Barcelona Trip

I still have other trips to catch up on posts about, but I wanted to share my post about my Barcelona trip earlier this month. It was a super fun trip. In hindsight I’m not really sure exactly what I was expecting, but the city itself was definitely different than I thought it be. I wouldn’t say I instantly fell in love as with some of the other places I’ve been to, but overall we did have a really good experience there. 

Itinerary:

Thursday

We landed in Barcelona around 8pm and took a taxi from the airport to our Air Bnb in the Gràcia neighborhood. That night we went to dinner at Bar Lobo, which was more American/fusion food, but really good and had the yummiest Cava Sangria. Afterwards we went to the club Sala Apolo. The DJ that night played a mix of 80’s music and pop and it was super fun and lively. 

Friday

On Friday morning we went to brunch at Brunch and Cake, an adorable café I had seen recommendations for. I got French Toast and it did not disappoint - however, the menu and some of the combinations are definitely a bit out there. I think going with something sweet over savory is the way to go here. I had seen online that they have a bakery also, but it turns out the location we went to didn’t. There was another location nearby called Cup and Cake that had one, so we went there after. I got a red velvet cupcake and it was amazing - I hadn’t had one in a while! After that we headed to Park Güell. When we got there and tried to buy tickets to go into the famous section (there are other parts that don’t require tickets, but you definitely want to get tickets so you can go into this area), we were informed that the next time slot they had available tickets for was the next day at 6:30pm. So that was a little annoying, but at least we were able to get tickets. So I would suggest going there as soon as possible to try and get tickets. Next, we headed to La Sagrada Familia (we just walked, as it was only about a 25 minute walk) and faced the same problem, except sadly all their tickets were sold for the next two days, so we weren’t able to go inside it at all during our trip. This was definitely frustrating, but it was a major oversight on our part not buying tickets online in advance - we knew this was an option but for some reason were under the impression we could just do it easily a few hours before or not at all! So I definitely recommend buying tickets for that in advance. Determined to actually see something famous, we headed to Casa Batlló, which Guadi also designed. We were able to go inside that and were given headsets for an audio/visual reality tour, which was interesting. After that we headed back to our apartment to relax a little bit and get ready for the night. We really wanted to find authentic paella for dinner, and thanks to a recommendation from a friend who had studied abroad in Barcelona, we found this paella restaurant called Taverna El Glop that was conveniently only a 5 minute walk from our apartment. We didn’t have a reservation so we had to wait about 30 minutes, but thankfully we were able to get in and it was amazing. We all had the chicken and vegetable paella and finished every last bite. That night we went to the club Opium near the beach, which was recommended to us by a lot of our friends who had been. It was really fun - we were also invited to go into the VIP area which never hurts!

Saturday

On Saturday morning we had brunch at another cute restaurant, Picnic. We didn’t have a reservation so also had to wait a little bit - I would also recommend making reservations at restaurants ahead of time! This restaurant was also really yummy and it was nice to have a typical brunch. I went savory and had avocado toast. Afterwards, we set off for La Rambla street, which was only about a 15 minute walk away. However on the way we passed a ton of really cute boutiques on little side streets, so we spent time browsing those. I got earrings at one of them. We also passed another cute bakery (they’re everywhere in Barcelona) called Demasié which had different flavored cinnamon rolls and I got a red velvet one (was really getting my real velvet fix this weekend). Eventually we made it to La Rambla street, but it’s super touristy and I much preferred the quieter side streets. Around La Rambla street they have all the popular European high street stores (Zara, Bershka, H&M, etc.) and all the locations of them were huge and looked really nice. It would have been fun to have more time to shop in those stores too, but we can also do that back in Rome and we had a lot on the itinerary for the day! Right off of La Rambla street we went to La Bouqeria market, which is super cool. I didn’t end up eating anything there because I was still full from brunch, but all the different stands looked so good. After that we headed back to the apartment for a little bit, then walked to Park Guell (it was only about 10 minutes from our apartment, uphill though!) to get in for our scheduled time slot. Unfortunately a lot of the area was under construction, but it was super still pretty to walk through and of course get plenty of pictures at the famous Instagram spot. After that we walked up to this Bunker that is famous for its views of the city, especially at sunset. There wasn’t much of a sunset because it was a pretty cloudy day, but it was still a cool view of the city. Just a few hours before we had made a reservation at a restaurant called La Fonda that we had also seen recommended, which was helpful because it was Saturday night. So we went there and it was really good. The restaurant appears pretty fancy/high-end, but had really good prices. We were all super hungry so we each ordered a tapa to ourselves as an appetizer, but they were pretty substantial sizes and all only €5-7 each. The main courses were also all only €11 or 12. I had calamari and shellfish. 

Then we headed back to our apartment to pack up and sleep for a few hours, because unfortunately our flight home Sunday morning was at 6am and we had been warned that there were potential strikes with RyanAir workers so to get there earlier than normal. I was definitely very tired after the weekend as it is a city that stays up late but also of course we had to get up early to fit in everything we wanted to do, but it’s worth it! Friday was definitely a little frustrating when things didn’t go to plan but know we now for next time, and I really enjoyed Saturday and the trip overall. 

Some other things to keep in mind:

There’s no Uber in Barcelona, but you can order taxis with the app FreeNow. They’re pretty cheap, especially when splitting them between a few people, but also not the most reliable and it often took us a while to get one. 

The city is quite spread out, so I recommend thinking about where you want to go/do and where these things are in relation to each other ahead of time.

The girls at Park Güell

The cutest brunch place

French Toast from Brunch & Cake

Casa Batlló

La Bouqeria