Parc Güell in Barcelona - Architecture by Gaudi
Barcelona is definitely one of my favourite places that I went to in Europe (ok, I say this about almost everywhere I went to!). It had a very lively and relaxed atmosphere, beautiful and very unique architecture, great food, and a fantastic mix of large European city and coastal town!
We spent our first night in a horrible hostel (as in we literally saw a cockroach crawling on a man downstairs where the computers were!), but finally found an amazing hostel for our following few nights, where we met tons of people from all over (well, mainly Canadian).
Our first day there, Meaghan and I explored the Ramblas, went to the beaches and the port, and walked around most of the city’s main centre, visited the ‘Sagrada Familia,’ and went to see other Gaudi Art Noveau buildings – just taking it all in. It was also nice, after 10 days in-land, to finally be by the sea again, breathing that precious sea air!
Night view of Casa Batlló
The second day I dragged Meaghan (and another friend from Canada whom we ran into in Barcelona) over to Mont Juïc, the place where they built most of the facilities for the 1992 Olympics – i must admit, i am an Olympics fan / geek – I am obsessed with medal counts, opening and closing ceremonies, and everything to do with Olympics – and it was the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona that really got me hooked, so this was in a way a wet dream for me (ok, not so much, but i was extremely excited) – we got to actually go inside and look at the stadium where the opening ceremonies happened, look at the entire Olympic grounds, the Olympic museum, and just explore everything up there.
After the first night, every other night in Barcelona was great. We had a great group of people at the hostel so we didn’t feel the need to leave, staying in at night to play drinking games (yay, $2 bottle of nasty wine), and made great connections. One of the nights, a big group of us (about 12 of us) went out to a tapas bar that was simply amazing — we got like 3 of everything and many pitchers of sangria and just shared it, and it was quite inexpensive (well, i do live in Vancouver, so everything seemed inexpensive in Spain!).
Our last day in Barcelona Meaghan and I went to ‘Park Güell’ where you can see the view of the entire city from above and look at various works of art (buildings, benches, etc) by Gaudi. We then went back to the city centre and visited Bari Gòtic (the Gothic area that spans about 4 blocks) walked around admiring the cool Gothic architecture and visited the gothic cathedral. We hung out at a large square (Plaça Catalunya) enjoying the sun, then headed back to the hostel for our belongings, before walking to the bus depot for another long (11 hour) bus ride to our next destination – Nice, France!
Barri Gòtic
I really do miss Barcelona – the people I met were amazing, and the city itself is simply breath-taking; it might not be the most beautiful, but it’s got a soul of its own that some other cities just don’t. I definitely go back there at some point in life (i wanna take my man!). Next time I also want to go see the Magic Fountain show at night, ’cause I didn’t find out about it until the day we were leaving – we saw it during the day, but it was off, and at night they have a large light and music display with the fountain’s water.
So much to do, Barcelona is truly the city for everyone, because no matter what you like, you will find it there!
Posted in •Barcelona
