One year ago, Gosha and I embarked on a whirlwind IAP trip across Europe. If you haven’t done so already, consider reading Part 1: Italy before this current blog you’re on.⁠01 though, this current blog stands alone fine as a travel homage to Spain That first part came out awhile ago, and this second part got very delayed due to a host of factors—but its time has finally come. Originally, Gosha was going to write the bulk of this blog, but he’s no longer blogging, so I’ve taken it on.⁠02 fyi i ran this blog by him to make sure it’s all good In addition to travel journal entries of Italy, the first blog includes the serendipitous inception and careful planning of this whole trip. Basically, it answers why and how we did it. Now, onto the latter half of our jaunt…

January 23rd-24th: Milan → Barcelona

In the dead of night, our bus started in Italy, passed through France, and ended up in Spain. Because I was asleep, I don’t remember much of the commute, but I do recall one thing: we drove through a really, really long tunnel. It felt endless.

After a groggy night of half-sleep aboard the bus for 14 hours, we awoke in Barcelona. Because of the abnormal sleep schedule we were on, the morning felt one step away from a light dream. We disembarked from the bus and were met with wandering, hilly paths. The air was a cold crisp, and the early sun dappled us with a light warmth. The world felt anew, like we were in the first episode of a new season.

I noticed that everything generally felt more laterally flat compared to Italy. Spain had similar architecture, but the balconies were more compressed, pathways were more thin, and decorations were more tightly-packed. The street grid of Barcelona was an art piece in-and-of itself. From bird eye’s view, every building cluster took on the shape of a rounded app square on my iPhone. At the corners of each square, there was parking, which I had never seen in a city layout before. It felt like those on foot had more power than those driving vehicles. I liked it. 

i didn't take this but thought to include it so you have a visual

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After reaching our hostel, we set off to complete our first two tasks: luggage drop-off and an omelette breakfast. After that, we explored Mercat dels Encants, which translates to “Market of Charms,” a bustling flea market. It was an outdoor venue with multiple stories and a massive mirror as the ceiling. I often found myself looking up. We didn’t buy much, but did enjoy seeing the local art scene through the vendor items. 

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In the heart of the city was the most grand church that we went to the entire trip, La Sagrada Familia. It’s the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world, spanning five generations over the course of 140 years, and is still being built today. It felt otherworldly. The design was jaw-droppingly beautiful and intricate. I loved the play on shape and color. The sheer height and scale of the ceiling brought one’s gaze upwards. This was simply a marvel. 

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By this point, we were a bit hungry. At the cozy restaurant we found, I tried my first mulled wine, which is basically the same as regular wine but heated, sweetened, and flavored. Felt like autumn. Felt right. 

We wandered the streets for awhile. It was on this outing that I met a woman that I still think about to this day. Llibreria del Palau, a nearby bookshop, was about to close, and we happened to stumble on it early enough to still be let in. The owner was kind to let us peruse while she cleaned up shop. During checkout, she laid out 5 postcards and said we could select 3 to take home for free. I asked her why she did that postcard thing with those particular quantities and she, after a long yet important pause, said “life’s all just a game anyways… right?” and started laughing. Her laugh was partly filled with the sweetness that only an old woman could have but also had some maniacal air to it. It’s this moment that my mind often comes back to.

Walking more into the night, we found both quiet corners and lively clubs. We were tired and didn’t partake, but we could certainly feel the music of the night pump through the city. Madrid had an interesting dichotomy of having a strong late-night party scene but also very quaint and small nooks. Also, by late-night, we really mean late-night: dinners normally start 9pm and you really see the city starting to take on its full form then.

The following day, I finally gave into my Asian food craving. I felt silly getting that cuisine while in Europe, but I really wanted it and knew I had plenty of other opportunities this trip to delve into Spanish food. On my way back to reconvene with Gosha, I stopped by a cafe and was extremely delighted to find that it also doubled as a fabrication maker space (the first I had ever seen in Europe)! They even dubbed themselves a “fab cafe.” 3D printers and a massive laser cutter filled half the room while coffee beans and warm pastries filled the other.

