Camping in the Costa Brava

I didn't think I could be more impressed by la Costa Brava until I went camping in Tossa del Mar. Cala Llevadó Camping is about 1 hour and 30 minutes from Barcelona, right on the pretty beaches of Costa Brava. The camping ground was the biggest I have seen with four calas (beaches), a restaurant and a bar, a swimming pool, a supermarket, etc. There were also so many tourists from all around the world who we got to meet. It is one of my favorite memories from Spain.

Our days went something like this:

Wake up- pick up croissants and tea for breakfast- pack lunch for the the beaches- Enjoy the warm blue & turquoise water and being in the sun all day (which we did everyday)- come back and shower- eat some snacks- cook dinner (some nights it included of pesto pasta and Italian wine (our appetites were still in Italy))- head to the beach to watch the stars and relax- head back to our tent for bedtime. I love the feeling of camping, you don't need anything but what the camping ground offers you- in this case the beach, delicious food, and good company were more than perfect.

Everyone should go to this camping ground if you are ever in Spain!! It was incredible. Here are pictures..enjoy!

Ibiza & Formentera

When most people think of Ibiza, they think party party. What I was most excited about were the pretty beaches. Two friends from the US visited me (Gena and Dana) and we traveled to a few places, our first stop was Ibiza. It was a beautiful island with an energetic crowd ready to enjoy the night festivities.
The life in Ibiza was something like this:
Lay out all day on the beach, swim in the water while dancing to the music from the beach parties, eat good meals, and get ready to go out all night long. Then head to the beach for sunrise. Repeat.

Our first night we went to a club called El Paradis for the fiesta de agua (water party) that friends had recommended to me. This was an incredible party and was like nothing I had done before. When I was told to wear a bathing suit and a dress I did not care for, I knew it would be completely different than the usual clubs I was used to. At first it was like any typical club, people dancing and go go dancers in 80's outfits dancing above your head. The dance floor was in the form of a circle and at around 4am water started pouring in from every direction and suddenly there was a pool beneath us. Bathing suits started coming out and people are dancing and playing in the water. It was great. One of the best clubs I have been to, hands down. After some hours in the water at the club, we headed to the beach in our wet bathing suits.

The next day we headed to Formentera by ferry. People had mentioned to me how beautiful this island was, but seeing it in person really had me blown away . As most of you know, I love going to the beach so when I see a beach like this, it's hard for me to leave. Its white sand feeling softer than ever and clear turquoise/blue water made it breathtaking. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. We also ate a delicious meal in Formentera- fresh caprese salad and pizza. As we were leaving, we had the chance to see the sunset which was very pretty.
Unfortunately we only had time to stay for the day and had to return to Ibiza for our last night out. We went to a club called Space which in my opinion was just okay. The next day was our last day, spent it on Playa d'en Bossa again enjoying the sun. My friend who lives in Ibiza came to visit and we all had lunch before heading back to Barcelona to get ready for our next trip.

Formentera

Formentera                                     

Formentera

Formentera

Formentera

Formentera

Formentera

Formentera

Formentera

Formentera

Nit de Montjuic

It amazes me still how a city can have something going on every weekend and many of these events or festivals being free to the public. This past weekend there were three different festivals going on at the same time in Barcelona. There were fiestas mayores de Raval, fiestas mayores de Poble Sec, and Nit de Montjuic. In Barcelona, during the summer, each neighborhood has a festival to celebrate their neighborhood. So this weekend, the neighborhoods of Raval and Poble Sec had their own parties. These neighborhood parties usually last from a weekend to a week long. There are bands playing, several stands that serve food and alcohol, and people celebrating all night long in the streets.

Nit de Montjuic was on Saturday night. It is an event where around 20 different bands play all in different parts of Montjuic (even the castle all the way up top and the olympic stadium) starting at 8pm and ending at 4am-- oh and all for free. It was one of my favorite events held in Barcelona, definitely exceeded my expectations. 

After visiting la fiesta del Raval for a little and seeing an amazing view of Barcelona from a hotel bar in Raval, we headed to Montjuic around 1200am. We went straight to the castle after walking to MNAC. We admired the views from the castle, heard a flamenco band inside the castle, and then walked outside to see hear and dance to amazing techno/dub step DJ's. We danced all night listening to fun music. I could have not asked for a better night!! 

Valencia para Las Fallas

One of the many great things about Spain is their fiestas. I have been lucky enough to get to experience some of these famous traditional celebrations that occur every year like Carnaval, San Juan, Sant Jordi, San Fermin, etc. This year I went to Valencia to experience one day and night of Las Fallas. 


