I backpacked through Spain in 2009 in what was probably my least-planned trip ever – I got a rail pass, and winged it. I stayed in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Cordoba, Cuenca, Granada and Seville.

Spain is gorgeous and textured and culturally rich and would take a massive blog post to really describe, but today I wanted to share the photos I did of the Hanging Houses, or ‘Las Casas Colgadas’

The Hanging Houses of Cuenca were built over the gorge above the Huecar River, sometime in the 15th century. It’s hard to find much information about them but I’ve read that the design is possibly of muslim origin. I’ve also read that, though only 3 of the actual ‘Casas Colgadas’ remain, this type of architecture used to be very common in this region.

I enjoyed shooting them so much that I neglected to do important things that night – like find lodging. I ended up wandering around long after dark looking for a hostel with space – if not for me then for my camera (yes, keeping the camera warm and safe and getting it charged was more important than doing the same for my person – you have to have priorities if you’re going to be a photographer) and narrowly avoided sleeping on the railway platform. Luckily a small hostel took pity on me ;)

Even with all the travel I didn’t see nearly as much of Spain as I had wanted to – and Tito and I have plans to go and explore it together sometime next year. This time I’ll book a hotel ;)