Spanish sounds like Italian... kinda?

Finally, I am back again after a long break of travelling. Since classes have now started unfortunately I had to come back home (and by home I mean Milano, Sydney home is not for another few months!) and pretend that I am actually going to go to classes again. Keyword being pretend- there is still a lot of travelling that I want to get done before I leave! Over the past few months I crossed off a large part of western Europe, but unfortunately I have not made a dent in the east. Another trip to Europe sometime soon?

Anyways- back to this post, and it will be a long one!

After a quick recharge in Milano it was off to Spain to meet some family and catch up with Jodi again. I met up with some relatives in Estepona- a town in the south of Spain for a few days. I met Colin and Vivian years ago when we visited America in 1999, so it had been quite a while since I last saw them. It was a nice break to catch up on some family history, and even though I did not see Gibraltar due to all the fog, there is always next time!

Open-top bus tours = uncomfortable sunburns or makeshift hats...

For a while Jodi and I had been planning on hitting Spain (and Portugal) together, and together we managed to cross off quite a few places. We began in Barcelona getting in some culture with the Gaudi gardens and houses, the sun (and getting to hear the locals call out for "mojitos and sangria" over and over again) on the beach and making a dent in our bank accounts with the shopping- we can't forget the shopping! Not being much of an art person myself, I do have to admit that Barcelona is amazing with all the different buildings and architectural styles- makes for quite a pretty city. Although it STILL isn't complete, I am a big fan of La Sagrada Familia, the big cathedral, and its amazing insides and out! It is such an amazing building from the sheer size down to al the little intricate carvings on the walls and sculptures.

For our last night in Barcelona we had to head down to the dancing fountains, where we proceeded to spend hours being soaked in water and watching the light and sound show. These pictures can't do justice to how much fun and how beautiful it was, but the amount of pictures and videos I ended up taking at them was an attempt for me to capture the atmosphere!

Our next stop was San Sebastian, where after an hour-long breakdown of the train we swapped from steamy hot weather to rain and clouds... Not at all what we were expecting for a Spanish summer! After it eventually cleared and warmed up a bit after some sightseeing, we were able to spend an afternoon chilling on what had been the day before an empty beach- becoming just two more in the huge crowd.

We managed to hit many cities while we were in Spain, and after dropping our stuff in Madrid and rushing to buy tickets for the Supercopa Finale between Barcelona and Real Madrid we spent the next day visiting Toledo. The town has a fantastic history of rule changing between the Moors and Christianity, as well as prior to the Spanish Inquisition having a strong Jewish influence. After spending all day walking around I certainly had my history fix!

Back to Madrid and our last few days in Spain meant a lot of touring. For anyone travelling Europe there is this great company called Sandeman's New Europe who do free walking tours which are fantastic! I have now done one in Paris, Edinburgh and Madrid, and have not been disappointed at all. They took us all over the city and showed us all the main sites, as well as throwing in some fun facts and stories along the way. One of the places they took us on the tour was this beautiful site that shows the three religions that all played some part in Spanish history, and a place that allows you to see all at once- the church, the defending wall from the Moors and a water feature in the shape of a Magen David (Star of David). Definitely loved Madrid, could quite possibly have been my favourite city in Spain- but of course, I don't have favourites, just places I enjoyed the most!

Dead centre of Spain- all measurements are taken from this spot

Woohoo tickets!

Throughout the country, we realised one major thing- neither of us can speak Spanish! We did manage to get by, using my limited Italian- with a hint of a Spanish 'lisp'. Definitely came in handy on more than one occasion!! After finally grasping a semi-hold on the language, it was off to Portugal... but THAT is for a new post.