so after years dreaming and trying and failing, it finally happened in barcelona: we flew on a hot air balloon! one day, i was randomly browsing gidsy for interesting and local things to do there, and then i saw it: balloon rides! i quickly sent an email to the company, who confirmed that indeed, they flew every weekend and that, weather allowing, that weekend would be no exception. so we booked our tickets right away and, drawing from previous experiences, braced ourselves for disappointment…

as the day dawned, we were quite pessimistic since that saturday turned out to be the only rainy day in our 2-week stint in barcelona, but we needn’t have worried… turns out the ballooning.es team was not afraid of the cloudy skies, and promptly scouted an alternative location to take off. :)

when we got there, things were unloaded, and some of us helped inflate the balloon…

… while ooooh’ing and aaaah’ing at the sheer size of it!

when that was done, we just hopped on the basket and off we went!

i was actually kind of surprised at how smooth it was… not at all like flying on a plane! no bumps or turbulence – or sweaty palms grabbing onto paulo’s hands for dear life.. the balloon just lifted itself gently off the ground and slowly hovered the towns and villages… it was so serene and peaceful!

we even went above the clouds briefly, and saw the pyrenees covered in snow in the distance, but the wind was too fierce up there (not to mention, so cold!), and we had to quickly sink again.

an hour or so after taking off, we landed on a nearby field, and helped pack everything up again.

we received our flight baptism certificate, and returned to barcelona simultaneously exhausted and giddy from all the excitement, with a huge smile on our faces! :D

definitely thumbs up, we couldn’t have asked for a better first flight experience! :)