I thought I'd share some photos of our recent trip to Barcelona, Spain. I never got around to it in May, but it's better late than never right? Of course I already posted these to Facebook, but I feel that's not telling the entire experience. So, here it goes!
After about a 2 1/2 hour flight from cold and cloudy Dublin, Paul and I landed in the beautiful and warm city of Barcelona. It took us a while to find the place to get our car we hired as the directions on our confirmation were somewhat lost in translation. But that was fine with us as we were soaking in the warmth and practicing what very little Spanish we knew. Once we found the pick up point, we were driven to the car place, then we collected our car and headed into the city. It was around 10:30pm but we still wanted explore. Our first stop? Las Ramblas!
For some delicious.......Italian gelato!
I know I know, we're in Spain and yet we get Italian food! But hey, it was really warm and the selection looked amazing! This is something I haven't seen in a long time as the Irish aren't big on ice cream. I can't blame them, it's just not the weather for ice cream in Ireland! Paul loved the pistachio gelato and I loved the cinnamon. It's heavenly! We're really looking forward to our trip to Italy to get some again!
Anyway, we walked around for a bit and found tons of tapas bars. These originally were meant as a means of slowing down the intoxication process while drinking alcohol socially. Back in the day in Spain, when you'd order another drink, they'd give you a little bit of bread or some meat with your alcohol to hold you over. It must have caught on because there's tapas bars all over the world now!
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| One of many tapas bars |
We eventually did try some tapas later on in the trip, as well as Paella and Sangria (not the first time we've had these but the first time in Spain). Here are some delicious pictures of what we ate throughout our trip:
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| Marinated artichokes, mussels, and cubes of Spanish cheese |
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| Potato croquettes, deep fried squid, and fish with fresh garlic aioli |
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| Meatballs, slow roasted pork, marinated mushrooms and chicken wings. I was quite fond of the slow roasted pork :) |
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| This Sangria cost us €16!!!! There were no prices on the menu so there's no way to argue. It was directly on Las Ramblas so it's bound to be expensive I guess! |
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| Very delicious seafood paella, but we had it twice and it looked and tasted the same at both places. Still worth trying though! |
Not wanting to get to sleep too late, we headed out to our hotel an hour away from Barcelona City. I'm actually really glad we didn't stay in the city, as convenient as that may have been, because the drive along the Balearic coast was definitely worth it. Especially at night! The rest of our trip was amazing, I'm so glad we went. I just love exotic cities, so this was another great experience just like the rest. Here's some photos of the rest of our trip:
Barcelona City during the day
Our trip to the beach:
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| The Balearic Sea |
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| I have never had a Spanish tortilla (omelet) so addictive in my life! And the chorizo was unforgettable! |
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| I found the same kind of fish that was in our tapas! |
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| He was a mad genius. His work is insanely captivating. If you ever have the chance, go see it in person! | |
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| Outside the museum on the main street |
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Gaudi highlights in Barcelona City
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| La Familia de Sagrada...I regret not going inside but we just didn't have the time! |
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| Casa Mila from the outside. Crazy to think this was once an embarrassment to Spanish architecture! |
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| From the inside of Casa Mila | | | | |
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| At the top, stunning! |
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| These reminded me of ice cream cones :) |
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| The apartments had an opening in the middle where you could see the sky. Couldn't believe people still live in these yet there's millions of tourists that come each year to look at it! I don't think I could live inside a tourist attraction! |
And here's the castle we found by our hotel. We saw it glowing on the mountain top with artificial lights and like little mosquitoes, we had to explore:
Las Ramblas
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| Street performer 'statue' |
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| This woman attracted a huge crowd around her! She painted these trippy pictures in pure silence! |
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| Barcelona is a magical and romantic city indeed! |
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| This is the famous fountain with supposed magical powers. It's said if you drink from it, it will magically bring you back to Barcelona one day...I guess this guy didn't want to come back since he was spitting it back out... |
Barcelona Port
La Boqueria, a foodie's dream come true!
All in all, alovely city. Would I go back? For sure!
