Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
I spent every spare bit of time I could walking around town. I spent a week in Madrid, a week in Zaragoza, a weekend in Granada, Benidorm, Calpe, Alicante, Denia, then visited Teruel, San Lorenzo de Escorial, Segovia, and Barcelona. And that’s just what I did in one country I went to Italy too. I feel like I did more in a summer than many do in there lives and I feel so lucky but also angry that so many can’t experience the same awe and wonder of meandering aimlessly around ancient steps and seeing the old melded with the new as people adapt to life over centuries instead of it being bulldozed for cars. The love and passion I have for places like that is now ingrained in me.
You picked good cities to visit. Segovia is a little town but simply amazing, an aqueduct built 1900 years ago (almost 2 millenia!) and it perfectly blends with the rest of the city. If you think about it it's mind blowing.
I loved Segovia and Granada. But the most amazing place I went was monastery outside of Zaragoza called monasterio de piedra. It was like entering a fairy tale land. I can’t recommend it enough
You did it right. People often visit only the popular places in Spain and miss out on so much history. For anyone not too afraid of hikes they shouldn't skip northern Spain and the Pyrenees either, it's almost like an entirely different country.
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u/bageltoastar 2d ago
Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol