Beautiful Barcelona!

Recently, my friend Jessica and I took our first big adventure outside of Madrid - to Barcelona!
It was so much fun to plan everything ourselves and visit such a beautiful city.

We started our journey bright and early on November 1, and took the train at 6:00 a.m. We accidentally bought first class tickets, so we enjoyed a very spacious ride with breakfast. We arrived around 9:00 a.m and had some time to kill before checking into our AirBnB which was conveniently located in a central area of the city.

The first day was quite gloomy and also was a national holiday in Spain, so not much was open. We enjoyed walking down Las Ramblas and exploring the Gothic Quarter, as well as getting some delicious gelato.

The next day was a lot nicer, sunny and around 24 degrees. We went to La Boqueria Market and enjoyed some fresh juice, and very overpriced but delicious chocolate. We also picked up a few classic gifts for family members ;)

Next, we visited the Barcelona Cathedral. I have been to so many cathedrals now that they are all starting to look the same, but it was beautiful nonetheless. 

We hit the beach next. This was one of my favourite parts of the trip. It was super warm and sunny, and while the water was too cold to swim, it was nice to just relax on the beach. 

Next, we visited the famous Sagrada Familia. We had bought tickets in advance and were so glad that we did because the lines were insanely long! This was also one of my favourite parts of the trip. We were both amazed by the stained glass and incredible architecture that is still under construction today. I enjoyed reading about where Gaudi drew inspiration from for all the different parts of the building, mostly the Bible but things in nature as well. It is set to be completed in 2026 so we've decided we must come back! 

The next day, we hopped on a tourist bus so we could see the rest of the city without having to walk so much! We saw all the famous attractions like Montjuic, the Olympic Stadium, the Barcelona Soccer Stadium, the houses designed by Gaudi, and many important streets and churches. We stopped at Park Guell and toured around inside. It was a bit disapointing as a lot of it was under construction, but it was still really pretty.

We hopped back on the bus afterwards and were too exhausted to do anything else but look at more famous landmarks. Soon, it was time to check out of our AirBnb and head back to the train station. It was only then that we experienced a bit of the political unrest that Barcelona has been experiencing. There was a protest across the street from us, representing how the region of Catalonia wants to seperate from Spain, somewhat similar to what Canada is experiencing right now! It was quite far away from us and we were able to avoid it easily, but it was still a little frightening!

We had such a great time in Barcelona and are excited to travel together more in the future, both around Spain and beyond, so stay tuned for more updates!