Hola!

Today, I am on my way to Barcelona.

I'm leaving in about 6 hours so I still have a few more hours before I head to the airport

but before then I have to say goodbye to my little baby, Kuma corgi!

Right?

Are you sad mommy's going to be gone?

Are you sad mommy's going to be gone for so long?

So yeah, this trip will be mostly solo.

I decided to go on a solo trip because nobody else could travel with me during July 4th week.

So I am meeting up with my friend and travel blogger, Stephanie, and that'll be in Portugal.

I'm really excited about this trip.

I'm going to be exploring Barcelona (most of it), and then hopping around a lot to Lisbon

and then to southern Portugal and then

also during a tour of three countries, so that'll be interesting.

Yeah, right now...

I'm in Florida and it's raining. It's been raining all day.

I do hope it stops because I don't want my flight to be delayed.

I do have a layover in London.

So gotta make that connecting flight to Barcelona.

So fingers crossed.

[Pilot speaking over intercom]

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Everything went smoothly with my flight on British Airways and I arrived in Barcelona as scheduled.

The first thing I did when I exited customs was stop by the tourism desk to purchase tickets

for the Aerobus.

The Aerobus is the cheapest way to get to the city center at just under 6 Euros.

They have a very efficient system and the bus is super comfortable.

They provide free Wifi and USB plugs in some of the seats.

They make a few stops before stopping at their final destination at Placa Catalunya

and it was only a 5-minute walk to my Airbnb from there.

Just got into Barcelona and checked into this awesome Airbnb.

This is my first place I'm going to be staying at in Barcelona for a couple of days.

It's a historical home.

I think she said 1819 or 1890... either way, it's historical and it's awesome.

Look at these awesome floors.

Very unique.

And then the ceiling is very cool too.

Ok, here is the best part, the terrace.

Well this is just a bonus, really.

Ta-daaaa.

Look how awesome this neighborhood is.

I could just live here.

So the host of this place, Dee Dee, she came out and she came to greet me

and she showed me around.

It's a shared Airbnb space

so it's me and I think there's like 3 or 4 other rooms and then Dee Dee the host with

her partner that she's living with here.

And then there's two bathrooms and one toilet.

So she said that's usually not a problem and this is my first time staying at an Airbnb

with shared space

but I thought it was better than those Airbnbs where there's only one bathroom you have to share.

At least here, there's two, so I thought I would just give it a try

because I really love the design of this place.

I love historical places so... so far, I'm loving it.

But yeah, I'm gonna go explore Barcelona now and find some cool things to do.

I made my way back to Placa Catalunya to see what was going on and came upon hundreds of

pigeons in the square, which was quite a sight to see.

I was pretty tired from all the traveling and the jet lag, so I decided to go on the Hop-on Hop-off Bus

and ride around the city to get a glimpse of what the city offered and narrow down what

I wanted to check out while I was here.

After I rode around the bus for a couple of hours, I was getting hungry, so I headed back

to my Airbnb and saw a cute little restaurant

called El Rincon Restaurant that had some tapas, which was exactly what I wanted.

I loved that their menu had pictures so it was easy to tell what I wanted.

I had a nice, big glass of sangria with fried eggplants and ham and cheese croquettes.

After dinner, I was pretty tired and called it a night.

The next morning, I woke up early to start my 3-countries-in-one-day tour.

I'm in France!

So today, I'm doing this 3 countries in one day tour that started in Barcelona.

So we went to Baga already and then we just came to France, Ax-Les-Thermes.

And then next we're going to this country called Andorras which I haven't even heard of

until I looked into this tour, so I'm pretty excited about that place.

And then we're going to make our way back to Spain.

So all this in 12 hours and we have a wonderful tour guide, his name is Xavi.

So yeah, we have about an hour and a half in this French town, it's so nice.

Very beautiful. Love the mountains in the background.

Gonna probably eat a little bit. Maybe have some coffee and keep on going on with this tour.

So as I mentioned earlier, we stopped by Baga in Spain first.

Baga was about an hour and half ride from Barcelona and Xavi told us a little bit

about this town before we arrived.

XAVI: It's Monday and this village is about to wake up.

XAVI: We will see maybe one or two cars crossing.

There's 2000 people in Baga.

XAVI: People here are mainly living here running little shops or working in bigger cities around

or working from home. Paying little rent.

We were given about 20 minutes to go to one of the two bakeries in the town

and after we ate our yummy pastries, Xavi took us on a quick tour around Baga.

We were only here for about an hour or maybe even less.

I wish we could have spent more time here but I get that they're trying to fit in 3 countries in one day,

so we had to stick to a strict schedule.

Our next stop was Ax les Thermes and it was another hour and a half drive.

The views were getting more gorgeous with the Pyrenese mountains nearby.

Fun fact: these mountains are a natural border between Spain and France.

Once we arrived in Ax les Thermes, Xavi took us to the main street to show us around a bit

and gave us recommendations on where to eat if we got hungry.

He also showed us the natural hot springs where we could soak our feet in

which I definitely took advantage of.

Ax les Thermes is actually an ancient spa town

and it's hot springs, which were used by the Romans, were historically claimed to treat

rheumatism and skin diseases.

