BARCELONA SPAIN ❥

After meeting up in London, Dan and I took off to Barcelona! Once we arrived, we took the Aerobus to Plaza Catalunya, which is right next to Las Ramblas. We stayed on Carre Hospital, which was a little road off of Las Ramblas. We booked our accommodations using Airbnb, and staying in a really cute flat that had its own balcony in the room looking out onto the street.We spent four days in Barcelona, walking around, taking in the Catalan culture and architecture. We walked did lots of walking around the Las Ramblas area, including the water front area. Although it is quite touristy, it was beautiful. We went to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi Park, and Casa Balltó. Besides walking around on foot we felt that the other most convenient way to get around was using the metro. We purchases a ten trip ticket, which saved us €0.3 per trip. We shared the metro card and five trips each was plenty! We used the metro to take us from Plaza Catalunya to Park Guëll, however it took us to the back entrance of the park. We ended up spending around an hour and a half just walking around the enormous park before we could even find the proper Park Guëll entrance. Make sure you get off at the proper metro stop that automatically takes you to the right entrance if you are only going to see the main attraction.

We had many lovely meals, lots of wine, sangria and tapas! Since we were staying near Las Ramblas we had to do a fair bit of walking to find a restaurant that we liked. Most places near that area are not authentic and very touristy. With Dan’s picky eating and my love for authentic food we did manage to find some really great places to have tapas. My two favourite places for tapas are Palosonto and Qui Qui. We also had a fantastic meal of seafood and a restaurant called Guru.

If you have a sweet tooth like Dan and I then you have to check out a chocolate shop called Chök, which is just off Las Ramblas. Everything in there is so lush and you can even check out the back of the shop where they are making all the chocolate. While you are at it you may as well try the gelato in Barcelona, it’s incredible. Our favourite flavours are roche, mint chocolate, smurf, and strawberry. We may have almost tried every flavour, don’t judge us, we were on vacation!

Plaza Catalunya area had the best shopping. We both ended up buying much more than we anticipated! It you continued to walk the street towards the Casa Batllo there are many high-end shops. The Marina Port Vell on the waterfront also has really good shopping. It basically had all of the same mid-range price stores that are located near the Plaza Catalunya and a spectacular view of the Port.

Another great place to check out on Las Ramblas is the Boqueria Market. It is supposedly one of the nicest markets in Europe; we will have to compare the others once we travel the rest of Europe ourselves! The Market has refreshing fruit smoothies, which were quite nice since we visited the market after a late night out. There are so many yummy foods to try at this market. I bought an spanakopita, olives, almond nougat, and countless smoothie’s as we browsed (addict) and Dan tried a white chocolate and coconut crepe. This place is closed on Monday’s but make sure take some time to check it out if you plan to visit!

If you plan to go out to some pubs or clubs there are tons of people out in the streets handing out advertisements to check out. We found lots on our own but also went for a drink at some pubs if people approached us in a friendly way. One thing that happens with the Barcelona nightlife scene that you will never get at home (Canada & England) is people offering you free shots wherever you go! You get shots when you are brought the bill at a restaurant in most places, you get a shot when you check out bars from advertisements on the street, and as well the bartenders offer them in most places when you first walk in. Barcelona’s nightlife scene was safe based on our experience at the pubs, everyone was friendly to us, and it can be a relatively cheap night if you like shots!

Overall, we thought Barcelona was fabulous! The city is so full of life, but it isn’t overwhelming like most big cities. The people were all so friendly to us everywhere we went. Most people speak English, which made communicating very easy. If you try to speak in Spanish, most people will reply in English and some will appreciate the effort and help you practice your Spanish if you do not know Catalan!

#travel #spain #europe