The best thing about being a foreigner is pairing up with other foreigners to explore and travel together. Traveling with locals from here is often hard as they have other bigger commitments like work and would not have as much freedom. Yet, for me, working in a school is so flexible and I get 2 weeks holidays every 7 weeks plus long weekends every week too. Although I work, I’m somewhat like a student - I get just as many holidays and get to reap all the benefits.

Each time I travel, I go with someone different on each trip. It wasn’t intentional - but the fact sometimes you are just united to go to the same place and you work out a schedule for the two of you. A simple Facebook message on the forum of assistants or in the middle of a conversation - you realize you have common interests - and the next thing I know, I’m booking a trip with someone whom I just met. I love this spontaneity because over the course of the few days, I learn so much about this person and may even become best friend with them over one trip. You bond over travel.

This weekend, the day after Valentine’s Day, I spent four days in Barcelona with a German assistant. Prior to leaving to our trip, we had spent hours of planning and meetups in McDonalds and have already bonded, but I really say the four days really had made us so much closer. We shared so many laughs, walked over the entire city together, enjoyed wonderful food and saw the most beautiful architecture together.

Park Güell Adventures: This is a beautiful garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill built by Gaudi. A few months ago, this park was still free until now it has decided to charge admission for 8 euros. Luckily on a tour, we found out from a local that this park was mostly still free, at least most of its surroundings if we enter from a side entrance, and only the front entrance would not be free. We walked the entire park, and explored some of the most coolest columns and had some awesome views of the city. Then we went back to the front and was deciding whether we should pay for admission to get in. I really wanted to go in, but my friend felt it was not worth it. So we stood in front of the gate, admiring tourists, and then we remembered that it might be free after 6pm when it starts to get dark. So we decided to take a risk, go for pizza down the street, research and come back at 6pm. What we found out that no one knew that it was free after 6pm, it was not searchable on the internet, so it was an insider tip and when we returned at 6pm, no more guards were standing at the gate! We were so happy and went in and took so many many photos! I felt I’ve completed Barcelona!

Stupid Ticket Machine: We were leaving the Park feeling all accomplished - then we encountered the horrible ticket machine. We were trying to purchase 2 tickets that would cost us 4.50 euros for the metro. However, the machine only accepted 5 dollar or 10 dollar bills, or coins. We had neither. The worse part, it would accept 20 dollar bills as long as it was over 6 euros, but that meant buying an extra ticket we would not need. So we stood there, trying our credit cards that did not work, different machines and counting coins, but we had none. We asked people to see if they had enough change to exchange our 20 dollar bills and we met one lovely old couple! We got one 5 euro bill, and 15 euros in coins (consisting of five 2-euro coins and the rest in 1-euro coins and even 20 and 50 cent coins). It was more like this, let me look and see if I have another one, and voila, another dollar! It was ridiculous counting all the coins but it was so funny and we kept laughing about it! We were so lucky!

Bumping into People: When you are a tourist, you bump into the same tourists roaming around the city (especially during low season!) When we were in the park, I bumped into another assistant - we knew we were both in the park, but it was still lucky that we found each other by accident! Then when we started leaving, we saw a few friends from the day before who was part of our tour group. And lastly, when we went to see the flamenco dance, we even saw the family that took the same flight as us to Barcelona from Paris! What are the odds!

Our hearts are still in Barcelona, but I’m back in Paris!

Everyone has a story.

This is mine.