About ten years ago, I took a trip to Spain with two of my friends. We capped the trip off with a few days in Barcelona, and on the way to the airport, I was robbed at a bus station, forcing me to stay there for an extra two nights. I left Spain with a bad taste in my mouth and had not been back until now.
Our plan was to visit Spain for ten days. We flew into Barcelona first and stayed at the Hotel Barcelona Princess, which was a really nice and modern high rise overlooking the Mediterranean.
We scampered all over town for three days, checking out all the sights and eating as much local food as we could find. I kept a death grip on my gear and made sure I was especially aware of my surroundings. No thief was going to snag any of my stuff this time around.
After our fill of Barcelona, we hopped on a quick flight to Sevilla, where we were met with a massive wall of heat and humidity. Seriously. It kicked our asses. We came close to passing out during our first day there and barely made it back to our hotel room to cool off and rehydrate. I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever felt heat like that before, and that’s coming from a Georgia native.
We managed to suck it up and wandered Sevilla for a few days, but it felt like we had the city to ourselves. It was August and many locals were gone for vacation. It felt like a ghost town at times.
The final stop of our one-month tour across Europe was Madrid. One last three-night stay and we’d be heading back to Atlanta for a short break before taking off to Asia for another month.
While it may not be the most photogenic city, Madrid is still one of my favorites. There’s just something authentic about it that I like.
We checked out some sights, wandered about, found an insanely amazing restaurant that served a foie gras risotto that just blew us away. And then one night we ended up walking straight into a massive festival that we knew nothing about. I can’t even remember what it was called.
So with Madrid finished, our tour of Europe came to an end. We were pretty exhausted after a month, but we were only halfway done. We headed back to Atlanta for a few days to recover, and to pick up my mom, who we then whisked away with us for another month… this time across Asia.
First stop, Singapore!