It has been 3 years since the last and the first time I’ve been to Europe and I thought it was high time to go back. And when is the perfect time to visit again? Of course on my birthday just like the first time I went to visit Europe.
Thankfully, my awesome boss (though reluctantly) said YES to my 10-day vacation request. YAY! So how did I visit 6 countries in 10 days? Continue reading to find out. This blog will briefly explain how I did it.
(1st DAY)
On May 10th, I left Boston Logan International Airport for Athens International Airport with an 18-hour layover in Portugal landing at 6:05 in the morning of May 11th. With my quick stop in Portugal, I was able to explore its capital city of Lisboa (Lisbon) and its neighboring town, Sintra. And it was amazing!,/.
Some of the MANY pictures I’ve taken while in Portugal
(2nd DAY)
I left Lisbon Airport at 11:50 on May 11th and landed Athens at 05:45 in the morning on my birthday. YAY! Without any further ado, I spent my 36th year on Earth exploring the mystical city of Athens. Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday, happy birthday…. Happy birthday to me!!!!
Some of the pictures snapped while exploring the mythological city of Athens.
(3rd DAY and 4th DAY)
At 5:15 in the morning of May 13th, RauviTravels flew to one of my dream destinations, the island of Santorini. Yay!!!!
I actually contemplated on visiting Santorini at first as I initially decided on seeing the Grand Canal in Venice. Unable to make a decision on my own between Santorini and Venice, I opened a poll on Facebook and let my friend decide my fate. And Santorini it is!
(5th, 6th and 7th DAY)
I bid farewell to Athens on May 15th landing at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (Rome) at 10:10 in the morning. Rome and Naples did not disappoint me, not at all. It was what I have always imagined it to be, BEAUTIFUL and HISTORICAL!
(7th DAY)
Again, with great sadness, I had to say goodbye to Roma, Italia so I could say hello to my destination, Espanya landing Barcelona at 5:00 in the afternoon on May 17th. With Spaniards colonizing most part of the world, including my native country, Philippines, I’ve always been told that my paternal side of the family (originally from Zamboanga) are partially Spanish descents. Go figure! Without hearing my ‘exotic accent’ first, people in the US would often mistake me as Colombian/Portuguese/Hispanic before guessing I’m an Asian. But sadly, the country that I’ve always curious to visit caused my greatest mishap in this whole entire trip. That part of my story would further be explained on my next blog. Hint: I didn’t plan on going straight to the police station as soon as I landed Barcelo Airport nor planned on buying stuffs from head to bottom.
(8th and 9th DAY)
I originally planned on exploring Girona and Costa Brava but sadly, I had to take the latter out of my itinerary due to the unfortunate event I experience as soon as I landed Barcelona. But the cool thing is, I was able to explore 3 countries in a day as I drove crossing the borders of Spain, France and arriving Andorra at 9:00 in the evening on May 18th.
Our plan is to wake up very EARLY on the morning of May 19th to explore more of Andorra but I guess the ‘trip exhaustion’ finally took a toll on us waking up very LATE instead. So it was really a quick stroll in the beautiful capital city of Andorra la Vella to make it back to Barcelona for our 6:00PM flight back home.
(10th DAY)
American soil finally…… If my boss would see these pictures, he would certainly joke that that it was me crashing down to a depressive state after a 9-day manic episode, LOL. It was a tiresome 9-day alright but I would not have it the other way. It was an amazing trip and I would love to do it again soon!