After a stressful first semester at work, I decided to embark on my first journey to Europe. I spent a few weeks in Spain. While there, I wrote a bit about my experiences. As anyone would imagine, it was like a big side step from the daily life I am used to.
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| I spent a lot of time sipping wine and munching on tasty olives when I was in Spain. |
My trip took a long time, obviously. I flew
from Seoul, to Beijing, to Amsterdam, then finally to Madrid. The middle, long
flight was unfortunately terrible! My seat was in the middle of a two-story
plane, looking at a blue wall, and next to a toddler. It was a bad ten hours,
but it ended eventually. Beijing's airport was messy and disorganized, I and
had to constantly ask around to find out what to do and where to go for my
connecting flight. It was full of conflicting information from different
people. Amsterdam's airport was fantastic, though. Completely the opposite, and
I was impressed with everything being automated. I saw a huge tribute to the
victims of Malaysia airlines flight 17 outside of the airport. The lawn was
covered with flowers and stuffed animals, which I thought was sweet. I wasn't
able to get a picture, though.
About 22 hours later, I finally arrived to
Madrid feeling like a zombie.
Madrid
For the first time, I used Couchsurfing to
find places to stay. I stayed with a man in his 30s in Madrid. He was nice
enough to pick me up from the airport. He even showed me around Madrid with one
of his friends, taking pictures and driving me around. The best part about it
was being about to discuss many topics of interest, and he more or less
introduced me to politics in Spain.
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| Scenes from my outings in Madrid |
In Madrid, I walked around the center of the
city, looking at their parks like Parque Retiro, their plazas, palaces and old
buildings. My favorites were a building donated by Egypt, and a big palace. My Couchsurfing host drove me to Alcala de Henares, which is a nice historic
neighborhood. It was very interesting. I had some wine, tried local tapas and
talked a lot about Korea on that day.
I
tried tons of tapas with my host and his friend, and they were so good!
Especially the ham, olives and sardines. My host knew I liked to cook, so he
would prepare meals for me. Tried a salad with peppers and codfish. Also a
breakfast with toast, tomatoes. My first meal there was a four cheese pizza,
which was so good tome since it actually had four different cheeses! This is significant coming from Korea, with its unique pizza.
My first impressions of Spain were very
good. The food was amazing and I loved trying the different tapas and wines.
The people were also more approachable, making it easy to ask questions and it
was nice to have most people genuinely try to help me.Yes, it helps to speak
the language, but people were patient with me, which makes all of the
difference. I can see that difference, even though I speak Spanish and my
Korean is minimal. In Korea, this is harder because they aren't used to
foreigners. Recently I had cab drivers kick me out of their cab, refusing to
understand what I was saying. Oddly enough, they also refused to see my
destination written down in their language. Incidents like this can make life
frustrating. In contrast, the Spanish
folks made an effort to try to understand what I am saying when I'm less than
clear. On the train ride from Madrid to Bilbao, I was asked to translate for a
tourist because they wanted to help him, but didn't understand him. It makes me
appreciate making the decision to take my vacation outside of Asia. It's like a
breath of fresh air.
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| I took a quick trip to Alcala de Henares |
I'm a big fan of food, and living in Korea,
it has its ups and downs. Korea has variety, offering lots of different types of
cuisines at relatively reasonable prices. This is a far cry from places like
Colombia, where this isn't the case at all. However, they generally aren't good
at making food that isn't their own. For example, the pizzas and pastries are
terrible in my opinion. It was nice to eat a good pizza for once. It's also
nice to order a pastry with nothing questionable on or inside of it. For
example, most pastries in Korea involve either rice, beans or sweet potato.
Anything reasonable inside is in the minority.
I only went inside one museum, the Prado Museum. I went around 5pm, but was told to wait because it was free starting at 6
pm. The line was long, so I took some pictures, sat down and waited. I was
happy to see the line move quickly after 6 pm. It was hot and sunny, so I was
glad that I sat down in the shade. There was no reason to stand up and wait in
line, really. Once inside, I found it to be really impressive. It's certainly
worth paying for. The paintings were great, to say the least. My favorites were
the paintings depicting Greek mythology and the portraits of members of the
Spanish monarchy, including Las Meninas, probably the most famous painting hanging in this museum.
I bought train tickets to leave Madrid after
a few days. The train station was easy to figure out. I went to Basque country
next, which took about 5 hours total.
After Madrid, I went to Basque Country.
Bilbao
In Basque Country, I stayed with a Couchsurfing host in Bilbao. My host in Bilbao was an interesting, soft spoken man
that was a little older than me. He was married but his wife was out of town on
vacation. He invited me in, and I explored Bilbao on my own as he worked in the
daytime.
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| A look at Bilbao |
I thought Bilbao was peaceful, and it had a
different vibe than Madrid. The architecture in the city was very nice, and made
it stand out from the rest of the country.
My host handed me a map, and I took my time heading toward the tourist
attractions. In Bilbao, I went to the old part (Casco Viejo), the Teatro
Arriega, a couple of the train stations (ex. Estacion Santander), The Ribera
Market, the Zubizuri bridge the Guggenheim Museum, and the Fine Arts
Museum. I didn't go inside any of the
museums. The Guggenheim Museum has an impressive building, but I was advised
not to pay to enter since it wasn't worth it. I actually wanted to go inside
the Teatro Arriega, but they didn't sell tour tickets inside of the theater. I
asked the ticket lady where to get them, but after following her directions I
wasn't able to find the place where they were sold.
When my host returned from work, we went to
the beach by the city.
The beach we went to was called Playa de
Arrigunaga, and it appeared to be a calm and cool beach. It was easily
accessible by metro. There, instead of
going to the beach, my host took me for a walk along a nice pathway that led to
cliffs that overlooked the beach and the port. He then told me about the
history of the Basque people in Spain and France.
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| Scenes from Bilbao |
San Sebastian
I then took a day trip to San Sebastian, which was a short bus trip away. I had arranged to meet a couple of Couchsurfers there. I had a blast in that short day! San Sebastian is a beach town that's also located in Basque Country. It had recently been rebuilt after a big storm caused an alarming amount of damage to the city. One of the Courchsurfers I met was studying to be a tour guide, and he showed me around when I got there. I went to La Concha beach, which was hot and crowded, but I loved how beautiful the water was. I was a little taken aback by some nude children and topless women, but I should have known that. I then had dinner with another man from Couchsurfing, who introduced me to his friends. There was a lot of drinking and discussion involved! We had some tapas, and then soon enough it was time for me to go. One of my biggest regrets from this trip was not having stayed longer there!
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| Part of my amazing day in San Sebastian! |
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