In March of 2016, I got the adventure of a lifetime. It was eye opening and beautiful and purely amazing. Paris, London, and Barcelona all in eighteen days, and here is part one :). It was my first trip to another continent. I had been hyping myself up for this ever since my parents had told me the year before. They told me we were going to Barcelona, Paris, and then off to London, and it was absolutely a dream. A wonderful 18 day dream. For the sake of brevity, I am splitting my adventure into a three part series: Barcelona first :) We started off by flying to London, because originally we were going to see the Chelsea v. Liverpool game AT Anfield Stadium. If you have no idea what I said, it is an amazingly cool soccer game between two intense rivals at our home stadium (I am a Liverpool fan). Sadly, the game date got switched 20 days before we left, so we couldn't change our flight. We flew into Heathrow where I zonked out for about an hour, then we jetted off to Barcelona. I am a huge FC Barcelona fan, in fact, if you support Real Madrid you can leave now. Just kidding (sort of). The first day we walked around, and that afternoon we got to see the glorious Lionel Messi in his prime at the FC Barcelona v. Getafe match at Camp Nou, the stadium that FC Barcelona hails from. We watched the match, in awe for all of it, then after we blew about 600€ in the store. We walked around and saw Barceloneta Beach: my first interaction with the Mediterranean Ocean. I assure you it won't be my last ;). The next day, after taking a tour of Camp Nou, of course, we saw La Catedral de Barcelona. It was absolutely gorgeous, but then, everything in Europe is gorgeous. We spend some time soaking up the beauty that is Barcelona, and just enjoyed ourselves while we acclimated. Day 5 of our trip was one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. We toured the Costa Brava with Enrique, our guide, and if you have never heard of the Costa Brava of Spain, I implore you to google 'Costa Brava" now and then you'll have an image in your brain. We started in Girona, this charming little village where I had my first croissant. Let me tell you: croissants are the breads of heaven. Buttery, flakey, succulent. Croissants are my one true love after God in this world. From Girona, we went to Pals, this lovely brick settlement that is historic and surrounded by greenery. From Pals, we went to the Calella de Palafrugell. When we had lunch, they served us fish, an entire fish. I'll admit, it was my first time ever consuming a fish while it stared at me, but it was the best fish I have ever eaten. It was. so. good. The next day, we took a bus tour around Barcelona with Jules, our guide whom I will mention later. We saw the unfinished Sagrada Familia, the monolith of a cathedral in the heart of Barcelona. The stained glass windows are breathtaking and the care with which it is being built is amazing. It has been under construction for so long, but it is understandable when you walk it. We went through the rest of the tour, and we even ran through the Olympic Village which was actually pretty awesome. We bussed around Barcelona taking in all the beauty for the rest of the day. We walked around Las Ramblas, the markets there, which stretch down an entire street. We saw La Boqueria which is one of their largest fresh food markets. I saw an entire skinned sheep's head. Weird. But I love how the Europeans really embody healthy living. They balance their fresh food intake with a steady supply of bread and croissants which is a philosophy I can really get behind, ya know? The last day we spent in Barcelona was at the sacred mountain of Monserrat. It was cold. But it was also March. The drive up this narrow winding road in a bus was definitely an effective way for me to gauge my faith, seeing as how you could look out the window of the bus and literally see death waving at you from the bottom of the mountain. The views were nothing less than stellar. Once we got up onto the mountain, we finally saw the Monastary. It is almost like a boarding school for these monks who, as young boys, come to live there. They have a boys' choir who sang with angelic voices. In Europe, anywhere you go you can find these sandwiches on baguettes and ham and cheese that seem average--get one-- they are above average and you cannot recreate them in the U.S. so consume as many as possible in honor of me, thanks. So after having lunch, I give my half finished water bottle to my mom who promptly starts to drink it. I reprimand her, she laughs, and ends up spitting water off the side of the most sacred mountain in all of Spain. Way to be, Mom. The next day was our last. We went to the airport and took a flight from Barcelona to Paris' Orly airport, where you can read all about it in my next blog post ;) Cool snidbits about Barcelona: They mainly speak Catalan, which is a mix of French and Spanish. All of the street corners in Barcelona are rounded so drivers can reduce accidents from not seeing other cars. Almost all food bought is fresh at the markets. Before the Barcelona games, the players all drive themselves through this one corner, so we got to see some of the most famous players in Europe five feet away from us. cool, right?! all the photos in the gallery are compliments of my father, our favorite photographer Yours Truly, Sydney
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AuthorHey! I'm Sydney. I'm your author and I love supporting young people of faith, like myself, by sharing my insight here on the blog. Hope you like it!
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