Spain Trip 2017

The teachers at my school have had a tradition of taking a group of students on a trip to tour a foreign country about every two years. In the middle of my 6th-grade year, everyone was asked whether or not they wanted to go on a trip to Spain in the summer of 2017. A few of my friends (I will be using made up names for privacy reasons) and I thought that it would be an interesting and special experience, so we all signed up. We ended up being the only boys on the whole trip, so we were all put together into one group. This trip would also be the first time I went on a trip by myself. I felt this trip would also be a good time to test my Spanish speaking ability (I have taken about 3 years of Spanish lessons).

My group at the airport

 On June 30th, 2017, Bob, one of my friends, drove to my house, and we carpooled to the airport. We met up with the rest of the travelers, checked in, went through security screening, and finally, went to our boarding gate. There, everyone was given approximately 1 hour for lunch, so we all bought some food and ate. We got on the plane and I observed that seats were handed out according to the order that we signed up for the trip (as in the group of students going on the Spain trip, not everyone in general). Conveniently, Bob and I signed up at the same time, so our seats were right next to each other. Throughout the nine-hour plane ride, Bob and I watched a series of movies including La La Land and Hidden Figures (both are wonderful movies). In no time, we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany where we boarded a connecting flight (after going through customs).Yet again,  Bob and I sat next to each other, but this time, being on a smaller airplane, there was no entertainment screen, so we just sat there for the significantly shorter 100-minute plane ride. Surprisingly, neither of us were tired at all, considering it had been 24 hours since we last slept. Once we landed, we grabbed our baggage, met our tour guide, and rode a bus to our hotel in the gorgeous city of Sitgis. We arrived at 3 Pm local time, which is the same as 6 Am at home. Our hotel just so happens to have been right in front of the beach of the lovely Mediterranean Sea. With approximately 3 hours of free time until dinner, our group leader took us all (a group of five boys) to the beach. Only 1 person had an intention of going swimming (I'll call him Tom), but eventually two more of my friends (Carl and Joe) decided to follow. Still, Bob and I were reluctant of going in the water, so we just waded through the shallow end of the sea. Not much was happening until suddenly, Carl pushed Bob into the water completely. I was still laughing at Bob's extremely annoyed looking face when I too was pushed into the water. We all messed around in the water for another 30 minutes until the majority of us decided to return to the hotel and clean up. Shortly after, we went on a walking tour or Sitgis, where we saw all of the significant buildings such as the Courthouse. After the tour of the city, we went back to our hotel, had dinner, and got ready for bed.

My group at the Mediterranean Sea (I am the one in the red)

I was roomed with Bob, and the two of us attempted to sleep all night. The problem was, we couldn't. For the strangest reasons ever,  neither of us were tired. We eventually fell asleep for approximately two hours due to boredom, but we didn't get any more sleep after that. When it was finally time for breakfast, Bob and I met up with Carl, Tom, and Joe and we all went to breakfast. Right after breakfast, we rode the bus to Barcelona. We first stopped and had a walking tour of Las Ramblas. The view was amazing, and all of the buildings from the post office to the capital building to the normal hotels looked amazing. We walked over to La Sagrada Familia, a large Roman Catholic Church. Designed by Antoni Gaudí, its construction started in 1882, and to this day, has not been completed. The finished design will have a total of 18 towers, 12 representing the apostles and 4 representing the evangelists. The tallest tower represents Christ. The building itself is to symbolize the lifetime of Christ; the three entrances represent the three virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love. Shortly after we toured the four sides of La Sagrada Familia, we were all given 20 minutes for gift shopping. We got on the bus and drove the Park Güell and toured the gardens, hills, and buildings. In no time, it was already time for dinner. Everyone was rushed to eat and strictly after, we went to watch the famous Flamenco show. The show was very intriguing and the dancers were all amazing, and I ended up being selected to go up on stage to learn to dance. By this time, the majority of people were already tired, and we all expected to go back to the hotel and sleep. But turns out, we were going to look at a nearby fountain in the city center, and it was quite amazing, with all of the different ways the water sprayed, and the different colors the water changed into. After about 10 minutes of watching the graceful water, it started to repeat, so we left to return to our hotel to rest.