Las fallas is a festival that creates more than 500 huge displays (also called fallas) for the public. The fallas contain cartoon looking images called ninots, which are huge dolls made of cork and cardboard. They represent well-known people in a sarcastic tone (usually politicians). The city works very hard to make these all year. Once Las fallas begin there is a juror who chooses the best fallas and announce the winners during the week, before la crema (where all the fallas are burned) at the end. During the week there are various firework shows like "las mascletás" y "la pólvora". Throughout the streets there are food stands and restaurants, with the authentic paella (side note: The original paella comes from Valencia), tapas, churros, etc. It is a big party throughout the whole city with fireworks constantly going off in the streets. It was such an incredible fiesta, I loved seeing the fallas and picking my favorites, seeing pretty firework shows, as well as getting to eat paella and churros. Valencia was great to visit too. I had been there before, but this time I liked it a lot more. The weather was sunny and the city looked beautiful. We walked around the center most of the day and went to La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias.

La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias

                                                                       La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias 

Galicia Galicia

The north of Spain is very different from other parts of Spain...both special in their own way. They sometimes seem like they are different small countries because many regions have their own language, different food, customs, etc. I visited plenty of the south when I was studying abroad and love it, but the north highly interested me because I had only visited el País Vasco last year and wanted to see more.

Galicia suprised me in the fact that it went way beyond my expectations, the food was incredible- the variety of delicious seafood, great cheese, and wines; the weather was perfect- around 75 degrees all weekend long for a city that is known for cloudy and rainy weather; and the people were very friendly and helpful, and it was inexpensive in comparison to Barcelona.

Our base was Santiago de Compostela-- every night we stayed there but we did day trips to other parts of Galicia as well. Santiago de Compostela is one of the most visited places in Spain...it is highly religious and people participate in the Camino de Santiago and walk days/weeks/months to reach the city and go to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. The cathedral is very big and beautiful in a large plaza with other buildings as well (the ayudamiento and a nice 5 star hotel). The main things we did in Santiago de Compostela were sit in the plazas admiring the churches or other monuments, visit parks, and eat tons of delicious food. The highlight for me was octopus a la plancha and the famous tetilla cheese, I was in love. The white gallegan wine there (our favorite was Ribeiro) went so well with the various seafood we tried. The food honestly was to die for...(especially for someone like me who loves fish, cheese, and good wine).

Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Trying Octopus (a la plancha)

We decided to visit Ourense mainly because they were know for their aguas thermales or  thermal baths. I had never been to one and was very interested in trying these out, especially since the weather was so nice. Boy did we make the right choice. I quickly became fascinated with the fact that these aguas thermales were free to the public and anyone could go at any hour of the day. We stayed for probably 3 hours, either enjoying the hot sun in our bathing suits (in early march!!) or trying out the different waters. There were four small jacuzzi type pools with different water temperatures...I could have stayed all day and been overly satisfied..but we also wanted to explore the city. I met a really sweet lady in the thermal baths who lived in Ourense. She offered to show us the city and a great restaurant to have lunch. She showed us the cute little city which has another thermal bath right in the center of town- I died just a little bit thinking how cool it would be to live there and be able to use these baths whenever one wanted to. Then we went to eat at a really good place and got a menu (2 course meal with a drink and dessert, so worth it) and once again walked around and went to the biggest park in Ourense. At night we went back to Santiago by train after our dear friend walked us to the train station. We had a lovely dinner of tapas of seafood and then went to a wine bar that quickly became a favorite.

Ourense-- Aguas Thermales

Ourense

Ourense

Ourense

Ourense

Ourense

Ourense

The next day we wanted to see some of the coast, so we decided to go to Pontevedra since we didn't have enough time to go farther up the coast. Pontevedra was okay, it was a small city with few things to see, but we did eat a good meal there (of course the food does not disappoint here)...but luckily we read about a small town called Combarro which was about 20 minutes away. I loved Combarro, it was a cute little romantic city on the water. It was famous for the hórreos which was a type of storage which were used to dry out certain foods and placed near the water on stilts (pictures below). The few hours we were there, we walked through the whole little city, sat staring at the water, and then got a glass of wine and some tapas as we admired the pretty view. It was perfect. It was time to go back to Santiago de Compostela for our last night in town. We once again ate a fabulous dinner, seafood risotto, a plate of cheese, dessert, a nice wine and then went to our favorite wine bar spot. Incredible. We were so sad to leave behind the very well priced and tasty food.

Pontevedra

Pontevedra

Pontevedra

Pontevedra

Combarro

Combarro

Combarro- Hierro

Combarro

Combarro

Combarro

All in all, it was a great place to visit and experience. I loved the food, the people, the different cities within Galicia and how different they were from one another.