Week 15: Write about an adventure

I am purposefully going to delay writing this post because adventure awaits! Next week, I leave for Lisbon, and later, Barcelona. This will be my first experience abroad, and the impatience I’m experiencing is INTENSE. I plan to recap my trip upon my return, mostly in photos.

So, to further shake up my inability to post consistently each week, I’m hitting pause here and will pick back up on Week 15 upon my return. Te vejo em breve and fins aviat!

One Month Later…

Nathan and Carmen in Park Guell — Nathan and I at Park Guell

And we’re back! In fact, we’ve been back in town for a couple of weeks now. Today, I’m catching up on EVERYTHING.

My husband, Nathan, and I got to take our first anniversary trip two and a half years late. Three must really be a charm because the two other attempts to plan a trip were Covidterrupted. But with each trip, our dreams got bigger and better. So I present to you, a very brief recap of our time on the Iberian Peninsula.

So, until two weeks ago, I had never traveled outside of the U.S. I got my passport in 2012 and ten years and a name change later, I finally put it to use. I’m also a nervous flyer. So, let’s just say, the stomach meds were flowing, and my eye was twitching. Luckily, I can easily say that all of the anxiety was worth it.

Boston

We started in Boston. With a nine-hour delay before our flight to Lisbon, we decide to pass the time by wandering around a city rich with American history. Considering that we were ready to get the heck away for a bit, it was interesting to walk down streets that laid the groundwork for the country we live in today. We took a water taxi to the city, wandered along the freedom trail, stopped for a lobster roll and clam chowder, and meandered through the Granary Burial Ground where John Hancock (I have questions), Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams were laid to rest.

I haven’t spent more than a few hours in Boston. I have only been there as a stopover between destinations. This was the first time I was able to really take in aspects of the city. Personally, I could have spent the entire day in the Public Garden and walking the streets of Beacon Hill. I felt like I’d stumbled into another dimension.

First Class

Y’all, we got lucky, and I got spoiled. We road first class on our flight to Lisbon (via Air Portugal/TAP). I’m talking lay-down-seat living for five hours overnight. They served us cheesecake with our dinner, and I, someone who cannot sleep anywhere but a bed, slept (for an hour).

That’s all. I just wanted to brag about my first-class life.

The grounds of the Palace of Monserrate — The Palace of Monserrate grounds and gardens in Sintra

Sintra, Portugal

We landed in Lisbon and immediately caught a taxi to Sintra. For the next two days, we wined and dined ourselves at the Penha Longa Resort. We spent one day recovering from travel and the next day tour castles and eating literally the best meal of my life.

Queue me talking about food for the next chapter. As we planned our trip, we decided that we wanted one major splurge. That splurge was on a dream dining experience at a Michelin star restaurant called LAB.

We were greeted at the door with a glass of Cava, and guided upstairs to a private space where we met our chef and were taken on an amuse-bouche tour of Portugal. Amuse-bouche are single bites of intense or complex flavor. I know this because I love Top Chef. Each bite packed a punch and introduced me to something new every time. This was also my first time tasting ginjinha (sour cherry liqueur, which was not hard to come by in Lisbon.)

Next, we were taken to our table where, on the fly, we decided to add the wine package to our experience. Without going into detail about every course and every wine, I’ll just say this. I’m moving to Portugal. I was blown away by the food and wine and the entire dining experience. Our table looked out over the Penha Longa golf course as a small storm rolled in and the palm trees lightly swayed.

Vista in Lisbon — One of many incredible Lisbon vistas

Lisbon, Portugal

We spent the next two days in Lisbon. In all honesty, I did not do any research on where we were going. I just knew Lisbon looked pretty in pictures and that we’d likely eat well. While I was correct about those assumptions, Lisbon was so much more than that. A sea-faring city with seven monster hills, cobble streets, sardine stores, and fado music.

We took a walking tour of the Alfama district, one of the oldest communities in Lisbon. Alfama streets are hilly, covered in beautiful, preserved tile, and if you’re lucky, your tour guide will take you by a local’s home and they’ll serve you homemade ginjinha. Melancholy fado music filled walkways of the former red-light district, and we were introduced to the concept of saudade, which is one of the least translatable words in the world. It describes an emotion similar to longing and nostalgia, but also heartache over the loss or separation from a lover, and this is basically what fado songs express.

I hope to never forget the sweeping vistas of Lisbon. We were told that there are 14 vistas in the city, and I believe we only discovered four or five of them. The city seems to roll like waves into the Tagus River. We also took in the view of the city from the river on a sailboat. Many of Lisbon’s landmarks are along the river. We saw Trip Advisor’s recommended sites from the water but soaked in more of the life of Lisbon along the squeaky, cobble stone streets.

