My trip through Spain!

I am now on the TGV heading back to France after spending thus far the best month of my life exploring the country of Spain. It’s hard to give an overall impression of Spain because each place is so unique, whether it be because of the landscape, architecture, people, or language (due to different accents, and of course the Catalan language in all of Catalonia).

Montserrat (thanks to Rosana!)

Honestly I don’t care very much about monuments or tourist sites; what really drives me to travel is the people and culture. Despite never planning ahead more than 2 days in advance, I almost always had a contact in every city I visited (which was about 14 places in total). How I managed this, I don’t know. What I do know is that traveling alone is the only way to really travel and with the help of common sense, trust, and instinct, a friend, tour guide, and/or bed is never hard to find. The idea of traveling alone sounds somber to most, but for me it has allowed for an enlightening adventure; I felt less alone than when I travel with american friends. I went into Spain a single American, but am exiting with at least 20 new friends and even 3 families that I would almost call my own.

My family away from home :) . Elvira, Cristina, Reme, me, and Isabel. This was at a neighbor's house after having celebrated their daughter's communion with them. I ate a lot of Paella that weekend!

I wish I took more pictures of my new friends, but sometimes it’s hard to find the chance in the rush of travel. One of the best ways for me to meet people was with a language exchange website that I have previously mentioned. Thanks to this, I have a home away from home in Madrid, Granada, and Terrassa (near Barcelona).Each of them drove me to places I never would have gone otherwise: Toledo, Fuente Vaqueros (to see the birthplace of Federico Garcia Lorca), and Monserrat. I also had friends from this site in Cadiz and Sevilla who gave me grand tours of their cities.

María and Adrián from Madrid. First they gave me and Lauren a walking tour of the historical area and later a driving tour of the city as a whole! The next day Lauren left for Germany, but María and Adrián drove me to Toledo to show me the city!

Here's a picture with them in Toledo! I can safely say that they're like family too

Here's a picture of me, Reme, Cristina, and María (Cristina's friend) in Fuente Vaqueros. This was in Federico García Lorca's house! 

Me and Rosana at Monserrat! She drove me here from her home in Terrassa.

A picture in Cádiz where Hugo was my tour guide! I don't have a picture of him, but he actually found me on the language exchange site 1 day before I was going to Cádiz, his hometown!

Another method was with the help of couchsurfing, another site that I’ve mention before. I stayed with a total of 4 couchsurfer hosts (1 in Barcelona, 2 in Zaragoza, and 1 in Salamanca). Each one is very unique and they all were happy to feed me, house me, and show me their cities. I was also fortunate in Salamanca because my host Michel works as a high school P.E. teacher in Ciudad Rodrigo. He was happy to drive me there so that I could explore the small walled city while he worked. I also met a woman in Girona who gave me a full tour of her city. I was unable to stay with her only because I felt like going to Girona a day earlier.

Here's my 3rd couchsurfing host José, in Zaragoza. 

Teia, my guide (and almost host) in Girona. 

From on top of a part of Ciudad Rodrigo's walls! This is facing outside the town, but you can see the beautiful, rural landscape. I never would have made it here (or even heard about it) if it weren't for Michel, my Salamanca host

The last way is as simple as meeting people and getting to know them. Yesterday I was on a train destined to France when I decided to talk to a woman sitting in front of me. It turns out that she was heading to her sister’s house in Figueres, whose husband is also an American that also studying French in Grenoble about 25 years ago. Within 5 minutes of talking, she called her sister and I had a new destination that evening: a tiny village 5 kilometers outside of Figueres. I was welcomed with plenty of appetizers and good Catalonian beer to drink while watching the big Barcelona football/soccer game (for the Copa del Rey/King's Cup). I had my own room in a beautiful house with an even more beautiful walled garden. The next day they made breakfast, drove me to the Dali museum, and afterwards treated me to a very nice lunch at their favorite restaurant before I boarded the train to France. 

Ron, me, and Dolors (the woman I met on the train). Teresa, Ron's wife and Doloes' sister, took this picture. Ron knows many languages and is a translation professor at a university. He gave me a signed copy of his anthology where he translated Jacint Verdaguer's poetry from Catalan to English (a bilingual edition, so I can learn Catalan!). 

I really like their garden and patio... so here are some pictures

I stayed in hostels when I wasn’t with friends, but I always succeeded in meeting someone new to spend some time with. I will truly miss everybody I met, but it’s good to know that I have somebody to visit in the future when I go back to Spain. After only a month it truly feels like my second country. At least I’ll have a break when I travel with my real parents and aunt from May 30^th to June 14^th in Italy, but I’m really looking forward to repeating my experience in Spain in Germany (and whatever other countries I feel like visiting). I’m already looking forward to meeting and staying with some friends in Munich, Dresden, Frankfurt, and Budapest during what will be my final chapter of travel for this summer.

Here are just a couple of other pictures I like... Read the first one's description!

 This is an important one for me because of the woman who took the photo. Rosa, a middle aged brasilian woman, turned out to have lived 10 or 15 minutes away from my house in Alpharetta a few years ago for 3 months while she was learning English in Milton, which was my high school's rival! The picture was in the Alcazaba in Málaga.

One more with Reme in Granada. A view of la Alhambra from Albayzín, an ancient neighborhood.

 A great photo of Girona that I took a couple of days ago!