Being able to travel all across Europe and even outside of Europe has been an unreal experience. The flights in Europe compared to the United States are significantly cheaper. If you plan some weekend trips ahead of time and book your flights in advance, you might be able to catch some two-way flights for just $40 to your most anticipated cities. This makes traveling throughout Europe much more affordable than traveling within the United States. Some nearby countries that are outside of Europe may also be very cheap, like Morocco.
The trip that I want to talk about for this blog post is the trip when my friends and I went to Seville. The entire trip was planned out by Barcelona SAE ahead of time, which was really convenient for us because we did not know where to eat or what to do in Seville. We visited many places such as the third largest cathedral in the world, Plaza España, Las Setas, and the Royal Alcazar of Seville. We also participated in some cultural activities such as a flamenco dance class, watching a flamenco dance show, and walking tours throughout the city.
The first place we visited was the cathedral. Learning about some of Spain’s history while going on a tour of the cathedral was really cool, but my favorite part was climbing all the way up the ramps to the top of the cathedral and then taking in the views. We were overlooking what felt like the whole city of Seville. The next place we went was Plaza España. It was a captivating location with water surrounding the middle of the plaza, and beautiful Spanish architecture. We went to Las Setas right before sunset to be able to capture some amazing photos of the sunset and some photos of what the city looked like at night too. Las Setas translates to the mushrooms, and the location is named that because the architecture looks like mushrooms. The next day we went to the Royal Alcazar of Seville, which is one of the royal family of Spain’s properties. It was truly unfathomable to understand how one family could own so much well maintained and prestigious property.
After touring the main attractions of Seville and participating in the cultural activities, it is clear to see the differences between different parts of Spain. The architecture, culture, traditions, and even some foods are vastly different between Barcelona and Seville. I know how different other places in Europe would be from Barcelona, but I was not expecting Seville to be very different.
The other places my friends and I have visited until now are Montserrat, Mallorca, Tarragona, Marrakech, Rome, and Paris. After seeing so many of the biggest cities in Europe, it has really changed my perspective of the world. It’s helped me open my eyes to what we have in the U.S., and not take it for granted. Some of my friends that live on the East Coast and I already have plans for New Years in New York. If you’re lucky enough to be able to study abroad in Barcelona, I highly recommend traveling to other major cities in Europe as well to see and experience different cultures.
John Aligata
John is a Computer Science major from Plymouth State University, and studied abroad at the UPF during Fall 2021.
