110 volts versus 220 volts

I brought a curling iron because my hair is out of control! Before I left the US, I also bought a converter which changes the shape of the plug becasue obviously I can´t just plug in my curling iron. (The plugs here are really weird, they are long and pointy) But I wasn´t really sure about the difference between a converter and transformer or if mine was also a transformer. So after much prompting from my roommate, I decided to just plug it in and see what happened. BIG MISTAKE!!! The whole thing started smoking within 5 seconds. I was like OMIGOSH I am going to burn down their house! So I quickly unplugged the thing which was super hot and I learned that converters and transformers are not the same thing. So later I went into this tienda that said ¨electricidad¨ and decided to ask her about the voltage situation. So I learned that 1) the US has 110 voltage and 2) Spain has 220 VOLTAGE!! SO Spain has double our voltage! I am so stupid I can´t believe I just plugged it in! I am lucky that it didn´t blow up right then. Anyhow I bought the transformer it was only like 13 euros. I was very wary about plugging in my curling iron because I was afraid I might have internally fried it. But I plugged in all of the parts very slowly and watched for any sign of smoke and then....BOOOOM! It BLEW UP! J/K! Wouldn´t it have been terrible if it would have!¿ But it didn´t! Thank GOD! It just makes a funny whirring noise now and I have to be very careful!