For spring break this year, I decided to go on a slightly non-traditional trip with my friend. We went to Spain to visit our other friend who is currently studying abroad in Granada. This was a big trip for me because 1. it was the longest trip I had done without my parents, 2. the only other country I’ve been to is Canada, which hardly counts as a foreign country, 3. I hadn’t flown since I was five years old, and 4. I don’t know a lot of Spanish. I had to rely on my two friends to help communicate for me, and about all I could do was order food. So shout out to them.
Traveling to Madrid was such a new experience for me, but it was so exciting. I was both nervous and excited for the flights since I had not been on one in so long. My friend had been on international flights to Italy and Costa Rica, so luckily she knew the ropes. We left Minneapolis for a layover in New York where we had to change airports. We took a shuttle to JFK, which was, in my opinion, the most unorganized airport we went through. We were on a large plane and the gate was too small of an area. We landed in Madrid at 6:30 a.m. after an overnight flight where I could not fall asleep. At our hotel we showered and went to take a nap. We accidentally slept for seven hours and wasted our first day in Madrid. It’s safe to say that I hate jetlag.
So the next day we got up and took a 20-minute train into Madrid. Now this was the first European city I’d been to. I knew what to expect to see as far as architecture and history, but I did not expect it to be as amazing as it was. I love art and history, so being in a city like that was a dream come true. It was nothing like anything else I’d seen. North American cities are not nearly as cool. I’ve been to New York, Chicago, and Toronto, and they do not compare because they do not have the long history like European cities do. North American cities are on a grid and are easier to navigate, but that makes them so much more boring. Madrid had ginormous plazas with cafes and shops, and they were by far one of my favorite parts of Madrid.
The day after Madrid, we took a five-hour bus ride down to the south of Spain to Granada to see our friend. Although this city is a lot smaller than Madrid and less touristy, I absolutely loved it. Granada is right by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, so if you were in the right part of the city you could see the snowcapped peaks. There were a lot of plazas and fountains . . . and there were cobblestones everywhere. Because Spain used to be occupied by Muslims, and Granada is in close proximity to Morocco, you can see the influences in the food and architecture. Many of the products in the shops were very Arabic in that the designs were really geometric and colorful.
I was happy to go home after ten days of travel, and I was very happy to be able to order food and talk in English during our British Airways flights and layover in Heathrow. (BTW, Heathrow has a Harry Potter store, and it is amazing.) After spending a solid eight days in Spain, I came to two conclusions:
I love the Spanish culture. Spain is very unique in everything they do. They have a kind of weird eating schedule where they eat breakfast at a normal time, but they eat lunch around 2 or 3 p.m. and dinner around 9 or 10 p.m. Lunch is their biggest meal of the day, so kids who are in school and the parents who are at work will leave to go home to eat and then go back to school or work. Most restaurants have Tapas, where when you order a drink, whether it’s wine, sangria, or just a soda, you automatically get an appetizer. At some places you could choose the Tapa, but at most places you were brought a random one. The Spanish are so laid back; people are out shopping at one in the afternoon, and they do not work as many hours as we do in the States. There are almost always people out in the plazas and that creates such a great atmosphere.
Europe is very Americanized, and it’s almost embarrassing. Everyone knows that the United States is one of the most powerful and influential countries in the world, but I really saw it while I was in Spain. In the airport, at restaurants, and the tourist destinations there was always English underneath the Spanish, but usually no other language. In most places in the States there is only ever signage with English. There were also so many American brands of food, but off the top of my head I cannot think of any Spanish or European food brands that are available here that are not in an ethnic foods section. I met two girls from Ireland in Granada, and they could name so many places in the US while I could name maybe two cities in Ireland. People know so much about the U.S., but we don’t know nearly as much about other countries.