So we're taking a little break from Barcelona because I have to try and gather photos since my phone decided to die on me and I lost almost all my pictures from our European adventure. Luckily Felix took some photos, so I'm going to compile the ones from his phone and my camera to hopefully piece together our beautiful trip!

Anyhow, this weekend, my friends and I went to celebrate my birthday in DC. We only really ate 3 meals in DC, so we had to make use of our time there! The first place we went to was Union Square Market. It's such a fun place that has ample amounts of different eats (think fancy, trendy food court) to try. It is in the middle of a more "industrial" looking area - we opted to walk from our air bnb (15 min walk), but there was plenty of parking in their lot at 10:35am when we arrived on a Saturday.

So after you grab your food, you find yourselves a cozy lil seat. At 10:45, we were able to find seating for 8 of us without a problem, even in the middle of our meal at like 11:30am, it still seemed pretty fruitful if you were looking for a seat!

We ended up picking up a bunch of things to eat and I have a bunch of favorites. My favorite by far was the $10 Acai bowls from South Blocks. I definitely had to wait the longest when I was there - but it was well worth it. They have delicious Acai Bowls and smoothies - I got the PBJ bowl and it was so refreshing and the perfect treat, I could have just eaten that and been so satisfied!

Felix ordered a delicious sandwich from Neopol. They have fresh fish chillin' around and their salmon BLT was KILLER. It was a huge, flavorful sandwich for only $10. We were definitely fighting for the last bite!

I also picked up a Dosa from DC Dosa. It was pretty good and flavorful, but definitely not something I would get when I wanted to "try a bit of everything" because that thing is HUGE! I got mine stuffed with potato and veggies (another reason why I couldn't finish it lmao). However, it is packed with spiced and deliciousness, but is definitely something you want to share! lol!

Lastly, we picked up some donuts from B Doughnut and YUM! My friend and I (were freaked that we might've all gotten too much food) decided to share a donut, so we got a donut filled with Ube... and it was SO GOOD.. that we went and got 4 more donuts... lmao! They had super delicious and super unique flavors. I only tried the Ube and Guava, but they had the "normal" ones like the chocolate glaze with sprinkles to really unique ones like lox!!

Overall, I wish I had gone more than once because there is just so much you can try that one body can't fit lol! If I ever head back to DC, I would most definitely come back here to try more!

PS. don't forget to go around back and take pictures in front of the heart wall ;P

Our first time traveling to Europe was confusing, yet so super fun! It was amazing getting a chance to explore culture around Europe and getting lost in the history of each place. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of the info on my phone that I had of our trip, but I want to be able to share the pictures and stuff that we do have!

For your reference - we went on a Princess Cruise first where we went from Athens, Greece --> Santorini --> Montenegro --> Italy --> Barcelona. Then we spent a couple extra days to explore Barcelona :) I want to unfold our amazing summer trip for you bit by bit!

When we got off the cruise ship, we were relatively early (9am), so no one in Barcelona was awake lmao. If you didn't know, Barcelona operates on a completely different time schedule! Pretty much no one is awake in the morning. lol... literally. Things start to open around 11am (except major sights will be open earlier). Lunch is probably near 1pm and then legit everything and everyone siestas in the late afternoon. Then dinner is late night around 9pm and people don't get home til who knows when (I don't know because I couldn't stay up that late).

We tried to take it easy on the first day in Barcelona because it was our first day on land (lmao) and we were pretty tired from the travel the day before. Because our hotel room wasn't ready yet (still had about 3 hours to kill), we decided to drop off our stuff and explore the area.

Because it was 9am, there were virtually no people out besides tourists like us. We opted to take some pictures and head to the famous La Boqueria Market. We loved this place so much (we were there almost every day) because of its vibrant, fun environment and your ability to crave EVERY single thing there. They have everything from tapas, to cured meats, to candies to juices. Everything was so incredibly fresh, you couldn't go wrong with any thing you ordered! Our favorite thing to order of course was their Iberico Jamon. I am not one to love cured meats - but HOLY COW. the high quality piece of heaven had us buying extra and throwing it in our bags for an extra snack later!

Then we walked around - we visited Las Ramblas, some other Gaudi buildings and walked around the Gothic Quarters. Let me tell you something though - early in the morning, be very careful where you walk and hold onto your wallets. Because the Gothic Quarters have a lot of super cute, narrow alleyways, they are great to take pics, but they are also great to get mugged and pick pocketed - especially early in the morning when no one is there.

Don't even know where this is, but saw someone getting mugged shortly after. :-X

We then finally had some food to eat, then checked into the hotel and had ourselves (like in true fashion!) a nice siesta. Around 7pm, we had reservations to see La Sagrada Familia, which is definitely a must see in Barcelona. Absolutely order these ahead of time and I also recommend seeing the towers (we opted for the nativity tower). This place is so beautiful - I could literally cry. The way the stained glass peeked into the building and the whole detail and architecture of it all was just so phenomenal.

Up on the tower, you were able to see a view of the whole city as well as the gorgeous details of the top of La Sagrada Familia. Just be warned, that you have to walk yourself down narrow ass windy steps to get down!

The View at the Top of the Nativity Tower

Afterwards around 8:30pm, we grabbed a bite to eat. We know, still a bit early, but we were exhausted! We ate ourselves many delicious tapas + of course a pitcher of sangria and then passed out. Don't worry, we'll have our favorite food posts soon! ;)

Union Square Market - DC

Barcelona - Day 1

jess fel in love