Day 0- Apparently we never forgot the Girl Scout Motto, "Be Prepared."

The level of preparedness to which we approached this trip is well, frightening. Between the the three of us we had every lip balm, hand cream, eye cream, facial wipe, and sanitizer that you could imagine. We had Crest White Strips, Ambien, Melatonin, Tylenol PM, Advil, Tums, Gas X and Monistat for any unforeseen feminine issues that could arise across 15 hours of global travel. We had neck pillows, blankets, iPads, iPods, books and every fashion magazine in existence. And needless to say, amongst the three of us, we could have fed a family of four for a week with the amount of snack foods we brought. All of this preparation was, YES, simply for the plane ride.

We had the Venezuelan male flight attendant giving us his phone number and hotel and telling us on numerous occasions, "You do not need to speak Spanish if you speak the language of love." We are intentionally avoiding his physical description and age. We ignored a religious zealot who was almost thrown off the plane for preaching and passing out propaganda before we were even taxiing down the runway. And then there was the Captain, making announcements over the loud speaking while simultaneously chewing his dinner aloud- we couldn't tell if he chose the mystery beef or cheese ravioli. FYI... For those of you that remember airplane food, they are still serving the same exact watered down salad dressing and hard cold roll, which we all managed to choke down. Then there was "XXX" who sat behind us with his wife. He is the backbone of the Nation's Parks & Recs Department with so much vacation time he didn't know what to do with it. So basically, in a way, you are ALL in Barcelona with the government employee who shall go unnamed for his own protection.

We ate our dinners, crammed down our personal choices of sleep aids and tried to get comfortable on a 1x1 cushion. We awoke to - what else? The breakfast cart baby! Hot croissants and butter. Next stop.... Our apartment in Barcelona and meeting the owner Jose Antonio who we can't stop calling Juan Carlos...there he is now on his scooter!

"Life is a daring journey." -Helen Keller