16 Days in Spain

 
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Hey Everyone,

I am finally sitting down and taking time to write and reflect on my trip to Spain. I’ll start off by saying that my trip to Spain was probably the best 16 days of my life and one of the coolest experiences of my life. It’s probably because of 2 reasons: I’ve never been to Europe before and for the first 10 days I was there with my friends. Sadly I didn’t go alone with my friends. We went with our school (3 teacher chaperones) and some of my friends went with me. When I say school trip you might be thinking EF Tours or a really planned trip. It was not like that. Yeah, we took classes in the morning and had planned activities, but we also had a lot of free time and had the freedom to explore around Salamanca and Madrid without a chaperone. Then, after the first 10 days of my trip, I spent the last 6 days with my mom and aunt. We went to Ibiza, Formentera, and Barcelona.

Now you probably don’t want the play by play of my trip and tbh I can’t even remember everything, so I couldn’t even do that if you wanted. So, I’m gonna share my favorite things I did or experienced on the trip and then my least favorite parts of the trip. Also, they won’t be in order because that would be way too hard to do.

My Favorite Parts

  • Being with my friends in Spain: Have you ever been on a trip with your family and wished your friends were there? That’s what it felt like, but my friends were actually there. Just being able to be in Spain with my friends and go to restaurants with them in Spain is just such a unique experience. And we got to meet teenagers from Spain and Italy, which was fun too!

  • Flamenco Dancing Class (Salamanca): We had a professional flamenco dancer teach us how to flamenco dance. Although I can’t dance, it was so fun and a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn how to flamenco dance in Spain from a real flamenco dancer.

  • European Culture: It’s so different than American culture. While I was there I felt like I was experiencing so much history and culture that America doesn’t have (in my opinion). And, I love how in Spain there’s more of an emphasis on people having a sit-down meal and getting to spend quality time with one another.

  • Beso Beach Restaurant (Formentera): This was the funniest restaurant I’ve ever been to. The restaurant was on the beach, had a live DJ, and such good food. I definitely want to go back to this restaurant with my friends!

  • El Celler de Can Roca (Girona): So apparently this is one of the best restaurants in the world and I think it held up to this standard. It was a 15-course meal with so many foods that I can’t even name, and the plating and taste were phenomenal.

  • Pablo Picasso Museum (Barcelona): I’m not even a big art person and I was amazed by the artwork of Pablo Picasso. It was amazing to see the work of such an influential artist in person and see how he developed as an artist throughout the years.

  • Zara & Bershka: Well I found my 2 new favorite stores. I was in Spain during their Rebaja (aka Spain’s biggest sale of the year) and let’s just say I am surprised I got everything home. Zara and Bershka literally had the cutest and cheapest clothes and none of my friends back home will have any of it.

  • Speaking Spanish: One of my goals in life is to become fluent in Spanish and these 16 days were helpful with that. I am definitely nowhere close to fluent, but I did speak a lot of Spanish and got a lot of practice using Spanish in real life situations.

  • Casi Gasi (Ibiza): The most relaxing hotel I’ve ever stayed at in my life. The hotel had an amazing view of Ibiza, yoga in the morning outside, a delicious breakfast, a delicious dinner and the most relaxing place to lay out in the sun. And, they had their own garden, so all of the vegetables were from there.

My Least Favorite Parts

  • El Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid): This is not because I didn’t like the museum. It’s because we had gotten 5 hours of sleep the night beforehand and then we had to go to this museum with a horrible tour guide. She spoke in Spanish the whole time and would not stop talking. We’d stop at paintings for literally 30 minutes and after about 2 seconds I would zone out.

  • European Culture: This was a favorite, but also one of my least favorite parts of the trip. Everything moves so much slower in Spain and I kinda missed the high pace energy of America. I’m not gonna lie, I missed Chipotle.

  • The Heat: Omg it was sooo hot in Spain. I was in Barcelona on the hottest day of the year and they literally said, do not go outside if you don’t have to.

  • The “Escape Room” (Salamanca): I thought I signed up for an escape… not a classroom full of boxes with locks on them with clues that didn’t make any sense. Oh did I mention it was ALL in Spanish? Let’s just say I was tired in a hot room about to lose my mind.

  • Dorm Food (Salamanca): I don’t really know how to explain this food, but some of it was really nasty. The chefs were really nice and they made some good paella and pasta, but other than that, I had to go out to dinner and lunch for most of our meals. I can’t decide what was better finding hair in my food or the fake hamburgers???

If you’re wondering if I worked on GiftPocket while on the trip, I’ll be honest with you, it was hard. I tried my best to stay on top of my emails and GiftPocket’s social media, but other than that I did not have much time. I also had to finish a final for my online European history class while I was in Spain so that is also another reason, but I also needed a little break from everything. Now, I am back to grind and making sure that we get more downloads on GiftPocket and I can bring my cool ideas for GiftPocket to life.

I hope this gave you a little insight on my trip to Spain. Hasta luego!

Yours Truly,

Brooke

 
Studio Freight