How many trips did you take during your semester in Spain?

While studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain for a semester I took various trips throughout the 5 months I was there. I traveled to a total of 8 countries and dozens of cities! I found it very easy to get around, train, bus, car, or plane. Being in Spain I wanted to take full advantage of where I lived so I did a lot of traveling within Spain by bus. On a day off I would often go to the bus station and find the next bus going out and just hop on. This was a great way to explore the surrounding areas that you might not know anything about.
Something else I suggest is to spend the first month or so at home exploring the town you're living in. This is great for multiple reasons. First, you'll get a better understanding of the area you live in and soak up a lot more of the culture, which is probably one of the reasons you picked Spain in the first place! Second, traveling can be exhausting and it's always nice to get back from a trip and really feel like you're home. This really helped me to truly fall in love with my town and my apartment so when i returned I felt that relief of being home. Once I spent the first month in Bilbao and the surrounding areas I started to travel farther but bus or plane. Specifically for Spain, I found plane to be a much easier and quicker way to travel.

I did a ton of travelling while I was in Barcelona for a semester. I tried to hit most of the major European cities on random weekends with cheap flights: London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Prague. I also did a little travelling around Spain - went snowboarding in Sierra Nevada, near Granada.

My program was during the Fall semester, so when school ended in December, I stayed for the holidays and through new years as well to do some more travelling. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to do more traveling within Spain - it's such an amazing country and each region is very different.