Our Mediterranean Adventure: Day One Boston to Barcelona

Dear Em,

* This is one of ten posts recapping our California adventure. See also Day Two Antibes & Nice, Day Three Pisa & Florence, Day Four Rome, Day Five & Six Cruising, Day Seven Athens, Days Eight, Nine, & Ten Turkey & Lots of Cruising, Day Eleven Capri, Italy, Day Twelve Cruising & Returning Home, & Your Own Adventures with Grandma & Papa. *

This May Daddy & I (& our friends Glen & Liz) went on a 12 day Mediterranean cruise, making stops in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, & Turkey. I'm going to recap our fun adventure here on the blog by using a series of email letters that I wrote to you while we were on our trip. My emails to you served as a way to communicate with you while we were on our trip, but it also became a journal of sorts that will help me to remember all of the little & big moments of our trip for always. Enjoy...

Dear Emma,
I can't believe our trip has actually begun. I feel like we've been planning it forever, & it's surreal that we're finally on our dream European trip. After hitting a ton of traffic on the way to the Boston airport, we sat down with some food & cheersed the beginning of our adventure. 

Then we boarded a really long flight...so long they served us dinner & breakfast! We took off after 7pm & landed around 2:30 in the morning (U.S. time). Luckily, each seat had its own TV, & Daddy & I were able to watch movies & track our trip during our flight from Boston to Paris. 

The sun was setting just as we were taking off, and the sky above Boston was pretty. The sun was rising again just before we landed in Paris. 

Sunset over Boston

Sunrise over Paris

The airport in Paris was open & bright, which felt good after sitting in an airplane for over seven hours. We weren't in Paris for long- just a quick stop before getting on our next flight. Since it was Paris & Fancy Nancy loves Paris...& you love Fancy Nancy, we bought you a souvenir. Hello Kitty loves Paris too! We also got a new stamp for our passports. 

Next we had a quick flight to Barcelona, Spain before taking a bus to our cruise ship. We didn't plan any time to explore Barcelona (12 days away from you is already more than enough), but we got to see a little bit of Barcelona from the airport to our cruise port. It's very hilly, with many of the homes & buildings being built into the sides of the hills. Fun palm trees line the streets. 

Our cruise ship is huge (& it's not even one of the largest Royal Caribbean cruise ships)! Think the biggest building you've ever seen floating on the water. My favorite spot is on the deck. I like to sit in the lounge chairs with the sun shining, looking out at the water & the hilly coast line. I also love that there is a soft serve ice cream machine on deck where I can get a vanilla ice cream cone whenever I want!

There are a few different dining areas. The main dining facility is formal. Daddy will need to wear a pair of slacks & nice shirt, & I will most likely wear a dress each night. It's a little different than my typical dining attire when we're at home...which is typically sweat pants. We have a number of different options to choose from at dinner, & Daddy & I tried escargot (snails!) as an appetizer. Not bad. They were pretty chewy & mostly tasted like the butter & garlic they were slathered in.

After dinner we watched the sunset over Barcelona from the on-deck hot tub. 

We had all only gotten a couple hours of sleep in the past 36 hours, but somehow I still stayed up until almost 11pm (I'm crossing my fingers that it helps me get used to the time change...we're six hours ahead). When I finally laid down in bed, I fell asleep immediately. I slept great to the sway of the ship until my alarm went off this morning. We start early today, because we will visit Nice & the French Riviera. 

We love you to the moon & back & miss you bunches already. Hope you're having a great time with Grandma & Papa. Did they love watching Annie with you?

I love you so, 
Mommy