Barcelona finale

Tara Larkai
May 11, 2014
3 min read

Chloe and I had two nights left to spend in Barcelona before heading to Italy. Our plan was to explore the city and visit the main attractions such as Sagrada Familia, La Boqueria market, la Ramblas, plaza catalunya and Barceloneta beach area. It took a couple blocks of walking from our hotel and a couple of trains before we arrived at Sagrada familia. The train station was very easy and simple to navigate however most of the signs were in Spanish. Luckily, I speak and read a little bit of Spanish (Rosetta stone to be thanked for this) so we did not need much help. Anyone who has ever been to Sagrada Familia can attest to how spectacular and magnificent this building is in person. It is MASSIVE and has lots of intricate details in the designs. Pictures do not do it justice. I can probably say that it is one of the most visited attractions in Barcelona as evidenced by the amount of people we saw there. The line to see the inside of the church was about a mile long so we just opted to admire and enjoy the outer beauty of the building. This is a must do in Barcelona!

The gods were on our sides because the weather was amazing especially for October, it was about 65 degrees Fahrenheit and it felt good walking around the city. We had become professionals at taking the train now. Port of Vell and Barceloneta were only a train ride away from Sagrada Familia. All the buildings seem to have a common theme of being huge with historical features. We quickly realized that Spaniards did not typically eat full meals instead they eat tapas for lunch and dinner; we joined in on this trend and sampled several tapas while touring. They were quite good, we had mussels, fried potatoes, calamari etc. On this particular day, Barceloneta was not too packed. There were a few people on the beach but then again it was a weekday. We saw several African refugees walking around selling fake goods such as Beats headphones and Barcelona jerseys. I guess there is a Chinatown in every country…lol.

We found a “faux” lock bridge near the beach. Similar to the one in Paris however it is much much smaller and had only a couple of locks on them. (Very corny!)

We explored La Boqueria market where we found some of the most unique looking foods and snacks enjoyed by the Spaniards. La Boqueria is in the vicinity of La Rambla after a few blocks of walking through alleys. Alleys in Barcelona are somewhat interesting as they have restaurants and stores on each corner and nothing like NYC alleys (Thank God!).

I finally gave Chloe a tour of La Rambla and Plaza catalunya like I had planned to. We Finally had our first Paella in La Rambla and we were not impressed, to say the least. We had read a lot about paella being the best thing to eat while in Spain but this particular Paella just did not do it for us. It kind of ruined it for us. Perhaps, we did not eat at the right restaurant? Oh well!

If you ever find yourself in Barcelona, please be sure to stay in a hotel that has a rooftop to see the view of the city especially in the afternoon during siesta..lol It is absolutely beautiful! Our hotel had a rooftop with a pool and that is where we pretty much breaked for siesta each day.