Next stop: the Picasso Museum. This was my favorite museum of our trip. Deep and eclectic. Well curated. It was impermeant yet fitting: told a story as you moved through, yet felt open to rotations of new art. As we headed out back to the hostel, we grabbed drinks. I thought the contrast between our drinks was funny because Gosha got a beer and I got a chocolate milk. I ended my evening with devouring leftovers and binging Killing Eve. This show felt especially fun to binge during our trip because it takes place in random cities all throughout Europe, and I recognized a few of the stops. 

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January 25th-26th: Barcelona ↔ Mataró

The crown jewel of our trip was biking the Spanish coast, starting at La Cara de Barcelona, a landmark statue. Early in the morning, we picked up the bikes that we pre-booked and soaked in the moment before we set off. By virtue of this being a new experience, especially an athletic one, we were all a bit nervous. But, we also weren’t actually nervous because we had researched cities along the bike path, read travel blogs of those who had been on this route, and ultimately knew what we were getting ourselves into. Excitement trumped our nerves. 

The key decision⁠03 the other big decision was to trim down our multi-day bike trip to just two-day because it was logistically easier to spend a day going one way and the following day going back we made was to not set an end location; rather, we set an end time. We would bike until an hour before sunset, then head to the nearest city⁠04 we checked the distance between cities to gauge our options ahead of time to find a hostel for the night. We made this decision mostly because we didn’t know how long it would take us to get from A to B. Even if we practiced biking together ahead of time and calculated it out, one just never knows what could come up. It would’ve been disappointing for us to book housing and plan activities for a city that we may possibly not reach, so we didn’t pre-book anything except the bikes. There was a train that ran alongside our route that we could’ve taken, but we thought it’d be more gratifying solely taking bikes. Besides, there was a certain charm to our plan: bike from sunrise to sunset, rest wherever you land, then bike back. 

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We biked for 12 hours total: 6 hours there, 6 hours back. The only hectic part of our biking trip was the start and end because we had to deal with the city streets. Luckily, Gosha is a Navigation God⁠05 throughout the entire trip, I was impressed with Gosha’s ability to read maps and memorize paths. He only needed to see something once to know it fully. It was simply incredible, like I had a personal GPS. and got us seamlessly through. The rest of the trip was largely serene. Whenever we passed a spot any of us wanted to stop and spend more time at, we would. We took breaks at wide benches, small towns, and tucked away beaches. 

Our path was largely devoid of people because it wasn’t easily accessible by foot nor car, so there was a sweet silence to most of the trip. We traversed many terrains: asphalt, concrete, wood, and sand. I wore an ungodly heavy ass backpack—my mistake. At the halfway point, we stopped at a McDonald’s; I got a kid’s meal. At one point in the journey, we did feel a bit queasy because we had to bike along a freeway full of cars but, according to our research, other bikers found that cars slowed down and stayed as far away as they could, so we were ultimately fine. 

Towards the end, we stopped for dinner by grabbing seafood takeout and biking to find a pretty beach spot. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip. With no one else around, we indulged in our food as we watched the waves crash around Niu de Ca l’Antic, a oceanside landmark area. While eating, I noticed a big rock that was further out into the water. After eating, I felt like I was dancing with the waves as I strategically stepped back and forth across some sparse, slippery rocks to reach this one big rock. I meditated for awhile. It was one of my favorite meditations because the waves crashed all around me. Thunderous waters crashed all around, but I sat dry and still. I felt like I was in a bubble. 

We ended up in Mataró, a factory city which felt like it really leaned into our “it’s not the destination but the journey” thing that we were going for. It was not that pretty nor was there much to do, but it gave us a roof over our head and a capstone to our biking, so it was perfect. The following morning, Selena took the train⁠06 she was so real for this one while Gosha and I biked back. It felt serene and victorious.

