Before I got home to Malta, of course I was a wise woman and made a good move and flew here through Barcelona! I’m a strategic traveller! Have to take everything out of it!!! Besides we decided to have our 30th B-Day trip together with Karla, just in the middle of our birthdays. A trip to remember! Barcelona quite surprised me. I didn’t know it could be so good, because Just everybody goes there! But now I can see it wasn’t only a tourist city but actually a really cool place, where I want to go very soon again.
Barcelona is a rich mix of urban street life, great shopping, culinary eating, decent drinking and fascinating nightlife. They always warn about thieves. So much that I thought; it’s stupid if have to be so careful all the time that can’t enjoy it. But it wasn’t that bad. And didn’t feel dangerous either. If you’re staying in a good location there’s nothing to worry about. But of course you have to carry a gun… – just kidding – …the famous common sense wherever you walk in the world.
We stayed in a perfect location in El Raval. And used Air BnB accommodation once again. It was a three minutes walk from the famous walking street La Rambla, which is of course full of tourists – especially during Sundays and summer time. But our location was very centric to go anywhere, even by walk. All the nice urban districts were walking distance. Of course we used metro too, which worked well in Barcelona. By Metro we went for example to the strand boulevard. Which was a nice place to walk around in a good weather. And the most beautiful thing to your ears was a Barcelona habited Cuban musicians, whose show we got stucked to watch. In general Barcelona feels musical and rhythmic. And colourful and crazy. A little bit of Gaudi in your life, a little bit of Picasso by your side etc.
El Raval itself was a nice street style urban mecca full of skateboarders and hipsters. Nice restaurants and pubs, the price level coming a bit up. Anyway an enjoyable area to spend some time by the glass, sitting in the sunny plaza in the middle of the day, or in a warmly lightened small pub in the evening. No matter if you drink a pint of local beer or a glass of white or red wine, cocktail of Aperol spritz, Sangria jug or Michelada – a spiced beer. All drinks so good and make the holiday feeling. And readers; don’t get me wrong, even though I’m hyping alcoholic drinks I’m far from a drunk. Especially by the age I just so much enjoy that one pint or two glasses. That is the best! I don’t want to get drunk anymore. I want to enjoy the moment, use all my senses and remember that perfect moment in life!!! Besides there was so much to see, yum loads of eye candy in Barcelona! WTF hot dudes just everywhere! Me and Karla were having a pool of dribble under us all the time. Huuuh. We also probably saw the most beautiful guy in the world, he must have been Jesus. Hahaa!
Other nice area to have some tapas or a nice Sunday brunch was Born. We had a great Sunday afternoon while eating delicious organic food at Milk. With 15 euros you got great food, coffee and Mimosa. Not bad. I think the price-quality fact was well set many places in Barcelona. Even Milk’s sister restaurant Marmelade that we also happened to pop by was really yummy and reasonable. I ate my first Ramen noodle burger, which was really good and cost only ten euros. So you can really find good culinary experiences in Barcelona, but I think you need to review where to go. If we just walked somewhere in the touristic plaza the food was usually more expensive and nothing special. Make a bit more effort and you can have some real hedonistic moments…
We also shopped a bit and went out in the old town area of Gotic- it’s a beautiful part of the city consisting numerous narrow atmospheric streets just next to El Raval. So everything was pretty much fluent and easy on this trip. Even coping with English is totally cool and guaranteed. Barcelona was the -92 Olympic city and has been very international ever since. Of course it’s nice and polite to know some basic phrases to use – but anyway you can melt into the relaxed lifestyle easily. Go there. VAMOS!
Quick facts:
– Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, the autonomous community of Spain. It has a wild difficult history, which can be still sensed today. Catalonia only got its autonomy back in 1979.
– Population more than 7,5 millions.
– They speak both Catalan and Spanish – it seems that also English is widely known.
– Currency euro.
– Best time to visit, spring and autumn when the city is not that touristy and not too hot. Even though there are always visitors!
– A lot of things to do. Four days is good to get a picture and come back. One week and you get more extensive experience.
– Barcelona only got its chilling beach side just before the Olympic Games 92. Ever since it has been a great capital city with beach, awesome!
