January 25, 2015

The Five Most Memorable Things About Spain

As many of you know, I just got back from a whirlwind adventure touring Spain! Over the course of 17 days, I found may way to 8 cities on 3 different coasts, took 3 different modes of transport including 3 overnight busses, and had learned countless things. Here are the five biggest highlights from my adventure in no particular order.

The Sagrada Familia, Barcelona: Because of Spain’s strong ties to Catholicism and because they are usually free, I managed to see a church or cathedral in every city I went. All of them were phenomenally impressive, however none came close to the beauty and magnitude of the Sagrada Familia.

Designed by Gaudi, this church has been in the process of being completed for about 200 years, with estimates of it being competed by the middle of the decade (What?!). However, even in it’s incomplete state, it is unbelievably beautiful. Here are some pictures:

Christmas in Southern Spain: I love Christmas. It’s absolutely my favourite season. And I mean, we had an excellent Christmas party in Morocco with great food and even better people.

That said, part of what makes Christmas so special is the signs of it everywhere. The christmas trees and lights. The cold winter air and snow. Even just snowflake lights.Thankfully, Spain had all of this including snow-capped mountains in Granada!!

In Spain, Christmas festivities are celebrated in January with the holiday of the Three Kings. Basically the three wisemen come and give children (and big children like me) candy.

Part of the parades- (un)fortunately I was too busy grabbing candy to take too many pictures

Plaza Espana, Seville: Built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition (AKA the let’s pretend to apologize for all the atrocities we committed in the Americas in order to boost our economy), the Plaza Espana is a massive building and park celebrating Spain as a whole. In Seville, I spent hours just sitting and people watching here since it’s not only a beautiful building but a major tourist attraction. It was also where the palace scenes in The Dictator were filmed, and I LOVE that movie! Huge added bonus

The people I met: Although I started the trip off with Caleb on a frigid and noisy overnight train from Rabat to Tangier, he and I went our separate ways after Granada:

What this meant is that I was very much on my own from that point on. Initially this was a scary proposition. I had 14 days in Spain entirely on my own. However, staying in hostels gave me a chance to meet amazing new people from all over the world and to learn new things.

I’ll never forget amazing times like Tapas-o-clock with Canadian, Australian, and British friends, having churros with American friends, learning Spanish with a Dutch friend, meeting someone from Queen’s in Northern Spain, singing O'Canada in an Irish pub with Canadians and honourary Canadians, and so many many more. The people I met honestly made my trip

The Alhambra, Granada: Once described as a “pearl set in emeralds” by Moorish poets, this was easily the most beautiful and magnificent thing I have ever seen. Situated at the top of a hill, this palace was built during the moorish times as the royal palace for the Sultan in the 12th century. The name comes from the arabic word for red ( hmra- حمراء), and is especially interesting because the complex has elements of Moorish and Christian design since different buildings were added over time.

Caleb and I got up early on Sunday morning since we booked the first entry time for the Nasrid palace. Although we were up at the crack of dawn, we got a beautiful view of the Granada Sunrise:

Once we got inside the Nasrid palace, both us were stunned by the beauty and intricacy of design. Here are some of the designs and patterns from inside: