Portugal and Spain!!

This second cruise has been incredible! It started in Rotterdam, which is our home port. It’s a great home port because there’s lots of shopping close by and a pretty cool city. It’s Europe’s biggest port and practically the whole city was demolished in WWII because of it. So most of the city is pretty modern and new. When we sailed away from it, it took a long time because it just keeps going and going.

Our first port was Lisbon, which is such a cool city! I ran into this huge flea market going on, with tons of people selling everything you could imagine, from CDs, DVDs, and clothes, to random things like lamps, antiques, magazines, etc. I bought a cool little comic book that was in Portuguese, as well as a Fado CD (the local music genre of Lisbon), and a scarf of the Lisbon club futbol team. I then walked in the heart of downtown where there was lots to do and many tourists walking around. I had some great pastries and there were awesome views and many photo moments.

Then I went to Cartagena, Spain. A small port town, but I drank some great wine and ate lots of tapas for cheap. There were some cool places to walk around there too, and most important- fast internet, since that is a novelty on ships.

Barcelona was next, which I have been looking forward to visiting again since last year. I had one of the best days there! I went to Mercat la Boqueria, where I bought the famous fruit juices and some cheese, sausage, and a baguette. Me and my friend Russell walked up Jew Mountain (Montjuic) where we ate our European picnic with an amazing view of the entire city! Afterwards we went to my favorite sandwich place- Bo de B!!! I had to wait in a long line this time, but it was totally worth it! Chicken sandwich with tons of veggies and all their amazing sauces, along with the best patatas bravas. We enjoyed that on a packed lawn by the bay since it was a gorgeous sunny day. Then we walked Las Ramblas and found some friends in a bar, where we joined them for a sangria. We played for the BBQ set back on the ship and afterwards took a hot tub on the back deck with a beautiful sunset over the city.