We found a cute pâtisserie (there's one nearly every 50 yards here) and after a bathroom break, headed back to the hotel for a nap to rejuvenate us 4 zombies. I don't know if it was our "late" night last night or the grey weather, but something got in us all that made us feel like we couldn't even stand anymore! So we had a nice hour and 1/2 nap :). Then it was out on the town again!

We took the metro to the notre dame stop and set out for dinner..a nice and classy French street food dinner. We grabbed paninis and stuffed our faces with gelato from Amarino, which was actually not amazingly good to our dismay..but ya know..dessert is dessert so we enjoyed it!! I can't wait for Italy when we have real italian gelato!! WARNING: we are all coming back 10 pounds heavier!! You think I'm exaggerating...

We then made our way to a nearby jazz club...probably the highlight of my day!!! I am obsessed with jazz music now!!! I couldn't stop my foot from tapping and my head from bobbing to the sound of the jazzy beat and the trumpet trumpeting and the cute french pianist playing! In addition to the amazing vibes that we were enjoying, all of a sudden this couple came onto the dance floor and were professional swing dancers!! The older woman was so French and had little red dancing shoes and was being passed from French man to frenchman being twirled all over the dance floor! It was mesmerizing! I could not stop smiling! It was so fun to take in everything! The music, the atmosphere, the dancing! It was a ball! The band retired for the night after an hour or two and it was our time to do so as well...so after making a quick chocolate stop at a shop called "g", we went back to the hotel and said our evening prayers in our hotel robes :)

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

Paris, je t'aime

Today was our first full day in Paris, and I was in heaven. It was gray skies, but not too cold, pretty much how I remember it. We started off the day in the marrais, we saw the Pompidou, the churh, and if corse the beloved gay bakery. I love that part of town, it feels like home, I think because I spent so much time over there. We also went into this new vintage store that was really neat and all the girls found some treasures. Kendall and Avery both jumped on the head scarf bow band wagon (I warned them of the possibility of being called aunt jemimah, but told them we could all suffer together) we planned to have a tutorial later on the best way to tie them. Nicole bought a red and white polka dot dress, to start replenishing her dress collection ( she left her stuff sack full of dresses in girona, very tragic) but it was only 10 euros so huzzah! After our jont in the marrais we met up with kendall's friend Darian who is on the byu study abroad right now. We then walked across the Seine to the Notre Dame and around the back of it to the love lock bridge. After seeing a few sights we were ready to get some crepes so we went over the the all famous huchette street and ate our weight in crepes, oooops. It was well worth it. After that we hopped on the metro and went over to place de Concorde, where the famous beheading of Marie antonnette toon place. Then we walked through the Tuileries gardens to the lourve. Avery was loving every minute, everything was brand new for her! After that we walked along the river and sat down under a weeping willow and took a breather, quite picturesque, once again, that's what we are all about, literally Nicole is snapping pictures left and right. Sometimes I give her a hard time, but I really do love it and her, and after everyday when we sit down and look at our day in pictures and laugh and reminisce, I'm grateful. Also we always talk about how these pictures are going to be on our bedside tables and we are going to be telling the same stories over and over again to our kids and grand kids and frankly anyone who will listen and everyone will be sick of hearing them over and over but we will not care and not stop, sorry, that's real. After our little break we went to. Check out the D'orsay, but the line was huge so we decided to come back on Monday when it opens. So instead we went to the opera metro stop and saw the opera house and ventured into galleries layfayette, which was out of control. After a few coats of Chanel nailpolish, lipstick, and perfume we left and went back to the hotel to take a quick snooze. We wanted to be rested for our night. In hopes of a frenchie dinner we went a cafe near the Eiffel tower and had the BEST French onion soup on the face if the planet!!!!! So good. Then we sat on the grass and watched the Eiffel tower sparkle, it is always so magical. We ended our night with a seine river cruise, which we all loved. We had a perfect day and saw a ton of the city! I remembered why I love Paris so much! -Riley Jane

our day in glorious GIRONA!!

Ginora is truly a hidden treasure! Here is how we got here...our trusty host in Barcelona said there are sunflower fields in a town an hour away so we booked our hostel, got on a train and arrived in this dream land! Girona is the perfect blend of gorg buildings with balconies filled with vibrant flowers/ breathtaking cathedrals and a lush green land of glorious trees and flowers and all those in that category that make you just wanna wear a dress with a sun hat and dance around! So we decided we would want to live here and make often trips to Barcelona.

