For my final trip through Europe I saved the best destination for last. Since I originally decided to study abroad, I have wanted to visit and live in Spain. I was unable to study in Spain because there were not enough classes offered in English and I have thoroughly enjoyed Amsterdam. Spain, however; is probably my favorite place by far. For my final trip, I am traveling with my very good friend Julia and our friends Matt and Max. Julia and I started in Barcelona, met Matt there, then traveled down the coast to get our friend Max in Valencia. Then the four of us are (currently, as I type in the car) proceeding to Granada, followed by Seville. After Seville, the boys venture to Madrid to catch a flight to Morocco, while Julia and I fly back to Amsterdam.
Barcelona
Julia and I arrived in Barcelona on Monday night. We were lucky enough to find a very nice hostel that was extremely clean and had hot water!! It was probably one of the best hostels I have stayed in. Our luck contined when we found that we had a nice grocery store and fruit stand directly across the street. This saved us a lot of money because we were able to buy food and cook in our hostel's kitchen. We also met a lot of great people in our hostel, which seemed to be filled with mostly Americans and Canadians.
After resting our first night, Julia and I were looking forward to spending our first day on the beach, saving all of our sight-seeing for after we met our friends. The weather seemed a little worrisome, but we ended up having a nice day on the beach. We got massages for five euros from an Asian lady and drank excellent mojitos. We also met some friends from New York and Atlanta. As the day wore on, the weather seemed to cloud up and the beach started to clear out. We stuck it out as long as we could, then joined our friends in a nice beach tapas bar for dinner as we waited out the rain. After dinner, we met our friends at the hostel and spent another night in, hanging out with Matt and Chad who had just met us.
During the next day, the weather was cloudy, cool, and rainy; not beach weather. This turned out perfectly though, because during the rain we visited a church called Sagrada Familia. This is a cathedral that is still undergoing construction, even though the original architect, Gaudi, is dead. Gaudi is very famous and has a lot of work throughout Barca, including the Gaudi houses and a park on the top of a mountain, overlooking the city. The park was next on our list to see, but we had a nice lunch while we waited for the rain to stop, then headed to the park. The park was a little hike, so we were thankful for the cooler weather. The view was spectacular and I bought a nice Spanish bracelet! After the park, we headed down to the city center to see the Magic Fountain and an art museum. This concludecd our sight-seeing tour and we headed back to the hostel for dinner and to go out. This was our first night out in Barca and we joined a large group from our hostel for dancing. After heaing a lot of hype about nightlife in Barca, I was a little unimpressed. The music was all American-not Spanish! Also, the clubs are just full of tourists. I am hoping to find some better nightlife as we head south. I want authentic Spanish music and dancing!!
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| Sagrada Familia |
For our final day in Barca, we headed back to the beach for more massages in the morning. There are literally hundreds of immigrants working illegaly in Barca, selling everything from massages (5 Euro) to Mojitos (best ever!!). When the police come they all scatter. We spent the morning on the beach, enjoying the sun and fresh fruit from our fruit stand. After soaking up some sun, we headed into the city to see more of the city and get some fantastic sandwiches, per reccommendation of our friends. For our final night out, we met up with some of our friends from Amsterdam: Chad, Julie, Gustavo, and Mathias. We had mediocore tapas and sangria, but had a great time meeting new people and checking out Las Ramblas-a big, shopping and nightlife street in Barca. We spent a bit of time watching street performers and hanging out before heading to another club. This time was a little better than the night before and it was very warm so we got to hang out on the beach for a majority of the evening. Very nice night!!
Valencia
Now our trip was about to really begin. On Friday morning we headed to the train station to rent our car, which Matt would be piloting. After getting-gasp-McDonald's in the train station, we were off. We spent our day driving south toward Valencia to meet our friend Max. This was a day of what Julia and I like to call "drive-by tourism". Basically, we spent the day driving and seeing various sights in Spain. We made a stop in Tarragona to see the beach, but it rained on us again :(. We had a beautiful drive through Spain and this is when I absolutely fell in love with this amazing country.
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| Tarragona |
Arriving in Valencia with no place to stay proved to be a poor decision. We amazingly were able to meet up with Max at his place, but we had trouble finding a hostel. After a very long day of driving, we finally crashed in a Holiday Inn Express, which turned out to be the same price as a hostel. We were absolutely exhausted so we probably would have paid anything, but luckily after splitting three ways it was quite inexpensive and included breakfast. We got VERY spoiled! I forgot how nice styaing in a hotel is, especially compared with a hostel. You can leave your things everywhere!! We had a huge bed and TV. The only channel in English was CNN and we were able to catch up with some news and learn about the problems in Syria. It always feels nice to catch up with current events. Julia and I had a nice dinner at a very authentic Spanish restaurant that was cheap and had great food!! I had a very nice calamari and we had delicious bread with tomato spread. After a nice night in the Holiday Inn, a bath, and free breakfast our road trip continued.
That brings us to today. I currently sit typing in the backseat of a small hatchback, while the boys drive, navigate, and control the Ipod. This morning, we toured Valencia, with tour guide Max who has been there studying all week. We visited a beautiful cathedral and climbed the tower for more great views. Much of southern Spain was once occupied by the Moors (Muslims from Africa) and this can be seen in the distinct architecture. The further south we travel, the more Islamic the buildings become. Tomorrow we will be visiting an very Islamic palace known as the Alehambra. Valencia also looked Islamic, a bit. We visited the city market and bought some nice olives for a car snack. Then we ate a lunch of montaditos, or small, Spanish sandwiches, followed by gelato. Now, we have been driving for about three hours; munching olives and listening to techno music. We have now entered into the sing-along music phase of the trip. We usually like to end our journeys with rap, in order to keep everyone awake and entertained. Tonight, we journey to Granada in search of tapas and flamenco music. ETA: 10:00-11:00 pm. Since we are a group of four, we have booked a hotel, in advance this time. Tomorrow we climb the Alhambra then head to Seville. I will keep you all posted.
Happy Reading! Love from Spain!
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