When we woke up on our last day in Madrid, Bri and Katrina went to try to track down her phone while me, Enrique, and Dany packed up and got ready to leave the Airbnb. We ended up near the Apple store and bummed around a little bit, then found a little restaurant that was completely empty and got a booth, where we sat and drank sangria and ate mussels for hours. Eventually, Bri and Katrina joined us for more mussels and sangria until it was time to go to the airport to go to Lisbon!
Our first day in Lisbon, we found our Airbnb and then went to a nearby restaurant where they served us an absolutely insane amount of food and an almost equally insane amount of wine. Since it was late enough and we didn't want to go out, we decided to have a silent disco in the apartment. I'm pretty sure I was the only one not listening to Bad Bunny and honestly I should have. The next morning, we got up and went on a food tour and it was INCREDIBLE! I can't believe I'd never been on a food tour before when travelling but now I want to try it everywhere I go. We started off with the world's best chocolate cake (they're right about that), then we went to a market where we had Vino Verde, tinned fish and a cod/chickpea salad. I was shocked at how good the tinned fish was, especially because I'm not always a huge seafood person, but I wish I'd bought some to bring home with me. Next, we had fried cuttlefish and OMG it's my new favorite food; the worst part of calamari has always been the texture (which isn't bad), but the cuttlefish was so soft and I loved it. The next place was all about pork, which I usually try to avoid because it tends to upset my stomach, but I ate it anyway because I figured it might be different in Europe, and somehow it was, and I really liked it. The last stops were for mussels (delicious, but not as good as Madrid), then pastel de nata and espresso, which I also loved. I truly can't believe how good the food tour was, and I can't wait to travel again to sign up for more! We walked around a shopping area for a while after the food tour, then found a rooftop bar to look at the view, and Lisbon has to be one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited.
The next day, we decided to go to the beach, so we stocked up on some wine and beer, then figured out another public transport system and made our way there! The water was cold, but it felt so nice to be at the beach and in the sun. Dany and I bought swimsuits at the beach; I didn't bring one to Germany because I didn't think I'd need it, which was a bit of an oversight but also not completely wrong because Germany was very cold. We spent the whole day lying around and playing in the water, then got burgers at a restaurant on the beach and took a taxi home.
The morning after the beach day, I woke up to Katrina telling us that we were going home and a text from my dad with a record locater for my flight home. We knew this was a possibility with COVID-19, but didn't really want to dwell on it in hopes that the problem would go away, but I'm writing this at home and honestly my heart is broken. We already had tickets booked to go to Barcelona, so we got on the plane. My dad called me after we boarded and was pretty upset that I was on that plane, but I didn't know what to do. I booked a flight from Barcelona to Bonn and a train from Bonn to Frankfurt before the flight to Barcelona took off. I only had about 5 hours in Barcelona, so we stopped by La Sagrada Familia then got lunch before going to the Airbnb. We hung out there for a little while before I had to say bye to everyone and get in a taxi.
Packing up my room in Bonn was devastating. When I got home, Gesine was too nervous to hug me. I understood, but it was still sad. I miss her. I had a taxi pick me up from her house at 5 AM to take me to Bonn Hbf so I could catch my train to Frankfurt. I watched the sun rise over the Rhine and it absolutely, 100% broke me for a little while. I cried on and off all day. Jen and Jake were on my plane, and it was nice to be able to talk to them so I didn't feel completely alone on the way home. I got through customs faster than my parents expected, so I met them outside of the airport and broke down when I walked outside. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be in Texas. I was supposed to be dining in the dark with my friends in Barcelona, not in Dallas. This hurts a lot.
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