Our honeymoon in Spain marked our first landing on European soil. I had already been to London, but the British Island is a whole different thing to me. I knew that Spain would be the optimal trip, but words are nothing close to being there and experiencing it first hand.
Our tour took us from Madrid to Cordoba, then to Sevilla, then to Granada, then to Valencia, then to Barcelona, then we passed in Zaragoza, then finally back to Madrid; a hectic 10 days, but worth every minute.
However, there are a few heads up worth mentioning.
Never, and a mean never travel to Europe with a 500 Euro bill because no one will give you change for it; not even shops, Western Union, Restaurants, or even the Hotel. And good luck trying to get a bank to give you change. Let’s face it; no one walks around with about US$ 700 in their pocket, it’s a lot of money. Locals call the 500 Euro “the Binladen Bill”, because no one sees it. Haha, Classic.
Public bathrooms are every girl’s nightmare! Toilet seat covers and sanitizer sprays become an invention worth a Gairdner Foundation International Award or a Nobel Prize. They are an absolute must… I can’t stress their importance enough!
Beer and Pork…Blekh! Yes, beer is cheaper than water (a 0.5 L water bottle costs around 2.50 Euros), and pork is the favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner… and snack and desert. I wonder why Europeans haven’t started oinking* yet.
No price is unified. You can pay 1.60 Euros for a Sneakers bar in one convenient store, and then pay 1.20 Euros for the same bar in another.
You have to double what ever budget you set for the trip, because you just can’t practice any control when it comes to shopping, restaurants, and souvenirs.
In Canada, there are night shelters that offer soup and a bed for Homeless people… I don’t think they have that in Europe (or maybe not in Madrid).
On the other hand…
The history, the culture, the monuments, the nature, the weather, the greatness, the clean streets, the organization, the shopping, the lifestyle, and the beautiful people make you wish to turn your visit into residency.
*Oinking: From the word “Oink”, is the sound a pig makes – according to nursery rhymes.
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