It’s been another busy semester for me as you can tell by the timing of this post! I’m writing this in Washington (another blog post coming soon) about this crazy holiday break that had me in two hemispheres, and two continents, essentially making a triangle on the planet earth.
This was a fun trip that worked out in a lot of weird and interesting ways.
There are three things to keep in mind for this trip
- I have family in Barcelona that left from Ukraine both before and after the war and they’re living the Spanish Dream!
- Johnna (who for new readers to this blog is the person I’m dating), is currently in the Republic of Georgia volunteering for Peace Corps, and will continue to be there until mid-2026
- Johnna has family in Brazil, and they have been there for a long time.
This winter, Johnna’s family organized a trip to go visit their relatives in Brazil, and my family organized a trip to visit our relatives in Barcelona, which happened to end right when the Brazil trip began. Since Johnna had to fly through Europe to get to Brazil, she ended up staying a few days to hang out with me in Spain before we crossed the Atlantic together!
Barcelona
I started off this part of the trip on my own, flying out of JFK to get to Barcelona. It ended up being a really great flight where I got to sleep on the plane and the food was good!
I ended up staying in Spain for about 7 days, which flew by super quickly. My family in Spain only really speaks Russian and some Spanish, so when I went there on my own it was pretty much a Russian immersion program. I know a lot of Russian, and have been speaking it since I was a kid, but I was still nervous about going there without anyone to translate. It worked out really well, though, and I learned a lot of new phrases in Russian that I hadn’t before! I feel like my Russian skills got stronger as a result.
When I landed, I was tired despite sleeping on the plane, but my cousin and I walked around Barcelona and got food from a cafe. I told him about the street trees I noticed in the city and why I thought they were poorly planted.
My cousin lives just outside of Barcelona, so when we were done in the city we drove back and I got to hang out in the small town where he lives.
I was only there for about a week, so I didn’t get to do a ton of stuff, but what I did do was cool! The highlights were of course getting to see Johnna, going dirt biking, biking around the shoreline of the Mediterranean, and seeing the Barcelona Symphony
Going dirt biking was super interesting because we ended up taking one of the long trails in Spain known as the E-12. It had us visiting this cool historic monastery, which was sadly closed when we got there. But the views were cool!
The climate and plants present in the area made me think of California, which makes me understand why the Spanish conquistadors were so fond of that area during their American colonization. There were lots of pines and even olives in the understory, which were cool to see.
The symphony was really cool too! They played Beethoven’s 6th Symphony (Pastoral). Here’s a great video from the Berlin Philharmonic performing the piece! What’s great is that included in the price of admission to the symphony is admission to the Museum of Music. They had some really cool exhibits of historical instruments as well as modern exhibits. They even had a Gamelan!
Johnna joined us for a brief period of time and it was great to get to see her again. We hung out in Barcelona mostly, and spent Christmas together!
Brazil
Johnna and I flew to Brazil shortly after Christmas, and spent time with her family there!
We were mostly located in two places: Gramado and Florianopolis. I was sick for a lot of the Florianopolis section so my photos there will be limited.
The thing you need to know about Gramado is that it is essentially the Brazilian version of Leavenworth, WA but Christmas themed. Since it was so close to Christmas, this was their big moment of the year, and it really showed.
We didn’t do a ton in this part of the trip except relax and shop, so I really don’t have much to report! The only thing major we did was attend a christmas show, which I had 0 expectations for and was totally balls-to-the-wall crazy.
My favorite thing about Brazil, though, is their cheese bread (Pao de queijo). It’s available basically everywhere and is super tasty. The hotel we were staying at had this on the buffet line and it was one of the things I got every day. There are also a lot of buffets in Brazil, which I was super happy about! You pay by the weight of your plate, and buffets are common at a lot of gas stations along their main highways.
As stated above, I was sick for most of the rest of the trip when we were on the beach, which I was really sad about! I felt a lot better towards the end of the trip, but when we got to Florianopolis I felt like I was ready to die.
The drive to where we were staying was really cool! We went through forests and canyons. I even got to see some eucalyptus plantations and saw mills.
We had a cute Airbnb near the coast and could walk to the beach whenever we wanted.
In town there were all of these owl reserves and when I went out one day to walk, I saw one of the owls!
We also went out to a fort that was used during colonial times! I was still feeling bad but I’m glad I was able to make it during this trip because we saw some cool grandmas making traditional Portuguese lace making.
The rest of the trip we pretty much spent on the beach until we had to go! I only really had one day of beach time but the food was all really good close to where we were staying.
We flew back to the US out of Sao Paulo and I said goodbye to Johnna until the Summer. It was sad to see her go, but it was good to see her!
While we were in line for security, tragedy struck.
There was a big snow storm hitting KY and our final connecting flight to Louisville got cancelled. Luckily we were able to get another flight into Nashville and we rented cars to drive back, but we did stay the night in Nashville which extended the vacation a little bit.
I had enough energy to see the Grand Ole Opry backstage tour, and to go to the Rainforest Cafe Nearby.
When we returned back to KY it was a winter wonderland and I had to get back to work at UK removing snow!
Overall it was a great way to spend winter break, and I’m glad I got to spend it with everyone that I did! I wish I was less sick throughout the second part of the Brazil trip but that’s just how it goes sometimes.
Keep reading for more posts about my spring semester, road trip to Washington, and my first week at work!
Mushrooms and Arches 
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