Spain | Barcelona: My First Taste of Barcelona (Part One)

For my first-ever trip abroad, I chose Spain—a place I initially couldn’t even explain to myself why I wanted to visit. Honestly, even after thinking it over, I still couldn’t come up with a reason. Maybe I just had some time off, wanted to go abroad, and Spain popped into my head. Before setting off, all I knew about it was ham and bullfighting, but once I actually arrived, the architecture, the coastline, and all the people, experiences, and things I encountered exceeded my expectations.

Full of excitement, we boarded our flight in the early hours of the morning and set off on our eagerly anticipated trip to Spain.

The flight was about twelve hours in total. Twelve hours on a plane is certainly a slog, but I was so excited that I could barely sleep. At around five in the morning, perhaps just after we’d left Chinese airspace, pretty much everyone else was sound asleep. I lifted the window shade, and the view suddenly opened up before me. That breathtaking scenery made it even harder to sleep. Seeing it with my own eyes in that moment was truly unbeatable.

I love taking in the scenery, and this breathtaking view was undoubtedly the best cure for the fatigue of a dull flight. Twelve hours later, as the plane finally prepared to land in Barcelona, Spain, the seemingly endless coastline outside the window made me look forward to what lay ahead.

Once we landed in Barcelona, we took a taxi to our accommodation. The taxis here have a distinctive yellow-and-black color scheme, so they’re easy to spot, and their trunks are enormous—ours easily held all three of our large suitcases.

Along the way, the street graffiti, distinctive architecture, and people who seemed so relaxed kept bombarding our senses, reminding us again and again: we were in Spain.

About 17 minutes later, we reached our destination. The whole ride was less than 15 kilometers, and they charged us 37.9 euros—more than three hundred yuan. My heart ached a little. After that, we pretty much stopped taking taxis. It just hurt too much.

Oh, and there’s a six-hour time difference between China and Spain. We took a two-in-the-morning flight, and after twelve hours in the air, it was just after eight in the morning local time in Spain. This perfect “time difference” meant we could start exploring as soon as we landed, without wasting any of our travel time. Pretty great.