Spain: A Welcoming Country with Tapas, Sangria, Flamenco, and Football (aka Soccer)

Spain has been a wonderful country to bounce around. It has been eye opening to learn about the difference in lifestyle versus what we are used to. Here are a few things you might be surprised to know:

1. Meal times: This has been one of the biggest differences to get used to. In Spain most people eat a light breakfast mid-morning, a large lunch between 2pm-3:30pm, followed by a siesta, and then dinner sometime after 9:30pm. In fact, most of the lunch restaurants are closed between noon-1:30 and most of the dinner restaurants don’t open until 8pm or later. You’ll also find a lot of the shops are shut down after lunch for a few hours for an afternoon nap time.

2. Cheap drinks with Tapas: One of our favorite things has been drinks with tapas! Many locals bars will give you a free small plate of food if you order a drink. I’m not talking a bowl of popcorn or nuts, I mean real cooked food. We got a small pork loin with salad at one place. A bowl of garbanzo bean and ham soup at another. And to top it off, the drinks are super cheap! A glass of sangria is €2.50 or a beer is €1.50. This is a trend we would LOVE to pick up back home.

3. Strong history of religious acceptance: Many of the cities we visited pride themselves on living in peace and unity with all different religions. The cities will often have a set area/neighborhood that are occupied by people of different religions. For example, Granada has a northern neighborhood with a large Muslim presence, an eastern neighborhood that is predominately Jewish, and a southern neighborhood that is Christian. It was really neat to see the different types of shops and restaurants in all the different neighborhoods on a walk around the city.

4. Pork is EVERYWHERE: I mean it when I say everywhere. The reason why is actually really interesting too. During the 15th century the king and queen of Spain gave Jews the choice between converting to Christianity, fleeing the country, or burning at the stake. Out of fear of being executed, Jews would eat pork to “prove” they converted.

5. Spain has mountains all over: I never really pictured Spain to have mountains. Maybe it’s because it’s a warmer climate so they aren’t known for skiing or winter sports. Whatever the reason, I highly recommend getting a rental car while in Spain to drive from town to town in the south. The views are unbelievable and the mountain towns are absolutely beautiful! We tried our best to get some pictures, but they certainly do not do justice to how amazing the drive was.

6. Spanish Royalty: I won’t go into to much detail here, but we were surprised to learn that the Spanish royalty still have partial control over ruling in Spain. We are so used to having our rules determined by voting in North America that it was hard to understand the way some things work.

For example, there is a statue of a previous king named Felipe IV in the front middle of the historic Palace where the royalty used to live. It is a major tourist spot now with beautiful gardens and an amazing building. We were told this king was not liked by the people of Spain. They said he was not a good ruler and would even have people executed for “not liking their appearance” as he walked through the streets. King Felipe IV realized he was not going to be remembered kindly by his people, so he had a huge statue of himself put up in a prime location and in a position to be remembered as a selfless warrior. He then wrote a law that stands today which says that the statue can only be removed if an “act of God” destroys it. Aka if it gets struck by lightening, a tree falls on it, etc.

Now I don’t know about you, but my first thought was, “why don’t you just have it taken down and vote to have that law abolished?” If all the Spanish people agree they hate it and what it stands for, why leave it up for hundreds of years? Apparently things work differently here though, so it continues to stand regardless.

Here are the places we visited while in Spain:

Madrid

Where we stayed: Ok Hostel Madrid

Must try food: Paella and a Calamari Sandwich

Must see spots: Retiro Park, Royal Palace, Puerto del Sol plaza

Madrid was an amazing place to start our Spain trip. I could have honestly stayed in Madrid for weeks. The city has so much to see and do, and is the capital of Spain so lots of history.

Retiro Park reminded me a lot of Central Par in NYC. It had great paths, a beautiful lake with row boats, and lots of food spots, gardens, and buildings scattered throughout the park. We spent hours here and got a great workout in.

The Royal Palace was a beautiful building to see. It was great to even just see it from the outside if you don’t go inside. Right across the street is the Cathedral that was purposely constructed to be just as magnificent as the Palace. The royals no longer live in this Palace and is used now for tourists, government meetings, offices, etc.

Another spot to walk through while in Madrid is the plaza’s. There are two main ones in the area: Plaza Mayor and Puerto del Sol.

Plaza Major is surrounded by restaurants, shopping, and apartments. It has been used for many different purposes throughout history. It is a great spot to go to find a free walking tour of the city if you are visiting.