It's also a popular ski town.

Next, we made our way towards Andorra.

This was the country I was most excited about.

Andorra is situated between France and Spain and it's the sixth smallest country in Europe.

When we reached the border of Andorra, we hopped off the bus for a bit

and took in the beautiful views of the mountains.

It was breathtaking.

Next we made a quick stop at a mountain valley.

I wish we could have stayed here a little longer because the views were just stunning.

Our last stop was Andorra La Veja, which is Andorra's capital.

It's known as the mall enclosed by mountains as their main street is full of shops

surrounded by mountains.

At about 4pm, we got back on the bus and headed back to Barcelona.

We took a different route back and the views were awesome

as we drove by some farmlands, mountains and lakes.

On our way back to Barcelona, Xavi sat down with each one of us to see if we had

any questions about the trip or if we wanted any recommendations for Barcelona.

I wanted to get some suggestions on places to eat and he recommended Bar del Pla

which ended up being one of my favorite restaurants in Barcelona.

The next morning, I took an early flight out to Lisbon with TAP Air Portugal.

The flight from Barcelona to Lisbon was a short one and half hours

and everything went smoothly with TAP Air.

I checked in to my hotel at Chiado Arty Flats and started walking downhill to a little square

and was approached by Lisbon Chill-Out Free Tour.

They asked if I would like to join their tour at 10

and I thought it would be a great way to start out my day in Lisbon.

It was a 3-hour tour and we walked up and down the hills to the popular spots of Lisbon

while learning the history and culture from our tour guide.

While on the tour, I met another solo traveler, Helen, and we decided to take the tram to Belem after the tour

to try the famous pastel de nata, a Portuguese egg tart pastry.

We ended up spending the whole day together and I didn't get back to the hotel until close to 9 PM.

I'm in my room in Lisbon, Portugal!

I'm at a place called Chiado Artsy Flats.

It's a really cute boutique hotel.

So here is my bed.

Looks nice and comfy.

I'm really excited to get there and relax.

Another little bed here but it's also a couch.

And they have a cool looking night stand, a light-up night stand.

Also have a little kitchen.

They have a little stove.

And they said everything on the counter is free.

So got some Nespresso here.

I'll definitely have that tomorrow morning.

So yeah, really loving this room.

I love how colorful it is.

Just makes me happy.

Good morning!

I am super early at 6:30.

Well, I woke up at 5:30 and I wanted to get out by 6:15 because sunrise was at 6:20

but obviously I didn't make it.

It was a struggle getting up this morning because yesterday was such a long day

and I was so tired and I went to bed late.

Anyway, I got up and feeling refreshed, a little bit more energized

and I'm gonna go explore Lisbon a little bit more before I head down south.

Before my train ride to Albufeira, I grabbed some pastries at a bakery nearby

and walked around Chiado for a bit admiring the neighborhood.

They have the coolest tiles and each building has so much character.

Alright, so I'm on my way to Albufeira.

And I got on the train safely but it was very stressful because when I got to the station...

I left from Sete-Rios station which is about 20 minutes from the central Lisbon area I was staying in.

When I got to the station, there was no signs anywhere

that said my train was going to Albufeira or the Faro region. Nothing anywhere.

So then I found a station attendant and asked him

and he was like, "Oh, that's Line 4" like it was so obvious, haha.

But... so I went up to Platform 4 and again, looked for signs...

Anything that said Albufeira... nothing.

But I saw this elder couple that looked confused too so I started talking to them

and I'm like, "Hey, are you going on the same train...or this train to the Faro region?"

and they said, "Yes! We're so confused because there's no signs anywhere."

And I'm like, "I know!"

So after... gosh it was probably like seven trains that went by and finally our train came.

And it was a little late too. I think it was about 10 minutes late.

So they're not on time, there's no signs anywhere to confirm that it's your train...

you just have to ask an attendant.

So yeah, now I'm just gonna enjoy this journey for three hours and enjoy the views I guess.

Well, looks like my train journey is about to come to an end.

We're arriving probably in about 10 minutes and it went by really fast.

Bye bye!

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I don't know how this happened, but I got an upgrade!

I already had a pool view room reserved but they were like, "Well, guess what?

You're upgraded to a suite!"

So here is the living room area.

Very spacious.

And over here is... ta-daaaa!

The nice pool view.

It looks amazing.

And then past that is supposed to be the beach which I am very excited to see.

And over here, we have the bathroom.

This is the shower.

They have like a nice... one of those rain shower things which are always good.

I thought that was the one bathroom we would have but turns out, there is another bathroom area in here.

And then finally over here is the bedroom.

This room is so lovely. I'm just ready to relax, enjoy this two-night stay here and...

very excited about the beach.

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We had a nice, relaxing time at the beach. It was actually quite nice.

The weather is pretty warm now and it's not too hot so it was good to lay out for...

I don't know, what was it like, an hour or something?

We had a relaxing day today at the beach and the pool.

We sat in the shade because it was just... it was nice.

STEPH: Because I'm Irish.

Hahaha!

We're gonna go to Albufeira Old Town and New Town.

It's like a really small place but there's two towns.