Took me ages to get round to writing this blog post but better late than never!
May 2017, I went to Barcelona for the third time to visit my best friend, Elaine, while she was living it up in the sunshine..
..(Guess who’s more hungover)
Elaine was working 9am -6pm, so I had all day Mon-Fri to try and keep myself entertained. Which wasn’t hard at all.
I started by deciding everything I wanted to do while I was there, basically all the touristy stuff that Elaine had probably done 100x before that I could get out of the way before she finished work and graced me with her presence again.
First on the list was getting up nice and early with El, taking part in the first 5 mins of her daily commute and finding myself a cute breakfast spot. And that’s when I found Flax & Kale
Flax & Kale are a popular healthy eating chain in Barcelona, everything they serve is way too pretty to eat. Even my smoothie was a rainbow!
Safe to say I wasn’t too ashamed taking a sneaky food photo, everyone seemed to be doing the same.
I done ALOT of walking, probably the most I’ve ever done. So much so, my feet ended up with blisters on the first day. I remember trying to buy a pair of new shoes in a shop in Las Ramblas in the woman “shooing” me straight back out the door pointing at my feet telling me they were too small... so that was good. My feet hurt until El gave me a pair of her sandals (Which I loved and now need to find an excuse to borrow them again).
Getting around in Barcelona was easy enough once I got the hang of the Metro, I pretty much used the Barcelona Metro app to determine how I got to each of my desired destinations for the week. I bought myself a T10 - a ticket that got me 10 full journeys which lasted me for the week too.
I walked to the harbour, which ended up working out well, the walk from the harbour was a great starting point for ending up at the beach later on in the day. There was lots going on, markets, street entertainment and tonnes of food options. I spent approximately half an hour walking around with my jaw on the ground looking at all of the million pound yachts floating in the harbour.
And of course got myself an ice cream (marshmallow flavour)..
My days pretty much revolved around when I was going to try my next tapas dish or drink my next bowl of gin, and El’s working hours.
Getting around was so easy, I even managed to find my way back to El’s work and meet her for lunch a few times, I found a funny shaped building and that was my “I’m nearly there” sign...
At the weekend we got up early and made brunch for everyone, I was on the prep, El was cooking and Ana made her signature Venezuelian dish, Arepas...I still to this day haven’t tasted anything near as good.
That big bread bowl thing in the middle took all morning to make and nobody ate it because we couldn’t figure out how to cut it. It’s ok though - it looked good?
Nights were spent drinking, dancing and losing each other. Don’t remember that much of them but I know we had the best times. I had the hangover from hell to prove it in the morning.
This may be the only photo I have from a night out in Barcelona and it was only because, let’s call her Tina because I can’t remember her name, needed a pee and this guys “house?” was close by. He didn’t have any toilet paper.
My favourite night spot in Barca was “La Taverna” they do THEE BEST chips with cheese, bacon and ranch sauce and their cocktails are pretty fab too. They have live music every night, good live music at that and the atmosphere is incredible!
No trip to Barca is complete without those bacon and cheese La Taverna chips.
I managed to do so many touristy things during my time there, even though I feel like I’ve ticked most of them off my list, Barcelona is a place where you’ll want to visit time and time again.
The culture, architecture, history, cuisine and company are world class.
The sunshine is just a bonus.
Hangover free, I walked and walked and walked...and got the cable cars up to Montjuic.
The views from the top were incredible and it was a lot bigger than I had expected it to be.
The walk was 100% worth it, I passed places like the Olympic Stadium and the National Museum of Catalan Art which was beyond pretty. If you have the option, I’d always opt for the walk - you’ll pack a lot more into your day and not miss all of the perfect people watching spots and tapas bars on the way.
Whether you’re looking for a short city break, an adventure filled holiday or a shopping trip with a twist of sunshine, Barcelona is the place to be.