January 27th-28th: València

Right before heading off to València, Gosha urged us to squeeze in a visit to Park Güell early in the morning.⁠07 </span><span style="font-weight: 400">In the outline of this blog, Gosha wrote “a theme of this trip is just. mornings are great. shoutout to kano for that” to which I was really amused</span><span style="font-weight: 400">. Good call on his part; the park felt best for the morning. We had to take a lot of really steep stairs to get there, but it was so worth it. The architecture was stark. There were unique, quirky features like curved sitting inlays, arched ceiling medallions, and pointy sand stones. It had excellent views of the city, which felt like a fitting way to end off the Barcelona leg of our trip. 

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We took a train along the coast from Barcelona to València. Gosha describes this part of our trip as “absolutely life changing.” When we were planning this trip, I remember Gosha was adamant about this train being a part of the agenda, and I’m so glad he was. With waterside views passing us by, Gosha typed away at their paper, Selena gazed at the waters, and I wrote in my journal. 

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Oh, València. My beloved València. This was my favorite city in Europe, and it still is. It was very different from other cities we had seen before: more medieval and southern. It absolutely felt like a local Spanish family’s vacation spot, and an amazing one at that. The local market was amazing: small vendors with heart poured into each item. There were orange trees sprinkled all over the city, and all ripe! We sat in little squares and vibed. It was very much a sit around outdoors kinda city. The whole place felt like a secret, like off the books. There aren’t any specific things I can describe to capture why València was so profound to me; it was more inexplicable. I just felt joyous there in a way I had not felt before and haven’t felt since. 

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Shopping-wise, we visited local stores that each sold candy, dresses, and leather. We bought no candy, I got a two matching dresses (one for me and another for a friend that I was texting from the dressing room), and all three of us got leather. In Europe, the material was affordable and of good quality, so each of us bought a pair of pants. 

We finally had proper paella, a quintessential Spanish dish. Absolutely delectable. It reminded me of the emoji. 

Sights-wise, we visited Catedral de València, a cathedral, and Torres dels Serrans, a gate. The cathedral had a really cool gold section that stood in contrast to the plain stone. The intricacy was of a much older time. It’s interesting that modern tends to lean more minimalist; it makes me appreciate the old attention to ornate detail more. The gate was the perfect place to scale fort a 360 degree view of the sunset. Someone was playing the violin nearby, which added to the cheery mood of that evening. I brought up a bag of cherries and bottle of beer, found a sitting spot, and indulged in the amber gold of the sun. 

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Towards the end of the night, we dashed off by train to Madrid. It always feels so, so silly pulling luggage down European streets. Like, it is abundantly obvious that you are a tourist and therefore likely don’t know what’s going on.

January 29th: Madrid

Living amongst others had been scrappy yet fun in the hostels—we even made a few friends. But, for our final leg of Spain, I encouraged our group to celebrate a bit and stay at a hotel instead of a hostel, and so we did. We checked in that evening, tucked away our bags, and peacefully laid in silence on our beds. There was a sweet quietness in the room, something I didn’t readily expect. It’s obvious that a room to yourself is probably quieter than a shared room with others, but now the white noise of hostels was so apparent. It was also tranquil knowing that there weren’t the eyes and ears of strangers always possibly upon you, sensing everything you do in the room: it was just you. In our private space, we drifted off to bed.

the hotel cafe was cute. i brought up these donuts for Gosha and Selena to munch on

The following morning, I woke up a bit early to work out, read, snack at the hotel cafe, and inquire about the hotel pool. We had picked this hotel for a number of reasons, one of which was to chill in their pool and hot tub. Accordingly, I was disappointed to hear at the front desk that they shut down the pool during COVID-19 and hadn’t yet brought it back. However, the hotel did point me to a Moroccan pool in the city. Gosha and Selena decided on other plans, but I was adamant about swimming, so we planned to part ways later in the evening.

