Photo Blog: Barcelona, Catalonia

I spent about 3 days in Barcelona. What a lively and beautiful city! It's certainly international as I hardly ever had to whip out my broken Spanish to communicate. After visiting Alicante and Sevilla, everything in Barcelona seemed wider and taller. It's a wonderful city that mixes the old with the new, and as you will see from the photos below, thousands of tourists flock there every day.

Gaudi House

Gaudi Architecture

Outdoor Escalator to Park Guell

A Gaudi Structure in Park Guell

Park Guell

Thanks for following my journey. Stay tuned for my photo blog for Bilbao, Spain.

Photo Blog: Sevilla

I took hundreds of photos in Sevilla because I was there for four days. Below I will share a few of the touristy places I went. Man was it hot there! It was in the high 80s and mid 90s all week and it doesn't cool down much at night. I learned the importance of siesta in Sevilla, its almost required to deal with the heat. Overall, I absolutely loved Sevilla and hope I can return someday for a longer stay.

View from Seville Cathedral

View from Seville Cathedral

Plaza de Toros

Inside Alcazar

Inside Alcazar

Plaza de Espana

Plaza de Espana

Have you been to Spain? Tell me about your experience below!

A Friendly Warning: Do NOT Fly on RyanAir

Photo Credit: Telegraph

I wanted to share my experience traveling with my two friends on RyanAir. RyanAir claims to be a budget friendly airline that flies to many destinations around Europe. However, they have hidden fees EVERYWHERE and from my experience, their goal is to get every dime out of you on one trip, without care to whether or not you'll ever fly with them again. I sincerely cannot imagine anyone flying with them more than once. Although I'm going to share with you what happened to my friend on a flight from Sevilla to Barcelona, we witnessed many other passengers on the same flight go through the same thing. Even if it hadn't been my friend, seeing it happen to strangers would have been enough to deter me from flying with them ever again.

Why? RyanAir does not have Customer Service Representatives. They have bullies. 

Photo Credit: Ruthann

As you know, when you're traveling, you don't usually have access to a printer unless you go to a print/copy/shipping shop. Almost all airlines are aware of this, and while you can print your boarding pass before coming to the airport, they can supply you with one at the check in desk.

RyanAir does not do this. In fact, they have a scheme set up to ensure that people who have not a printed copy of their ticket will have to desperately shell out big bucks to get on the flight.

Both of my travel companions did not have a printed copy of their boarding passes. One had saved hers on her iPad to show at the gate, as she had done in the past for other airlines. The other had only booked her flight days before and did not realize it would be necessary to print it out. I had booked my ticket before flying to Europe and had printed it. Since one of my friends had the PDF version on the ticket on her iPad, she was able to find a service desk in the airport to print it out.

My other friend was not so lucky. Although she had checked into her flight online the day before, she did not print out her ticket. When she got to the check in desk, she was informed that RyanAir CUTS OFF ACCESS to printing tickets 4 hours before flights depart and that she would have to pay 77 Euros ($100 USD) to print out the ticket. After a long battle with the check in attendent and RyanAir customer service (both of which showed no empathy and seemed quite used to the situation), she ended up having to pay the fee or risk being stranded in a city where she knew no one. By the way, the flight only cost 54 Euros.

Later, at the boarding gate, the attendants measured almost everyone's carryon. You could not take a purse, if you had one, it was to be placed in your carry on baggage. Therefore, people had to take clothing out of their suitcase, and put it on to board the plane.  EasyJet has the same 1 carry on rule. They do not humiliate people the way RyanAir does.

Overall, the airline left an awful taste in my mouth. Just don't fly with them. You will regret it. I recommend EasyJet or Vuelling Airlines, as well as other airlines on edreams.net.

Best of luck in your travels,

Danielle

Photo Blog: Alicante, Spain

At the start of my trip, I went to Alicante, Spain for a day. I visited the Santa Barbara Castle and took some photos of the city skyline. Check them out below!

Panorama from Santa Barbara Castle

Alicante Coast: Mediterranean Sea (not SB castle!)

