Spain is one of my favorite countries to travel to (no German ever said that, trust me).

It began in 2005 when I travelled to Mallorca with my mother, we just stayed there for a week and enjoyed the sun. I don’t remember a lot of this trip, because well, I was only 10 years old. I remember watching a holiday rep doing his thing every evening and walking around the beach and the hotel, buying Pokéballs and other Pokémon stuff.

In 2017, I went to Barcelona to see the Formula 1 testing days. We only stayed a few days, so there was not that much time to explore the city. Still, we were able to see the glorious colorful city from above, see the stunning Sagrada Familia, visit the beautiful beaches in the evening and stroll through the lively city. It’s definitely a city that has everything and you see lots of young people and lots of people smiling! It was also fun driving around with a small Fiat 500, enjoying the Spanish breeze and sun with open windows.

I went back to Barcelona for 2 days a couple of years later and it didn’t change much. I took the bus from the airport, which was quite easy and relatively cheap (around 7€) and then basically did the same tour again, but on foot. On the next day, I had more time than expected due to a delayed flight and decided to walk the whole way from Sagrada Familia to El Prat Airport.
I decided to pass through Montjuic, a beautiful place which demands a bit of your stamina, but the view was worth it!

When I was passing through the industrial quarter, I remember people just coming up to me and talk to me about stuff, like in Brazil for instance. That’s one of the reasons why I love Spain so much!

Then, we started traveling to Tenerife in 2021 and it’s such an interesting place. You’re relatively far away from the European mainland and the culture is diverse. The native population is assimilated into the general population, but you can see lots of influences in the shops, the way houses are built and the way people talk.

Most of the people in restaurants, at least the once in touristy areas, will speak English to you even if you speak Spanish. Unless your Spanish is accent-free, most will probably answer in English. There are many tourists from Great Britain, Germany and Italy, among other parts of Europe.

Once you leave the populated areas and go towards smaller cities, people don’t speak much English anymore and you will get an experience that’s quite different from the typical one. People will welcome you with open arms, talk about any subject, show their pride of their heritage, but also talk about issues.

We were thinking of moving to the Canary Islands a couple of times, but it is even difficult for the people on the islands to survive there. The wages are extremely low and many people are lucky to find a place to rent. That also counts for places like Barcelona, where some people are forced to move due to high rent prices. Many digital nomads move to Spain and have quite a high income which drives rent prices up. Some people have told me that they can only live there because they live with their family or they inherited a house or apartment.

Anyway, on a more positive note, the beaches are wonderful and probably one of my favorite beaches I have seen so far. The light breeze of the Canary Islands (which can turn into strong winds, be aware!) on a sunny day, being surrounded by beautiful mountains and having so much space is absolutely nice. When you are just lying down in the sand, you feel human. You feel like you don’t need any more than you have in that moment. This is why I love going back there. The water is not that cold and it is perfect for some surfing or kite surfing.

Driving there is nice as well, especially on less populated islands. There was quite a hairy situation last time when I stayed behind a slow car and a truck for a long time on a country road and when I finally overtook, the truck decided to overtake as well and I had two wheels on the grass at 100kph.

We also did a trip to the Costa del Sol, which is also a lovely place in Spain. We stayed in Benalmádena close to Málaga and had a car. Málaga is quite big and historical, the beach front is very large and beautiful, as is the city. The food there is quite good as well! My favorite part of the city is the downtown and all the orange trees in the city, the mood is just perfect and exactly my vibe! It’s just a bit too large for me, but that’s why there are so many beautiful villages around it.

We saw some of them on our way to Sevilla, where the main place (Plaza de España) was unfortunately closed that day, but we saw the Setas de Sevilla and the rest of it of course. Sevilla felt a bit narrower and more chaotic, but it’s surely a beautiful city worth visiting. The people and the vibe in Málaga are naturally a bit more chill though.

We also decided to go to Gibraltar. Before traveling to Málaga, I hadn’t even realized that it was so close (around 90 minutes by car). We went to Tarifa before that to eat some Tapas and to enjoy the beach. That was probably the most beautiful beach in mainland Europe I ever saw, so large and beautiful. And you could see Africa on the other side! Maybe it’s worth going back there for a beach holiday one day.

Gibraltar always used to be one of these places I saw on my globe as a kid and wondered what it’s like living there. Well, first of all, it’s interesting getting into it. We decided to park the car outside and walked in. They checked our passports since it’s basically British territory (no stamp though) and then we went to a supermarket which had lots of British stuff. Then, we had to wait before the runway as we had to let the airplanes pass. They opened the gate and we walked over the runway, the cars which decided to enter Gibraltar drove over the runway. Such a surreal and cool experience! Walking through the town, you see so much British stuff like the typical road signs, restaurants, buildings and so on. But there is also a lot of Spanish influence and most people there speak both languages fluently. Definitely worth visiting if you have a car and enough time in Costa del Sol.

Oh, and on the last day before returning the car, some guy just crashed in our rear when I was stationary at a red light. I didn’t really know what to do since that was my first accident with a rental car. So the guy told me to give my rental car company his licence plate number and then basically drove away. I had to wait a couple of weeks, but I got my deposit back in the end without involving the police.

Before I forget, we also visited the North of Spain very briefly when we visited Porto. I believe it was Vigo or a town close to it, it was a nice old town where we enjoyed some good food and saw the sunset. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. The culture over there seems to be quite distinct from the rest of the respective countries.

Places visited:

Costa del Sol (Málaga, Benalmádena, Tarifa, Nerja)
Sevilla
Barcelona
Mallorca
Vigo
Canary Islands

Favorite restaurants:

Meet Vegano, Málaga

La Vegana, Málaga

Mad Mad Vegan, Barcelona

BuenaVida 100% Vegan, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Chilimosa Comida Vegetariana y Vegana, Tarifa