On July 10 my family packed our bags for our annual family trip. With my sister having just graduated from my college, my brother going into his sophomore year at college, and me still attending high school, the logistics of planning a family trip become increasingly more difficult every year.

But finally, after months of pre-organizing, the train passes, plane tickets, and hotel reservations were set for our two-week adventure through Spain.

We caught the redeye from Philadelphia to Barcelona, arriving in Spain around 8 am.

I was keeping a running tally between Spain and the U.S. for things I preferred in the two countries, and it wasn’t long before Spain had pulled ahead.

The moment we stepped outside to the taxicab line at the airport I knew Spain had just won a place in my heart. Outside, there was no myriad of old mismatched yellow cars with an array of different cab company names on the sides of them.

Instead, every cab car was new, shiny, and freshly painted. Every car was the exact same shade of bright, cheery yellow, and they all had matching stripes down their sides and nothing else.

The taxi windows were kept open on our ride to our hotel, and the dry heat with a cool breeze off the sea felt good after the oppressive, humid air in St. Louis. We arrived at our hotel, exhausted after traveling for the past 21 hours with, in my case, no sleep.

We were immediately shown to the café where we ordered espresso drinks to go with our small breakfast sandwiches. The fresh baguette and cured meats with crushed tomato spread on top was a definite step up from the usual cereal and orange juice.

We continued our day by walking around the city and our neighborhood, trying to get a sense of the city.

On almost every block there was a little shop selling just about every kind of soccer paraphernalia you could want. They sold the dark blue and red striped jerseys of FC Barcelona and the bright red jerseys of the Spanish national team.

It would have taken an idiot not to notice something big was happening. Everywhere you went people were wearing the Spanish colors proudly, and there was a sense of excitement in the air. That night it was the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands.

We left for the Plaza de España, where game was to be shown on giant screens, a couple of hours before the match was supposed to start. The subway cars were packed with people from all over the world wearing the red and yellow colors of Spain.

I had been awake for 32 hours and was feeding off the energy from the people around me. In the plaza there were thousands and thousands of people. It seemed as if every person in Barcelona under the age of 30 was there.

By now, Spain was dominating in my tally with the U.S. and I was fairly certain that I would live in Barcelona when I grew up. After the Spanish victory in the World Cup, the country was in an undeniably good mood.

I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere else. The perfect weather, delicious food, beautiful people, great soccer team, and gorgeous architecture made me want to stay in Spain forever. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live in the U.S. when there were places like in Spain in the world. I reluctantly boarded a plane two weeks later in Seville that was headed back to Philadelphia.

When we got off the plane and went to customs I was amazed at the organization and efficiency of everything. The U.S., to my surprise, had just gained a couple more tally marks on my scoreboard.

They continued to win quite a few more points when we stopped into a sushi restaurant at the airport for some dinner.

When we ordered our food the waitress brought out exactly what we wanted. In Spain, the waiter almost always forgot to bring something or brought something we never ordered. And, to our great surprise, the water was free and just kept coming. We didn’t have to wait 30 minutes for our bill and the waitress came to check on us occasionally.

As we paid for our food I realized that I hadn’t given the U.S. enough credit back in Spain.

I had finally come to the realization that both countries have their pluses and minuses, and both are amazing places to visit.