At the end of August, my boyfriend and I got away to Spain for a week. We decided to go Barcelona and the Costa Brava, since his godmother had two apartments, one in each location. We were then lucky enough to have two flats for ourselves, perfectly located - in Barcelona we were in the old town, right in the city center, while on the Costa Brava we stayed in a flat located 5 minutes away from the beach. Our only concern was then to make the most of it.
This short get away was a real dream, before this more complicated year to come. I will stay here in Geneva, trying to figure out my future through internships and collaboration for the blog, while he will go back to Amsterdam to pursue his studies at the conservatory. So this holiday was a necessity for us, a time to be together, just him and I. And, well, it was just a marvelous holiday. Now that he is back in Amsterdam, all I want is to rewind and go back there with him only, just the two of us.
Day 1
We arrived late on a Wednesday afternoon, and on that first night what we did got limited to one thing: finding food. But even this errand - or even wander - was a nice little adventure. Since the flat was perfectly located, we got the the Plaça Catalunya in a 20 minutes walk, and ate our dinner at this emblematic spot.
The next day, which was our first real day there, we decided to go back to the heart of the city, around the Plaça Catalunya. We wandered all the way there through the old town, which is not the most touristic place, rather a residential area. However, how beautiful! We stumbled upon really cute streets, and enjoyed the calm before the storm. Because we have to face the facts, Barcelona is a massive touristic destination in Europe, and finding locals would have been a hard task. However, the old town has kept its charm, and while walking around this area of town, we really felt like we were lost in a foreign place.
At some point, we reached one of the main tourists attraction of Barcelona, the Ramblas. It is basically a massive avenue, reserved to pedestrians, where you can find all sorts of touristy shops, selling souvenirs, guide books, or food. It is crowed and totally untypical, but the avenue is still worth a little walk.
After that, we decided to reach the Gothic Quarter. We did not have much plans, so once again we simply wandered around, and stumbled upon amazing monuments and architectures. We had the chance to see the Barcelona Cathedral, a real gothic master piece. This area of town was for sure my favorite, and as you'll see we went back there a few times. On that day, we walked a lot, and obviously ate some tapas for lunch, on the Plaça Real, a must see. I love this square, it is just so typical and cute! But be careful to avoid the extremely touristy restaurants. I would however recommend the one we went on that day, Ocaña, which served really good tapas and vegan burgers.
Barcelona is renowned for its architecture, and especially one architect, Gaudi. So one of the must see is for sure the Casa Batllo. You have to visit this house. The architecture is unreal, you will feel like you are lost on the set of a Wes Anderson movie. We enjoyed this experience a lot, and I would recommend it 10 on 10.
After this touristy day, my boyfriend, who is definitely not a fan of tourists traps, took us out of the center to go back to the old town. We found a local bar, with not a tourist on the terrace, and enjoyed our first glass of sangria. A wonderful first day.
On that second day we decided to head off to another touristy place: Montjuic. To join this hill, we walked from the flat to the Plaça Espanya. At that point, we realized that in this city everything was gigantic. The bigger, the better, if I may say. Even the roundabouts tend to be magnificent, ornamented with fountains and sculptures the size of a small house. Plaça Espanya is definitely worth the visit. But the best is definitely to see it from above. To do so, we entered into the old arenas of Barcelone - now changed into a massive mall - and climb all the way up to the last level to reach the top of the arenas. - Use the mechanic stairs, the elevator outside costs 1€!. From there, we had a beautiful view of Barcelona. We spotted Montjuic, the sea, and even the Sagrada Familia.
We spend the rest of the day wandering around Montjuic. I would recommend the National Art Museum simply to see the building, imposing and amazingly decorated in a gothic manner.
After a day spent walking in the sun, visiting and exploring more of Montjuic and of the old town on our way home, we decided to head to the beach to end the day. Instead of going to the over crowded Barceloneta, we went a little bit further to the Platja de la Mar Bella. The water was warm and refreshing and the same time, a real pleasure after a day of walking and sweating under the Spanish sun. We finished the day with lovely dinner in a rather local and un-touristy restaurant, in the Gothic Quarter, named Petra. We ate delicious food, with salt in our hair and tireness in our eyes, but infinitely happy about our start of holidays. An amazing second day there in Barcelona.
Day 3
This Saturday was supposed to be the last day before we would leave for the Costa Brava. So we decided to fit in as much as we could, knowing that we won't have much time left in town when we would come back. So we booked tickets to visit the so well-known Park Guell. The architecture of this park, the tiles spread everywhere around you, surrounding the place with a beautiful mix and match of colors, is surreal. Once again, it does not look like real life, but much more like a movie set.
To follow up on that day, we visited the magnificent Parc de la Ciutadella, beautifully ornamented by the most impressive fountain ever, before doing some shopping and strolling around MACBA, the Contemporary Art Museum, also well-known as a skate spot. We visited many skate shops - he is an adept of the brands they sell - and ended up going into every independent stores we met in the neighborhood.
For our last evening before going away to the Costa Brava, we once again went to the restaurant - I cannot even start to tell you how much food I had while on holidays - a vegan one, fitting my boyfriend's regime. It can be quite hard to find a vegan place in Barcelona, especially for tapas, but luckily I had apparently bought the perfect guide book - Lonely Planet ones are definitely the best - and they recommended this vegan tapas place called Sesamo. It is located in the old town, and serves amazing food. If you are vegan, you should definitely give it go! Because well, there, we had another wonderful evening.
In the coming weeks, I will post the second part of our travel diary. I want to keep the holiday spirit as long as I can, to live again my memories and remember every single moment our of wonderful time away. More than a travel diary, this series of two posts will be more than "lifestyle" ones, they will be a place to remember this precious week.
xo
Amy
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