Flight and the trip to the hostel were very uneventfull. KLM has perfect service as always and we arrived at Barcelona airport after 2 hours. It was suggested we'd take the train and subway to the hostel but we found out there is a special busservice that takes you to the center of the city in about 35 minutes (depending on traffic) for € 5,90 which is quite a nice deal.
However when we arrived at place de Catalunya my mother had the brilliant idea to walk to the hostel because she said the Ramblas wasn't that long as she remembered, well and we can certainly say memory isn't always right lol. It was hot and crowded and our hostel was near the end of the Ramblas so it took us a while to get there while dodging people with our suitcases.
The hostel was really nice but small but I see a hostelroom as a place to only sleep and not spend too much time in it. After unpacking and taking a little breather we went to explore town a little, looking for a place to eat lunch.
Gaudi museum in the same street as our hostel.
The Ramblas is one of the more popular streets of Barcelona filled with restaurants and streetpreformers. If you want to see your fair share of living statues, this is the place to be. Also pickpocket heaven so watch your stuff.
Loved this guy.
In my opinion dining at the Ramblas is overrated, it's expensive and not that great. I've eaten at much better spots elsewhere in town. When you walk down the Ramblas towards the sea you will run into the statue of Columbus point towards America.
Land ho!
And we walked down the boulevard towards the harbor. If you live in Barcelona you don't really have to own a car. Public transportation is perfect here and most people own a scooter or motorbike. But it's also the city of the bicycle. In several locations you can rent a bike and they have this nifty electronic system that lets you rent one with your phone.
Walking like a boss.
By chance we ran into the Gothic area of the city with small streets and great little shops and very impressive old architecture. Never seen this before but I loved it. Even ran into a little shop called Pika Pika selling Pokemon, Dragonball and Blythe :D.
Compaired to Amsterdam, these narrow streets don't scare the bejesus out of me.
I don't mind living here.
Old
versus
New
Best thing of being in a different country is all the good stuff you get to try and taste. Next to pinchos and churros this is one of my new favorites.
Pick your flavour and add chocolate dip or nutty dip. Very delicious!
You can't skip visiting the Sagrada when you are in Barcelona. I heard the church was out of the scaffolding but that was a lie :(. I doubt it will ever be finished in my lifetime. It's a very expensive project for the city and sometimes will be halted due to lack of funding. Still its a magnificent building.
When you are in Barcelona you must visit Parc Guell by Gaudi. Antoni Gaudi is a Spanish Catalan architect and figurehead of Catalan Modernism. I would really love to work and live in this city using my education and give guided tours here, but my Spanish needs to be better first.
Gaudi's work is influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature and religion. He intergrated into his architecture several crafts in which he was skilled: ceramics, carpentry, stained glass and wrought ironwork forging.
Two days is too short to visit everything you must see in this city. I'll be back for sure in the future. The people who live here are wonderful, the climate in April is acceptable and there still much left to see and do.
Barcelona comes in my top 10 list of cities on the third place.
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