Travel with me: Seville Spain

I haven’t had access to a computer for the past couple days so get ready for a long update on my trip to Seville. If you don’t feel like reading this all, no offense taken, please enjoy the pictures instead! Today was my last day in Seville and my last day in Spain. We left our air BnB at around noon which was when check out was and roamed the beautiful streets of Seville one last time. Traveling to Seville was a great experience thanks to its stunning architecture, beautiful language, fabulous weather, and delicious food. The weather during February is around mid 60’s to low 70’s which is perfect for enjoying the sun while not being too hot. We decided to take full advantage of this and ride around on bikes touring some of Seville’s famous spots like la Giralda (the cathedral), Metropol Parasol, and my favorite, Plaza de España. These are three places I would definitely recommend going to if ever in this lovely city. One reason riding bikes around Seville was perfect was because most of the streets are so narrow that you can’t drive down them. Also, a lot of the time the distance by car was the same as walking so riding a bike saves time and gives you a fun way to get around the city. These endless narrow streets lined with restaurants and quaint shops was one of my favorite parts of Seville. We would bike down a random path and arrive on the plaza after plaza where you would find people buzzing around from shop to shop enjoying the atmosphere. This leads me to another one of my favorite things about Seville. This is that everyone here drinks coffee all day long and sits outside when eating just soaking up the sun in one of these plazas or along a side street. Which anyone who knows me knows how much I love my coffee and how I love being outside. So if your anything like me you will love this about Seville!! I also have a great appreciation for the language in Seville. Even though my Spanish is terrible I loved being in another country that didn’t speak English. Although I wouldn’t recommend going here without knowing Spanish a little or being with someone who knows Spanish because most of the locals don’t speak English very well. Two of my favorite places to eat in Seville was a gelato shop which was right by our air BNB called fresKura gelateria and Mercado Lonja del Barranco which was near the water. The gelato shop is just off of Alameda de Hercules which has great nightlife and all sorts of restaurants, great for grabbing tapas and a drink. Rather than your typical sit-down restaurant, Mercado Lonja del Barranco is an upscale market-style place to eat where you can go up to any counter and pick from numerous styles of food. There was a separate stand to get things such as pasta, sushi, ice cream, or snack platters. Behind the market was a beautiful patio sitting area and bar just along the water. Here we grabbed a nice cold drink after the bike ride to cool off and relax. Overall, I loved Spain and it’s definitely a place I hope to go back to again, hopefully, next time knowing Spanish a little better. Adios, for now, España, you were good to me.

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Last day in Valencia

After having an amazing last day in Valencia I’m falling more and more in love with Spain. This morning we walked to a cafe for a fabulous brunch at the Federal Cafe to fuel us for the day. After eating we walked off the food by strolling through the city. We walked all the way to the city of arts and sciences museum and then since it was a super nice day continued to the beach, Playa de la Malvarrosa. Which totaled a 7-mile walk. Once we got to the beach we spent a good amount of time relaxing and having some much-needed drinks before heading back to our Air BNB.

 

Travel with me: Day 2 in Valencia

Day 2 in Valencia was absolutely amazing! Started the day by going to a market which is basically like a grocery store with tons of fresh food including fruit, meat, fish, and more. At the market, I tried a tortilla de patatas. Which is basically an egg, meat, cheese, and potato sandwich. After that, we went to on a stroll and had lunch at a restaurant in one of the plazas. When we were done eating we walked around and explored the streets seeing valencias beautiful architecture, tons of orange trees (which apparently you cannot eat), and climbed The Metropolitan Cathedral. Once we reached the top we got to see some amazing views of the city that made climbing over 200 narrow and winding steps worth it.

 

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Travel With Me: First day in Valencia

We arrived in Valencia at about 11am local time. We then took a taxi to our Air BNB before taking a stroll into the city to try and grab a bite to eat for lunch. I ended up finding a Dunkin’ Donuts along the way which if you know me and my love for Dunkin this was a very big deal! Especially because London does not have one! Yup, so I finally got my iced coffee which I have been craving since the day I left America. But ordering it was half a struggle because I know zero Spanish. Basically trying to order it was very similar to my experience in Germany where iced coffee isn’t a thing. Anyways what I got definitely didn’t taste like the iced coffee from Dunkin at home but still very satisfying! After Dunkin, we finally got a bite to eat before heading back to our Air BnB! I am now currently writing this post while the rest of the gang is taking a nap. So far I’m loving the Spanish architecture and I’m eager to get out and explore. After everyone woke up from their nap we went out for dinner at 9:30pm which is apparently when the locals eat dinner. At the restaurant, we all shared agua de Valencia, seafood paella, and paella de Valenciana.

 

Flight to Valencia

Reading week in February means it’s time to start traveling Europe! Packed my duffle bag and we’re off on our first trip to Valencia Spain! Our day started out at the very early hour of 4am when we hopped in an Uber and headed to Gatwick airport. The airport security was very different than in America. It was way more organized and calm. The first thing I noticed when arriving at the airport is that there were all the different airlines’ names. Even though I totally should have been prepared I was still shocked not seeing the typical airlines in American such as Delta, American Airlines, Jet Blue, etc. The early morning began to not seem so bad because as we were boarding we got to see a beautiful sunrise. Also, Spain from the plane is stunning!

Cereal Killer Caf​e

Today I took my third trip to the Camden Market! Clearly, it’s one of my favorite places to go to in London if that wasn’t already obvious. I had to go back again though because I’ve been dying to try the famous Cereal Killer Cafe which is located in the market. The cafe features a retro style with the walls decorated with 80s-90’s themed toys and novelty cereals. The seating area was also quite unique having the seats be beds instead of benches. The cafe sells a wide variety of global cereals including American and British brands. You basically choose the size bowl, the type of cereal, the type of milk, and then add toppings if you choose. The cafe also sells stacked hot chocolates which I couldn’t resist trying the peanut butter one while I was there. Then for the cereal and got cinnamon toast crunch and decided to try salted caramel milk which was surprisingly a really yummy combination! Glad I check this off my bucket list and would definitely recommend giving this place a try!

 

 

Icebar London

Today I got to check going to the Icebar off my bucket list! After a long day of studying in the library, we took a trip to Regent Street and went to the Ice Bar. When you get there they give you an Eskimo coat and gloves to put on. Which still didn’t keep me from freezing inside the room which was -5°C. When you walk in you see ice sculptures and carvings of London on the wall along with a bar made entirely out of ice. You then get 40 minutes in the room to take pictures and have a drink or two served in glasses made of ice. It was definitely a cool experience but I only lasted 35 min before I froze and ran out to get warm again.

Brunch at The Breakfast Club

Today, Sana, Fran, Liv, and I headed into the city to get brunch at The Breakfast Club, which is known for its fabulous breakfasts! Honestly, we were a little underwhelmed after the huge hype up of how good the breakfasts were to find the waffles were kinda dry and hard. Despite the let down with the food, we still enjoyed the experience. On the way to eat I had to stop and snap some pics of these yummy looking donuts but opted not to get any since I knew I was about to eat my weight in sugar and carbs once we got to the restaurant. After eating we took a trip down the street to check out Whole Foods which was unfortunately not what we had hoped either. It sold VERY different foods than in America and I wasn’t really in the mood for trying random brands at this point. But at least now we know it’s not our favorite spot and to just stick to shopping at Asda. To finish off the day we headed to Oxford Street to do some light shopping.