Experiencing España

Hola! If you follow me on any of my social media profiles, you’ll know that I’ve been on a week trip to Spain. I’m (sadly) back in England now, with an uneven tan and beach blues.

Although my dad is Spanish, I’ve not had many Spanish influences in my culture growing up so it was interesting to be exposed to it over the past week.

In this post, I’ll be outlining my experience in España.

Jump here to watch the round-up video of my trip.

Travelling

I flew with RyanAir, I had heard they were a quite bad in terms of service and the plane itself. Seeing as I didn’t pay a lot for the flight and having an open mind, I wanted to see it for myself rather than wholly base my opinion on reviews.

… And well, the plane was delayed by an hour. On top of that, they hadn’t even displayed my gate 5 minutes before flying so I was incredibly stressed. After asking a fellow passenger, they said it was typical of the airline to do this.

Once I was finally on, the flight was surprisingly smooth. I’m usually terrified of taking off and landing but not this time – I don’t know if it’s the 30-minute meditation I did before boarding that helped me keep calm or if my excitement washed away fear.

We ran into some complications with the transfer to the hotel because of the late flight. And after 3 hours of trying to sort it out, we finally got on a coach to the hotel which took 1 hour and a half.

Initially, I wanted to stay in the city of Barcelona for the whole week but I decided to be closer to the beach and the Mediterranean Sea. Once we were settled into the hotel (MedPlaya Santa Monica), we spent the remainder of the first day by the beach admiring the ocean – a 5-minute walk from the hotel.

It reminded me so much of my short time as a child in the Philippines.

Endless Sea

The holiday was planned to be more of a relaxing holiday so for the first few days, I enjoyed spending time in the sun and water. Every morning I loved meditating by the sea and waking up with this view from the hotel wasn’t bad either

I already miss the salt water, messy sand and scorching sunshine.

Barcelona

We spent 2 days out of the 7 exploring tourist areas of Barcelona city and used the metro to get around. It’s similar to the ones in Paris and the underground in London.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see all the attractions that I planned out to see because my sister (and the rest of the family) couldn’t take the heatwaves at 12pm-3pm so instead, we spent too long on one attraction in the shade.

Strangely enough, I didn’t feel the heat as much as they did (or they just complain a lot) and preferred to stay out to soak out more of the sun thus explaining my darker tan compared to the rest of the family.

Despite the constant complaining on the heat and too much walking, I tried not to let it ruin the holiday. Besides, I got to see some great architectural sights even though it wasn’t half of what I had planned; I’m grateful nonetheless!

I was worried about pickpocketing as this is a big thing in Barcelona apparently but I didn’t encounter anything dodgy when I was walking around. Friends had warned me about it and it made me a little too cautious and paranoid – thankfully nothing happened!

Food

Since this was more of a relaxing holiday, I opted in for full board course when choosing the hotel. I actually thought that there were different themes every day for food but it was the Same. Thing. Over. And. Over. Again. I found it is a waste of money to go out and eat elsewhere so I stuck with it, but it definitely was a lesson for next time!

Final 24 hours

The last few days included exploring more of the town I stayed in: Calella, Costa Brava.

The town is quite small in comparison to Barcelona but it’s so beautiful. The locals were so lovely and lively too.

Calella is well known for not only for its wonderful beaches but also an equally beautiful lighthouse. It was quite a hike getting up there, but worth every single effort for the view of Calella. I love the contrast of sea and city – views like that make me feel so alive.

Yesterday (the day I was flying back), I spent the morning jogging beside the beach and captured amazing views of the sunrise.

Trip Video Round-up

Throughout the trip, I took as much footage as I could with the intention of creating a summary video of everything I saw. Some of the footage was taken by my siblings – especially the ones with me in them.

This is one of the first times I put a video together, do have a look below:

The whole trip overwhelmed me.

I hadn’t travelled abroad in over 2 years so forgot the feeling of flying above the clouds.

I hadn’t been to a proper beach for so long that I forgot the feeling of having sand everywhere and the cold ocean touching my feet.

So I’m incredibly grateful for everything I saw. After the week, I learnt more about the Spanish culture and history, more about myself and felt truly relaxed – something I haven’t felt in such a long time.

I’m already looking for next year destinations – I’m making it a goal to make time go abroad at least once a year. Because with the hectic life we all live in, we sometimes really need a holiday.