Zara top (similar)
& Other Stories skirt
Dior heels
Celine sunglasses
Aurate NYC bracelet (c/o)
Linjer rings (c/o)
Location: Sonder Paseo de Gracia – Barcelona, Spain
There’s just something about Barcelona. I remembered it when we arrived on the train a few months ago, and remembered it again when we awoke at sunrise the following morning. The city isn’t one that tugs on my heart. Or even one that ever particularly interested me. If asked, I would say I prefer Madrid without hesitation. But Ian visited in his teens, and fell in love with the place. And so we visited together when we were first travelling Europe in 2009. I agreed, mostly, to indulge him – we can’t always go where I want to go, although I’d love to. The city didn’t bowl me over, but there was something about it that always just felt… simple.
This was our second trip to Barcelona since that one. And it was the same feeling that struck me, looking out at the sunrise over our balcony. It’s a feeling of ease, of effortlessness. You’re in a huge, bustling place, but the sun shines all the time. The mood is relaxed, and you get the sense that everyone is enjoying life – and while I’m sure that reality is much more nuanced and complex than that, because reality always is, but that feeling comes to me whenever we visit, and it stays as long as we do.
These photos capture that feeling for me. They are the essence of my sweet sunrise moment in the capital of Catalunya. They look as spectacular as it felt, to simply walk out of our room onto the balcony attached to it and find myself in a perfectly picturesque setting, worthy of an editorial. But getting them was completely effortless – it really was as simple as just walking outside, while Ian stood in the doorway with the camera, snapping away.
Travel is an immense privilege. Experiencing the world in new places, through the lens of different cultures, customs and cuisines, expands your mind in ways that it will never contract back from. It makes you broader and more expansive. I wouldn’t be the person writing this if I’d never left North America. I’m not even sure I can imagine a version of me who’d never been out of the country, never left the city where she was born. And yet, that’s life for so many people, by chance or by choice. Every sunrise that I see, in every foreign city I see it in, reminds me of just how lucky I am.
We didn’t spend long on these photos. We simply didn’t need to – in these brief sunrise moments, everything fell into place beautifully and effortlessly, as things in Barcelona somehow always seem to, at least for me. But the time we did spend was exactly enough to remind me exactly why I love so many things – seeing the world, capturing it with a camera and, later on, writing about it. And in that way, it wasn’t just enough. It was everything.
