My previous “Life in Spain “posts were about me moving to Spain and meeting new friends. This post will be about a mini trip I took to a few Spanish cities right before the Christmas break.
For the trip I’m about to share with you, I brought a small backpack for a 5 night trip. I brought enough underwear and socks for a new pair each day, but I only brought one pair of pants and one sweatshirt that I wore the entire time. I started to smell by the 4th day (I still showered everyday). Packing light also saved me money on my plane ticket since I didn’t have to pay for a carry on.
This trip cost me less than $500 with all food, busses, museums, hostels, and plane tickets included.
The Trip
This trip was in mid December, so a birthday gift to myself, if you will. Originally, I wasn’t going to go anywhere because I had spent money on a plane ticket to the United States. But one night I decided to look at flights ‘just for fun’, and I found €14 plane tickets! Unfortunately that date wouldn’t have given me enough time, so I booked for the previous day–a €35 ticket.
The ticket was to Malaga. But the return tickets were pricey, so I looked for cheap return tickets from different cities until I found one leaving Sevilla. This would give me a few days to find my way to Sevilla, which is what makes travelling exciting for me–it’s like a game.
Malaga
I landed in Malaga the night of the 18th. While waiting for the train into the city an elderly Egyptian man asked me if he was taking the right train. He then wouldn’t stop talking to me and I was too nice to tell him that the last thing I wanted was to have a 2 hour long conversation at 11pm with someone who spoke broken English (oh, the headache). Long story short, it turned out we were staying at the same hostel, so he walked with me all the way there and then tried to convince the front desk to switch him to my room. (Thankfully, they didn’t). The next day I got numerous missed calls from him and refused to go back to the hostel until 8pm. He didn’t seem dangerous, just unaware that I wanted to be alone, and he was overly pushy. I only spent one day in Malaga, which I think was enough time. All the architectural things I wanted to see were right next to my hostel, so I had no issue exploring them.
I started at the Roman theatre and then walked around the Alcazaba (a fortress). Next I walked to the Plaza del Toros (bull ring) and had a lovely audio tour of the building. It’s such a conflicting sport. Then, I had breakfast where an elderly local man told me stories of his time as a professor in New York (I love random moments like these). After breakfast, I hiked to the top of the hill to the Castle of Gibralfaro. By this time I was exhausted, but with rain in the forecast for the evening I knew I had to do at least one more thing. Then, I could curl up in my hostel pod and scroll. The last thing I did in Malaga was go to the Pablo Picasso Museum. It only seemed fitting since Malaga was his home before France. And with the temperature dropping it was the perfect way to escape the cold air.
Ronda
The next day I walked to the bus station for the next stop of my trip–Ronda. This was one of my favorite cities I have ever been to. Lucky for me, the rain got pushed back a day, giving me almost a full day to appreciate the beauty of this place. What makes Ronda amazing is quite obvious.
The city was built on top of a deep gorge with multiple bridges and a dramatic cliff on the west side. I had originally planned to visit some churches and museums, but I instead spent all of my time walking around the city, wanting to see it from every angle. I don’t think I have to explain why Ronda is such an amazing place, but I will say that my pictures don’t give it the justice it deserves. I hiked out of the city into the countryside so I could view the city from below, and it continued to amaze me.
Once the sun went down I retreated to my hostel and watched TV (a luxury in hostels). The temperature was in the high 30’s and I didn’t have clothing to walk around outside so I stayed warm and cozy in bed.
Seville
The next day I walked to the bus station and headed to my last destination–Seville. Everyone I talk to loves Seville, but after being in Ronda, I’m not sure I loved it as much as they did. And I’ve always preferred the countryside to cities. Perhaps it would have been better with nice weather. Regardless, the architecture in Seville was phenomenal.
Once again, my hostel was right next to everything so I was able to see everything I wanted. This was my longest stay–almost 3 full days, and I struggled to space out the activities to keep myself busy the entire time. 
I saw many amazing things here but my favorites were the Seville Cathedral and the Palacio de Las Duenas.
The Seville Cathedral was enormous! It is the largest gothic cathedral in the world! I don’t feel like posting a picture of the inside because the pictures wouldn’t do it justice–it was impossible to capture the size on camera. Instead, I posted a picture of the bell tower which was also very big, and loud.
I also enjoyed walking through the Chapel of San Jose and the crypt which were much smaller than the Seville Cathedral, but still had amazing gold details on almost every square inch of the inside. 
Next I went to the Plaza de Toros (bull ring) and had a short tour of the inside. Walking through the holding cells was both very cool and sad. The next thing I saw was the Plaza de Espana. The plaza de Espana (pictured above) is one of the more famous places in Seville and Spain, so seeing it in person was awesome. And since I visited Seville in winter there were very few crowds. 
The last day I walked a bit out of my way to the Palacio de Las Duenas, and it was one of my favorite things I saw. The second level continues to be a private residence for the Duke of Alba, but the entire lower level was open to the public, as well as the gardens and stables.
Later that day I headed to the airport early as I had run out of things to do and it was raining.
I ended up arriving to my apartment at 23:30. I packed, showered, and slept until 5:30, arrived at the airport at 7:30, and was on my plane by 9:30. I almost missed my connection in Madrid, but I made it home for Christmas!
Being home for Christmas really was the cherry on top, even if it was really cold and snowy. I got to see my family for the holidays and I even got my ice fishing fix.
Good News
After I returned to Spain I went to the police station to pick up my residence card. I ended up waiting in line for 2 hours but it paid off because I received my card, and I can finally stop worrying about all the paper work.
And that brings me to the present. What else will I write about? I don’t know. Perhaps I should look into booking another trip.
