Barcelona | 2016

 Finally!
Time to share with you about my amazing trip to Barcelona.
My friend, Guada and I decided to spend our spring break in beautiful Spain and I was soooo pumped for our holiday. This was my first time in Spain and I've always wanted to visit the country.
So we booked a 5 day trip and we stayed at Atenea Barcelona. Pretty good location as it was in the city and pretty close to the metro. The staff were brilliant as well, the receptionist helped us map out the best places to visit on our very first day, it was such a great help. We managed to hit up all the main tourist-y spots; the Gothic Quarters, Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, Barceloneta beach, Tibidabo Mountain, Casa Mila, La Ramblas. I have to admit, we walked a lot. We covered practically 3/4 of the city and all, in such a short time which I'm pretty proud of. I'm more of the exploring type on holidays like these, I save relaxing for beach or island holidays. I think my favourite spot we visited was Tibidabo mountain. It was gorgeous. Usually there's a cute tram that'll take you up the mountain but we didn't go on the right day, so we took a bus up the mountain and then a cable car to its peak. I loved it there. When we went the amusement park was close but it was still beautiful to see the view of city from up there. There's a church on the mountain that we visited and we continued to climb up even higher to the roof of the church. That was a little scary because you had to climb up these narrow spiral staircases and the balcony at the top was pretty compact so you had to manoeuvre yourself well around other people. It was great fun though and completely exhilarating to be up so high and taking in the amazing view of the Barcelona. We also spent 2 days at the beach which Guada enjoyed a lot. I had a good time relaxing under shade with a good book and just soaking up the atmosphere and the heat. Barceloneta beach is one of the more popular beaches and it can get pretty crowded, so coming early to pick a good spot is never a bad idea. The Sagrada Familia was another spectacular attraction. I enjoyed learning the history about this famous basilica and the architect/artist behind it, Antoni Gaudi. I still can't believe how massive and intricate the architecture is, pictures don't do it justice at all. I really want to return when the basilica is finally completed. We also visited another one of Gaudi's creations which was Park Guell. Now while the park was interesting, it wasn't exactly spectacular. I don't know what I was expecting from it but it wasn't as great as the hype made it out to be. Still we walked about and took some beautiful pictures in the park that sorta made up for it. I think the best dish I tried during the trip was paella. It was my first time trying this Spanish dish and i'm glad I got to do it in the city known for it. It was absolutely delicious. I'm allergic to shellfish so I didn't try the seafood platter but the chicken one was still as good. It was a shame we didn't get to try tampas though. Barcelona is definitely a foodie haven. There's so much good food around to try especially at the food market off La Ramblas. I had a really great trip and I can't wait to come back or maybe visit another part of Spain next. Have any of you been?

Talk soon xx