View of Lisbon from the Targus River — Quick shout-out to the Targus River view of Lisbon

To anyone planning to travel to Sintra, try the piriquita. To anyone traveling to Lisbon, don’t pass up the pasteis de nata, ginjinha, or bolo de caco.

External view of Sagrada Familia — Sagrada Familia

Barcelona, Spain

Skipping all of our travel details that got us to Barcelona, we stayed in an amazing hotel next to Catalunya Square and the Gothic Quarter that offered us both a view of Barcelona and a mini pool on our balcony. Highly recommend soaking your feet after walking an average of seven miles a day.

Once again, the food, the wine, the food and wine. I felt like royalty the way we ate on this trip. I don’t even care how long it takes me to get my thighs back into working order. The sangria was just better in Barcelona. The paella, the tapas, oh my goodness the tapas. The coffee. The bread. The orange juice. I was heaven.

We spent our first full day wandering La Rambla and the Gothic Quarter. By wandering, I mean, we got a little lost in the Gothic Quarter, but at least it’s not a bad place to get lost. We found our way to the Basilica de Santa Maria del Pi and the Cathedral of Barcelona. Somehow, we managed to be the only people touring the Basilica, and that made for a great experience. We were able to take our time, read about the history of the space, which (barely) survived a major earthquake in the 1400s and a bombing in the early 1700s during the Spanish succession.

Nathan and Carmen in Placa Reial in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona — Placa Reial

Of course, it wouldn’t have been a trip to Barcelona without also oohing and awing at Sagrada Familia. For the past, nearly five years, I have worked alongside architecture students and faculty. Add that to 35 years of being an architect’s daughter, one might say that I sort of speak a language I know nothing about. I’ve interviewed aspiring architects about their favorite buildings and spaces, and more than any other response, I’ve heard, “Sagrada Familia.” So, I had to see it for myself.

Inside the workshop at Sagrada Familia — Workshop at Sagrada Familia

We spent several hours listening to details about the interior and exterior of Gaudi’s extraordinary work. From the Nativity and Passion facades to the interior’s forest of light, I was stunned. I may have done permanent damage to my neck as I cast my eyes upward toward every, intricate detail of the church.

My favorite piece of Gaudi trivia is that when the Jesus Tower is completed (probably in the next 100 years based on my calculations), it will be 172.5 meters tall, making its height just shy 177 meters, the height of the hill of Montjuïc. Gaudi believed that nothing humanmade should ever aim higher than God’s work.

After Sagrada, we visited Park Guell for more Gaudi explorations. The park itself is big and beautiful. We saw some of the best views of the city from the top of the park before we wandered down to see more Gaudi buildings, including the Gingerbread House and the Little Mermaid House. [Those are our names for these buildings. I’m now too tired to look up their real names, but I think I just described them well. K. Thanks. Bye.]

We spent our last full day in this gorgeous city getting Covid tests! Just kidding. That only took 15 minutes. After that, we grabbed a coffee and a croissant and took a gondola up to Montjuic Mountain. From the top of the mountain from the view at Montjuic Castle, it was hard to imagine Gaudi’s Jesus Tower sitting only a few meters below where we were standing. [In case you’re wondering about my time calculation for the completion of Sagrada Familia, I based that solely on the perspective of the tower in its current position from my view from the mountain. In other words, it was very mathematically correct. Like Nobel prize-level correct. Take that to the bank!]

Carmen in a gondala — Me pretending I’m okay with being suspended in the air.

We walked from the Monjuic Castle down to the Olympic Village down to the National Art Museum of Catalonia back down to our hotel, where we stuck our feet in our plunge pool and mentally prepared ourselves for 14 hours of flying and waking up the next day at 3 a.m. and went out for one last glass of sangria and some tapas.

I feel like I should give you a prize for making it through my travel recap. I’m going to leave my re-read and revisions for another day, but I wanted desperately to document this trip. If I forget everything, it’s these moments I want to remember.

While I don’t have a physical prize to share, I will leave you with this little piece of unsolicited advice—take photos and also take notes. We have probably a million photos to go through from our trip and while I treasure each one, I also treasure the notes I left for myself in my Notes app on my iPhone. Restaurant names, details that made me think, places I want to encourage others to visit, and more. My notes aren’t lengthy and look more like lists, but I’ve read them multiple times now and it’s such a precious reminder of how time flies and how moments and experiences matter.

Carmen drinking a Wuzzzzup cocktail — Thanks for coming to my show.