Barcelona Travel Photo Diary

 

Hello girls (any boys out there?)!

Today I'm gonna tell you about my trip to Barcelona. It has been over a month since I came back, but what do you do with over a thousand pictures?! (plus my laptop broke and I had to delay the post because I was hoping to fix it but ended up having to get a new one).

(Beware this is a picture heavy post)

I went with my sister and two friends who travel quite often and are masters at planning trips (check out their travel blog) so we didn't have to worry much, they got us covered.

I've never been to Barcelona but immediately fell in love with this city, the beautiful architecture and its crowded streets and I can tell you for sure I wouldn't mind living in a place like Barcelona!

 

We flew from Oporto and stayed for 3 nights in a rented AirBnB, a very cosy flat with two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and living room and very well located, right next to one of the biggest attractions - Park Güell, and super close to the subway which was our way of going around the entire city during the trip, apart from the airport from where and to we had to catch a train.

We had lots of fun in this city and it was a shame we couldn't stay longer, but let me share with you our adventures!

On the day we arrived, Thursday, we got to the flat right before lunch time, so we settled in, went shopping for a few groceries and had lunch in. It was a rainy day so we stayed home a while also to rest a bit because we jumped out of bed at 2 am to catch the flight. When it cleared out a bit we headed to Park Güell and explored it for the longest time, and we got super lucky because when we went up to the paid area the sun showed up so we got nice pictures.

  

The ticket to the park is 7€ and you have to pick a time to go up to the balconies, but aside from the paid area the park is huge with plenty of pretty places and if you go up to the viewpoint you get an awesome overlook of the whole city.

Around 5:30 pm we headed home to shower and get ready to go out for dinner but it started raining heavily so we ended up ordering in from a pasta place and going to bed early.

The next morning we headed to La Sagrada Familia. The ticket is 15€ (or 29€ if you want to go up to the towers) and it's worth every penny! Let me tell you this building is so stunning inside and out... the details make all the difference and its grandiosity makes Gaudí unbelievably talented and advanced for his time. All the sculptures, the lighting schemes inside and even the structure of the building itself which is not even finished and will be twice the height by 2020, are so breathtaking!

 

 

We ended up spending most of the morning in La Sagrada Familia, the museum inside, the store and taking pictures in the park across the street, and then we went to the nearest Starbucks to get some drinks (my first ever Pumpkin Spice) and walked to Casa Batlò and La Pedrera where we only took pictures outside, sadly the tickets were expensive and we had to pick places to go, but both buildings are very pretty outside and I believe, since they are also designed by Gaudí, they for sure are even more stunning inside... maybe next time!

We then walked through Las Ramblas and  had a late lunch there in a lovely place caller Taller de Tapas, where we had some traditional tapas and paella.

 

After lunch we went to La Boqueria market, passed by El Gòtic, the Catedral de Barcelona, the Arc del Triomf, the Parc de la Ciutadella and walked to Port Vell, had dinner again in the Ramblas and visited Casa Batló and La Sagrada Familia by night.

On our final day, Saturday, we got away from the city and had brunch at Starbucks in the Maquinista Shopping Center where we shopped all morning, at Forever 21, Mac, Sephora, Primor (had no idea they had a physical store)... all the good stuff we don't have in Coimbra!
In the afternoon we went to Plaça d'Espanya and Parc de Montjuïc, and explored the garden around it, had dinner at an italian restaurant on the rooftop of the Arenas Shopping Center and went back to Montjuïc to see the Magic Fountain show.

And that was it... we slept and woke up super early to catch the train to the airport and came back to real life.
Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of our trip and this beautiful city - Barcelona, and I hope to travel again soon so I can share with you more posts like this!
Thank you for reading,