La Sagrada Familia (Back)

La Sagrada Familia (Front)

The next day we went to Valencia, the City of Arts and Sciences. We visited the city square, from the post office to the government buildings. After a thorough visit of the city, we were given some free time to shop for souvenirs, to eat lunch, and to look around the city. For lunch, we decided to try a Spain specialty that my Spanish teacher suggested me to try called Paella. It was very good (slightly too salty) until we saw the receipt, although the sign said 17 euros each, the actual price was actually 17 euros per serving. So, the final cost was 178 euros. In the afternoon, we toured the glorious Valencia Aquarium. Here, we saw animals from flamingos to penguins to jellyfish. All of the sea creatures were incredibly unique, and the short 2 hours that we were given just felt like it wasn’t enough. After touring every single exhibit, we returned back to our hotel and rested for the rest of the day.

Valencia city center

Valencia Aquarium

The day that followed required us to wake up and pack at six so that we could leave for Granada by seven. The drive took a pretty long time, we arrived around 3 in the afternoon. We toured the Plaza Nueva, visiting shop after shop purchasing souvenirs. We finished around five, and everyone was tired from the driving, so we went back to our hotel right after.

The next morning, we went to La Alhambra, a beautiful palace and fortress complex. We toured the huge garden within the palace, along with all of the main rooms and places within the fortress as well as Costa del Sol. After all of the touring, we went on a scavenger hunt in the city, where we had to look around to find landmarks to take pictures in. Although my team didn’t have the best cooperation, we still came in second. The rest of the day was free time, so we looked around the city until we returned to our hotel.

La Alhambra

 The next day, was the excursion day. Some people stayed to tour Costa del Sol further, some went to Morocco, but the majority of us went to Gibraltar. In Gibraltar, we got to see the famous Rock of Gibraltar, St. Michael’s Cave, and lots and lots of monkeys! Gibraltar has about 250 monkeys who were everywhere. You could almost see a monkey in any direction you look! It was a very interesting experience; I got to watch monkeys jump onto people, as well as monkeys steal stuff from peoples’ backpacks, and riding a cable car to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar! The day flew by in no time, and we sadly had to return back to our hotel.

Rock of Gibraltar

St. Michael's Cave

We all woke up extremely early for the next morning because of all the places we had to tour the next day. We went to the city of Seville, where we toured the Plaza de Espana, Torre del Oro, Plaza de Toros de Maestranza, Maria Luisa Park, Barrio de Santa Cruz, climbed 36 ramps to reach to the top of La Giralda bell tower, and toured the Seville Cathedral. In the Cathedral, we saw the Main Chapel, a huge room made with a wall of gold depicting the life of Jesus. We also saw one of the two official tombs of Christopher Columbus (no one could prove which one is actually the official one, so there are two that were made official). The whole process was really tiring, and we went straight back to the hotel afterwards.

Christopher Columbus's Tomb

Main Chapel

For the next two days, we traveled to Cordoba and Madrid. The first day we visited the Calleja de las Flores, Puerto Lapice, and the Mezquita (the mosque of Cordoba). We got to see the beautiful view of the Calleja de las Flores, as well as all of the gold objects and art inside the Mezquita. The next day we went to Madrid and toured the Plaza de Oriente, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Market of San Miguel, The Royal Palace (official residence of the Spanish Royal Family), as well as The Prado (the main Spanish art museum). We were allowed to see almost everything, from the room the king ate dinner in, to all of the famous artwork in Spain. Sadly, we were not allowed to take any pictures, but just the experience of touring the places was one that I will probably never forget.

The next morning we woke up at 2 Am to pack to leave for the airport. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone, especially considering the fact that we had so much fun together during the trip. The whole trip was definitely worth it, I was given an opportunity to test my Spanish out in a Spanish speaking environment as well as a huge amount of information about Spain’s culture and history. I can’t wait for the DC trip next year!