31. Adeu Barcelona

Well, I am writing this blog post from my house in Manchester, where it is surprisingly sunny. I have been home for officially two days and I can say that I do already miss Barcelona. I miss waking up and going on my balcony in the morning, the busy streets, the atmosphere and the way of life as a whole, but as everyone says…all good things come to an end.

Over my last few weeks in Spain, I managed to fit a lot in. My boyfriend came over and I got to experience all of the touristy things that I was usually too busy to do. We went to Parc Guell, Parc Ciutadella and even to Castelldefells, which is a lovely beach outside of Barcelona. My dad also came over, mainly for his Sants day (San Juan) and also to help with bring back my many cases; fitting my life in three cases wasn't as easy as it may sound. I also finished my amazing internship at RelevantBCN and received my grades from my time at La Universitat de Pompeu Fabra. Therefore, I spent my final week being a lady of luxury, eating out every day and wondering around the city without a care in the world. I'm not sure where this blog goes from here, but it will always be a diary which I can look back on and relive my amazing year. Thank you to everyone who has read my life throughout the past nine months! Thus, here is a list to sum up what has made Barcelona special to me:

1) The city itself

2) The people

3) The traditions

4) The art and architecture

5) The food

6) the way of life

7) The memories

Hasta luego Barcelona!

30. Andalucía, otro mundo español.

Lonely Planet describes Andalucía as a place with multiple faces. It says it is a parched region fertile with culture, a conquered land that went on to conquer and a fiercely traditional place that has accepted rapid modernization and all I can say is that it is another Spanish world.

From living in Barcelona for 9 months, I have become accustom to the Spanish way of life, well as what I thought was the Spanish way of life, seen as I´m in Spain. However up until now I didn´t realise the extent to the difference between the north and south of Spain and various regions, and therefore Andalucía has not only surprised me but reinforced my love of Spanish culture and all it has to offer.

So, as I only have less than three weeks until my journey abroad ends, me and my flatmate decided to head to the south for a long weekend, which I can say was full of many experiences. We opted for Seville and Granada, seen as we had both never to either of them, and they were the two we had heard the most about.

We headed to Seville early Friday morning full of excitement, with our rucksacks and mini bottles of sun cream. As soon as we got there, we managed to navigate our way around with our very helpful map and went on to discover the south of Spain. Luckily, throughout our whole time in Seville we didn´t use any public transport and therefore walked everywhere, which was fine at the time, but my feet are now hating me. Firstly, we visited El Real Alcázar, which is one of the oldest palaces still in use, in the world. It was spectacular and was surrounding by an amazing array of gardens. We then, went onto the Plaza España and it recreated in my mind, the image I once had of Spain. In between visiting these magnificent places, we managed to stop for some tapas, which were a nice change from the range of tapas up north. Throughout the next few days in Seville we went to El Museu de los Bellas Artes, El torre de Oro, La Catedral and the area called Santa Cruz. All in all, we managed to see our fair share of the landmarks that make up Seville. We even got sung to by a band that looked like the three musketeers and watched some form of very entertaining Spanish story telling. Seville is the image that I had in my head before coming to live in Spain, and I would love to return as it was a nice peaceful break from the city of Barcelona.

Then we hoped onto a bus to Granada and once there, it felt like a different world, nothing like Seville. To start of the day we realized we had booked the wrong hostel, but after all that was sorted out, we could truly enjoy the joys of Granada. Our hostel was in the area of Albayzín, which is composed of winding streets full of markets, which reminded me of Marrakesh. The atmosphere was great and we couldn´t help but to go and explore the streets. Also, one of the myths I had heard was proven true, that you get a tapa free with every drink. This never happens in Barcelona and so me and my friend were over the moon. We also scoured the markets and ended up buying Chai tea and all sorts, it is definitely cheaper than the north of Spain. But obviously the highlight of our trip was La Alhambra, we got up early and headed there on our last day with our reserved tickets. I think we spent about four hours there, but thank god we could put our rucksacks in a locker, or else I would have never been able to handle all the walking and the heat. It was incredible, and even that feels like an understatement. Each castle and tower has it´s own feel, and the gardens take you into another world. Also, the view from up there is priceless. I can´t recommend enough visiting the south of Spain, as it opened my eyes to lot´s of new things. Now I only have two weeks left in Barcelona, before I get dragged onto a plane home.