I am so glad we topped off our trip in Barcelona. Though we were there for 4 days, there's honestly so much to do in this vibrant flare of a city. Factoring in some friends living outside of Barcelona, the list of places to explored baffled us! Spain, you are definitely expecting a return from me!
So Spaniards, or Catalan culture is quite unique from the rest of Europe. Not only are siestas renown (a break/resting period in the afternoon usually from 1-4pm), meal times are thus later in the day and night life is vibrant. Barcelona was also one of the more multicultural cities we've been to as we saw a bigger populations of minority groups and various Asian restaurants in the downtown core making us believe that the city is rather racially diverse as compared to Italy and Greece. As Spain is one of the more Southern countries of Europe, there are also lots of Muslims and Africans that move here from Africa as its relatively close on the map.
What ultimately threw us off was surprisingly the weather. We had thought Spain would be the hottest destination for us with radiating sunlight and beaming hot weather, but the time we were there was quite cool and we had just missed the heat wave the week prior. Also, having had the opportunity to drive in Barcelona, I can honestly say that roads are small, parking is tight despite the fact that everyone is able to reverse and parallel park like a wish come true, and Spaniards LOVE LOVE LOVE RIGHT TURNS?! They rather have a traffic circle than an intersection. I never thought I say this, but highway driving is so much easier than driving in town, at least for Barcelona.
Our first full day led us to explore downtown and kicked off the day at
Il Cortes Ingles, a franchise department store throughout Spain. The one right downtown at the
Catalunya metro station has a rooftop cafeteria style eatery (think Ikea) and restaurant (lunch opens at 1pm), that oversees the skyline and metropolitan area of Barcelona. We ate at the cafeteria since we didn't want to wait for post-siesta lunch hour to start at the restaurant and enjoyed it a lot. Though the food is cooked already, portions are huge and they warm it up for you upon ordering. Prices are also very reasonable for a view like this. I had stuff squid for 10 Euros! It was amazing!
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View from the rooftop of Il Cortes Ingles
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Afterwards, we wandered downtown enough to notice that Zara and its HQ of
Inditex chain stores are almost on every block. I was overjoyed to discover
Lefties, a discounted line under the Inditex group. Oh and for all you European travellers, the prices of clothing at Zara in Spain is cheaper than the rest of Europe since the brand started and manufactures there. I should've waited instead of having had made a purchase back in Italy, but oh well.. lesson learnt.
Trekking to
Casa Batllo, I not only fell in love with the medieval-gothic-fantasy like fusion of architecture Barcelona had to offer, but also the late
Anthony Gaudi's work sighted throughout the city. We also checked out the
Gothic Quarter and respectively the
Born District which is an area of local clothing boutiques, novelty shops, eateries and one of a kind finds. There's a mysterious and somewhat dark vibe wandering this area (hence the name), but its super safe...perhaps not at night, but we made so many fun discoveries checking out the stores.
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| Interesting building sighted wandering the streets of downtown |
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| Spanish sausage in a cone anyone? |
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| A random wall of art & graffiti in the Gothic Quarter |
That night, we were able to catch the famous
Flamenco Show at the
Palau de la Musica Catalana. Funny story, we were looking at postcards and one with the interior of this gorgeous theatre stopped us to question what building it was and what purpose it served. To our luck, it happened to be right across from us and the Flamenco show schedule just happened to fall on that night! It was meant to be and for our 35 Euros upper deck seats, it was such a "must see" cultural experience. Prior to this eventful evening, we also had the most amazing tapas (small savoury dishes typically served at dinner) ever nearby at a place called
Taller De Tapas. I actually wish we ate more tapas because these savoury dishes in Spain are amazing!!
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| Gorgeous interior! |
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| AMAZING steak + foie gras tapas |
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Tapas for one nomNomNOM (but can serve two!) |
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Afterwards, we wandered downtown enough to notice that Zara and its HQ of Inditex chain stores are almost on every block. I was overjoyed to discover Lefties, a discounted line under the Inditex group. Oh and for all you European travellers, the prices of clothing at Zara in Spain is cheaper than the rest of Europe since the brand started and manufactures there. I should've waited instead of having had made a purchase back in Italy, but oh well.. lesson learnt.
So Spaniards, or Catalan culture is quite unique from the rest of Europe. Not only are siestas renown (a break/resting period in the afternoon usually from 1-4pm), meal times are thus later in the day and night life is vibrant. Barcelona was also one of the more multicultural cities we've been to as we saw a bigger populations of minority groups and various Asian restaurants in the downtown core making us believe that the city is rather racially diverse as compared to Italy and Greece. As Spain is one of the more Southern countries of Europe, there are also lots of Muslims and Africans that move here from Africa as its relatively close on the map.
Our first full day led us to explore downtown and kicked off the day at Il Cortes Ingles, a franchise department store throughout Spain. The one right downtown at the Catalunya metro station has a rooftop cafeteria style eatery (think Ikea) and restaurant (lunch opens at 1pm), that oversees the skyline and metropolitan area of Barcelona. We ate at the cafeteria since we didn't want to wait for post-siesta lunch hour to start at the restaurant and enjoyed it a lot. Though the food is cooked already, portions are huge and they warm it up for you upon ordering. Prices are also very reasonable for a view like this. I had stuff squid for 10 Euros! It was amazing!
That night, we were able to catch the famous Flamenco Show at the Palau de la Musica Catalana. Funny story, we were looking at postcards and one with the interior of this gorgeous theatre stopped us to question what building it was and what purpose it served. To our luck, it happened to be right across from us and the Flamenco show schedule just happened to fall on that night! It was meant to be and for our 35 Euros upper deck seats, it was such a "must see" cultural experience. Prior to this eventful evening, we also had the most amazing tapas (small savoury dishes typically served at dinner) ever nearby at a place called Taller De Tapas. I actually wish we ate more tapas because these savoury dishes in Spain are amazing!!
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