Three Days in Barcelona

We finally got to Barcelona Wednesday evening. As we were landing you could see them mounds of snow left from the blizzard on the landing strip, it was as if I had just landed in back in Chicago. We took a bus from Girona Airport to Barcelona, and Rachel’s friends Dana and Sean met us at the station. From there we took the metro to their apartment to drop our stuff off and get settled in.


One of the most famous Spanish dishes is called paella, it’s a rice dish made with either seafood or chicken. We went to this restaurant called Casa Juan, for some of the best paella in Barcelona. It was delicious, quite possible the best meal I had had in a long time. After dinner we headed back to their apartment to decide on our plans for the evening. We ended up going to a disco tech close to their place, and headed back pretty early since we were pretty worn out from all the travelling that day.

Barcelona’s culture of going out is a lot different than any other city I had been to. The locals here don’t bother going out until at least 1 or 2 and don’t actually get home until 6 or 7 in the morning! I’m sure you’re wondering how it is possible to function on little to no sleep, but they have come up with the perfect solution to this problem. First off, the days in Barcelona don’t start off early, and it is customary to take a siesta, Spanish for nap, each day. Many stores, restaurants and cafés close for a few hours in the day for a siesta.

Our first full day in Barcelona was a lot of fun. We started out the day by heading to Las Ramblas, a famous market in Barcelona located right on La Rambla street. There were a ton of street vendors, and a huge farmers market. Tons of fresh fruits, fresh fruit juice, vegetables, and more candy and chocolate than I had ever seen, flowers, vegetable plants for gardens and art work were all being sold. The street seemed to continue on for miles, but there was something very unique about this particular market.

Before we left the market we grabbed a quick lunch at a small falafel house. We then made our way to one of the famous parks in Barcelona, where Gaudi’s architecture can be observed. We took the metro to Park Güell and walked a steep incline, followed by hundreds of steps leading to one of the park’s entrances. We met Sean and Dana there, and walked through the entire park. It was at the highest point that we got an incredible panoramic view of the city. We took different paths which lead us to the “gingerbread houses”, to the famed arches designed by Gaudi, and to some beautiful mosaic art.

As it began to get dark we left the park, and headed to the Gothic Center for dinner. We went to this tiny restaurant called Pim Pam, one of Barcelona’s very own dives for the best burgers in Barcelona. After all that delicious food we head back to their apartment, an decided to get a good night’s sleep since we had a lot to cover tomorrow.

Friday proved to be a busy day, but we saw it all. We started out the day at Sagrada Familia, the famous church designed by Gaudi. Construction is still being carried out all according to his exact plans. Dana told us that in one of her classes, the professor mention that it is estimated to be completed in 50 years, which means somehow I will have to come back to see it completes! Each section is completely different, and there has been some controversy surrounding certain sections of the church, nonetheless it is still an incredible sight of the city.

We then headed back to the Gothic Center during the day, where some of Barcelona’s best architecture can be seen. There is a very old area of the Gothic Center, which includes the area that was the highest point of the city. Before building began spreading around the area from this point you could see straight across to the shoreline. And just about a five minute walk from there is the roman wall, and you can see how over the years it was added to and became a part of the city itself.

After leaving the Gothic Center went to go meet some of Rachel’s friends from home at the Arch de Triomphf. We then walked to see another beautiful park called, Parc de la Ciutadella. We walked around for quite a bit, and then headed to the beach. Although it was cold, it was nice to just walk along the beach and relax for awhile. We walked along the coast, and stumbled onto a demo track setup for the new Audi A1. We stopped there and got to see the latest model, and ever got to take a test drive of the car!

At the end of the day we headed back to their apartment, and got ready to go out to dinner. Out last meal in Spain was perfect, authentic Spanish cuisine, yum. We went out for a little bit, but turned in early since we need to catch our flight to the last leg of our journey. We woke us early, and began to make our way to Dublin, Ireland. Adios Barcelona, Hello Dublin!

Pictures: Barcelona, Spain