5 Days in Lisbon & Barcelona

Happy March! I love March. It means that February (the worst month of the year in my opinion) is over, my birthday arrives at the beginning of the month (March 7), and the cold winter slowly begins to thaw so that by the end of the month, we're really looking at spring.

This March also marks the 1 year anniversary of the pandemic. I remember this time last year I was looking forward to spring break, going to Lisbon, Barcelona, and Granada with my girls, Heidi and Rocel, and then later to Nice with Will. Due to the pandemic, the trip ended prematurely with Heidi, Rocel, and I each taking separate flights out of Barcelona back home, for what turned out to be a very long time.

I still mourn the loss of the rest of my spring break, particularly never having gotten to the France part with Will. But there were bigger things at play, and now I can only be glad that things are looking more hopeful this March than they did last March.

In honor of the one year anniversary of our girl's trip, I wrote up this blog post highlighting the great food and fun things we did in our brief time there. Looking through the photos to write this not only made me long for travel again, but also made me even more excited for the day that I am finally reunited with my friends again! I'm sure you can relate :)

Lisbon

Food

Avocado toast - Our first meal in Lisbon was brunch right by our AirBnB and we all got toasts. They were fresh and delicious, a good sign of things to come...

Egg tarts - Oh my gosh egg tarts!! The egg tarts (or "pastel de nata") in Lisbon were the food highlight of the trip for me. I thought I didn't like egg tarts, but then I had these soft, creamy bites of heaven and I am forever changed. We ate these every day at multiple locations, including the famous Pasteis de Belem founded in 1837, one of the most famous egg tart bakeries.

Evan’s birthday dinner - The main star here was the GIANT hunk of chocolate mousse (my favorite dessert). The rest of the meal was not exceedingly noteworthy, but the chocolate mousse will live forever in my memory and taste buds.

Time Out Market Lisbon - We explored traditional Portuguese dishes in the form of fresh fish, Bacalhau à brás (shredded cod with fried potatoes, onions, and eggs), as well as gelato for dessert.

A Licorista - We went to this restaurant on our last night in Lisbon, on a recommendation from Rocel's friend. This is a lesson to always follow recommendations - the food here was AMAZING. My photos are terrible, but the shrimp in garlic & olive oil was sooo delicious and flavorful.

Bonus video of the egg tart making process (they're so fast!):

Activities

The first day, celebrating the sunny weather, we visited Castelo de S. Jorge (Castle of Saint George), a historic castle dating to at least the 8th century BC! The views of the city were beautiful and it was cool to climb around on this unbelievably ancient architecture. There were also a ton of peacocks hanging around?!

In the afternoon we went to the Torre de Belem (Belem Tower), a fortification and ceremonial entrance to Lisbon, dating back to the 16th century. The tower itself was very striking with its white limestone exterior, and the area was very peaceful and serene in the afternoon/early evening sun. It was nice to be on the water, still feeling fairly carefree.

On our way to Jeronimos Monastery, we oddly ran into the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter and had to take a picture in front of it! We enjoyed walking around the gardens in front of the monastery and looking at the intricate carvings on the facade while munching on pastel de nata.

Barcelona

Food

Tapas (of course) - It goes without saying that you get tapas in Barcelona. We had ours at Bar Jai Ca, another great recommendation this time from Heidi's friend. We ordered the fixings from delicious white sangria that tasted like juice, tomato bread, croquetas de jamón (ham croquettes), patatas bravas, calamari, and shoshito peppers. Many of these items we'd eaten together before at New Haven's Barcelona, (a great restaurant), but to no surprise, tapas in actual Barcelona just hit different.

The next day on our way to the Sagrada Familia, we had brunch at Alsur Cafe. I ordered the avocado bagel & lox (combining two of my favorite breakfasts) while Rocel fulfilled her Anglophile side with a Full English done Spanish-style. Meanwhile, Heidi got some kind of Spanish breakfast sandwich that came with a full ear of corn. We all also shared the banana bread french toast because... vacation!

Final dinner (emotional) - We had our final dinner at a restaurant called Colom walking distance from our AirBnB in the Gothic Quarter. At this point in the trip, we'd been through a lot (see activities below) and this final dinner was wonderful, both because of the quality of the food and because of the situation we were in. We went all out with another pitcher of sangria, manchego cheese (a specialty), octopus, and seafood paella. The restaurant also offered us a free crème brûlée dessert if we wrote a Google Review.

We ended the night by walking around the neighborhood and eating a late-night snack of churros and chocolate - when in Spain right?

Activities

After brunch the first day, we walked to La Sagrada Família, one of the most famous cathedrals in the world, designed by the legendary Antoni Gaudí, whose work can be found all over Barcelona. Pictures cannot do this cathedral justice. We visited in the afternoon when the light is best, and indeed the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows created a magical and colorful world inside. It's easy to be moved to tears in there, as we nearly were, even if one is not a religious person. The Sagrada Família actually closed the day after we went, so we were some of the last people who were in there before the world shut down.

The other central activity of Barcelona was trying to figure out how bad the coronavirus situation was and later, how to get back to the United States. Since the week prior to flying out, rumblings about COVID-19 had been going around and we seriously debated whether or not to even go on this trip. At the time, it was unclear how bad the situation was and we eventually decided to go, but stay alert. Every day that we were gone, the news got worse and worse. Things began to seem more dire in Barcelona when we received a message from Yale that our spring break was being extended indefinitely, and that students on campus were being asked to leave as soon as possible. Heidi and Rocel started to plan flights back home.

Then came the announcement from Donald Trump (at about 2am Barcelona time), that he was cutting off all international flights from Europe into the United States. At the time, it was unclear that American citizens were not included in this, and I received several urgent calls from friends and family asking if I had a flight out. A panicked and hurried dash ensued to book flights out of Barcelona. We all decided to skip flying back to New Haven to gather our things, and instead flew straight home. I ended up flying out of London to San Francisco and then back to Portland. I haven't been back to Yale since I left for spring break.

In hindsight, knowing what we know now about the pandemic, I don't think we would have made the same decision to travel in early March. However, at the time there was only confusion and uncertainty, and we made the choices we thought were best. Now looking back, I can only be grateful that I got to travel with "my girls", and that our last days together were spent in a beautiful place with delicious food and sunshine.

I know I'll reunite again (in the not-so-distant future!) with Heidi and Rocel, and all the friends I haven't seen in too long. Until then it's nice to have these photos to look back on to remind us of sunnier days. ❤️