In the winding streets of the city, the three of us found a quaint cafe. It had a strange blend of old and modern decor, several different seating configurations, and fantastic coffee. Madrid was a more cosmopolitan city than most we had gone to, full of stores and cars. It even had a MUJI, where we briefly went next so I could purchase a pen I had been eyeing for weeks. The mix of chain and local stores were all woven together with winding streets and aged stone. There was a charm to the city, one that seemed to want to modernize (and it certainly had) but still clung so tightly to its traditional architecture and infrastructure.

our messy sprawl on the table

neon lights against mirrored surface AND a rustic light post? this juxtaposition of eras was cool

drawing graphs on napkins whilst debating fusion energy

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It is hard to pass up a flea market at Plaza de Cascorro, especially in Europe.⁠08 i find the flea markets in Europe as opposed to the US to be less… commercial? like, it seems less of the stuff is sourced from big companies and are instead sourced from the local people. it’s really neat. They’re so good, always full of little treasures, both old and new. It’s also a fantastic way to develop taste. And by that, I mean figure out what you like and don’t like. That development can be hard to tell without things to work off of. So, I love meandering through the vendors, following the guidance of my gut instinct, and getting to know myself better in the process. Utility-wise, fleas are also cheaper and therefore more accessible. Accordingly, they’re a fantastic place to pick up local trinkets for friends and family back home. I can go on and on about my liking for fleas, but my favorite has got to be talking with the art vendors, which feels like drawing the curtains for the artists behind the art. It’s fun to prod with questions, express admiration for someone’s work first-hand, and maybe even purchase a piece to take home.

i couldn’t see myself wearing the beret often, but boy was I just one impulsive decision away from getting it

We grabbed Vietnamese food for dinner. It always feels wrong in some sense to not get the local food (i.e. Spanish food while in Spain), but we certainly had our fair share of the country’s food by this point and had to satisfy a craving. The pho was good. The coffee looked even better. I’ve been to a lot of Asian places in my life, yet I’ve never been to one that served drip Vietnamese coffee. 

Side note: I adore a slow morning, and drip coffee is a large part of that for some lives. Personally, I prefer a ceremonial matcha tea, finely whisked and poured, but to each their own. A little caffeine and treat is one of the best ways to start the day. I find that people in Europe seem to have slower mornings, relishing in the taste sensation and the moment itself. Rarely do you see someone walking and drinking a coffee in a rush, like we do in the states. I think a slow morning sets a calm tone for the day, where one is enabled to be fully present through it all.

Gosha and the aforementioned drip Viet coffee

In Parque de El Retiro, one of the big Madrid parks, our group found a big, see-through greenhouse modern mirror installation thing. A fun mix of old (greenhouse building) and new (weird mirrors)!

We then waltzed into Palacio de Velázquez, a modern art museum. The works leaned more abstract, colorful, and striking. I enjoyed the jumbled paint smears that seemed to barely depict people, as if the viewer were in some haze. 

Still in the park, we stumbled on Estanque Grande de El Retiro, a pond. If you couldn’t already tell, this park had so much going on it. It was glorious. It felt like I was watching the movie of someone else’s life, someone sitting in one of those boats on the pond. As the sun began to set, people rowed out onto the water and waded along with the cute ducks. 

we had to make it elsewhere by sunset, so we couldn’t stay longer by the water, but nonetheless enjoyed the short moment we had

There was no better place to spend a Spanish sunset: at Azotea del Círculo, a stunning rooftop bar hugged by a panoramic view of Madrid. Prior to the trip, I asked everyone I knew who had been to Spain to give recommendations. The most thorough list came from my friend Marina S. ‘25, who I UROP’d with. She’s Spanish and kindly sent along the agenda her family used on their most recent trip home, which hyped up this bar the most. Good views, vibes, and drinks—not much else to ask for, really. There was a wide diversity of seating: full giant beds to lounge on, tall chairs with tall tables, and regular square tables with 4 chairs along each edge. Everybody could find a place that worked well for them. I ordered a tinto de verano, my new-found favorite drink that I had tried for the first time ever just a few days prior. Felt fitting, felt right. As the sun set in the backdrop of the endless skyline, it too set on our trip as a whole. We basked in the beauty of that moment for our final evening together on this leg to Spain.

