Stop #2: Barcelona, Spain

Chillin' in a plaza in Valencia, Spain

Our 4 days in Portugal were fun, memorable, and a completely difference experience since I’ve never been there before.  We enjoyed every minute of it!  But I have to admit that I was really excited to take off to Barcelona, which has been my favorite city in the world for most of my life.  I’m not quite sure what it is about Barcelona that intrigues me so much… perhaps it’s the delicious paella, Gaudi’s gorgeous architecture, or just the friendly yet vibrant vibe.  Every time someone asks me which city in the world I’ve live in, I always say Barcelona.  I’ve been there maybe 4 or 5 times and it’s always been a blast.  I expected this visit to be no less!

Our flight went well, although the airline people thought we were crazy when we refused their free offer to check in our carry-on bags.  No way, we are always going to carry our essentials with us from now on! I was quite excited to arrive at our apartment, since I was sure I booked a one-bedroom apartment in one of the best areas of Barcelona – right next to the Arc de Triumf.  However, when our host open our apartment door, we were incredibly disappointed… I almost wanted to cry.  What I thought was going to be a spacious, pretty little apartment in the middle of the city center turned out to be a cement box up 3 flights of stairs (no elevator), which had no walls to separate the bathroom (or toilet) from the “bedroom”.  The pigeons on the window sill were shitting on what was supposed to be my work desk, and Lorenzo was super bummed that there was no kitchen at all.  Needless to say, we were both not psyched about the upcoming week.

But I have to say that we managed it well!  Although the springs in the bed stabbed our backs at night, the pigeons coo’d so loudly at night they caused me nightmares, and the fact that I had to kick Lorenzo out of the apartment every time I wanted to take a poop, we still survived.  Lorenzo and I got along quite well in the tiny quarters and simply spent most of our days out and about.  Just in the very first day, we explored the entire city center of Barcelona, including all the fantastic Gaudi structures – Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, etc – as well as a lot of popular areas such as La Rambla and Passeig de Gracia.  We usually like to run around town on the very fist day to get all the “highlights” done, and then we can relax and enjoy simply living in the city for the rest of the week. 

The 2nd day in Spain was spent in Girona, a town about 1 hour away by train and the place where “Game of Thrones” was filmed.  Although we don’t watch the show, it was still very cool to see the very medieval town.  Cathedrals, castles and various neighborhoods kept us very busy and very interested all day long.  I’m really glad we made it to this place, even though we couldn’t continue our journey from there to Costa Brava (ran out of time).  If anyone goes to Costa Brava, please let me know how it is!  That night, we had a nice paella dinner and a bottle of wine.  After a few glasses, I decided to book us two train tickets and an apartment in Valencia for the next couple of days.  And about 12 hours later, we arrived in Valencia!

For some reason, I always wanted to go to Valencia – I’ve even considered going to school there at one point.  I had no idea what to see or do, but I just wanted to go.  Luckily our AirBnB in Valencia was spacious, beautiful and had a nice work desk (for me) and kitchen (for Lorenzo).  Everyone was happy!  And again, we spent the first whole day running around town, checking out all the highlights in our awesome (old) neighborhood El Carmen.  We saw plenty of plazas, cathedrals, and parts of the city wall.  But the coolest thing about this neighborhood is all the beautiful graffiti… very nice graffiti!  My cousin from Germany, Mortiz, would be in love with this place.  And besides the street art, the paella is absolutely fantastic!  I didn’t know, but apparently paella originated in Valencia.  I guess that why we ate the best paella I’ve ever had there, at a restaurant called El Rall.  Highly recommended.

We rented bikes the following day and biked the entire super long park that used to be a river.  At the very end, we cruised around the famous Arts & Sciences exhibit which also includes Europe’s largest aquarium – the Oceanografic. The buildings themselves were really cool to see, some of the most modern and “space-like” structures I’ve ever seen.  But we didn’t stop there!  We biked straight to the beautiful beach.  The actual beach was massive and the water was quite clean and clear (but cold).  Alongside the beach is a walkway and the other side has restaurants and cafes, which reminded us of Venice Beach.  After passing a few nice beaches, we ended up chillin’ on a nude beach and caught some Vitamin D.  It was a lovely day indeed!

That evening we enjoyed a nice pasta dinner with some friends who are living in Valencia for about a month – Jarard and Katlyn.  This couple is so awesome… they live in different countries around the world for one month at a time, for 300 days of the year!  That sounds like a dream to me, although Lorenzo is still dreaming about home.  I’m not worried though, I’m sure he’ll catch the travel bug soon.  It was really nice to hang out some friends during our trip.  Spending 24 hours a day with Lorenzo is really great but adding a couple of friends to the conversation makes it even more fun.  They are the only people I know who are living this incredible lifestyle so I had plenty of questions.

And now we are on a train from Valencia to Barcelona.  We spent the day checking out various markets (really cool, giant markets) around the city.  One of the markets had a great beer place where we could try different beers on tap.  We were both quite happy about this since they had many types of beers we've never even heard of before... yum!  I also did a bit of shopping, which is great in Valencia :)  I bought a couple of handmade shirts, a skirt and a swimsuit… I would have bought a lot more, but weight is an issue when it comes to flying.  I’m packing on the weight by buying more clothes, and Lorenzo’s packing on the weight by eating and drinking everything around.  I guess we’re even! 

Our last day in Barcelona started off with a beautiful run in and around Park De La Ciutadella... it was awesome!  If I were to live in Barcelona, I'd get an apartment right next to this park (any apartment except the one we have right now).  It was a gorgeous day and we finally felt normal and healthy again.  After our refreshing run, we did a load of laundry then headed to Park Guell - my favorite park in the world!  I absolutely love this place.  Not only is it naturally beautiful, but Gaudi's work is mind blowing...

And now it's time to rest up to fly to Paris tomorrow!

Cruisin' in Park Guell...

PHOTOS OF SPAIN

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