Port Adventura

Yikes. This is more delayed than I meant it to be. Busy, busy last couple of weeks. My friend came from another part of Spain this weekend, so I was very busy.

Port Adventura! I went with my host family and their relatives. It was all of E's siblings; she has a brother and sister. Their spouses came and another American girl came as well. They are all very nice, but not all of them spoke English. This was alright of course, because I was able to really listen to Spanish and this helped me understand it in leaps and bounds. I can now understand about 3/4 of what someone says, as opposed to the 1/4 that I was hearing before. This does NOT apply to Catalan!

Entrance of Port Adventura

Port Adventura is a theme park in Tarragona, which is about a 1.5 hour drive from Barcelona. It is the second biggest theme park in Europe, after Disney Paris(of course!). A told me I would think of it was a peanut compared to the ones in California, but I actually thought it was really nice. Port Adventura is separated into different "lands": Polynesia, China, Far West, Mexico, Mediterranean and Sesame Street.

When you first get into the park, you get to the Mediterranean, which looks a lot like Italy. There are a number of shops and restaurants in this area, and I only went on one ride that is in this area: Furius Baco or in English, Furious Baccus. The ride is famous because it goes from 0 to 135 kms/h in 3.5 seconds. Myself, A, and JC(Brother in Law of E and A), waited for 45 minutes to get on this ride! It was worth it, and A actually bought the dvd and picture. It's a great picture of the both of us!

We then went to Sesame Street, which is where the others were. They were there with L and M, riding the kids rides. All the rides are really geared for children(minus the height restrictions) but this was...well Sesame Street. The girls were having alot of fun! They don't particularly like roller coasters so this was good for them.

A and JC decided they really wanted to ride Shambhala, which is the newest attraction there. It is currently the tallest roller coaster in Europe. So when they asked me if I wanted to go, how could I say no? We actually waited 1.5 hours for the ride. During this time, a lot of English was spoken! But that's an entry for another day. Let's just say English was spoken and lots of jokes were made. And when we finally got on the ride, it was worth the wait!

We ate lunch in Polynesia and watched the show, which reminded me of a Hawaiian Luau. A got up and danced! It was hilarious. Several of us went on Tutuki Splash afterwards to cool down and then we proceeded to the Far West.

The Far West was basically what Americans would call the Wild West. It was really cute! The girls went on a number of rides, while myself and some of the adults headed off to look at the rest of the Far West and Mexico. I saw a popcorn vendor, and really wanted some. One thing that I've missed quite a bit! JC went with me and actually bought me a HUGE box! I did share with everyone and I thanked him profusely for buying it. It was really nice of him and I didn't expect him to. I went on Stampedia with JC and his wife, and it was fun! It was a ride that you have to pick a color, red or blue, then you ride the ride and see which color wins. There are two coasters, red and blue and they "race". I chose blue but we didn't win. It was more of a wooden coaster, JC told me it was the first one built here.

Far West

Soon after, it was time to leave. I didn't make it to Mexico, but I hope to go back someday! I know it doesn't seem like I went on many rides(ok so I didn't) but I had a wonderful time and it was a great experience.