From the very beginning - Internship in Lloret de Mar 2015

My Erasmus internship started with the stop in the great, splendid city of Barcelona. I arrived at Barcelona-El Prat Airport where I stayed for a night. After that night, I quickly went to a fantastic coastal town Lloret de Mar by Sarfa bus. I would like to travel around Barcelona but decided to get settled with my internship rapidly. So, traveling in Barcelona was postponed.

When I saw Lloret de Mar I was simply blown away. Despite the fact, that Lloret de Mar is a small coastal town, it has a tremendous national heritage and thousands tourists from all over the EU. The town itself has dozens activities and festivals, especially in summertime. As I arrived in summer, I went to many different events and festivals. Moreover, there were dozens of discotheques and youth just go crazy there. Apart from that, my friends and I went to several activities which where nothing but entertaining program.

My internship began at Hotel Maria del Mar. This was a typical Spanish hotel with different tourists from European countries and mainly from European Union. The tourists from Hotel Maria del Mar were different age and class, from young people to old people, from middle class to upper class. There were many tourists from Germany and usually young. They were all friendly and easy-going.

I was practicing myself as a show cook. Show cooking means providing food to clients in the restaurant where employees also can see and talk to customers. Basically, this term serves for TV shows, but at restaurants you might see this field too.

I had been working at the restaurant of the hotel. There were three employees: one was on meat station, the other one was on the pizza station and the third one was delivering food from the kitchen to the buffet. I was working with helpful and kind people on show cooking. Working with them was just a pleasure. All difficulties or problems were solved quickly without arguing. The most important thing was that our bosses were good and easy-going. They understood and helped us. Everything went smoothly and I am grateful for that.

Below you may see the whole team of cooks

Thumbs up (I am in the middle)

After work or during the break we always had time to go to the beach. Sometimes, we were going to the beach all together. Also it was good that all trainees were friendly and funny. And all of them were from different countries such as France, Hungary, Latvia and Moldova. Everyone truly enjoyed going to the beach together. I was just drawning on happiness having such a good company.

This is us

My friends and I had time to go out from Lloret de Mar. Three of us went to small town called Blanes. It is a splendid and quiet town with great nature and interesting statues. I was just impressed by the cleanness of the beaches; the seawater was transparently pure and blue. We had time to walk around the whole town and simply enjoyed its beauty. Furthermore, we also took many photos in different places of the town. At the end of day off, we got back to Lloret de Mar and told all of our friends that they had to go to Blanes in their day off. It was a wonderful trip for all of us.

On the next week, we decided to go out to the neighbor town Tossa de Mar. It is smaller and more quiet than Lloret de Mar. And I would say even better than Blanes. The town Tossa de Mar was not for parties, activities or festivals as Lloret de Mar was. We saw many families with kids and many old people, which are good news to relax. The town has bigger beaches and not very crowded. The shore from Tossa was terrific and spectacular, especially the view from "Vila Vella enceinte" where you can see the whole beach and town itself.

Our day off

Girona is a delightful town and I figured to go there with my friends. Including the fact that I like history and architecture I tried to convience my friends to go with me. Unfortunatelly, they all refused me. Therefore, I went travelling to Girona by myself. I was walking and admiring the architecture and culture of the town. The most impressive was the old town. The river "Onyar" and the "Church of Sant Feliu" make the town remarkable. Girona is small but you can see many foreigners walking through out the town. The other thing that impressed me very much is that the TV show "Game of Thrones" was filmed there. However, it was just after when i left the town. I could not believe it but they say that there were actors, actresses, staff and their gear. Even though I have not seen any episode of "Game of Thrones" I would love to see them filming.

After that night in Girona I quickly packed and got back to Lloret de Mar where my internship is.

At the end of my internship in Spain I decided to go to Barcelona. Unfortunately, nobody could go with me because of strict schedule and lack of money. So I had to go by myself again. It was just amazing trip for me. I saw many outstanding places there. Sure enough, I could not see everything for a one day but I was thrilled with the places I visited. Parc Güell is a good and interesting place to be and to explore Antonio Gaudi style.

Parc Güell

Likewise, I had time to go out of Barcelona to visit Tibidabo. On the top of the mountain Tibidabo I saw the whole Barcelona. I had to use funicular to get there. It was worth to see the beauty of magnificent Barcelona. There were many attractions and the great Roman Catholic church Sagrat Cor which is built in Neo-gothic architecture style. I also got on the top of the church. I have to admit that I miss the beauty and richness of great Barcelona. Those beautiful and elegant buildings in Modernism (Art Nouveau) and Gothic architecture style perfectly added make Barcelona a splendid and lovely city not in Catalonia, but in whole Spain.

Sagrat Cor (Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor)

The marvelous city of Barcelona really impressed me. I have seen lots of mind-blowing and spectacular places and met thousand tourists from all over the world. I would like to come back there over and over again. My final trip of my internship was the most delightful that I could imagine.

All in all, I truly enjoyed my internship in Spain. I got to know with show-cooking and its process. Moreover, I have been working with good and helpful employees at Hotel Maria del Mar in Lloret de Mar. I made many friends from the EU and had an unbelieveable time with them. I can also speak Spanish better than I did before. I am thankful for the people I met. Furthermore, I am thrilled with everything that I experienced in Spain.

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