It’s been a while since I left Barcelona. With my mum’s fall and subsequent wrist fracture, there was little time to breathe. Finally, I have had some time to gather myself and all the pictures from Barcelona and thought to share them here.

Doha to Barcelona

This year I didn’t expect to be traveling to Barcelona. My mom was kind of frustrated that my brother couldn’t come home and he was homesick too, so I made the last-minute decision for her to see him. It’s not easy to plan travel to Spain at the height of summer. Tickets were super expensive, and hotels were mostly full. The easiest part was getting visas since we have traveled to Europe before.

I prefer Qatar Airways for long haul flights. This time I had no choice but to travel with them because everything else was full. At Doha, it’s easy to see they’re getting ready for the World Cup. There were huge mascots at the terminal. I think I shared pictures on Twitter. And the cars, the lottery cars. They always have them. This time though I couldn’t even read the brand. I’m so out of touch with the car world.

I saw a whole bunch of people around the cars and I actually had to go read the signboard to find it was a McLaren Coupe. The color was nice but that was just about it. I don’t get the fascination with cars. I still took a selfie, with a car…. 🙂

Barcelona City

When we got to Barcelona in the morning, it was easy to check in and get our bearings. We first picked an apartment suite because my mom wanted a kitchenette. So we stayed in Gracia and loved the place because there were so many wonderful restaurants here. We were also 1 minute away from the train and 10 minutes from the metro by walking.

The first day we headed to La Sagrada Familia Church and found out you needed online tickets. There were none on site. So we just went on a tour of the city.

La Sagrada Familia

There’s so much to say about this absolute architectural masterpiece. It is so intricate. I highly advise taking the church tour because every single Biblical act depicted is explained. Remember, everything you pay in terms of tickets helps build this Basilica. For mass, you have to register weeks in advance. Antoni Gaudi’s work is just lovely. He lived on site for much of the work. And Gaudi is revered as a Catalan architect.

Montserrat

We took a tour to Montserrat which I wouldn’t advise with a group. It was too rushed and there was little time to even pee on our trip. If you go here, hire your own vehicle and do it at leisure. They have a hotel that you can check into for a few nights. The Montserrat mountains provide a good backdrop for Our Lady of Montserrat. It’s a lovely place and good place to pray. We also had a chance to listen to the boy’s choir that sings for about ten minutes at noon.

Badalona

It’s almost impossible that you come to Barcelona and not head to the beach. The only problem was that most of Barcelona’s beaches are nude and my mother would be absolutely scandalized. Not to mention that she would skin Mark and me. So he decided to take us to a conservative beach in Badalona on the outskirts of the city. It was a very hot day, so we spent the day by the water after taking the train ride. Pizza and lasagna by the beach was enough and then we headed back to the city.

Flamenco

Flamenco is a folk tradition of the gitano community in Andaluci. There’s dancing and traditional music. I didn’t understand much of it but it was very high intensity. Mark joined us for this and made fun of me for wanting to see this but he was open to it, because it’s a different experience.

La Boqueria

There are lots of food markets all over Barcelona. We wanted to go to to local one, St Caterina but Mark just suggested we go to the more universal and famous one, lest we get swindled. So citing safety in numbers we came here for lunch. It was a nice place where I got gelato. You can get lost here. I found a sandwich shop and then we never found it again. My mom got the mixed fried fish snack box and the fish here is very fresh.

Barceloneta

Barceloneta was built for the 1992 Olympics. All the apartments and the beach were for the athletes and the city is very quiet here. Hardly anybody around, as you can see. I had my churros here and it was a rather cold but lovely day. It’s a good place for a walk.

Park Guell

A word of caution to people. This is a very steep hike. My mom and I were both out of breath and had to stop. The escalators tend to not work. It’s good to get a tour guide of Gaudi’s inspiration of a park and homes that he had planned to build here. Very colorful and something out of a fairytale novel.

Las Arenas

This used to be a bullfighting ring that has now been converted into a mall. Lots of big brands are here if you’re into shopping. The views from the top are amazing as you can see all of the city. Our hotel was pretty close to this and we planned to eat dinner here on the weekday. Except it was super crowded and ended up going for tapas elsewhere.

Tapas

It’s a very traditional thing in Spain to eat out and to eat tapas. Each person at the table buys a round of snacks. I really wanted to do the tapas thing because they are all over Spain and chewed Mark’s brains until he took us there. My mom wasn’t too keen but I insisted. We went to watch a football match I think Barcelona versus Bayern Munich to the sports bar and ordered our tapas. Fried eggplant, fish, meatballs and fried chilies.

Food in Barcelona

The food is amazing. You can eat for cheap and you can go to expensive places. You can get a decent breakfast for under 5 euros. We ate plenty of fish, sandwiches and as you can see I ate a lot of meat. The food here is very fresh. I did sample the local churros and baked items. I didn’t eat the paella since I don’t eat crustaceans anymore. And no one in my family wanted to eat it.

Transport

Barcelona is very well connected via public transport. Everywhere you are not two blocks from a metro station, bus, train, or tram. The city is designed that way. Even my mum loved that we could simply travel everywhere with ease. There were some days we just took a bus like we did in Prague and got off the last stop.

Impressions of Barcelona

Barcelona is a beautiful well organized city. Catalans can be a bit closed off but overall, while Spanish people are open and nice. They like to laugh, don’t take anything too seriously and you have a very relaxed vibe there. My mom and I both enjoyed the place and would love to go again. Not sure if my mom wants to go with me. I dragged her everywhere and it was quite tiring. Now when I think back, I actually feel sorry about it. She hopes I can find someone who will love to travel the world with me so she won’t have to. Haha.

I would love to visit other parts of Spain. It’s not something you can do all in a month. I know lots of people who covered the whole of Barcelona in 2 days but that would be too tiring even for me. As you can see from my pictures from Barcelona, it takes time to savor the city. For me it was all about seeing my brother and so even if we just sat on a bench, it didn’t matter, as long as we were with him.

I will return to Spain’s other regions, Girona, Asturias, Madrid are top of my list. Mark suggests Valencia and especially Galicia. Let’s see.