Puerto del Sol is a touristy spot with lots of similarities to Time Square. There are many characters and street performers here and is definitely worth walking through. Just beware, there are some characters dressed up that might make you feel pretty uneasy…

Look closely at the bottom right. I almost died.

The last thing that was amazing to be in Madrid for was REAL MADRID WINNING THE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP! Most bars and restaurants in Spain do not have TV’s. So we found an Irish pub to cheer in Real Madrid with the locals for a win.

Toledo

Took a day trip to Toledo (pronounced Tole-ae-doe) from Madrid. Toledo is the previous capital of Spain and has its neighborhoods divided by religion. The main Cathedral was previously a Mosque before the Royal family decided to change it to a Christian church.

Seville

Where we stayed: Airbnb with Gloria – An amazing host with a brand new apartment. Highly recommend!

Must see spot: Royal Alcázar, Plaza de Espana, and flamenco dancing

Royal Alcázar is a palace the royals use while in Seville. Apparently they still stay in the upper level during current visits. It was previously a Muslim fortress that was destroyed after the Christian conquest of Seville. I guess this could be considered a southern home for them. They also have used the gardens during some Game of Thrones filming.

Seville is a smaller city than Madrid or Barcelona. It was very easy to walk around and has tapa restaurants everywhere. This was one of our favorite streets to eat dinner line with restaurants and bars.

Plaza de Espana was a remarkable building to see. It is a free plaza with a canal running through the middle of it. Again, more Game of Thrones and Star Wars filming here.

Marbella

Where we stayed: Pension Aduar Marbella

Must see spot: the perfect location to relax and walk through town

Marbella might be my favorite stop on the trip so far. It is a relaxing, chic beach town surrounded by mountains. The restaurants and boutiques are more upscale making it a wonderful vacation spot. After all the walking and site seeing in the cities, this was a perfect stop to put our feet up for a few days.

Granada

Where we stayed: Granada Old Town Hostel

Must see spot: Alhambra

Granada is a southern city located at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was pretty wild to be walking around at the base in 80 degree weather and look up to see snow on the mountain peaks.

The most famous thing to do here is go to Alhambra which is a Moorish palace and fortress. It was originally constructed in 889 AD and then renovated in the mid 13th century. It was converted into a Royal palace and was where Christopher Columbus received endorsement for his exhibition in 1492.

With all of that being said, you apparently need to get your tickets to go inside months ahead of time. So we had to settle for walking around the massive palace.

The real highlight of our trip to Granada was the Feria de Granada. Corpus Christie, which is a Christian celebration, is a HUGE deal in Spain. This festival is right outside the city of Granada and has tons of rides, food stands, and beer/sangria tents. The festival goes all day and doesn’t end until 6am or 7am. Spanish people really know how to party! There are enormous tents toward the back that become clubs for the younger adults and the front tents are full of live music and feel more like a pub. The girls get very dressed up and have flowers in their hair. Even the young kids stay out late with their parents. It’s not abnormal to see young kids on the playground or at the bar after midnight in Spain.

Barcelona

Where we stayed: Airbnb near La Sangrada Familia

Must see spot: La Sangrada Familia, La Rambla, and the beach

Barcelona is a large, but still very walkable city. The sites were pretty expensive so we settled for walking all around and came across plenty to do.

La Rambla is a 1km street that is closed to cars and full of vendors, shops, and restaurants. It was pretty crowded so we went down a side street and came across an amazing market! Endless amounts of seafood, fruits and vegetables, sweets, middle eastern food, juices, etc. We found a stool at one of the very busy booths and had an incredibly fresh lunch of tapas.

A walk by the marina and beach are a must while in Barcelona. The marina has the most massive yachts that are all privately owned. They have 4 stories, a full wait staff, one even had a helicopter parked on it. Who are these people who own these boats?!

The beach is full of people having a great time. There are lines at the pull up bars nearby with at least 100 shirtless guys waiting their turn for a shot at the bar. Bachelorette parties, party boats, super fast speed boats… you get the picture.

We had such a wonderful host at our Airbnb that took us out to the local street party near where we were staying. The street party didn’t really get started until midnight. The best part was the dj was playing 80’s and 90’s music! I was surprised (and happy) most of the songs they played were in English.

Now onto Southern France for some beaches! Let us know if you’ve been and have any tips or suggestions. Adios!