Sunday August 8th

I arrived in Barcelona after a 7 hour flight, my first international flight alone, which felt great to get out of the way to know I was comfortable doing it. I met a really interesting girl from the US who went to undergrad at UNC, it took all my strength to not ask too many questions about the sports culture but her best friend was a member of the women's basketball team so I was in luck haha. She had just finish an internship in New York for her third year in Law school and decided to take a 5 day trip to Barcelona before school started again in 8 days ... insane! The flight attendant thought we were sisters and travelling together to celebrate a vacation from school so she brought the drinks over right away haha. We had some good chats, some laughs, a nice nap and a really decent meal (for an economy class ticket) to make the flight pass very quickly. I arrived in Barcelona airport at 7am with a solid 3 hour nap to sustain me for the day - I don't know what all the fuss is about jet lag, the adrenaline and excitement of being in a new country had me ready to go haha .... maybe.
Getting back to the house, that I had been to 2 years ago, immediately felt like home. It may be because the family we stay with is exactly that FAMILY, but it also has to do with the hospitality and the way they go out of there way to make you feel like you can make yourself at home. So we started off the day with a typical European breakfast - fresh bread, cheese, amazing fruit, cafe, tea, and of course my favorite chocolate croissants! Than after much discussion we (Mom, Dad and Aunt Wendy) decided to head to the Barcelona Zoo for a few hours while the rest of the crew stayed at home to enjoy the warm weather in a more relaxing way and to prepare for the tradition Spanish meal of paella.






It wasn't as big as the Toronto zoo but there are still a lot of animals and you are a lot closer to the them than most zoos, good or bad you can decide haha. Another Barcelona site to check off the never ending list of things to do there!
We returned from the zoo right on time to enjoy a delicious meal of a paella, that had more ingredients in it than I can list but it was DELICIOUS! (google paella if you are interested in cooking, its a lot of fun to make and you can't mess up the 'receipt' because there are so many versions). Oh and we definitely could not have this meal without drinking sangria and having crema catalana for dessert. [Caution google imaging these items may make your mouth water] haha.
Being full and tired is the perfect combo for a quick siesta to get over some jet lag - well it felt like I slept for hours but it only lasted about 20 minutes, so that was either all I needed or I was just too over tired, who knows. Everyone was still too full from the meal that we didn't plan any dinner but more family members stopped by to visit. We took some pictures and enjoyed the warm weather and good company before heading to the beach for an early evening walk.



A great day to start with :) …

"The first step towards somewhere new is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are." UK
Mich