We arrived and walked about15 minutes to our hostel. May I add that we get directions/maps of our desired destination on our handy iPhones in wifi, take screen shots, then try to navigate around those. And we've been quite successful! We set our stuff down and quickly got our day started, considering we had very limited time in the town! Nicole and Riley were leaning towards renting bikes to see the fields and kendall and I wanted to get lost in the town and explore the flower festival taking place through out it! We ended up splitting up, which made everyone happy to do what they wanted. We said we would meet up at 7pm in our hostel but unfortunately the girlies didn't end up biking due to out of seasoned flower fields and other restricting factors that wasn't worth the money. They ended up exploring the town too but we never crossed paths. However, we all did essentially the same thing...romped the town oooing and awing at the creativity in the flower expositions. The town reminded me of Italy with the narrow neighborhoods and we walked all through them and the expositions were all in random little holes in the walls, literally. It was all biazzare and beautiful! Oh and the croissants we had today!! Holy mother of pearls, let's just say we can not wait to get our behinds to Paris tomorrow!

We later met up and headed to the market for lunch food on the train tomorrow (13 hour train ride, baby!). We walked out with a box of dry cereal, a bag of large rabbit carrots, and 4 oranges. Talk about a hearty meal! Then we went to Steve McCurry's photography exhibit.  It was seriously incredible. His work inspired us all to travel the world, and expanding our geographical awareness. By this time we were quite hangry, if you know what I mean! And on the way to find some grubs, boy did we find some fiiiine boys ;) we all decided these Spanish men and are most beautiful people on the planet. We literally stop and stare too often. Anyways, then we got food and Kendall, then again, got her fix of the country's famous food dish (sausage was tonight!). The meal pace is so slow here! Us, Americans come and eat then leave! So we are trying to adapt and have to continually remind ourselves to slow down! Even if it's just chips and guacamole! And after we had to get dessert, duh! And gelato it was! The deliciousness goes with out saying. When we got back to the hostel we met 4 fellow (cute!) travelers from Canada and Sweden. They were so nice and sparked conversation. We all, embarrassingly freaked out and camped out in the lobby area of the hostel in hopes they would come hang out with us...they did! We chatted and don't worry mothers, it was all harmless! But it was fun meeting other travelers!

We absolutely LOVE Girona and are baffled to why it isn't a more  popular tourist location. Tomorrow we set foot to Paris and we couldn't be more excited! Love you all! Peace and blessing!

tapas, tapas, tapas

Riley here…Today was AMAZING.  I am in love with Barcelona, no doubt aboutit.  We got up and ready to go and thenheaded out for the day.  The goal was tosee some of Gaudi’s work.  We started theday at the Sagrada Familia, which is this ginormous cathedral, that is actuallystill under construction.  It wasdesigned by Gaudi, and it is absolutely amazing.  It is like no other Cathedral I have everbeen in.  It has kind of a Modern flairto it.  The inside has breathtakingstained glass, with the most vibrant colors. There are not pictures in it, just rainbows of color.  The ceiling is made to look like tree tops ina forest, the pillars that are holding the whole thing up are all differentheights giving them a tree like feel. Around the back they have marble carvings of many different biblicalscenes, one of which was of Christ when he was younger and a carpenter, which Ifound really interesting.  All together,very very impressive.  After that we wenton a little toodle around the town and looked at some of Gaudi’s other worksaround the city.  His stuff is sodifferent from anything that I have ever seen. That’s one of the things that I love about this city, that they allowedthese types of buildings to be created, even such a long time ago.  After we walked all around the city lookingat Gaudi’s architecture.  We also went toa park that he designed.  It is prettyhigh up and gives you a great birds eye view of the city.  We also took a quick snooze in the park,while listening to some acoustic music and letting the warm Spanish breeze blowpast us.  As you can tell, prettypicturesque, the best of times.  Wedecided to head back to the apartment to grab a sweater cause it was coolingdown a little.  Then we walked to thePlace de Espanya, which is this beautiful square with this big building, withall these steps, pretty sure it is where the Cheetah Girls 2 was filmed....loved it.  We saw the most beautifulsunset, and don’t worry Nicole took millions of pictures…love that about her,we will not forget one second of this trip! After that we decided that we were going to go have the traditionalSpanish meal called Tapas.  Basically youorder a bunch of h’orderve type foods and share everything and eat alot, and it takes like two hours for the whole meal.  We were directed to go to this area but wewandered for a while until we found one that looked good.  And let me tell you, we made a really goodchoice.  It was a pretty small place, ithad all these purple couch type bench things, and low tables, with pillowseverywhere, cool music, and lower lighting. And we ate the most amazing food EVER. We had this one thing that was chunks of sweet potatoes covered inpesto, so naturally Nicole and I were in heaven!  We had such a good time at dinner, the wholeexperience was new and fun and so so so so yummy.  It was such a fun day, we are all in lovewith this city!