SB Castle Viewpoint

SB Castle Viewpoint

SB Castle Viewpoint

SB Castle

SB Castle

SB Castle

I love climbing up somewhere high to get an overview look at a city. Every city in Spain I visited gave me that opportunity, and I'm excited to share my photos with you as I travel along.

Have you visited Spain? What was your favorite place? Let me know in the comment section below!

Are YOU Traveling to Spain On A Budget?

What a coincidence, so am I!  Here are the websites I used to book my accommodation and transits.

Booking.com
It was easy to search within each city I was staying in, set the number people per room, and find the best deal. It was also helpful using the map function to see what was nearby. I always paid the extra 1 to 5 euros for cancellation rights, because plans change and I didn't want to take the risk! Most listings on booking.com have free cancellation.

Renfe
Renfe is the train service in Spain. If the website is in Spanish when you navigate to it, make sure to click "welcome" on the top right of the page:

This site is pretty straight forward. For Americans, it's very similar to booking a plane ticket. Make sure you buy your tickets ahead of time if your traveling in peak season (June - August). They do fill up during holidays and tourist season.

ALSA
ALSA is a bus service that operates throughout Spain. Again, if it's in Spanish, be sure to click on the itty bitty British flag in the middle top of the screen.

ALSA is also a straight forward booking site, similar to Renfe. Definitely check both sites before booking. Buses are a little bit slower, but sometimes can save you a lot of money.

Veulling
Veulling is very similar to EasyJet in terms of price and availability, but they did seem to offer flights in some locations of Spain that were more affordable than EasyJet (i.e. Seville to Barcelona). So compare the two sites before booking a flight.

If any more websites come to mind, I will be sure to share them with you.

Safe travels,

Danielle

Oh Money, Where Art Thou?

FRONT

This is the exact question I asked Chase Bank earlier this week, but without the Shakespearean flare. You have quite a few options for exchanging currency. You can do it at your local bank branch, at airports, and at many hotels and hostels. However, if you know ahead of time what you're planning to spend, you're better off doing it before your trip at your bank.

Here's how it works at Chase. You call the number on the back of your debit card and tell them that you would like to obtain currency from the following countries [where ever you are traveling to] and the amounts in USD. They will order the money to your local branch, who will then call you once it arrives. You go pick up your money, pay for it in USD at the current exchange rates, and then you're set.

BACK

Well, hey now, what are you going to do with all that cash?

Put it in a nifty little money belt, but of course. I decided to go with a simple design by Eagle Creek Travel Gear. Basically, you should only have the currency you need for the day in your wallet, and then place the rest in this money belt. You wear this underneath your clothing during the day. That way if you get pick pocketed or purse snatched, you still have the rest of your money. As per the point of the money belt, you want to wear it ninja style. That means don't advertise that you're wearing it by going into it multiple times a day, especially in public. Be discrete. Be a ninja.

CLICK HERE for a completely unrelated article on how to be stealthy like a ninja.

Travel Light, Buy a Backpack!

Osprey Atmos 50 Pack

If you want to cut down on travel costs and save your back, then you need to adopt a 'travel-light' philosophy. Now, if you're anything like me, then you probably pack a suitcase for a weekend getaway. So how in the world am I supposed to change my ways and pack a 50L backpacking bag for two months? Well, I haven't quite figured it out yet. But here's the bag I choose after trying on twenty different backpacks at REI.

I choose this pack because the dimensions are still small enough to qualify as a carry on on EasyJet flights, so i won't have to pay the ridiculous baggage fees when flying from country to country. Also, for the ladies out there, I tried on both men's packs and women's packs and I did not see that much difference.

TIP: Try on the right size regardless of gender and learn how to adjust it. I choose this one for the awesome mesh back (super comfy and airy) and extra padding on the hip and shoulder straps.

I iniially planned on purchasing a backpack on ebay, but honestly, if I'm going to be saddled with this thing for two months, I better make sure it's comfortable! I'm taking this bad boy on a practice run for a week long getaway in just a few days and I have my fingers crossed I can leave my suitcase ways behind.

Wish me luck!