From sunny Liverpool to even sunnier Barcelona

Posted on: 7 June 2024 by Ellis Dowling in 2024 posts

A view of a hike near to Barcelona, Catalunia — Mont Rebei Canyon (Cataluña): an unbelievable hike, but not for the faint-hearted!

The Year Abroad is a special experience. In fact, it is hard to describe it using words, for I feel they don’t exist - or perhaps they are beyond my vocabulary palette - to convey the emotions I evoke when discussing it.

After much consideration, deliberation, and overcoming the challenges of the necessary administration to get abroad - which eventually feels very satisfying by the way - I jetted off from sunny Liverpool to Barcelona in August 2022. It only seems like yesterday, so it frightens me to think it has been nearly a year whilst writing this blog since I returned home in July 2023.

Expanding my language and culinary skills

Rather like a holiday, the months passed by in a flash, and before knowing it I had returned back to Liverpool more confident both as a person and linguistically. I also expanded my culinary skills from beans on toast to whipping up a Spanish tortilla de patatas, although I unfortunately haven’t quite mastered a paella yet.

As I chose to go down the study pathway, at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, I had a lot of time on my hands to travel around Cataluña and other parts of Spain, immersing myself in the local language and culture (of course including the cuisine) when not attending classes. In this department, I definitely don’t have any regrets. Whilst I am sure that the work placement and BCLA pathways also have their benefits, bear with me for being biased towards the study pathway for travelling!

A view of Montserrat (Cataluña) Montserrat (Cataluña): you can actually hike to the top, which I did (but it gets steep)

Plaza de España (Seville, Andalusia): me embracing the university break to be a tourist in Seville.

Erasmus-oraganised trips across the country

I took advantage of university-led and Erasmus-organised trips, taking me to places often difficult to reach with typical public transport, so it is worth looking out for similar groups to truly immerse in the local culture. Luckily the train network was also very efficient and cheap in Cataluña, so a lot of stunning locations were also easily accessible. To be honest, across Spain as a whole, the intercity transport in Spain is good (Renfe trains), as are the flights to the south of Spain from Barcelona (Ryanair or Vueling), so I also made sure to spend some time checking out Andalusia.

Anyway, if you don’t believe the Year Abroad is as good as I say it is, you can see for yourself. Take a look at some of the amazing places I got to visit; I have also included some captions in case my photos inspire you to visit them!

A view of Blanes (Cataluña) Blanes (Cataluña)