Hello again! We’ve done a quick dash through another country and have had a great time. Better just get into it!
We made our way to the train station in the early afternoon and got on the train for our 5 hour journey to Barcelona. It would have been nice to leave a little bit earlier in the day, but unfortunately there weren’t many choices for this trip.
Barcelona
We arrived in Barcelona at about 8:30pm and had to go straight to the ticket office for our train tickets to Seville (where we were headed next) because you can only purchase tickets for Spanish trains from a train station in the country. Thankfully they have a really good system and we managed to get through and buy our tickets fairly quickly!
We then had to figure out public transport which didn’t seem very straight forward. It was dark outside and we weren’t stoked to be trying to get around with all of our gear in the dark! The public trains were all delayed but we eventually got onto a train that was absolutely packed. We arrived finally at our hostel after 9 and we hadn’t eaten since lunch time!
First stop was some food. We found a random fast food place that sold burgers down the road and that was all we needed! After that it was straight to bed because spending most of your day on a train is tiring.
Day One
We were woken on Sunday by some weird triumphant sounding music that seemed to keep repeating. The hostel had music playing in the common areas in the evening and we figured someone had just chosen a weird playlist that kept repeating. We didn’t think much of it and went down to have breakfast. It wasn’t until we got to the reception area and saw that there was someone from the military holding a gun outside our hostel that we realised something was going on! The music was coming from outside and we poked our head out the door to see that there was a parade happening. We had managed to arrive in Barcelona on Catalonia Day! Catalonia is a region of Spain that includes Barcelona and they have been trying to get independence from Spain since the 1700s. We were in for a day of festivities and protests all around the city!
We had planned to do a walking tour but due to the festivities, it was cancelled. Instead we just wandered around the city ourselves. We enjoyed checking out the architecture and just wandering the streets to see what was going on. There were plenty of people dressed up for the day with various parades and wreath laying ceremonies.
We spent a large chunk of the day at the beach which we found out later is all imported sand. None of the beaches in Barcelona are real and they lay sand most nights to replace what is washed away by the ocean. When you’re on the beach you are constantly bothered by people selling towels, mojitos or sangria, and massages. They’re all illegal sellers and it’s fun watching what they do when the police turn up! You can tell when the police are close because you can no longer hear “Hellloooo! Fresh mojitos! Fresh sangria! Mojito, mojito, mojito, fresh, cold!” It’s very amusing.
The majority of our day was spent looking at things, finding yum food and escaping the warm humid climate. The air conditioning in our hostel room was a great escape!
In the evening we experienced our first hostel which has a sign up for free dinners! So we enjoyed eating dinner at the hostel and getting to know some of the other guests. It was great!
Day Two
On our second day we had tickets to Sagrada Família. This is an incredible church that began construction in 1883 and is still being constructed today. It is a creation of an architect named Antoni Gaudí who started on the project a year after it had started and the previous architect retired. Unfortunately, Gaudí died after being hit by a tram while crossing the street in 1924 so others have been trying to realise his dream ever since.
The church is incredible! It’s a very modern cathedral built with all of the features of an old cathedral. We spent ages looking at all the parts and working out the stories depicted in carving.
We did one of the tower climbs. You can walk up either the nativity tower or the passion tower. We did the nativity as it was the only tower to be completed before Gaudí’s death. It was pretty cool to go up but it wasn’t anything special. I think there will be better viewing opportunities once the building is finished. We did enjoy the staircase down (you take a lift to the top) which had various views and lead to a final spiral staircase which looked really cool when you looked right down the middle of it.
After Sagrada Família, we headed back to our hostel for a rest. It was another warm and humid day so we tried to escape the heat and get some air conditioning.
In the afternoon we went for another wander around to see if a few more things were open compared to the previous day. We enjoyed looking in some shops and just generally wandering.
In the evening (after our free dinner from the hostel!) we went to a comedy club which is run by a family friend of Miriam’s and is a kiwi. It was cool to experience some local up and coming comedy.
