Spain: Travel Tips from a Solo Backpacker
I have just completed four weeks of travel in Spain. I began my journey in Madrid and Toledo, visited Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, Malaga, Girona and finished in Barcelona. Despite my original impressions that I could easily travel around the country within a month, I was very very wrong. Spain is in fact enormous. I had no time to visit the beautiful north in Galicia, walk the Camino to Santiago, taste the wine and visit friends in Basque country or dive in the southern Canary Islands. I would need another 2 months at least!
Each town has its own unique identify that is completely different from the rest as it has developed over hundreds of years with different people, food, accents and traditions. However what I am writing in this article is a general summary of Spain to help those who are interested in travelling to Spain.
Disclaimer: these are my personal experiences only. Taking into account my personality, my cultural background, timing, and all those other individual factors, my opinions may and probably will vary greatly from yours. There’s no right or wrong opinion here.
Tip #1: Be prepared for a history lesson
The thing that really hit me within only days of arriving in Spain was how little history my country has in comparison to Europe. With only 230 years of written history since the British arrived in Australia, I had no concept of how deeply history can be entrenched in a society. Spain has experienced invasions, gone through an inquisition, fought countless wars, destroyed and rebuilt entire towns. Towns exist where multiple religions from Catholic to Muslim to Judaism coexisted, explaining why churches, cathedrals, mosques, monasteries, basilicas and synagogues now dominate the landscape. With so many hundreds of years of traditions, it started to become more clear to me why removing such longstanding traditions such as bullfighting is not as black and white as it seems. Whilst I am 100% against animal cruelty such as this, as is the state of Catalonia who has outlawed it, I have come to understand that asking the locals of these towns to cut a 1300 year old tradition is essentially the equivalent of saying that we should stop celebrating Christmas. I have emerged from this month a little bit more knowledgeable of events outside of my own isolated island and generation.
Tip #2: You have to work to make Spanish friends
As a solo traveller, one thing that is high on my priority list when I travel is to meet people, learn about their culture and understand the city from a local’s eyes, not a tourist. I have realised on this trip that as much as I enjoy my privacy at home, when I go out I like to socialise and share my experiences with others. I was expecting to arrive in Spain and strike up a conversation with everyone I met on the street, simply because I could survive with conversational Spanish. Unfortunately, this did not prove to be true. In Madrid, the bustling city flew past before my eyes, with locals not having time to make eye contact and hospitality workers take your order in rapid fire Spanish before fleeing to their next customer. In Sevilla, locals seemed to ignore the throng of tourists and in Barcelona, the locals spoke Catalan, making conversations even more difficult, even if you can speak Spanish, it’s not preferred and you’re still an outsider. Friends I met in hostels told me that despite even living in Barcelona, the friends they made were from outside of Catalonia, and most outside of Spain.
Many have told me that people from the south are warmer, having a lot to do with the weather (this also is the theory in France and Italy, so I’m told). However if you are a social person like me who likes company on your travels, I recommend you bring a friend with you to Spain, know people there already, or stay in hostels as I did.
I realised that I had become accustomed to the warmth and openness of Latin Americans in my Spanish learning journey, and I had forgotten that Spain is still in Europe, where people are a little more reserved. They take a little longer to get to know but once you’re there, you have some incredibly kind, funny, intelligent and long term friends.
Tip #3: Public transport in Spain is amazing
Welcome to Europe, where they really know how to transport their population and tourists. There were always multiple options to get to places, easy airport connections and clear instructions to just about anywhere, even in the narrow cobblestone roads of smaller villages in Granada. Tickets were easy to buy and understand, and cost only a dollar or so. The metro arrived every 3 to 6 minutes so you never had to run. Buses arrived on time, displaying screens of each stop inside the vehicle, and timings of arrival at bus stops. Disabled access is clearly important, with ramps extending from buses and most importantly, people MOVE for those less mobile. I wish we saw more of that in Australia. If you’re not limited by time, try to avoid the high speed train, as it’s often double the price of a bus or medium distance train. Book your tickets the night before if possible to avoid arriving at the station to find out the train or bus has been booked out and you have a two hour wait until the following departure. Malaga in the south has an airport from where you can get extremely cheap flights to the north, from around 30EUR. I never once needed a taxi or uber.
Tip #4: The provinces seem to be in competition with each other
Due to their long history, their great world discoveries, the conquests to the Americas and their wide variety of traditions all around the country, the Spanish are a very proud people. Each province holds its own unique personality; climate, speciality dishes, accents, legends and immigrant history, therefore physical characteristics of the people too. Each civilian of these towns therefore boast about their town proudly; that they have the best tapas, the best beaches, the best wine, the best nightlife or the best people. Unfortunately this also leads to competition between each part, which I encountered on a daily basis when speaking with locals. I was constantly directed to various places, being told it’s unmissable, only to be told by someone from another region that that place was a waste of time, and I should go somewhere else in their region instead. Madrid and Barcelona fight for the best parties, Seville and Cordoba compete on the history front for who has the most authentic alcazar and the best cathedral. the Southerners say those in the North are cold and serious, whilst in their defence the Northerners say the Southerners are fake and lazy. It’s a tough country at times. Don’t even get me started on the political issues amongst Catalonia, Basque Country and the rest of Spain. That is a subject not to be touched by foreigners without upsetting someone.
Tip #5: Eat, drink and be merry (but get ready to do it later in the day)
My favourite part of Spain, apart from the friends I made in hostels and those I had come to visit from HelloTalk, was the food. We have all heard of the paella, the sangria and the tapas, however what really impressed me where the things I hadn’t heard of. Wonderfully flavoured slow-cooked rabo de toro (Oxtail) accompanied by a beautiful white wine from the warmer region of Cordoba in Andalusia. Patatas bravas (cubed fried potatoes with a delicious spicy sauce) Solomillo de cerdo (pork sirloin) with a lovely full red wine from Basque Country and the scrumptious creamy croquettes.
Breakfast is a simple tostada and cafe con leche (coffee with milk) for as low as 2.50EUR. The daily menus are excellent, offering an entree, main, drink, bread and dessert for about 13EUR. This is a heavy dish and usually eaten at lunch over the siesta break between 2-4pm, so you’ll have to wait longer than usual. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be starving by lunchtime! Dinner is then therefore also pushed back late due to later business closing hours, with people heading out for dinner at 10pm. This lighter meal is usually the perfect time for tapas and smaller dishes. Usually the menus will give you a choice between small (tapa) medium/entree (media) or large/main (racion). In tapas bars you will also see the smaller ‘pincho’ (appetiser).
I could go on forever about Spain – it’s beautiful landscape, profound and vibrant history, astounding architecture, fashionable women and so much more, but I will leave you with this summary of my main thoughts to sum up as best I can a country with such varied areas. If you want to know more, feel free to ask in the comments below and I will answer with as much knowledge as I can.
As I said before, these were mine and depended very heavily on my moods, the season and much more, however I’d like to know what you think about my observations above. Have you visited Spain or are you from Spain? Have you had similar or different experiences? Comment below!
Up next – I’m off to Latin America, first stop – Mexico city!
Alicia
To read my other articles about Spain click on the titles below:
Madrid, Toledo and 3 things you might not know about Spain
Being sick whilst travelling: Granada and Malaga
The beauty of Catalonia in Girona
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