When you are hundreds kilometres away from the people you are used to be around, it is common that you are becoming homesick and sometimes... you just need to see your beloved ones! ;)
Hence, this post is dedicated to one of the people in my (Dawe's) life who has becoming more and more important to me. Moreover, I want to fill this post with advices for all the students who want to go to Zaragoza to study abroad and just need a little inspiration what they could do when somebody wants to visit them! As I'm a business student, I'm gonna break down this post to give you a clearer overview. First, I will give you all the advices and, at the end, I will describe my personal experience when Sara, a very good friend of mine, was here in Zaragoza.
Preparation: hope, set backs and the final relief
First of all, although it might sound harsh but I'm going to give you the truth, there will be a lot of set backs. Many, many people and friends of you will say to you something like "Yeah, mate, of course I'm gonna visit you!!" but in the end... 'no pasa nada' as the Spaniards like to say. Don't get frustrated! We, Marie and me, know how that feels, especially when you are trying hard to convince them to come. We've been there, we've done that, we've felt the same. Don't let it affect you. Sometimes the time isn't right, sometimes there are money issues, sometimes these are just false friends or friends who have become acquaintances. But never mind, it's alright, that's life!
Nevertheless, at some point of time, somebody will visit you. And this is the point of time you will be happy to see finally someone you love after a long time! I know exactly how I felt: I told everybody and couldn't wait for the time to pass until it would finally happen!
I guess there aren't a lot of things to prepare except for just a few things:
- First, you will need to search for a flight. I think that Ryan-Air will be the best option if you are on a low budget. Moreover, try to get a flight in the off-season. For instance, during Eastern the prices are around €120 to €140 (let's say Amsterdam <-> Barcelona) but in May you can already book flights from €50, €60!
- Secondly, the locations. Except for the fact that your friend wants to stay ten hours in Brussels, I would highly recommend to take a direct flight to Barcelona, Girona or Madrid. All these cities have quite a similar distance to Zaragoza.
- As you want to spend some quality time, you will miss out lectures, seminars and practical classes! Prepare your study groups by announcing it to them. Additionally, you want to already go over the topics you will miss. In my case, I begun studying for the upcoming exams a week before my usual study plan would start.
- Tell your beloved ones what they will need. Mainly, this will be related to clothes! For instance, I told my friend, Sara, that she will need a lot of shirts, short pants and so on. However, she didn't listen ;) Mostly, because she couldn't believe that we will have 30 degrees celsius in Zaragoza in May. Never mind, we solved this issue by going shopping.
- Think about where they will stay. In my case, we have a guest bed in our living room and even an additional free room; therefore, it wasn't a problem.
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| I prepared some Spanish croquettes... |
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| Yeah, I know, doesn't look very good, but it was my first time lol |
Arrival: from BCN/MAD to ZGZ
I am pretty confident that your friends won't come directly to Zaragoza; meaning, now you will need to plan how to get them to your place. There are some options to consider, whereby I will write based on my own experience:
- By bus: The option for everyone who doesn't want to spend too much money. However, from Barcelona/Girona, the bus takes around five to six hours... And, to be honest, I didn't want to leave Sara on her own in a country, where she doesn't speak the language, has no clue where to go, especially considering the fact that she doesn't even come from Europe. However, the bus costs around €20 each way per person.
- By train: The train only takes around two hours but costs around €70. As I wanted to pick Sara up, this would have meant about €200 just to get there, pick her up from the airport and come back.
- By car: As I am quite familiar with rental cars and Hertz, this was the only logical option for me. There are some aspects to consider. First, if you are under 25, you will need to pay a 'young drivers fee', which is around €20 when you rent a car from Hertz and you won't get any car that you want, as some are in a class that is too high for you to use. Following, you can already get cars from €30 per day (if you take e.g. the Fiat 500; as I wanted to get a BMW (in the end, they didn't have it and I went for a Volvo V40...), it's obvious that you will have to pay more). Thirdly, double-check that you have unlimited kilometres included. Fourthly, you will need gas. However, as you will drive around 700km, you can take the offer from Hertz that they will refill the tank (this is profitable for you if you use more than ¾ of the tank). And, finally, don't forget that if your friend is going to Barcelona, you will need to pay fees for using the high way. It's around €35 each way. Recapping, that would be around €30 for the car, €20 for the young drivers fee, €60 for the tank, €70 for using the highways. In total, that's €180 - still cheaper than the train, but way more expensive than the bus. However, as we also wanted to visit a friend who was currently staying in Malgrat de Mar (near Barcelona), this was still the best option.
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| Not the car I wanted but alright.. |
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| When you are using the payable high way, you won't encounter many cars. Oh, and in Spain it's only allowed to go 120kph, which was quite difficult for a German, who is used to have no speed limits ;) |
The visit itself
There are lots of things you can do while you have visitors! In my case, Sara stayed only for four days in Zaragoza, resulting in having almost no time to chill. I hope that I also speak from her point of view when I say that those days were filled with lots of activities, fun and joy! Here are some recommendations of what to do:
- Visit the city where your friend will arrive. In my case, we went to Malgrad de Mar, as another friend of mine was there on vacation. Afterwards, we wanted to go straight to Zaragoza but first ended up in Barcelona. We stayed there only for a few hours, but, still, it was fun to show Sara a little bit of the city (even though it was evening/night).
- City tour through Zaragoza
- All the good restaurants and tapas bars! When I think about it, we cooked only once or twice at home and the rest of the time, we went out for having snacks. Juepincho, Montaditos, Sakura, Lizarran and the thousands of other (tapas) bars that Zaragoza has...
- Puerto Venecia. Going shopping is always fun and, especially, the shopping mall in Zaragoza has a lot of things to see, visit and do. Of course, there are some fine dining places as well!
- Parque Grande. The park in Zaragoza is really beautiful and a great place to relax and enjoy the sun.
- And, obviously, the night life! Hit a club, show your friends some Spanish songs, which the people like to dance to.
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| Malgrat de Mar: sand, beach, good weather, what else do you need? |
Saying good-bye
This is definitely the saddest part! Try to spend some final quality time with your friends, get them to the airport and don't forget to be very punctual, as you don't want your friends to miss the flight!
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| So sad :'( |
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| Going back |
Special thanks to Sara
As already mentioned in the beginning, I would like to dedicate this section to this one special person who actually visited me. Special thanks goes to Sara! Thanks a lot for everything (especially for this one thing, you know what haha). I had a really, really wonderful time with you and I hope you had to! Thanks for all the chatting, that we could catch up everything, for all the fun we had and, in general, for the entire time! I wish that we will see each other again, maybe even before you go back to Qatar! We will definitely need to redo this. You were a great guest and, of course, I wish you a lot of success in your life. Thanks :)
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