Fascinating Barcelona

A compilation of our discoveries

¡ HOLA !

I am writing this third travel narrative for fun (again) ! Thank you for you kind feedbacks and shares. It is a good exercise for me to write in English. This time, my story takes place in Southern Europe. I am happy to tell you a bit about my quick trip to Barcelona, Spain. It is about 1250 km from my town.


One month after I came back from India, Lisa, an old school friend of mine, suggested me to spend a few days in Spain. As we had no summer weather at all in Normandy, one of our biggest motivation was to enjoy the sun of Barcelona, and discover this wonderful city. We both graduated and will enter the labour market, so this trip together was a kind of a reward... The symbol of the end of student life but the beginning of something very exciting as well. 


TRAVELING TO Catalunya, SPAIN

Monday 4th july

We took off at 9.30 PM at the airport of Paris Beauvais. Lisa was a bit scared of flying, especially when we took off. We arrived at 11.30 PM in Barcelona-El prat. The weather was quite hot and we could see the first gigantic palm trees. We took a taxi to go to our Airbnb accommodation in the attractive Gracia quarter. 

Our first impression of our host, Gisela, was quite awkward. We could see a slim silhouette of a woman surrounded by cigarette smoke welcoming us at the top of the stairs. 


Her catchy and warm voice full of enthousiasm made us feel at ease though. Lisa can understand and speak a bit of Spanish because she practiced it at school. I took German, so she was my personal translator. Lisa got on well very quickly with our host and it seemed that they knew each other since forever.

Gisela was speaking quite fast but we understand the basics and we follow her in her atico (penthouse). We have a small room without air conditioning, and we share the bathroom and the kitchen with her and other guests. She offered us food and drinks. Then she explained she is kind of a party animal, and that night was a friend's 33rd birthday so she left.

THIS FLAT IS OUR NEW HOME ! … ALMOST

We enjoyed a few minutes of freedom in the south terrace, chatting and drinking on the sofa, and suddenly we heard a masculine voice saying Hola! It was a welsh guy with his italian girlfriend. We had a nice chat with these happy travelers. They explained to us how they fell in love with the city. Basically they spent their time walking in the streets and exploring. They were completely crazy about Barcelona ! They adviced us good bars in Gracia, like Old fashioned or El ciclista. 

Farniente

Gaudi's creation

Tuesday 5th july

After a short night, we decided to head to Parc Güell on foot. As our new friends from last night told us, no need to pay to take great delight in rambling in the gardens. Everything was just... delightful. We had a very nice walk.







BARCELONETA

We went to Barceloneta taking the metro in the afternoon. Then we walked along the marina to reach the beach where we chilled a few hours. The place was crowed. The sea was clear and clean though. Then we discovered Port Olympic. 

Several people accosted us to have a rickshaw ride but we preferred having footsore !






MEETING A LOCAL IN BARCELONA

Before coming here, I did some researches trying to find a place to stay in Couchsurfing.com. Toni, a young worker, couldn't host us but suggested to meet up and show us some interesting places. He told me : I live near Paralell. I thought he was living alongside Gracia. At the end of the day, I found out that Paral·lel is a metro station 40 min from our quarter. Anyway, it was a funny meeting ! He was very very very talkative... 


Barrio Gotic

Wednesday 6th july

We walked to the gottic quarter. It was very beautiful. Cathedral, gargoyles, old stones… We admired the architecture. I bought a book about modernisme "Art Nouveau", beyond Gaudi.







TASTY CATALAN FOOD





Menu del dia 10,95€

RAMBLA

Plaza Real






SAGRADA FAMÍLIA




PASSEIG DE GRACIA





Tapa tapa




REFRESHING SWIMING POOL

Gisela was so excited to take us to the swiming pool as the weather was very hot. She was singing "Piscina, Piscina ! " 

THE MOUNTAINS OF MONTJUÏC



RUmba concert





Like teens !!