The Journey
From california to Spain
the journey
With excited and anxious nerves, I packed my ginormous suitcase with stuff to last 6-9 months in a foreign country. I didn’t know it, but I was about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life.
I had always wanted to travel, but never really had the opportunity. I saw the opportunity in studying abroad and I went after it. And what a time it was. You’re about to hear some of the stories from my time abroad in Spain.
Honestly, I mostly went to travel. I didn’t have the biggest desire to learn Spanish, but I knew it would be good to learn un poco.
Lucky for me, my best friend, Alexa, also decided she wanted to study abroad in Spain, so we were able to go together. Going to a foreign country without knowing the language or anyone there is scary enough. It helped tremendously to know someone and have someone to go through the journey with.
Clenching my blank passport, I eagerly waited for the intercom to call the flight for Barcelona. We boarded our one-way, red-eye flight to Europe and luckily got to sit together for the 10-hour journey.
I had only been out of the country once and never on a flight that long. I assumed it would be the same as US flights where they are required to feed you if the flight is over a certain number of hours. I was wrong. They didn’t give us ANY food OR WATER for 10 hours. It was only available for purchase which we refused because we were stubborn. And also starving. Out of all my travels, I definitely learned how to travel cheap. And sometimes that means you go without a proper meal, water, or a bed. Stories to come….
We finally landed in Barcelona after the 10-hour flight. We were so excited to 1. get off the plane, and 2. BE IN SPAIN. Got my second stamp in my passport sporting BCN. The airport was so different. It looked more like a mall than an airport.
So very parched, we filled our 32 oz. hydroflasks full with water. Then had to go through customs or security or whatever it was….and chug 32 ounces of water in front of security before we could go through.
Next we bought coffee and food. Everything was in euros so we didn’t know how much we were paying. But at this point, we didn’t care. We were hungry and tired of traveling. (But no longer thirsty!)
We called our parents and boyfriends and told them we landed safely before boarding again. One more flight to go before arriving in our new home. The flight from Barcelona to Valencia was short, but totaled our travel at about 16 hours. We also jumped ahead 9 hours in time.
Tired, smelly, and jetlagged, we arrived in España!