Spain- 1, Matt & Morgan- 0
Ahhhh Spain, Matt and I’s first time in Europe as a couple and first time in Europe ever in our lives. What a fucking growing experience. First, Spain is such a cool country. We stayed in Barcelona for a week and in Madrid for a week. Both are very different. Barcelona has a lot more history, is much more tourist friendly, and has incredible architecture. Madrid is much more fashion forward, trendy, cool and city like New York kind of. I personally liked Madrid better but it is completely up to the person and also because Barcelona kicked our ass.
Our trip was in December 2022. Borders were finally opening up and we were itching to take a big trip since moving to NYC. The flight from JFK to Barcelona was super easy and very affordable. Our trip was during Christmas. We stayed the week before Christmas and the week of Christmas. I think it was around $600 a person for the two weeks, round trip, Delta. Which I hate to admit, but I have paid that to go to Atlanta from New York for Christmas before. The catch to borders opening up after COVID was you had to take a COVID test to get over to Spain AND to get back into the US, 24 hours before each flight. Easy!!!!! NOOOO. Two weeks before our trip, I got mother fucking COVID. After every hotel, restaurant, train and flight was booked and non-refundable, I got COVID two weeks before our trip. I had a full blown break down in the doctors office where I tested positive. I thought I was going to die (not because of COVID, but because I thought I couldn’t go to Spain). The weirdest thing about having COVID then was nothing hurt except my throat. I was convinced I had strep threat and knew a dose of antibiotics would cure me. But not the case! The doctor was sooooo nice. She said, lets see how you feel in a week and come back. After a week of being bed ridden and Matt sleeping on the couch, I did feel much better and came back to the doctors office. She tested me twice when I went back. One test was negative and one test was positive. It was the new strand of COVID and she said the quarantine timeframe had changed from two weeks to five days so I was fine to travel to Spain and she wrote me a note to travel internationally. The note was mainly to get back into the US if I tested positive again, but I felt so much better in a week. Matt tested negative every single day with at home tests up until the day of our trip. So drama before the trip, CHECK!
After four beautiful days in Barcelona, Matt and I were on top of the Montserrat (which was my favorite thing we did. If you don’t have COVID and go to Barcelona, you have to do this. It is top 5 best experiences of my life) when Matt turned and looked at me and said “I do not feel good.” My wine buzz, gone. I know what you are thinking “Well you and Matt live together, you didn’t think he would get COVID?” NO I did not, ok?! And that is my fault, for putting all of these Spanish people in COVID danger, I KNOW!!! We grabbed a quick dinner before heading back to the hotel to sleep, thinking that was all Matt needed. We got some paella, which was fine, nothing special…… Until it came back up at 2am for me. I was in the bathroom from 2am-8am putting everything back out I had put into me since we got here in Spain. Meanwhile, Matt is in bed with an insane fever and shivering like crazy. Not our best moment as a couple and unfortunately, not our worst. On top of all of this, it was Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus, sorry your party is so lame!
After I got over my food poisoning, Matt was still not better. I ventured out on Christmas day to find some medicine and food. In my five years at this point being with Matt, I have never seen him this sick. I was looking up hospitals around us Christmas day ready to drain out my savings account. We didn’t know what he had but we were convinced he had COVID. And since you had to test negative to get back into the US, I started planning our new life in Spain: where our kids would go to school, where we would go to church, how we would get a job here. Because I was convinced we would never see the US again. We bounced over to Madrid because our time in Barcelona was coming to a close and our hotel in Madrid was already paid for. So we went from laying in one hotel room to the other. We found a place in Madrid to test Matt for COVID and $100 later, we found out……. he tested negative. We celebrated by going out to lunch for the first time in 5 days in Spain. After Matt started to feel better, we had a fabulous time in Madrid.
Our flight back to JFK was out of Barcelona, so we took the train back after our week in Madrid. The night before our 6am flight back home, we were sitting at a bar in Barcelona with a glass of cava (Spanish champagne) reminiscing on the trip and how it started out rocky but ended up being fun and funny and memorable. When Delta airlines sent me the meanest text they have ever sent me: Your flight to JFK tomorrow at 6am has been cancelled. Ok. Pulling an all nighter trying to get on a flight back to the US, to any city, we finally got on a flight to Paris to get to JFK.
This trip made Matt and I grow much closer as a couple. Not all trips to Europe are sunshine and rainbows and wine……. Learning how to travel internationally with someone (not just a significant other) makes you closer (or not closer lol) and you learn a lot about each other. Spain won this time……. until we meet again!
