Never, did I picture myself having a once in a lifetime experience to travel outside the United States to another country. The summer going into my senior year of high school I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Spain, a magnificent country.
I remember always being in Spanish class and loving the language and culture, all that the language had to offer. So one day I heard someone saying how the school was planning a trip to Spain. I became extremely curious and looked more into it. The trip was going to be ten fun-filled days exploring all Spain had to offer. I went home and convinced my family to let me go considering the price.
Well fast forward a couple months and it was the day that I was leaving to head to another country. Up to this point I have never been outside of the United States. We took a red-eye (meaning that we left the evening our time and got to Spain at about early morning around 7ish). We had a whole day planned ahead of us.
The one thing I remember as being the best part about Spain was the culture. It had this vibe that was so intriguing making me want to learn their certain dances and listen to their style of music, it was just really cool to be immersed in a culture other than your own. My favorite part about the trip was going to see Flamenco dancing in one of the cities we traveled to. It was incredible to see how amazing these dancers were and how passionate they were about dancing.
On the trip, I was able to see things from the beach to castles, to artwork, museums, etc. You name it we saw it. On this particular trip, we traveled from the capital of Madrid to a lot of popular southern cities ending up in Valencia, staying at a hotel right on the water. Our hotel was right on the Mediterranean Sea.
However, the museums and artwork, as well as the castles that we toured, were so marvelous. It was incredible to see all the Spanish architecture as well as their artwork. The Prado that displays a lot of artwork by many famous artists was so fascinating to see.
That was another thing I had never done which was swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. The sea was crystal clear blue and the waves were small and it was so pretty. Sitting alongside the ocean was so calming and relaxing.
Traveling to Spain made me want to travel to other countries when I am older to be able to experience more cultures as well as learn more about the other parts of the world.
