To celebrate my concluding exam for the duration of my semester in Scotland at the Glasgow University, I treated myself to eight days in Spain (Barcelona and Madrid, to be specific). I went on my own, which I was a slight bit nervous about — I worried about safety, comprehending Spanish and also being alone. Those happened to be realistic worries, however it all turned out great, and it helped me feel a whole lot more positive about traveling alone in the coming years.

Barcelona

I travelled on Ryanair (a cheap airline) from Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport to Barcelona — though in characteristic Ryanair fashion we ended up in a secondary airport over an hour’s bus ride away from the city. I was staying at the Gothic Point hostel, which I eventually found in the end after walking the wrong way through Barcelona’s Barrio Gotico and accidentally finding the cathedral — a nice shock. It was lovely, dark and complex, and regrettably surrounded with building work. Ah, well. After walking through the nave I went back outside and eventually came across the hostel, which offered free Internet! I was quite impressed (though understandably there was a bit of waiting time to use the computers). I used this time to research Barcelona travel information.

I began my first entire day of sightseeing at Park Guell, designed by Barcelona’s famous architect Antoni Gaudi. I took the metro to what appeared to be the nearest station, but it was still a bit of a lengthy, walk to get there. My next station was Passeig de Gracia, where there were several more well known Gaudi creations. Casa Batllo was too cool for me to try to describe (and also too expensive for me to enter!). Just down the street was La Pedrera, an apartment building with a lot of curves, wavy lines, dazzling colors, oddly shaped windows, etc. After that I continued along the Gaudi trail to la Sagrada Familia, an colossal cathedral whose development has been in progress since about 1883 — and it’s only slightly over halfway done. Unbelievable. I primarily felt a bit robbed when I needed to pay eight euros to get in and then another two euros just to ride up one of its towers, but then I realised it was helping to sustain the construction. Maybe I’ll return to Barcelona in 30 years or so and see it when it’s done!

After that I headed to Placa Catalunya, where I strolled down La Rambla, Barcelona’s most famous street. Lined with trees and shops and street performers of all kinds, it was fun and crowded. La Rambla continues down to the statue of Christopher Columbus and the old port, where I sat and chilled out for a bit. Then I made my way back through Barri Gotic toward my hostel, stopping in a few pretty plazas — particularly Placa Reial, with palm trees and lovely historic buildings. I also entered into the cathedral. Barrio Gotico is a great place to get lost, with narrow streets, flowered balconies, wrought-iron railings and traditional street lamps.

The next day I decided to visit Montjuic, where the Olympic Village from the 1992 summer olympics is located, along with some countryside, a quite mediocre castle/fortress, and Poble Espanyol, a model Spanish town that had some really pretty buildings and lots of artisan crafts.

I made a pit stop at my room to get an umbrella, despite the fact that by that point it was sunny again, of course. Then I went on to the Picasso Museum, which wasn’t as thrilling as I’d wanted. A lot of the stuff there was very early work. The same can