Costa Brava and Southern France

We just got back from our trip up the northern coast of Spain and into southern France. We started by heading northwest to La Jonquera to visit a museum for the Spanish exiles who had to flee Franco's rule in the late 1930's. It was some pretty interesting history (kind of a forgotten part of the build up to WWII), but I don't have to space to go into it here. Then we drove up into southern France to a little fishing town called Collioure to see Antonio Machado's grave (famous Spanish poet) and visit the beach. It was like one of those little European towns you see on a postcard. They are the first pictures below. Then we came back to Spain and checked into our hotel in Girona, which was like our base of operations for the weekend.
On Saturday, we drove to the town of Figueres and went to the Dali Museum. Needless to say it was pretty wild and the pictures below don't do it justice. This was my favorite stop of the weekend because it was full of sketches, paintings and sculptures all done by Dali, and he is also buried there. After that experience, we drove over to the Spanish fishing town where Dali spent much of his life, Cadaques. It was another beautiful little town with tons of shops and restaurants to explore. Then we went back to the hotel in Girona.
Today was our final day, and we spent the majority of it on a walking tour of Girona. We saw a Jewish Museum (there is a pretty big Jewish population there), Arab Baths, the old city walls and the cathedral. The cathedral was very impressive--apparently it has the second widest nave in the world to St. Peter's in Rome. There are a bunch of pictures of the cathedral, Girona itself and some cool flower art that people were making on the steps of the cathedral. After Girona, we went over to another coastal town, Palamos, to have some lunch and check out another beach. Too bad the weather wasn't really beach-friendly. Then we came back down the coast to Barcelona. All in all, it was a really cool trip to some really interesting places. If you are ever in this part of the world, the Costa Brava is highly recommended.

Observation of the day: Disrespectful students
Allow me to vent for a paragraph. I understand that most of the students studying abroad with this program are treating it as a six-week spring break. That doesn't mean that you have to be blatantly disrespectful of the guides taking us around and other people trying to see these museums. I get that some people might not be interested in the Spanish Exile Museum, and too be honest it wasn't the most exciting museum I have ever been in, but you don't need to talk loudly to each other over the tour guide or make jokes about a picture of naked boys standing in formation in a concentration camp being gay. I also understand that you might want to have a few drinks--I like to get drunk and make a fool out of myself as much as the next guy--but I don't think the hour and a half we have to see a fishing town before the bus leaves is the best time to down a bottle of wine by yourself and puke. I also refuse to sympathize with frat guys (no offense to any readers of this blog who belong to a frat) who go out until 5:00am, sleep through breakfast and then complain all day about being tired and hungry. Anywho, I'm sorry for the diatribe, but I needed to get that off my chest.