Wow, it’s officially been a whole year since I moved to Barcelona. It’s definitely been a rough adjustment, but I want to celebrate the occasion by talking about something that has gone well – travel!
I’ve gotten to travel a lot in the past year. Here’s where I’ve been since I moved here, in chronological order:
- Olot, a tiny town in Cataluyna that has volcanoes. Yep, there are volcanoes in Spain!
- England, to see my family. We had a surprise birthday party for my grandma’s 80th birthday! I haven’t written a post on this, but I traveled around the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
- California – twice! Once was for Christmas, and the second time was to surprise my mum for her birthday. (My family really isn’t as big on surprises as this post might make you think). I went home to Riverside, and I also went to Los Angeles, which is close by.
Doing the California thing at Glen Ivy Hot Springs. Yep, I am covered in mud.
- Sitges, to see how crazy Spain gets for Carnaval. Spoiler alert: pretty damn crazy.
- Ávila, Spain – a cute Spanish town famous for its medieval castle walls.
- Salamanca, Spain – a place I’d always wanted to see. It was just as good in real life!
- Segovia, Spain – complete with a Roman aqueduct and some seriously weird food.
- Sevilla, Spain – to see the famous Feria de Abril, even though it didn’t go how I expected.
- Ibiza, Spain – for a week of crazy partying in paradise.
Foam party in Es Paradis, Ibiza.
- Bonus: the month before I moved to Barcelona, I was in San Diego to celebrate the end of college, and I went to Washington D.C. to present my senior thesis research at a conference (I forgot to tell you guys I was a nerd!). Here it is:
Whew! That’s a lot of travel. That’s why my mum sent me a Barack Obama bookmark that was signed by ‘the president’ with “You travel more than I do!”
While that’s not quite true, I’ve been lucky to travel a TON. I’ve already got some new trips coming up – I just arranged trips to go to Berlin and Madrid, and I’m also trying to squeeze in another visit to see my family in England.
I’m also tentatively arranging a trip through Eastern Europe with some of my best friends, and I really really hope it comes through. And I just might get to go to Pamplona to see the Running of the Bulls!
I REALLY want to go! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How do I get to travel so much? Well, I work for a website, so I don’t have to take my vacation days to travel if I can get Internet access at my destination. On top of that, they’re very nice and flexible.
Also, Spain is much more generous with its vacation time than the U.S. is. And of course, everything in Europe is so close together. A flexible job + lots of vacation days = a very happy traveler.
Cheers to another year filled with travel! Thanks to everyone who’s kept up with my aventuras so far.
Besos!
-Jess
Que suerte! Congratulations on your exciting year! P.S. NERDS ARE AWESOME!
Thanks! And yeah, yay nerds 🙂
you’ve seen so much over the past year! it’s really impressive when you lay it all out. I am so looking foward to seeing you in a few weeks on your next trip xxx
Me too, I can’t wait! xxx
Good stuff! Also, I really want to know the story behind that foam party.
Haha oh man, it was just crazy. It was a normal club until 4:30 a.m., and then they filled the whole place full of foam. It was definitely over six feet tall – I had to stand on a step to breathe! And right before it shut down, they had a giant shower come down from the ceiling to clean everyone off. It was sooo much fun, but pretty strange at the same time. Definitely a fun travel experience!
That’s so random and crazy! Sounds fun though 🙂
wowee!! that is a lot of travelling! lucky you 😉 I look forward to reading more of your travels. I need to peek at some of your older travel posts, Avila and Salamanca for starters. Two cities I want to visit. Until I can I will live vicariously through others like you. Thank you 🙂
Thanks for following them! I’ve been really lucky this year. You should definitely go to Avila and Salamanca, they’re so pretty and completely unlike other places in Spain I’ve seen. Let me know when you get there! 🙂
p.s. Nerds of the world unite!! heh.
Wow! You are so lucky to travel that much! I’ve been keeping up with your blog because I visited Barcelona two years ago and decided it’s one of my favorite cities. I look forward to reading about your future adventures!
Yeah, I’ve definitely been really lucky this year! Thanks so much for keeping up with my travels.
Great post! Love the foam party! Congratulations on a whole year “over there.” Stay cool!
Haha thanks!
Wow! You sure did fit a lot of living into one year! I look forward to see what next year brings for you.
Me too! Thanks for reading.
Which website do you work for? I’m looking into it and I noticed there are a lot of options but I’m always worried about finding a reputable one. 🙂
I work for a company that has a couple different websites that’s all Spain-based (the one I work on is called Wambie, though I warn you it’s definitely for younger teens!). I just lucked out about it being non-sketchy, but it was pretty easy to tell once I got to their offices for my interview that it was legit. Hope you find a reputable one!