Hello all! My husband and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Spain for two weeks and all I can say was WOW!
We travelled to Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and Seville (Sevilla) all in 11 days! What a whirlwind! And what a cultural eye opener. My husband and I do not know the spanish language and we both admit that the further south we travelled, the less we understood the people and we’re sure the less they understood us.
It truly is a humbling experience to struggle to be understood. There were times when the language barrier did get frustrating; frustrated with ourselves for not learning the language before leaving for Spain. We travelled on trains between cities and at one point booked ourselves on an eight hour over-night train ride from Valencia to Granada. When we boarded, we realized we were seated in a quad, the two of us sitting side by side and facing two older men. I tried to ask one of the men if he was travelling to Granada as well and he didn’t understand me (or refused to understand what I meant when I kept saying “Granada”). Let’s just say it was an uncomfortable eight hours of the two Canadians and the two Spanish men staring back at one another with no way to communicate. Needless to say we did our best to sleep through that ride!
In the end, regardless of the language barrier, we had such a wonderful time and learned a few words and a sentence or two of Spanish. Relying on one another as we made our way through the country truly brought us even closer together. The culture, language, and food were all amazing and we look forward to more European adventures in the future!