Day Three
On our last day in Barcelona we did the walking tour that we tried to do on day one! The tour was of the gothic centre and was really interesting! There were still a few protests happening so it was cool to learn a bit more about the history of the area so that we could put the protests of Catalonian independence into context.
The walking tour was about 2 hours so we were hungry and tired by the end of it! We managed to find a pizza place to have some lunch (not very Spanish, I know!) before heading back to the hostel.
We had a really quiet afternoon which was much needed. Travelling is awesome, but sometimes you’ve just gotta stop and have a break. The speed we have been doing things means that we haven’t been able to do everything in every city, but there is plenty for us to come back for!
The evening was really cool because on Tuesday’s at the hostel, they have a paella chef come in and cook a massive paella with you! There were about 16 of us who signed up and the chef showed us the process of making a seafood paella and then we got to eat it! It was so yum and a really great way to learn about some Spanish culture. We were stoked to be able to have some authentic Spanish food and learn how to make it at the same time. It’s not easy!
That ended our time in Barcelona! The next morning we got up really early for a train through to Seville.
Seville
Our 5 and a half hour train ride from Barcelona to Seville was the last train we would take on our Eurail passes. Our passes gave us 15 travel days over two months and we managed to use our last travel day on the last day of the two months! Trains in Europe are incredible. I don’t know if I’ve said this yet, but they are so much better than planes. You don’t have to arrive early to check in, you don’t have to worry about what’s in your bags, and they’re just generally stress free compared to flying! We have loved them and we are going to miss them on our next few journeys which are buses. Buses are much cheaper to book outright rather than buying train tickets which are quite expensive without a pass.
We arrived in Seville at about 2pm and we couldn’t be bothered figuring out public transport to get to our accommodation because Uber was so cheap. So we ordered an Uber and made our way into the city centre. It’s actually unusual for a train to not arrive in the city centre, but it might have been because we were staying in the more historic area.
Our accommodation ended up being perfect. We could not have asked for a better location being within walking distance of everything!
Once we were settled into our apartment we decided that we should get some washing done. So we found a laundromat just around the corner and spent the rest of the day wandering around while waiting for the washing to finish. We enjoyed exploring and figuring out what we were going to do the next day.
In the morning, we headed out for coffee and some breakfast before heading to the Royal Alcázar of Seville. This is an old royal palace with incredible tile features and gardens. We loved walking around even though there were a million tour groups! We took so many photos of the inside of the palace. We had decided not to bother going into the royal bedrooms (it cost extra) but apparently tickets are sold out 3 months in advance for that!
After walking around for ages, we went and had some lunch before heading back to the apartment for a rest.
In the afternoon we went to the Cathedral of Seville which is the largest gothic style cathedral in the world, and the largest cathedral by volume in Europe. Once we were inside we could definitely tell that it was massive!
The first thing we did was walk up the bell tower. There aren’t many churches where this is included in entry and it was awesome! There are so many bells up the tower and we had heard them ringing in the morning. We were lucky to be up there for the 4pm chime which just rings one of the bells 4 times, but it was very loud! It would be great to be there for something more involved ringing with other bells, but I don’t think they let people up there during those times.
The cathedral holds the grave for Christopher Columbus and there is a monument of four men holding a coffin. It was pretty amazing.
The whole church was just incredible. The ceilings are extremely high and there are so many amazing things to look at. I would say it was my favourite church that I saw in the whole of Europe! I took a lot of photos.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around, found some dinner, and then walked towards Plaza de España which is a square surrounded by amazing old buildings. It was here that they shot a scene from Star Wars for the Naboo kingdom. Unfortunately when we got there, the plaza had been closed due to a festival starting the next day! We had timed it with sunset and everything. Oh well – we will just have to go back to Seville!
And that brings us to the end of our time in Spain! It was another quick trip, but we really enjoyed it! The next morning we were on a bus to Portugal!
Bye for now! 👋🏻
