The Girl Who Goes

independent, intentional travel

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Going Back “Home”: A Weekend in London

london eye

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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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…]

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ALSA Bus Review: My Trip from Madrid to Granada, Spain

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For better or for worse, Spain’s ALSA buses are a topic I’m all-too familiar with. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 1:15pm, I would board a big green ALSA bus from Buitrago del Lozoya, where I worked, to get back to Madrid, where I lived. Occasionally I had to catch the 6:45am bus to work — but I don’t like to think about that because it was truly the stuff of nightmares.

Anyway, I don’t know what ALSA stands for, but I do know that it’s the largest Spanish bus company for more long-haul trips. So when I went to Granada for the weekend with my friends, that’s what we used. Here’s how the experience stacked up. [Read more…]

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7 Reasons Why You Should Visit Granada, Spain

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Granada, Spain, was a city that I’d always heard about while living in Madrid, but never gotten around to visiting. Its location — isolated in Spain’s deep south — requires visitors to have sufficient time to not only enjoy the city but travel there as well. Situated in a mountainous region of Andalusia, Granada didn’t even have a high-speed railway station until mid-2019! Which meant that my transportation options were limited to flights, cars, or buses.

One of my friends in Madrid, Ellie, had studied abroad in Granada during college. Along with our friend Sarah, we planned a weekend trip, traveling via bus. It was 5 hours each way, which was a lot, but it wasn’t horrible. From the time I set foot in Granada, I fell in love, and I think it’s my new favorite city in Spain. Here are 7 reasons everyone should visit Granada! [Read more…]

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Day Trip: Dublin to Giant’s Causeway

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A few years ago, my best friend Hanna took a trip to Northern Ireland with her mom. All the pictures were so beautiful, and one of the places she specifically mentioned was the Giant’s Causeway. Fast forward to when I lived in Madrid. I’d been planning a trip to Dublin to visit my friend Nicole, who was living there at the time. A week before the trip, Nicole texted me: “What would you think about taking a trip up north from Dublin to Giant’s Causeway?” [Read more…]

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Top 5 Things to Do in Porto, Portugal

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View from Vila Nova de Gaia in Porto, Portugal

Back when I lived in Madrid, I had a ritual I would do about once a month. I would go to my favorite flight-booking website, Skyscanner, and do a search: Madrid, Spain to Anywhere. That gave me a breakdown of how much it would cost to go to a variety of different destinations on my determined dates. Inevitably, Portugal always showed up as one of the least-expensive options. I knew I would get there eventually, but I was waiting for the right time. [Read more…]