We are a product of experience: Viva España

Spain is on a different level to the rest of Europe. It's vibrant, full of colour and down to earth.

I'll start with the food and drink.

Alcohol is cheap. The beer of choice is San Miguel. For a pint of cerveza (beer) from a supermarket I'd only have to pay a mere €.60, and if I wanted it from a bar it would set me back about €1.50 but this would normally include some tapas such as chorizo or olives to nibble at.

Tapas is very popular in Spain. Most commonly it's some sort of meat in a small dish, such as chorizo. Another popular tapas is 'patatas bravas'. They are basically wedges covered in a red and white sauce. Tapas hoping from bar to bar, eating one dish at each place is definitely the way to do eat tapas!

In the north of Spain it was more likely to see Pinchos served; very similar to tapas only smaller and eaten with toothpicks. Mel and I certainly ate our fare share of Pinchos in San Sebastian. We found a seafood bar; 'Mejillones', meaning mussels in English and ordered 'Tigres'; mussels covered in a spicy sauce served with bread. It was the best seafood I'd ever eaten. To me the bar opitimised the Spanish way of dining; people yelling over each other trying to order, loud, lively, fast and served with beer.

Now for the people and their way of life. Spain is on another schedule. People get up late, work for a few hours, sleep some more then work until about 8 or 9pm before eating dinner at about 10 or 11pm. It wasn't uncommon for Mel and I to walk down almost deserted streets during the middle of the day while the rest of Spain was having a siesta.

Spain also knows how to party, and of course they do this very late. Mel and I would go out for a meal at midnight, have a few drinks then head to a bar about 2am and before we knew it the sun would be coming up. The pub crawls in Spain don't even start until 1.30am! The Spanish are a very proud people. Wine is the best example of this. In Australia as you know we drink wines from all over the world, but the Spanish refuse to drink anything but Spanish wine. Even though they know its terrible wine, they still serve it everywhere but drink it with lemonade to make it taste better, even at the most fancy restaurants!

Finally Barcelona has some of the worlds best skate spots. I took a day off sight seeing to go skating. I traveled along the yellow metro line and went to 6 of the best spots Id ever skated in about 4 hours. I'm looking forward to skating a lot more of Barcelona with Joe and Ali!

Spanish cities are trying to be trendy or stylish, they are effortlessly cool and have more style than any other place I've ever been to. You walk down any street in Spain and hear chatter, the clinking of glasses, see bars pouring out on to the street with people and the smell of coffee brewing. Its a very lively country.

With trips to Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian and San Vincente Spain has been my highlight so far!