This is when our group diverged for the evening, as previously mentioned from this morning. Gosha and Selena hit the shops, and I headed to Hammam Al Ándalus, home to Arab baths. I almost didn’t go because they were fully booked according to their website, but I felt very strongly about going and wanted to try anything I reasonably could to attempt to get a spot. After a long walk, I walked into the spa, explained to them my situation, but there were still no available spots. It made sense, and the staff were very kind about the situation. Ah well, I thought it was at least worth a shot. But, get this: just as I was leaving, by a stroke of good fortune, a customer had called in to cancel their spot! I was in. Some things work out, even when they seem they absolutely won’t.⁠09 I learned this from my father, who is known in our family for always trying anything and everything to get something to work out. We’ve shown up to multiple shows and events with no tickets in hand and somehow figure a way in, legally of course.

The Moroccan pools were simply transcendental. I felt fully immersed in serenity, like a step or two away from Nirvana. This may sound like hyperbole to you, but I assure you that I was definitely feeling these feelings. In the lobby, a staff member washed my hands in a bowl of warm water, scented according to my choice (I picked lavender), and provided me shoe coverings to keep the premise clean. I felt very… taken cared of? It was strangely nice; I had never experienced something quite like this before. They then escorted me to the locker room and showers, where I changed into a bathing suit, tucked my your items, and exited to the grounds. Everyone was instructed ahead of time to be silent, which I enjoyed. There were four sections of the grounds: baths, tea room, massage room, and steam room. Small candles, soft music, and sweet smells filled the premise.

The pools were shallow and all varied in temperature, ascending in temperature from the entrance. There was no one in the first pool, and I soon found out why: it was extremely cold. I came to like it: the chill shocked you awake. I slowly moved through the pools, feeling my body temperature slowly rise. I found myself alternating between stretching, meditating, and floating in the waters. The hot waters helped loosen up my joints and muscles, so my stretches became deeper as the night progressed, which was a cool progression to see! After the hottest pool, I made my way to the tea room. I hadn’t seen a tea setup quite like this before, or since: one pot of tea and one pot of sweetened water. It was pretty smart, so you could easily adjust your sweetness without needing to stir: just pour in the water. I then returned to the pools, closed my eyes, and lounged for a while. My mind felt empty of my inner voice, only filled with the sounds of the spa.

At some point, a staff member tapped me on the shoulder, told me it was time for the massage, and escorted me over. It was good: firm, yet delicate. I was then escorted back to the pools, but I instead walked over to the steam room since I hadn’t spent much time in it yet. It is what it sounds like, a room full of steam. I laid down and felt my mind and body melt away. Eventually, a staff member came in to let me know that my session had concluded. I then slowly left the grounds, got dressed, and took a car ride back to the hotel. Transfixed by that experience, which was my last outing in Europe, my trip came to a peaceful end. 

January 30th: Madrid → Boston

The next morning, I was supposed to meet up with people from MIT Astronomy because they were in Spain to work with big telescopes. But, due to a series of unfortunate logistical events, those plans were scrapped. This was one of many times I almost met up with an MIT group in Europe.⁠10 I couldn’t count on both my hands the number of people I knew were in Spain and Italy from MIT; it was incredible. FYI, the groups included learning communities, MISTI, and classes. Still, it was wonderful to see first-hand that there are so many ways to get on an institution-sponsored trip; MIT truly values its global connections. 

I flew to Boston while Gosha and Selena flew to Paris. I decided to go back to campus early because (1) I wanted time to acclimate back to MIT from my past fall leave for the upcoming spring semester and (2) when I first go to Paris, I want to spend a lot of time there to breathe in the place instead of just a few days. Anyways, I was so eager to go back to MIT by this point. Of course, I adored this European trip, but I was also excited to learn in a more academic way than in a travel way.

As the city skyline started creeping up in the corner of my plane window, I knew I was almost back home to be hugged by the arms of Boston. 

Final Words

We did it! For our Spanish leg, we visited four cities: Barcelona felt lively, Mataró felt industrial, València felt homey, and Madrid felt cosmopolitan. One word is never enough, but each helps capture Spain as a whole. 

This was simply a dream trip. None of us had expected that we would do anything like this during an IAP, but life works out in funny, wonderful ways sometimes. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading along this journey with us, and perhaps these blogs will elicit some wanderlust in you, too.