Michael Howell: Blog Post #3
Travel is exhausting! While I came into this semester with the expectation to travel to as many countries and places as I could, I soon realized that doing this while balancing school was not the best option. So I found a way to still explore and have free time on the weekends.
One thing that I did not realize coming into the semester, was that Spain has so many unique places to visit just in itself and that I did not need to travel 4 days a week to discover beautiful sites. This picture is from our school trip to Granada, which was amazing! We got to see the Alhambra, which was like something I’ve never seen before, and we met many locals who shared their experiences in Granada. Being in a farely small group of TCU students has been a blessing, as it has allowed all of us to grow very close, which makes these group trips just that more fun. We also brought along a new friend from Emory University who we met in Madrid and have made her a horned frog!
Exploring doesn’t necessarily mean leaving Madrid either, one thing that I have missed so much from the TCU campus was the basketball runs at the rec. After a month and a half of not even touching a basketball, I joined my residence basketball team and won the championship of the league (with the prize being VIP tickets to a Real Madrid basketball game)! Playing in this league, I got to experience first-hand how passionate the Spaniards are about their sports, and I also got to meet more people who share the same interests as me. Apart from the basketball league, I also found a local park with a ton of locals that I have been going often to play more.
This picture is from another school trip we went on as a group, to Toledo. This trip was only a day trip, so we still had the rest of the weekend to relax! Once studying abroad, you will soon realize that any moment you have to relax will be a moment you do not want to take for granted haha. Toledo was a beautiful city with such rich culture, and it was only a 45 minute bus ride from Madrid.
This picture is from the library in El Escorial. The library and the monastery itself were both amazing sights to view, with the details and artwork being true works of art. Like Toledo, I also visited here on a day trip, which allowed it to be cheap and allowed for me to still have the rest of my weekend for other things, which I ended up using to travel to Amsterdam.
La Plaza De Espana was also another incredible site to see in Spain. As the rest of the TCU group went to other countries this weekend, one of my friends and I were exhausted from all the travel, but we still wanted to explore Spain. So we took a train to Sevilla and spent one night there, exploring many of the monuments the city had to offer, while still keeping the rest of our weekend flexible.
This picture is from Tenerife, Spain, which has been one of my favorite trips by far! I was tired of the cold so we decided to go to the Canary Islands where it was warm. We chilled on the beach the whole weekend and even got a tan, in February! Travel in Spain is so cheap, and my flight and hostel costs were around 150 euros total for the weekend.
Spain is such a beautiful country and I cannot wait to explore more of it!
Hasta Luego,
Michael