France, Spain and Home Again

I got home on Wednesday, May 23rd. My last week in Europe feels like forever ago.

Sam and I were pretty stressed for a few days, about a week and a half ago, when we got stuck in Lyon, France, because of train strikes. We were trying to get to Nice, but the trains stopped running for a few days, so we spent three days in Lyon before heading directly to Barcelona. But really, considering that was the most inconvenient thing that’s happened to me in five months of being in Europe, I think I did pretty well.

Lyon actually turned out to be incredibly beautiful and historic and I really enjoyed our accidental stay there. Though considered “the second Paris,” I actually think Lyon is an amazing city in its own right and more people should venture there. Lyon has world-class museums, 15th century medieval architecture, hundreds of secret passageways, was once the center of the silk trade, and is today the culinary capital of France. We walked all over the city, visited the majestic Basilique Notre Dame, and ate charcuterie at quintessential French cafés.

If you ever find yourself in Lyon, I’d recommend taking a walking tour, visiting the churches, checking out its many museums (Musée de Beaux Arts de Lyon and Musée des Confluences are the best), finding a hidden passageway, and asking the locals for the best spots to eat.

Last Sunday, May 21st, the trains started up again and we were able to get to Barcelona, our last destination, in one piece. Barcelona was definitely one of my favorite places. The Sagrada Familia absolutely blew my mind, as did all the other Gaudí architecture, and I loved wandering the maze of streets in the Gothic Quarter as well. All my high school Spanish came flooding back to me and I was able to speak to a lot of locals in Spanish (but Catalan was too confusing for me to attempt). Sam and I mostly spent our remaining couple days on the beach, though, where we were able to travel slightly further north and get away from the ridiculously crowded Barceloneta beach. Those few days, soaking in the sun and eating tapas and Paella, were the perfect ending to an incredibly busy, fulfilling European semester.

I’ve been home in Kentucky for five days now. Not much here has changed, even though I feel like I have. I’m grateful for the time to recharge, but I know that soon I’ll be ready to leave again. London feels so psychologically far away, as if I were there years ago. Right now, I’m taking this time to process the time I had there and what it means for me, still feeling a bit directionless with what I want to do with my life.

Thanks for following along on my adventures! I’ll be taking a blog hiatus for a couple weeks as I settle into a different routine here and prepare for my senior year at OSU in the fall. If I don’t get go to grad school or get a job right away after graduation, I’ll be thinking about heading out somewhere again. Where to next?