Rachel Going Places

🐂🌶️🌿🪇🍋👠

While my mom may not agree, a healthy sibling rivalry can push you to do great things. Personally, I could have died happy having never visited Spain…but I couldn’t let my little brother, Adam, stamp Spain into his passport without me. While I spent a whole semester studying in Munich, he went off to work in Pamplona, Spain for a six-week summer program.

With a limited amount of time and two busy schedules, we finally agreed that I should plan my visit for his first weekend there. While it would have been nice to let him gain some experience in Pamplona before I arrived so I could be shown around by a local, we would at least get to explore the city together. After he moved in on Monday, I arrived on Friday in true tourism student fashion: fresh out of class, a hotel site tour, and with my backpack headed straight to the airport.

I landed in Barcelona to spend the night because Pamplona is too small of a city to fly into directly. No, I did not spend my one night in Barcelona partying and clubbing. I went right to bed so I could wake up bright and early to catch my train to Pamplona. I’ve been on my fair share of train rides through the German country sides with lush green hills, and it was amazing to see just how different the Spanish nature is. It reminded me a lot of California, rocky and sandy, with tan and olive green shrubs.

Pamplona is known as the city which hosts the Running of the Bulls, an annual festival where bull fighters are chased by bulls through the hilly and narrow streets of Pamplona. One of my favorite authors, Ernest Hemingway, stayed in Pamplona for a while after World War I and wrote the book, “The Sun Also Rises,” on his time and experience there. When I arrived off my train, I spent some time walking through the meandering street and alleyways to try and find my brother in the city center plaza. The people of Pamplona were out and about which created a lively energy throughout the town. On my way, I stumbled upon multiple bachelorette trips, a wedding at an old church, and many hikers of the Camino de Santiago, which goes through Pamplona.

I finally found Adam sitting on a bench in the Plaza de Castillo. It’s a little surreal to stumble into your brother in a random country after not seeing him for almost six months. We first dropped my heavy backpack off at my AirBnB. I don’t know how those Camino hikers do it; I was sweating just carrying my weekend backpack from the train station. Then we got Spanish food for lunch. I must confess, I am not a fan of Spanish food. We ordered some local rice and beef dish and I had to force myself to finish my portion. After we had at least given ourselves some nourishment for the day. We spent the late afternoon walking around the city and catching up. Around the old town portion of Pamplona, there are many beautiful old, Spanish churches and buildings. The rest of the city, however, looks just like any other modern city in America.

For dinner, I had already had my fill of Spanish food so we settled for sushi. We went for gelato in the city center in the evening and continued to walk around in the growing dusk. Despite it being May already in Spain, it was a little chilly so we decided to call it a night early since I was tired from all my traveling.

Sunday morning I woke up and made my way to Mass at the Cathedral. It was my goal to experience Mass in as many languages as I can, and while I’m sure I’ve already been to a Spanish Mass when I lived in California, I was still able to check Spanish off my list again. One of the great things about going to Mass abroad is that, even though it’s all in languages I don’t speak, the basic order of things is the same no matter what, so I’m still able to follow along. Except for Spain. I’m not sure if I just went to the wrong service or something, because again, I don’t speak Spanish to understand what is going on, but it was very different from what I’m used to. A father and son were sitting in front of me, and noticed I was cold, as I often am especially in churches, and offered me their coat. Despite the language barrier, it was still nice to see this act of kindness.

After Mass, we went to get a light breakfast. Just coffee and a pastry, pretty standard for Europe but still so good. Unfortunately, Adam’s not on vacation like me and he had homework to attend to, so I spent the afternoon exploring on my own. I walked around the bull fighting ring where the Running of the Bulls starts and saw a parade of children dressed all in white with red berets and matching red scarf belts practicing some music with flutes and drums. I’m not sure if it was for the upcoming Feast of San Fermín celebration (where the Running of the Bulls takes place) but it was interesting to see this bit of culture.

I made my way to the Museum of Navarre, Navarre being the Spanish state Pamplona calls home. I was expecting to spend a good amount of time there while Adam finished up his school work, but it was a rather small museum. Luckily, admission was free that day as much of the museum was under construction but I still got to see some cool Roman mosaics which were totally intact. When Adam finished his work, I met him at the old city walls; intact 16th century fortifications which today serve as a park. They were incredible, and some old couple offered to take a picture of us out of the blue. They spoke only five words of English but it was nice to see this show of hospitality. I don’t think Germans are particularly rude if you take to them like many people suspect, but I was not expecting to be approached so welcomingly by the citizens of Spain.

One must do for me while I was in Spain was to get tapas, little Spanish snacks or appetizers. I have to say again, I was not super impressed. Many of them had fish, or were just potatoes and cheese with some olives. Nothing super special but still fun for my time there. We tried Spanish food one last time for dinner then walked around a little more before I headed back to my place to pack. It was a short trip, but a good time catching up with my brother in this cute little city.

We met up for coffee and a pastry one last time before I went off to my train and Adam went off to work. I arrived back in Barcelona and had a few hours to kill before my flight back to Munich, perfect timing to do the only thing I would care to do in Barcelona; go see the Sagrada Familia.

I was not going to pay the 40€ it costs to see the inside of the Sagrade Familia, it’s not even finished being built anyway, but the outside was enough for me to see. It really is an incredible building and once I did a full 360 walk around the church, I was ready to go home. For a place I really had no previous interest in visiting, I did enjoy my time in Spain and can at least say I’ve stamped it in my passport.