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Published: October 12th 2007
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Suffice to say we loved Barcelona! We spent 3 nights in the city just laxing out, strolling the streets, drinking Sangria, and eating tapas! We found a cool Irish bar that had heaps of big screen tvs and who were only too happy to let us watch the America's Cup races that were going on while we were there (yes, London does not have the slightest interest in the Cup so we didn't even know it was going on until Dad reminded us!!) Plus the bar had 2 vodkas and red-bulls for 5 euro so we drank a fair few of them during the afternoons....
The city is very cool, small enough to feel we got the gist of it within only 3-4 days, but plenty big enough to leave us wishing we hd more time to see EVERYTHING! Our Hostel was fantastic (Hostal Martina) the lady running it spoke virtually NO english but she was soooo sweet and friendly that it really wasnt a problem! The room was clean comfortable and spacious and had clearly been re-fitted recently as evrything was near new 😊 We arrived at about 1am, but Maria's (the land lady) brother let us in and
showed us our room etc - he was awesome too!!
We woke after a great nights sleep and discovered we were right in the heart of the city - very close to the fabled 'La Rambla' - a long street which travels from the harbour straight up the middle of the city - covered with shops, cafe's restaurants and plazas etc etc. We walked to Plaza Catalunya, but found we were too early for the Spanish and retired to a nice little cafe for a lazy breakfast - this turned out to be quite exciting as a cleaning lady mangaed to smash a window out onto the street! She was soooooo embarrased, she could barely compose herself enough to bring us our food! Meanwhile the pedestrains simply walked over the glass like it wasn't even there!
After a brekky of Bikinis for Martin (cheese and ham toastie) and croissants for Kristi, we wandered into the central city, which was slowly waking up!Barcelona has oodles of incredible architechture - the majority of it inspired by the hometown hero Antonio Gaudi - it was impossible to escape mention of this great architect - buildings, sculptures, statutes, plaques etc -his influence
and memory was everywhere! (and this was before we even saw the Sagra de familia!!) His style of work is very impressive, from the smooth curves to the towering gothic structures - I don't think we have been to a city before where we left with such a strong impression of the art and architechture - it really is amazing to see.We spent our first day wandering around in awe, admiring the vibrancy of the city and the many many interesting sites! (a photographers dream!) we spent a few lazy hours in our favourite irish pub, watching the americas cup and relaxing - before returning to the hostal for a siesta before dinner! The food in Barcelona was great - we had a quick meal and then just wandered the streets, soaking up the night time atmosphere 😊
The next moring we exlpored the beach area and watched a bit more sailing - we spent quite a bit of time at La Rambla - looking at all the cool street performers and, curiously, the dozens of pet stalls right in the middle of the street! Had a great lunch of baguettes and sangria in the middle of a very
busy square, right beside Plaza Catalunya - while Barcelona is not all that cheap in general, it is still possible to eat and drink very well on a tightish budget! Again we spent the afternoon hours exploring, sitting in the bar and having a siesta (how easy is it to adopt that particular tradition!!!)
For dinner we went to a fantastic tapas restaurant and manged to gorge ourselves on incredibly tiny dishes - tapas are a great way to eat - So much fun! Dessert was, of course, gelato! We had planned to go to a club, but were tooo sleepy from all the sangria and walking and just crashed in the end!
We woke on our last morning ready to take in the sights a bit more further afield (we had a very late flight out) - first we walked to Sagra de Familia - which is absolutely incredible - what was Gaudi thinking I wonder? - it's monstrous! But in a good way! From there we hopped on a city tour bus and cruised around the rest of the major sights in Barcelona - including a trip to Barcelona FC stadium and to the hills overlooking
the city which provided breathtaking views of the whole area! the bus tour was excellent - we saw sooooo much of the city, it made us certain we will need to return one day! We still managed to fit in a few drinks at the Irish bar before reluctantly heading to the hostal to get our gear and head to the bus station for our transfer to the airport 😞
Barcelona left quite an impression on us both, it's such a beautiful city, the people are friendly, food and drinks are fantastic and the sights are incredible!! we were both quite sad to be heading back to London, but at the same time we were stoked we decided to take this cheeky weekend break!!
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