After arriving back from sunny Spain, I am now sitting at my desk at work looking out my window at the miserable grey skies in England reminiscing about the beautiful streets and beaches of Barcelona.

DAY ONE
Barcelona was absolutely beautiful. We stayed with family friends in a suburb called Castelldefels. We were so close to the beach that when we arrived we went straight to the beach ready to soak up the sun. This little town was a perfect little beach resort town, streets with lots of cafes and bars to have a cocktails and tapas in the sun. We spent the afternoon lying on the beach and scoping out some places to eat.
I found a restaurant on trip advisor, and I have to say this was one of the best places we went to. Com a Casa is a little quaint Spanish restaurant, they have a variety of food and they tend to change up the menus quite often. The service was great, there menus were in Spanish, so I advise to brush up on some Spanish. I ordered a chicken salad and my partner ordered a burger. It was so delicious, Hands down the best meal we had in Spain and amazing customer service.

DAY TWO
The next day we woke up pretty early and headed straight in to the city centre of Barcelona, We found the cutest little cafe that sold Churros... Yes that’s right Nutella filled Churros for breakfast. As we stuffed our faces, we admired the amazing architecture of Antioni gaudi's Sagrida Familia. From previous experiences I booked a tour in advanced this was only an hour tour through Get Your Guide. We got to skip the line and go right in, the tour was interesting but it lacked passion and enthusiasm. The Sagrida was amazing, the architecture was amazing and the story about how Gaudi wanted the inside to be lit by natural light astounded me. The colours Guadi choose for the stained glass windows reflected the times of day. This building is truly spectacular and a well worth the visit.

   



We brought a hop on and of bus pass for the day, which I found this was a total rip off! 28 euros for a day each. We would have been better off buying a Barcelona pass which you can use the metro unlimited..... I really wish I had done my research. If you are one to sit on a bus for 2 hours of your day stuck in traffic listening to the history of a city every 15 minutes then I highly recommend it. We stopped off by the port and walked back through the old gothic quarter through the alley ways. This was by far my favourite part of the city. As we were walking through this part of town there were so many buskers and performances. At one point there were random people doing salsa to music buskers in a square.

We finally arrive at The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia the old gothic architecture was spectacular. Walking through the archways of the church you can’t look anywhere but up. Have a good look around when you are in this cathedral as we almost missed the courtyard with all of the Geese. It’s a beautiful sanctuary - I’ve never been in a cathedral like it.

TIP: Any sacred place (AKA Cathedrals) in Europe you must have your shoulders, stomach and thighs covered so keep and cardigan handy and also wear a long dress or long shorts, sorry boys same goes for you otherwise you will denied entry.



By this point of the day we were exhausted, so we jumped back on the train back to the Villa. I had always known about siestas but I didn’t know that everything is closed from 4pm till 8.30pm. Which means when it comes to dinner - you’re not having it till 9pm or even 10pm. This day we decided to hit the supermarket and pick up a few snacks to eat for dinner as we wanted an early night.

DAY THREE
Because the day before was a crazy busy day, we decided to take our third day pretty slow and relaxing. We slept in and then headed out for some breakfast at a same little cafe called Takau Bar. We spent the morning on the beach once again focusing getting a sun kissed tan. Once we had enough sun we headed back to the villa to get ready for a fun packed afternoon in the city centre. Once we got off the metro we headed to The Hard Rock Cafe (it’s starting to become and tradition of ours). Once we filled our bellies with tapas we hit the streets to walk to the Park Guell. (Park Güell is where Gaudí turned his hand to landscape gardening. It’s a strange, enchanting place where his passion for natural forms really stood out.)


TIP: We brought tickets the day before as the lines we crazy the day before.

As we were walking up to the park we stopped by Casa Batllo to have a quick look and take a few snaps of the building. Once we go to the park the view of Barcelona was stunning it was in the afternoon, the sun was slowly setting. It was the perfect way to spend our last afternoon in Barcelona.


We headed back down the hill to head home. We passed a lovely restaurant (I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called... sorry) on the way home that had authentic paella. I’m not a huge fan of seafood so I asked for one with chicken, but unfortunately they brought out a dish that had fish and chicken.

TIP: A paella dish will usually serve 2 or 3 people.

DAY FOUR
This was travel day for us. Once again we headed for the beach got breakfast at our favourite spot Takau Bar, they made the nicest smoothies and milkshakes (I wish we found them on day one). After breakfast we spent the rest of the morning on the beach before we had to head back and pack.

If I could reflect on Barcelona, you will need to know the basics for the language. It’s also polite to try and speak the language. I would advise staying out of the city central but close to the metro system. It was so easy to figure out the transport system that's even without knowing Spanish. I would also look in to buying a Barcelona pass which gives you unlimited travel around the city. Barcelona is one of my favourite places the food, atmosphere, people and sites were so amazing. Thank you Barcelona for being a great city.