Beautiful Barcelona

A while back, me and my friends went on a holiday to Blanes. During our holiday we went to visit the beautiful city Barcelona. I took some snaps and decided to share Barcelona's beauty with you guys.

We didn't have a lot of time in Barcelona, so we couldn't visit a lot of things, but one thing we wanted to visit for sure was the Sagrada Familia.

It is being built since 1882 and is expected to be finished in 2026.

This beautiful piece of architecture is designed by Antoni Gaudi.

We didn't go inside, but I took a couple of pictures from the outside of the church.

We were lucky enough to arrive at 12PM, so we could hear its bells and music, which pretty much made me feel like I was living in a fairy tale.

The purple trees in bloom made my fairy tale complete.

To be honest, the Sagrada Familia and it's song also reminded me of the building in Pokémon The Rise of Dakrai. I know, I'm a geek. I'm sorry for being weird.

It was an amazing experience. You feel so small, tiny, but in the meantime you're surrounded by so much beauty.

Next up we went to Park Güell, which is huge. Like really huge. I believe it's 15 hectare. It's also really high so you have some amazing views over Barcelona and the park itself, and you can even see the sea!

I was wearing:
Denim Blouse - Primark
Striped Tee - H&M
Black Maxi Dress - Boohoo
Brown Belt - Part of Dress
Black Flats - Primark
Necklace - Asos

The park itself is also very pretty and again designed by Gaudi. That man is a great designer.

Park Güell has an amazing balance between architecture and nature you don't see in many places.

The buildings look like they could be edible and are made out of sugary sweets. Sadly I don't think they'll taste like that.

We didn't see everything, because there was a part for which you needed to pay, and we didn't really feel like paying money.

Also I had seen that part before a couple of years ago with my family, so I didn't feel the need to see it again. But if you've never been there before I do recommend paying that extra bit of money to see that area, because it's the most beautiful part of the park.

Next up was La Rambla, to do some shopping. I didn't take any pictures there because the battery of my camera died. I went a little too snap happy in Park Güell.

But I can tell you the streets and buildings in Barcelona are also very pretty.

I love the decorations in the walls and the balconies and the green lane between the streets with playgrounds and terraces. I kept forgetting I was in a very big city, because it all felt so cosy like a small little town.
We didn't have much time left, so we split up in three groups and all went and did our own thing. Me and my friend decided to go to Sephora to treat our self to some new make up as a souvenir. I like buying make up as a souvenir, because when I use it, it feels extra special, because of the memories from that holiday.
After swatching so many eye shadows and running back and forth different make up stands, I finally went for the Nars eye shadow duo in Isolde, which I wanted for a long time. I'll review that very soon. I promise.

And then it was time to go back to our apartment in Blanes. I had an amazing time in Barcelona. It is so beautiful and so relaxed and there is a very nice vibe. It is probably my favourite city I have ever been, and I've actually been to quite a few cities.

Have you ever been to Barcelona? What is your favourite city you've ever visited and why? Maybe I'll find a city where I want to go next in the comments.

~Xx

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I'm 19! A bit of an emotional post

Hi there loves!

So you may or may not know that today is my birthday, and I can now officially say I'm 19 years old. I'm not even used to saying I'm 18, so this is going to be fun.

I've had an amazing day with my family and boyfriend. We didn't do something special today, but we went out for lunch and had pasta with salmon for dinner, yummy! And I baked a lemon coconut pie, which tasted delicious. I love relaxing days like these.

Anyway I wanted to take this opportunity to show you how much can change in a relative short time. So here we go.

Source picture: www.100layercake.com

A few weeks back I had my final exams and a couple of days ago I got my results back, and I've passed!! I must say I barely made it, but grades don't matter, your diploma does. (At least, that's what I say)

To celebrate that the exams were over I went on holiday to Blanes, Spain, with a couple of my friends. We had an amazing time, relaxing on the beach, clubbing, visiting the gorgeous city Barcelona (blogpost on its beauty will be up soon), sliding down some crazy waterslides and more.

