Barcelona

I started this summer with a lot of big plans.

I was going to go on a whirlwind solo trip backpacking around Europe, go to as many countries I wanted to, & stay until I ran out of money. This was pretty...unrealistic. I realized early on that I just wasn't going to be able to the trip that I wanted to, and I decided that I would save my money for when I can do it my way. I gave up on the idea of summer travels, at least international ones. Then my friend, Kseniya, suggested a trip to Spain at the end of her study abroad semester. She definitely didn't have to ask twice, I said yes immediately. So we booked our Airbnb and started planning our trip to Barcelona.

This trip was special for so many reasons. For one, it was entirely self-funded. This was huge for me. All the other big trips I've been on have been with my family and paid for by my parents. Paying for everything myself gave me a whole new level of independence. Not to mention, flying across an entire ocean by myself.

The trip itself was amazing. I absolutely loved Barcelona. The buildings are beautiful and there's so much good food around, not to mention some amazing beaches. Neither of us are big planners, so all we did is plan some general areas we wanted to go and then just came up with everything as we went. For me, this is the best way to travel. My favorite part of the trip was definitely the day we spent in Sitges just relaxing on the beach in the most picturesque beach town. We also hiked in the foothills of Mt. Tibidabo (let me know if you catch that reference) and hit all the major tourist sights. We ended our nights watching Spanish Netflix which is so much better than American Netflix and the perfect way to relax after long days of sight seeing.