Never been on a cruise before? Neither had I. I literally did not know what to expect and I spend hours on the Carnival Cruise website clicking on every link I could find and trying to get as much information as possible.
Luckily for you, now that I’ve been, I can break it down for you a lot easier.
For reference, we were onboard the Carnival Vista. We boarded in Galveston, TX and traveled to the Cayman Islands, Montego Bay and Cozumel.
Ready for another San Antonio brunch recommendation???
This time we are moving a little deeper into Downtown San Antonio with Rosella’s at the Rand. If you live in San Antonio, you might have heard of this little café, since they have a few locations. And while all the locations are pretty good, today I’m going to focus on their newest location in the historic Rand building.
Let’s Rodeo San Antonio!
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that this is my favorite time of the year! Here in Texas, there are rodeos in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas/Ft Worth and Houston. I still haven’t been to the one in DFW, but I’ve been to all the others at least once! And since I live in San Antonio now, I’ve been going to that one for the past couple of years.
This past weekend, I took my family to their first San Antonio rodeo and they loved it! If you’ve never been, let me give you a little break down on what goes on. Each rodeo ticket comes with a concert and entry into the fairgrounds.
I looked at the date today and couldn’t believe my eyes. Two years ago I hit “publish” on my first blog post on Small Town Runaway! It really does not feel like it’s been two years!
Part of me feels like its been way longer than that. I mean, I am constantly working on it and/or thinking about it. But another part feels like this is all still very new! I did just revamp it in April.
So today I want to share two things that I’ve learned from blogging.
A few weeks ago, I got invited to a Social Media Night to check out a new place in San Antonio called Class Axe. I looked the place up online and was immediately intimidated. This place was all about axe throwing! Um, what?!? Crazy, I know!I
have very bad balance and hand-eye coordination! So I was very worried that I would hurt myself, or worse, someone else! Nonetheless, I went! What a surprise! Yes there was a lot of axe throwing, but the experience itself was amazing!
Earlier this year I set my mind on the fact that I would be taking a trip to Europe. I didn’t know when, where, or with who, I just knew it was something I had to do.
I asked friends and family if they would go with me and many said yes. But the follow through and finances weren’t there. And I began to get disappointed and begin to think that maybe this wasn’t going to be possible. And then something happened, something that shook me, and I knew I had to get away and a trip was going to be the only way. I didn’t care if I went alone, I was going. And then I heard about EF Ultimate Break.
As y’all might know by now, I love brunch! Bae knows I love brunch as well, so whenever he hears or tries out a new place, he knows to let me know and eventually take me! He knew immediately that I would love this place: CommonWealth!
Y’all, my first thought of this place was, “Oh.em.gee. this place is so cute!” then it was, “Wow, it’s really busy…” I don’t know about y’all, but for me, if a place is busy or hard to get reservations to, you know it’s gonna be good! And CommonWealth did not disappoint!
And at last we reach the end of this life changing trip! Today we talk about my final stop of the Iberian peninsula: Barcelona!
I loved the whole trip, but I would say that Barcelona was my favorite. I don’t know if it’s because by then I was already more comfortable with the European way of things but it just felt like home. The vibes that I got there reminded me of Austin, TX (which is my favorite city in the US) and I just felt that if I were to ever move to Spain, Barcelona is where I’d go. So why did I love it so much? Let me tell you!
As we continue to work our way to shorter days and cool fall weather, let’s go back to some more sunny days in Spain. But before we travel to the last city of my trip (and my favorite), let’s take a quick stop in the little beach town of Sitges!
Sitges sits about an hour train ride from Barcelona and is a little beach gem. Yes Barcelona has beaches, but they get way too crowded and frankly I’m now a big fan of crowds. We ended up at Sitges because our wonderful tour guide offered us an extra excursion: paddle boarding! I had only done paddle boarding a time or two in Austin and I was definitely not gonna miss a chance to do it in Spain! Plus it meant a day at the beach and a new town to explore! A total win!
Medieval Toledo! I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was actually surprised by this little town!
Toledo is about 30 miles outside of Madrid. You’ll see a lot of advertisements for it in Madrid. If you get a chance to visit, I definitely suggest doing it! We headed off to Toledo right after visiting the Palacio Real de Madrid. To say we did a lot of walking that day is an understatement!
This little town sits on a hill surrounded by a river with bridges creating access to it. It really has a medieval feel to it, but with a twist! It is known as the the city “of three cultures” because of its influence from medieval Arab, Jewish and Christianity. This walled old city still has its ancient synagogues, mosque, and churches.