Spain Bucket List--Barcelona in 2 Days

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After a long time, I’ve finally been reunited with my laptop. I survived, but it’s nice to be able to type on a keyboard again! After multiple tearful goodbyes in Ourense at the end of May, I took an overnight train to Barcelona. That’s basically traveling across Northern Spain in about 13 hours. It was pretty comfortable in the ‘Gran Butaca’ seats and a cheap way (38 euros) to get to Barcelona because I’d booked a couple months in advance.



Barcelona, in its big-city, tourist-attracting way, reminded me of Madrid. I only had a day and a half there, but I walked a ton and saw just as much. At that point, it was the most beautiful big city I’d been to (now I’m changing that to Lisbon . . . ). The architecture is romantic, along tree-lined boulevards. There were also a variety of restaurants from all over the planet, which was exciting, coming from a city with 2 Chinese restaurants, 3 kebab shops, and 1 expensive Japanese restaurant.



Because of my uncertainty regarding the next time I’d be paid, I didn’t splurge on the typical tourist attractions—Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia. I wandered the free section of Park Guell and stood outside the Sagrada Familia, but there’s not much you haven’t seen in pictures and videos before than you see in person. I did particularly like the residential neighborhood north of the Sagrada Familia. The Gothic Quarter was also charming, despite the crowds in certain areas.



I was surprised that Barcelona isn’t as much of a beach city as I’d expected. I attempted to walk to one beach, but got stopped by railroad tracks, so I walked to a harbor instead. It was an interesting area to people-watch.



I also stumbled upon the Arco de Triunfo, which had very busy parks nearby. Locals were out rollerblading, walking, hanging out, riding bikes, and old men played intense games of what looked like bocce.



In the evening, I climbed up to the free section of Park Guell, which is a bit unimpressive. The views are refreshing, but you don’t see a lot of Gaudi’s mark there.



Because it’s such a touristy city, I unfortunately had to get back into the mode of paying for toilets. There aren’t any toilets in subway stations, and if you come across one in public, for example the one in Park Guell, you have to pay around 50 cents to use it. That one, in fact, ate my change, so I couldn’t use it anyway!



Overall, although I found Barcelona beautiful, it was almost a bit too clean and perfect—lacking character, if you will. Also, it’s pretty flat, which makes walking easier, but I prefer hillier cities. I’d give it two-three days, three if you want a beach/mountain day.

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