With the shortest month of the year coming to a close, I thought I would look back on another successful period of my enhanced education through travel.
A place that I knew I was going to and had to visit while in Spain was Barcelona. Before making it to the city, I knew it was home to some unique architecture, a great football club, and the base of the Catalan independence movement. Once I spent four days there, I quickly realized why it's the most popular city to visit in Spain. Its well-mixed blend of big city perks, student-friendly prices, diverse geography, stunning seaside location, numerous otherworldly sights and attractions, and countless additional assets make Barcelona the perfect travel destination for anyone and although I was prepared for the differences of the Catalan language and culture, I thought it was easy to communicate in Spanish compared to the fast-paced abbreviated accents of Andalusia and I found the locals unusually helpful, relaxed, and inviting for a city of its multi-million person size...it must be because they live in Barcelona!
Although basing my travel plans out of a larger airport system like that of Madrid or Barcelona would undoubtedly lead to the luxury of cheaper flights and a more diverse array of destinations, Sevilla has held its own when it comes to pleasing my travel bug. So when a roundtrip flight from Sevilla to Brussels for under $100 popped up last month, I jumped on it and excitedly awaited my first trip to Belgium.
With hostels being less abundant and more expensive in Brussels than other European metropolises ($25-$30/night is usually too fancy a price for this guy) and its discount air hub ("Brussels" South Charleroi Airport) being an hour bus ride into the city with a 13€ one way/22€ roundtrip ticket cost, my eagerness to explore this new destination initially clashed with the fear of losing the rest of my funds to it. Thankfully, Brussels and Belgium would prove to be far more manageable money-wise once I arrived in full tourist mode.
Returning to 20-something degree weather, I designed my trip uniform for the long days of exploration ahead (from what I had brought in my Ryanair-legit school backpack) which included 5 layers on top (an undershirt, a couple long-sleeved tees, a fleece jacket, and a rain jacket), a scarf, beanie, and gloves. After getting a decent grasp of Brussels over my first couple days of the trip, I found it similar to Berlin as a quirky (what other city in the world has a tiny statue of a boy peeing listed as a main attraction), developing city with a promising future, while certainly lacking Berlin's history, nightlife, and budget travel appeal. However, I had known that it was what laid beyond Brussels that would define my first Belgian experience.
An advantage of having four days in Belgium is that it's a small country with a great rail system and no city is too far away. With this in mind, I took a 30 minute train from Brussels to Ghent, a canal-filled college town and Belgium's fourth largest metro area. Much of Ghent's medieval architecture remains intact (my hostel was in a 13th century building) and it became my favorite of the 3 cities I visited on this trip. Its architecture, city layout, and nightlife gave me a feeling of Amsterdam on a smaller scale and I vowed to return one year for my birthday during the famous Ghent Festival of late July.
Saying goodbye to Ghent for the time being, I took another 30 minute west-bound train to Bruges, one of Belgium's most visited towns with a UNESCO-approved historic city center. The circular historic center holds less than a quarter of the city's current population and is somewhat cut off from it due to the ancient city gates and a surrounding moat-like canal, but it's filled with an abundance of medieval architecture extremely pleasing to the eye. Bruges seemed similar to Ghent with less students and more tourists and while its nightlife is nearly nonexistent, I was fortunate enough to tour the last family brewery within the old city and have a bar connected to my hostel, which helped me in my quest to sample as many beers as possible during my stay in Belgium.
Belgium's mix of old-world architecture, astounding variety of quality beer (the fries, waffles, and chocolate lived up to the reputation also), and ease of accessibility across the country make for an incredible trip. As I've said about Berlin, I would absolutely love to return when I can explore in a t-shirt and enjoy a beer outside. Appropriately, my March will be characterized by touring some new destinations in Southern Europe while savoring the good life here in Southern Spain.
Happy Andalusia Day from Sevilla!
A place that I knew I was going to and had to visit while in Spain was Barcelona. Before making it to the city, I knew it was home to some unique architecture, a great football club, and the base of the Catalan independence movement. Once I spent four days there, I quickly realized why it's the most popular city to visit in Spain. Its well-mixed blend of big city perks, student-friendly prices, diverse geography, stunning seaside location, numerous otherworldly sights and attractions, and countless additional assets make Barcelona the perfect travel destination for anyone and although I was prepared for the differences of the Catalan language and culture, I thought it was easy to communicate in Spanish compared to the fast-paced abbreviated accents of Andalusia and I found the locals unusually helpful, relaxed, and inviting for a city of its multi-million person size...it must be because they live in Barcelona!
Although basing my travel plans out of a larger airport system like that of Madrid or Barcelona would undoubtedly lead to the luxury of cheaper flights and a more diverse array of destinations, Sevilla has held its own when it comes to pleasing my travel bug. So when a roundtrip flight from Sevilla to Brussels for under $100 popped up last month, I jumped on it and excitedly awaited my first trip to Belgium.
With hostels being less abundant and more expensive in Brussels than other European metropolises ($25-$30/night is usually too fancy a price for this guy) and its discount air hub ("Brussels" South Charleroi Airport) being an hour bus ride into the city with a 13€ one way/22€ roundtrip ticket cost, my eagerness to explore this new destination initially clashed with the fear of losing the rest of my funds to it. Thankfully, Brussels and Belgium would prove to be far more manageable money-wise once I arrived in full tourist mode.
Returning to 20-something degree weather, I designed my trip uniform for the long days of exploration ahead (from what I had brought in my Ryanair-legit school backpack) which included 5 layers on top (an undershirt, a couple long-sleeved tees, a fleece jacket, and a rain jacket), a scarf, beanie, and gloves. After getting a decent grasp of Brussels over my first couple days of the trip, I found it similar to Berlin as a quirky (what other city in the world has a tiny statue of a boy peeing listed as a main attraction), developing city with a promising future, while certainly lacking Berlin's history, nightlife, and budget travel appeal. However, I had known that it was what laid beyond Brussels that would define my first Belgian experience.
An advantage of having four days in Belgium is that it's a small country with a great rail system and no city is too far away. With this in mind, I took a 30 minute train from Brussels to Ghent, a canal-filled college town and Belgium's fourth largest metro area. Much of Ghent's medieval architecture remains intact (my hostel was in a 13th century building) and it became my favorite of the 3 cities I visited on this trip. Its architecture, city layout, and nightlife gave me a feeling of Amsterdam on a smaller scale and I vowed to return one year for my birthday during the famous Ghent Festival of late July.
Saying goodbye to Ghent for the time being, I took another 30 minute west-bound train to Bruges, one of Belgium's most visited towns with a UNESCO-approved historic city center. The circular historic center holds less than a quarter of the city's current population and is somewhat cut off from it due to the ancient city gates and a surrounding moat-like canal, but it's filled with an abundance of medieval architecture extremely pleasing to the eye. Bruges seemed similar to Ghent with less students and more tourists and while its nightlife is nearly nonexistent, I was fortunate enough to tour the last family brewery within the old city and have a bar connected to my hostel, which helped me in my quest to sample as many beers as possible during my stay in Belgium.
Belgium's mix of old-world architecture, astounding variety of quality beer (the fries, waffles, and chocolate lived up to the reputation also), and ease of accessibility across the country make for an incredible trip. As I've said about Berlin, I would absolutely love to return when I can explore in a t-shirt and enjoy a beer outside. Appropriately, my March will be characterized by touring some new destinations in Southern Europe while savoring the good life here in Southern Spain.
Happy Andalusia Day from Sevilla!
