"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." -St. Augustine

In June of 2016, I took a trip that I now see as the best two weeks of my life. I went with EF Tours to Portugal and Spain and my Aunt Paige was a group leader. I saw and learned so many beautiful and unique things. I also made some amazing new friends that I still talk to on a regular basis.

So the journey started in Austin, Texas at about 3:30pm. We flew from Austin to Washington D.C. and then had an overnight flight from Washington D.C. to Lisbon, Portugal. Because of the time difference, when we got into Lisbon it was morning time. Our bus picked our group up from the airport and took us to our hotel to drop our luggage and then the exploring started.

We started touring Lisbon that afternoon and throughout the next day. After 2 days in Lisbon, we loaded up on the bus and started on to our next destination: Algarve. On the way to Algarve, we stopped in Evora and toured the Chapel of the Bones. It was really cool.

After that we went to my favorite city of the whole trip: Seville. Seville was just a stop, we didn't get to stay overnight there. We were on our way to Costa del Sol. Seville is the most beautiful sight I have ever seen and here are some pictures to prove it. The pictures don't do it justice but they are still beautiful.

Costa del Sol was a lot of fun too though. In Costa del Sol we had a lot of time to ourselves. We were not with the tour guide the whole time and we got to choose what we wanted to do. We went to an crocodile park. Our group decided that if we had to chose whether we had to fight off a shark or a crocodile, we would choose a shark.

We also got to spend some time by the water and in the sun in Costa del Sol.

From Costa del Sol, we headed to Grenada to see the AlHambra. The Alhambra is a very important thing in history. Not only is it important, it is beautiful.

After one quick day and night in Granada, we made our way to Barcelona with a stop in Valencia. Valencia was a very beautiful city but of course all of the cities we visited were beautiful. When we were in Valencia, we went up in a ferris wheel which aided me in capturing this glorious picture.

After a day in Barcelona, we separated from the other groups and did our own thing for the last few days. We stayed in a 17th century villa. It was stunning. Not only did we just tour the beautiful city of Barcelona.

We also visited Park Guell.

And took a bike tour.

We also got to see some of Antoni Gaudi's amazing work.

The trip was amazing. I also made some amazing friends. In the front from the left is Alex, Addie, Isaac, and Sarah. The back row is Raegan, me, Bryce, CJ, and Gesena. We made so many great memories and had so much fun together.

And some more amazing memories with family.

Going out of my comfort zone and going on this trip helped me grow so much as a person. It also helped me form and unbreakable bond with new friends and my aunt. I am so thankful for those two weeks and I wish I could go back and do it again. I love to fly and I love to travel. I will get some more stamps on my passport one of these days!