The Girl Who Goes

independent, intentional travel

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Side Trip: Madrid to Valladolid, Spain

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A bright side street I saw during my trip from Madrid to Valladolid

Valladolid was a city I’d been hoping to visit, sooner or later. It’s the city where my favorite Spanish professor, Heidi — the one who had the greatest impact on my Spanish history, culture, and language education — had studied abroad during college, and she’d always talked about it during class.

Well, guess what? Heidi’s husband, Tony, also a Spanish professor, is leading a study abroad group in Valladolid this summer! Which meant that Heidi, Tony, and their 5-year-old daughter Rosalie would only be a few hours away from me for the entire month of July. I hadn’t seen Heidi since my graduation 4 years ago, so I knew we needed to meet up. Also, I’d been telling my friend Sarah — who is about to start a Master’s program to become a Spanish teacher — about Heidi all year. Heidi told me she’d be happy to meet the two of us in Valladolid and give us a tour! [Read more…]

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Visiting Morocco: Expectations vs. Reality

morocco expectations chefchaouen

Just a desert country… right?

Going to Morocco for the first time, I knew that it was going to be different from other places I’d visited before. Other than figuring out the dress code and using it as an excuse for a new wardrobe, I didn’t do much research. I relied on what I’ve head from friends and other travelers when setting my expectations. Although of course I keep an open mind, as a usually-solo female traveler, I’m generally extra cautious and I have to somewhat prepare for the worst.

However, the Morocco I experienced was different from the one I expected. If you’re thinking about visiting Morocco or just want to learn more, here are some of the expectations vs. realities from my trip! [Read more…]

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Going Back “Home”: A Weekend in London

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The London Eye and River Thames from Westminster Bridge

Five and a half years ago (!!!!), I spent a fall semester of college studying abroad in London. It was one of the most important experiences in a long chain of events that contributed to me eventually living in Spain. During that semester, I had more fun than I’d ever had in my life. I met some of my very best friends, I was able to jet off to different countries over the weekends, and I got to live a lifestyle unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Most importantly, I learned that I could do it. I could adjust to life in a foreign country, away from everyone/everything I knew and was comfortable with, and thrive while doing it. [Read more…]

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8 Things to Know Before Visiting Morocco

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Courtyard view of our riad palace in Fez

Morocco! It was never a place I’d thought much about, but since living in Spain, it’s been at the top of my bucket list. Not only is it super close geographically — and therefore, relatively inexpensive — but its cultural history has long been intertwined with Spain’s. I finally got the chance to visit! I highly recommend it, so here are a few things you should know before visiting Morocco. [Read more…]

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Morocco Trip Review: Fez, Chefchaouen, and Tangier

Matt and I when we first arrived in Chefchaouen, Morocco

After many visits to Europe and a trip to Asia, (and living in North America most of my life), I set foot on the continent of Africa for the first time when I was 26. Matt came to visit me in Madrid, and together we flew to Fez to spend 5 days in Morocco! It’s so close to Spain and I’d really wanted to go for a long time. Since Matt was here, and I felt a bit more secure traveling with him, it was the perfect opportunity. I booked our plane tickets and Airbnbs a couple months before the trip, but other than that, I didn’t make any other plans.

I wasn’t sure what awaited us in Morocco, my first African country — I had some ideas, but I’ll talk about the differences between expectations and reality in a future post. But we ended up having a really amazing time. [Read more…]

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5 Things to Know Before Visiting Palma de Mallorca

Passeig del Born / Paseo del Borne

After almost 8 months of living in Spain, I’ve finally taken my first trip off the mainland. (Yes — in case you didn’t know, Spain has lots of islands!) During Semana Santa, or Holy Week, my friend Morgan came to visit and we went to Valencia and Palma de Mallorca. Palma is the largest city on Spain’s largest island, Mallorca, also known as “Majorca” in English.

We spent about two full days there, and even though I’ve visited 10+ other cities in Spain, Palma was very different than anywhere else I’ve been. Here are some important things to know if you’re planning a visit yourself! [Read more…]

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Berlin Underground: Berliner Unterwelten Bunker Tours

berlin underground tour office

My last day in Berlin called for rain. Since I’d been to the city before, six years before, I’d already done a lot of the indoor tourist sights like museums and the Reichstag building. But as I browsed through the results of my Google search — “things to do in berlin indoors” — one particular thing caught my eye. “Berliner Unterwelten,” or Berlin underground bunker tours.

All of the reviews were positive, so I thought I’d give it a shot. [Read more…]

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How to Get to Valle de los Caídos, Spain

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A view of Valle de los Caídos

Funny story: a half-baked version of this article about Valle de los Caídos has been sitting in my “drafts” folder since April 29, 2017. That was only a week or two after I started this blog. I knew it was a topic I wanted to cover — it fits well with my theme of independent, intentional travel — but I couldn’t remember all the necessary details from my trip to write the article that I wanted.

So, now that I’m in Spain full-time, I recently had the opportunity to go back to this interesting place. Since I was bringing friends with me this time, I was wishing I’d finished the article two years ago so I could go back and read it. (Didn’t want to get us lost.) But once again, the trip was successful.
[Read more…]

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A Review of FlixBus: My Trip from Wrocław to Berlin

The last time — and only other time — I tried to take an international bus trip, it didn’t turn out very well. That was when I wanted to go from Brussels to Amsterdam. After waiting for the bus to show up for two and a half hours, in the pouring rain and freezing cold very early in the morning, I gave up and took the train.

So I was a little nervous about my plan to take a bus from Wrocław, Poland, to Berlin. I decided to use a different bus company than the one that had failed me (I’m looking at you, OuiBus). My friends Carson and Natalie had used FlixBus for their trip from Paris to Madrid, and their bus clearly showed up, so my standards were pretty low. But I have to say I really enjoyed my FlixBus experience! [Read more…]

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Trip Review: Wrocław, Poland

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View in Wrocław at Market Square

I had an ulterior motive when it came to visiting Poland for the first time. Way back in 2012, after spending a Christmas in the far northeast of Germany with my boyfriend’s family, we’d driven across the border to Szczecin just to say we’d stepped foot there. (And I think we ate pizza.) But since I didn’t spend much time there, I never really felt that I could say I’d *been* to Poland.

In order to alleviate this traveler’s cognitive dissonance, I kept an eye on flights to Poland in 2019, during my first year living in Spain. And finally, a cheap flight to a city called Wrocław aligned with a puente (long weekend) from school. [Read more…]