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Published: February 13th 2017
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For my last trip abroad Erin and I decided to take a week at the end to go to Portugal and Spain. We left for Dublin on Sunday night or Monday morning at about 3am. We took the bus one last time and ended up getting to the airport for our flight to Portugal at 9am. I was nervous for this, I wasn't sure how travelling for a week was going to be. We got to Portugal and we weren't really sure of anything. There was a train thing outside of the airport so we got on that and hoped for the best. Thankfully we were right. We went to Porto and found that it was a really cute little city that was very rustic. The first day we kind of just walked around and found a grocery store. The air bnb woman was absolutely amazing, she was so nice and the room was wicked nice. We even had our own bathroom. After we walked around and explored for a little we decided to try and find a place to eat. That was when we realized that Portugal didn't really know what gluten free was. We ended up just getting food
Porto, Portugal
Erin and I on the bridge overlooking the river. and alcohol at the grocery store, which was just as well anyway since it was cheaper. The next morning we had a walking tour that Erin had booked for us. We walked to the spot we were supposed to meet and it was so much fun and informative. We walked all around the city (which had so many hills) and we got to see the important aspects of Portugal like the train station and the bridges. We learned a lot about the history of Portugal as well. At one point we went down a little street with buildings all on the sides and we went into this little room. It instantly smelled amazing, like baked goods. Turns out or tour guide had brought us to a bakery that was exclusively for orders only, but the company had a deal with the woman and for two euros we could get something. I got this chocolate cake that was to die for. It was so rich and perfect, I've never had cake like it before. We got to see a cafe that many famous people have eaten in. We also found how cheap Portugal actually is because it doesn't have the best
Barcelona, Spain
La Segrada Familia economy. After the tour we went to basically every single gift shop. Erin got these pretty mosaic pieces. We again ate dinner from the grocery store and we went to be kind of early because our flight to Barcelona was early.
The next morning the taxi, arranged by our wonderful air bnb lady, came and picked us up and brought us to the airport. I tried to get coffee, but as I had been learning, most places in the world drink expresso in shot form and that's about it. I did get some, but it was, well different. Once we got on our plane to Barcelona I fell asleep like usual. When we landed we grabbed our stuff and tried to figure out where to go then. We found a bus thing that would take us to our air bnb and back to the airport when we were leaving for one flat rate. It seemed like our best bet so we did that. It brought us right to our place and we went in. I didn't know that we would be sharing the space with a family and another girl, but it seemed fine. It ended up being really
Barcelona, Spain
The view from Park Guell weird honestly. We never even met the woman and she told us we had our own bathroom but we did not. One of her daughters came into our room and was just in there, which was fine she was only like five and we didn't mind too much, we just couldn't understand her because she only spoke Spanish. She ended up coming back and eating our food and moving our stuff, which we weren't too happy about. Anyway, the first day we walked past the college and to this courtyard. We decided we might as well get a hop-on-hop-off bus ticket to get acclimated with the city. We stopped a few times, but we mostly just rode it around and took in the scenery. At the beach we got off and sat in the sand. It was sunny and warm and I even touched the water, you know before I got in too deep and soaked my sneakers and socks. There was a boardwalk we walked down and then rocks like a pier we went down and sunned ourselves while letting my shoes dry. After that we took the bus back and got dinner at a great grocery store we
found. I got a bottle of champagne and ended up drinking it all, oops. The next morning we got up for a bike tour that I had found for us. Each morning we walked a little bit and went to the Starbucks for breakfast. It was perfect for reliable coffee. Then we followed the map to where the bike tour was going to meet. It was a busy little square in the middle of buildings. We didn't realize that that day was a holiday so there were tons of people out. I was definitely nervous because I hadn't ridden a bike in so long, and I was scared. Thankfully I only crashed into a wall once. Erin and I were with this Australian family, parents and a daughter. I ended up really enjoying the biking, it was freeing. We visited La Segrada Familia and learned about how it still isn't even completely built. We went back to the beach and it was still just as nice. The beach is actually man-made as well as all of the attractions around it because of the 1996 Olympics. We biked all through the streets and there were so many Christmas markets. Apparently a
tradition in Spain is to make figurines of famous people pooping and logs. It signifies something. I also learned that Barcelona speaks Catalonian, which is basically a different language from Spanish and Barcelona has been fighting for independence from Spain. We stopped in this park place that has a gorgeous fountain. There were so many people there just enjoying the day. We learned about the history of Barcelona and how they were oppressed. I genuinely enjoyed the bike tour and I'm so happy we got to do it, not only because it was fun, but because we got to know the city and its history. For the rest of that day-the tour took like four hours-we walked around and then we went to a gluten-free pizza place for dinner. The walk was a little bit sketchy, but it was good.
We woke up early the next day and we decided to go to Park Guell, which was in The Cheetah Girls. It was a long walk to get there, and there was even a point when we had to either take stairs or an escalator that was outside. I took the stairs because I'm athletic like that. Once we
got the the park we realized if we wanted to go in to the part with the mosaics we would have to pay. I don't think so. The park itself was incredible.We walked around and climbed up to the top to see the view. For me it was peaceful. I am a hiker and to be able to climb and explore in Barcelona was thrilling. I could've looked at that view for hours.
After we left the park we went into gift shops and just looked and shopped around. I bought a sweater that I definitely didn't need, but loved. I'm still so glad I got it. For dinner we went to this fancy restaurant. It was out of our price range, but Erin was able to get something gluten-free so it was all worth it. Earlier that day we hunted for the gluten-free bakery. She was in absolute heaven. I'm so glad we got to go there. I had a croissant and it actually wasn't bad. So, after dinner we of course had to go back and stock up on goodies.
The next morning the taxi/bus came for us and drove us to the airport. He drove
Porto, Portugal
The "Porto" sign in the center like an absolute maniac and I was more than once afraid for my safety. Anyway, we made it safely to the airport and flew back to Dublin. While I did have a great time, stepping back on Irish soil is just so satisfying and feels so right.
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