J'ai aimé Paris y Adoré Barcelona

PARIS: The city lived up to everything that I had heard about it and more. It was quaint, romantic, manageable, extremely picturesque, and best of all--sunny. The food was superb (I had duck, rabbit, and escargot no less than 3 times). The patisseries were straight out of a book with amazing baked breads and sweets to wake us up each morning that we were there. There is a company based in many of the major European cities that does free tours to all the major sights around the city. You basically meet in an agreed upon location and tourists just show up and are taken around the city by an extremely enthusiastic tour guide who does it solely for the satisfaction of talking about the sights (and the tips). Our tour in Paris lasted for 4.5 hours and was well worth it. We walked by the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsay, the Arch, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, saw the Eiffel Tower, and learned about the history of the city along the way. Our tour guide's name was Chris and she opened her "about me" chat with the fact that she was 100% Armenian so naturally, we had something to talk about while walking to the next site. That same company also does organized pub crawls and night tours of Montemarte (the neighborhood that houses the Moulin Rouge and where my grandmother lived in her childhood). We had such a great experience with the day tour that we also did the other two over the next two days. At the end of the Montemarte tour, they take you to one of the highest points in Paris and you look down to see all of the city and the Eiffel Tower lit up in the skyline. Below are a few of my favorite pictures that I took while in France. Go past the pics to read (a very abbreviated version) about my time in Barcelona, Spain!






BARCELONA: By far my favorite of the two cities. From Paris, we flew to España and landed at night. Getting off the plane, it honestly felt like flying Newark to West Palm because the first thing you notice is the drastic change in temperature. It was actually WARM outside, and this was at 8pm so I was looking forward to the following day. Spain did not let me down. We were there for 2.5 days of sun, sand, and the most unbelievable food I could have asked for. I had paella at 4 different restaurants, that's twice a day. I couldn't get enough of it. The seafood was so fresh and the food itself was so cheap!! We stayed at the Hotel Roma Reial in Plaça Reial right off of Las Ramblas. It was a beautiful little plaza with a fountain in the middle with our hotel, a bunch of other ones and restaurants as well. In Barcelona, there was no free walking tour, but there was an open-air bus tour with a total of 44 different stops at various sights around the city that you could hop on and off all day for one low price. We did that bus tour for 7 full hours on the second day there and basically saw the entire city. While on the bus, you put in headphones and hear about all the history of the places you are passing. It was so much fun! For lunch that day, we got off at La Sagrada Familia and dined at a cervesaria that was literally in the shadow of the large Gaudí church. Speaking of Gaudí, his architecture was brilliant in real life. We saw the buildings he did in and around the city and went to Parc Güell one night! The second day there was about 75 degrees and we spent it on the water. In the morning, we had breakfast at the mall that the city build literally on the dock jutting out into the Mediterranean. After that, we took a rickshaw to the beach and played in the sand and surf for a bit before heading back to the docks by Colum. We then went on a cigarette boat ride up and down the coast of the city for a while where we met a nice couple from Oceanside, NY (Mel's hometown) so that was really fun for her. From the water, we had amazing views of the city and at that point, I decided that I didn't want to go back to London. Spain was just too tropical and beautiful to want to fly back to Kensington. On the final night before we left, I took some time to seek out my mom's family in the northern part of the city. Getting there was super easy, but they were unfortunately not home when I arrived. I went to a store and bought a postcard that I left for them in their mailbox basically saying that I had stopped by and my mom sends her love. I hope it made their day. Included below is a few more pictures to give you a taste of our amazing time in Spain!!!