Cruising the Mediterranean pt 1

I've loved the idea of traveling outside of the country & I've heard lots of people who loooved Europe. A few years ago, on a family trip at Lake Powell, one of my uncles said, "The best way to see Europe is a Mediterranean cruise." I haven't told him yet that I held onto that sentence and turned it into a bucket list item. (& even better, I got to do it with my best friend!)

Justin and I had to coordinate with our agent when we would have "free time" to travel. We wanted to go early enough that it wouldn't conflict with family plans & leave asap after Justin's season was over. We held our breath once we purchased tickets, flights, etc. because our lives have a way of changing day to day and we honestly didn't know if we would really get to go on the cruise until we were packed and at the airport.

International flights are loooong. My flight to Brazil for my mission was 13 hours :') thankfully Chicago-Barcelona was only 7.

We got to Barcelona a day early to see what we could before we left our port the next day. We hit the ground running on hardly any sleep, trying our best to get accustomed to our new time zone.

You know how sometimes really good little things can make you so happy. That's how I felt when our metro stop popped out right in front of our hotel room doors. hallelujah! We unpacked our bags, got a yummy burrito (& bottled water bc that's the only water in Spain!), and headed to La Sagrada Familia.

DAY 1 - Barcelona
Starving when we got there!! After dropping our bags off we found a yummy Mexican restaurant and filled up on burritos.

This temple is INCREDIBLE. The whole building tells the story of Jesus Christ's life. Antoni Gaudí began construction & design in 1883. It's still being finished today while functioning as a temple & tourist site. Below, you can see the story of the Nativity. Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, wiseman, all carved out of sandstone and granite.

The stain glass inside was beautiful. So much symbolism and beauty in one place.

I rememeber we ended the day with some European McDonalds from across the street. We were in a daze eating our KitKat mcFlurries and went to bed exhausted. An eight hour time zone switch isn't the best idea in your first trimester!

DAY 2 - Barcelona

We had high hopes for Park Güell. We traveled via metro & loooots of steps to find out tickets were sold out for the day. :') If you plan on going during peak tourist time - buy your tickets ahead of time.

So Justin found us a nice walk/hike with a pretty lookout of the city.

The scenery, houses, greenery all brought me back to Brazil! I loved hearing all of the different languages around us throughout the days. & the sewage even smelled the same as São Paulo.

Last stop before heading to our boat was the Triumphal Arch. The environment was so fun & the architecture, again, was amazing.

We made it to our temporary home & explored the ship before unwinding in our pitch black room. This was my first cruise, but I think we'll always opt for the little cabin rooms because I know I'll sleep great.

We got ready for bed after clocking in this type of a day. Little did I know, the rest of our days would look pretty similar in total steps, distance, and flights climbed!

DAY 3 - Palma de Mallorca

Even with the fancy cruise dinners, breakfast was my favorite meal. It felt most "American" and like home to me which helped with the first trimester nausea I was facing.

Lots of these gelato stands scattered around.

The BEST tacos. We ate them before we could take a picture, but the water glasses were cute. :')

Palma is a little island off of Spain. There were palm trees and vendors everywhere! We loved walking/biking around.

DAY 4 - Marseille

Marseille was supposed to be our "chill day". We didn't plan any excursions and I was excited to walk a little & buy a macaron. We ended up walking over 19,000 steps & I think I took a nap as soon as we got back to the ship haha.

Pretty cathedrals everywhere we went!

We may have thought this was the Notre Dame as in the hunchback. After Justin posed, we looked it up and that Notre Dame is actually in Paris. This was just a cathedral haha

We walked to this pretty fishing port. They were having a fish market and the smell was suuuper overpowering haha. The Notre Dame de la Garde is on top of the hill in the picture below. We had a few hours, so that became our new destination (hence the 19,000 steps)!

Many steps & climbs later, we saw this stunning view.

Ended the day with soft serve & a pretty sunset.