to europe part 1

Sunday was our anniversary, and we were just so lucky that some friends asked us to join them on a trip to Europe. We accepted a few months ago and decided to join them to celebrate our anniversary and to take a little break from the hard core studying.

The plan was to go to Barcelona for three days and then Paris for four days. Our flight was a nine hour overnight to Paris and from there we were set to fly to Barcelona two hours later.

Once we arrived to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, we had a hell of a time trying to find the terminal for our next departure. The first person we asked told us to head to terminal 2F, it took us about 30 minutes to get there. Then, we found out our terminal was truly terminal 3 which was another 30 minutes away. It was a disaster. We ran to reach the other terminal just to be confronted by world longest security line. We ended up cutting (lol) because we only had 30 minutes until our flight!

We finally got through security, but naturally I was selected to be randomly searched. Denzel ran ahead to hold the flight. BUT… we were too late. They weren’t going to let us on the flight. I was super upset! This was not off to a great start. The next flight was not until late Monday night. I walked away (as to not have a meltdown in front of the airline workers) and a few minutes later somehow Denzel convinced them to let us on the flight. The flight went smooth and we arrived to Barcelona, excited to start our trip!

When we got to Barcelona, it was easy to find the aero-bus which was about 6 euro per person and it took us all the way to the center of Barcelona. We walked to meet our friends outside of the apartment. We used Airbnb and the place was a fair price and it was adorable! Three bedroom, two bathroom, with a porch from each room! We loved it.

We went to the “Mercat de La Boqueria” to eat at one of the little tapas bars. The market was incredible! It was full of different fruit and veggie stands, dessert stands, and meat stands. We ate some assorted tapas and of course some wine at “El Quim de la Boqueria”. It was incredible! And decently priced. We walked around and had dessert at the market as well (chocolate covered strawberries on a stick y’all).

After a full day of exploring and getting settled into the apartment, we headed to a popular spot for appetizers called “Can Paixano”. It’s custom to eat dinner later in the evening in Spain so we didn’t plan on going to dinner til 9:00-10:00. The place was so crowded and deservedly so! We had some meats and cheese with house made cava, a sparkling wine. Denzel was even brave enough to try some blood sausage, but I was not as adventurous lol.

We walked around to find a cool spot for dinner and decided on a homemade pasta restaurant called “Tucco Real Food”. It was also incredible and we decided we loved Spain for its delicious food at a low price.