After that I've been to Belgium to go canoeing with my family, which was a lot of fun.

And next Monday my boyfriend and I will travel to Germany, where we will stay for 5 days.

Apparently June is my travelling month this year.

I will also be moving within the next two months and I'll be living in an apartment with one of my friends and a friend of his. I can't describe how excited I am to be decorating my room and living the independent college student life.

Yes, after the summer I'll be going to uni. I want to become a primary school teacher when I'm older, so that's what I'm going to learn. I'm also super excited for that.

A lot of exciting things have happened this month and are going to happen soon. My future is looking bright, but it didn't always have that brightness.

Many people doubted me, if I could pass my exams and earn my diploma. I even doubted it myself. Not because I wouldn't be smart enough, but because of my health. Just a regular one hour test already costs me a lot of energy, but the exams would take three hours and would go on for two weeks.
In my school we always have test weeks, which is one week at the end of the semester where we get all our tests (usually between 5 and 8 tests). I always miss one or even more tests, because of my health. But I couldn't miss my exams.
I've heard so many people say it would be wiser to do my final year at school in two years instead of one. But as you may know, I'm stubborn. I knew I was taking a big risk with my health, that it would be better to take it a bit slower. But I'm not the kind of person to take the slower, longer road, while every one else was just taking the normal road.

This is what people expected of me one year ago. That I was probably not healthy enough to take my finals. One year before that, expectations were even worse.

Maybe it's a good idea to explain what's wrong with my health before I continue, because not every body may know.

A couple of years back I got chronic fatigue syndrome. Like the name explains, people with this syndrome suffer from tiredness that won't go away. This tiredness is also not just normal tiredness, but exhaustion.  It also goes along with loads of different things like pains and higher sensitive senses. It basically makes getting out of bed a lot harder. Like it wasn't hard enough already.

A little over two years ago, I stopped going to school, because my CFS wouldn't allow it. I wasn't able to stand up for even a minute, or I would faint. Walking form my bed upstairs to the couch downstairs was a long journey with a much needed rest halfway down the stairs.

In a couple of months my health improved a lot, because I stopped pushing myself too much and use too much energy, which only made me feel poorer and poorer.
Exactly two years ago (still not going to school) I was struggling with an important decision.
I felt a lot healthier than the couple of months before that. But was I able to go to school again after the summer?

With the help of my mentor I was able to go to school again, but still missed a lot of days.
For me it was a big difference, a great progress.
However, other people doubted me, didn't think I could keep up and thought it would be better for me to be home schooled.
I have nothing against home schooling, but it's just not for me. I need to be amongst people. I've been locked up in my house because of my illness enough.

As you can tell, there was no telling how my future would look like, at that moment. To be honest, no one really knows what their future will look like, but you know what I mean.

Luckily, that's all in the past now.
I proved the people who doubted me wrong.
I proved them that with a good motivation, a strong will, and maybe some stubbornness you can do everything you set your mind too.
I proved them that how sad your life may look, it can change if you work for it. And this change may happen faster than you might think.

The fog covering my future has cleared.
I know I'm still not perfectly healthy and for those of you interested, my exams did ask a lot from me. I had to plan carefully so I would have enough rest every day and enough sleep at night.
But I still had to rest a lot afterwards and stayed in bed the most part of the weekend.
It is just something I need to keep in mind and all I can do now is hope one day it will all be gone.
However, to be honest, I don't mind it anymore. People find it sad, but I've learned to live with it.
I've learned to appreciate the little things, because for a while, that's all I had.

I have changed so much I can barely remember how I was as the 17 year old me. And with all the exciting things happening this year I only expect to change more.

This period of our lives, growing into adults, is one of the most important periods of your life. We'll get to know who we are, what we want and what we seek in life. We will be disappointed, but we will also be extremely happy. It is an exciting time, and I can't wait to see what my last year as a teenager will bring me.

Thank you so much for reading this post.
It honestly means a lot to me.
I love you all.

Anne.

~Xx

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