Breezing Through Barcelona

I was blessed with having the middle seat open in my row of 3 on my flight across the Atlantic. I was on a Boeing-767 with a 2/3/2 layout. I opted for an aisle seat in the middle, because even if there is someone in the middle seat, they have an alternate way to get out. So, if sitting with a couple, they’re much more likely to exit on their partners side, rather than bugging you to get up. Even better though, this seat next to me was open.

I flew United, and having never flown a long-haul flight, I was pleasantly surprised with the service received while flying economy. Multiple drink service runs on top of multiple water runs, a small snack, a full meal, and an arrival sandwich.

DAY 1

Spain is six hours ahead of Eastern time and I landed at 9 AM local (Spain) time. This was pretty brutal having taken a red eye, and my body thinking it was 3 AM. I took a bus from the airport to the Plaza Catalunya, which was about a 10 minute walk to my hotel: Hotel Bagues. Fortunately, nerding out over credit card points the past few years proved to pay off this trip, as I stayed at two very nice hotels. I dropped off my bags at the hotel and began to explore Barcelona.

My hotel was perfectly located in the heart of the Gothic Quarter, right on the street, La Rambla. A super popular street in Barcelona, with a lot happening on it.

I wandered around and explored the Gothic Quarter as well as a pier I don’t know the name of.

The highlight of Day 1 was the Cathedral of Barcelona. Construction of the cathedral began in 1298, which is hard to even comprehend, and was completed in 1420. While the central tower and facade were added in 1913. Something so impressive about not just the cathedral, but European architecture in general, is the extreme attention to detail. The smallest of things are not skipped over anywhere.

Following touring the cathedral I happened to walk past the Picasso museum, and figured I go in. I can’t lie, while some of the art work is very impressive, and there was a lot of it, as someone who is not very interested in art, it didn’t do a whole lot for me. To make things even funnier, the one famous Picasso painting I know of off the top of my head is “The Old Guitarist.” I looked up where this piece is located, and of course, it is at The Art Institute of Chicago. Ahahahaha. Well, I guess I have a reason to go next time that I am home.

I began to get hungry and went to Barcelona’s famous market the “Mercado de La Boqueria” where I ate a fruit cup and a pork burrito type thing. An interesting choice for my first meal in Spain, but it filled me up.

I continued to walk around and be amazed at all the architecture everywhere, but finally it was 3pm and time to check into the hotel. I got to the room and took a shower after wandering NYC for a few hours, taking a 7 hour flight, and exploring Barcelona for the day, it felt very nice to be clean. Although after this, I told myself I would relax for a bit, but not fall asleep. My eyelids began to feel heavy, and I texted my mom, before I could respond to her, I made the forbidden mistake of falling asleep for the night at 4:30 P.M.

DAY 2

If you happen to go to Europe, do not to what I did and fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon. Do whatever you have to do to stay up and get adjusted to the local time. Whether that means working out or drinking caffeine, do it. I woke up from my “nap” at midnight, and was wide awake. This led to me sitting on my phone until about 6am in bed… where I then fell asleep again on and off until 3 P.M.

At this point, the day was already a wash, but I managed to will my way out of bed and purchased a ticket to tour Casa Batlló, a building designed by Barcelona’s renowned architect, Antoni Gaudí. 

This is a very weird and quirky building, that was interesting to walk around. You are given an iPad and headphones to listen to an audio guide. Additionally, you are able to hold up the iPad and see what the room looks like without any people in it. Which doesn’t seem necessary when you are standing in the room yourself, but being able to move the iPad side to side and up and down, it is very nice to look around without people disrupting your view.

I eventually finished the tour and headed back outside, I pulled up my hotel back on maps and began looking at my route. While doing so, I was approached by a shady looking guy who spoke broken English. Knowing I was standing in the pick pocket capital of the world, I was already a bit on edge. As he was asking me where I was from, what I was doing, etc. I put my phone into my pocket and zipped it up. Following me doing this, he told me he needed to speak to the translate app in my phone. I asked “porque” which means “why” in Spanish, and he kept insisting that he needed to speak to the app and pointing at my pocket. I responded this time by pointing at his pocket and saying “take out your phone” and he said that his friend had it. After not giving in, he got very upset and turned around and started yelling what I assume were curse words, and walked away. While I don't know for certain, this seemed like an attempted pick pocket at my phone. I was a pretty desirable target, solo traveler who was looking at a map of the area. Funny enough, I saw a TikTok later in the week talking about pick picketers taking phones in busy areas and then running off into the crowd. I was in quite a busy area, and imagine he was trying to take my phone. That would’ve been an extremely unfortunate way to start off the trip, but thankfully I still have my phone.

I headed back to the hotel, and decided to just order room service and watch the playoff games that night. Again, with the time difference, they both started late. The second one starting at 12:30 A.M. I ate in the room and watched the games. Falling asleep with the 49ers getting smacked, but waking up to them somehow finding a way to come back.

Day 3

Waking up for my third and final day in Barcelona, this was the main attraction day. As I was headed to the two most popular sites: Park Güell & La Sagrada Familia.

I channeled my inner Spaniard and like a true local, headed to the metro (Subway train). This was my first time really using any sort of public transport like this, and I’m pretty proud of myself for navigating it. As a result of this, I ended up using it many times later in the week. The closest metro stop to Park Güell was near an entrance that was being redone, so I was advised to go to a different stop, in which I had to walk a bit to the park. Was cool getting to walk through a non-touristy neighborhood, to get a closer look at regular life for those in Spain.

After a little stroll and outdoor escalator, I arrived at Park Güell. A large park designed by again, Antoni Gaudí. This park is full of cool little buildings and sculptures. Not much to say other than that it was cool and worth the visit.

I walked around for about two hours, and still don’t think I saw every bit of the park, but felt I had seen the main spots.

I then walked 30 min to La Sagrada Familia. Upon first sight of it, I was already shocked at how much bigger and profound this church was in person versus pictures. I sat down outside at a little restaurant and ordered a few tapas. Surf and turf meatballs (which were better than they probably sound), Spain’s famous patatas bravas, and an egg over potatoes. That’s a lot of potatoes. 

La Sagrada Familia is the number 1 tourist attraction in Spain, and for good reason. A church designed by guess who…? Antoni Gaudí. It is crazy how much of an impact he had on the city of Barcelona, and how just about every main tourist attraction in the city is one of his projects. La Sagrada Familia began construction in 1882, and is still being built to this day. Which is wild. There was a crew on site while I toured, as they put on the finishing pieces, the project is scheduled to be completed in a few years. Specifically, it is aimed to be completed by 2026, but there is no timeline for some of the decorative elements.

La Sagrada Familia is the definition of “pictures do not do it justice.” The detail throughout everything is absolutely incredible. While I have pictures, I promise they do not at all showcase how amazing this church is.

There is an app that you download on your phone and listen to an audio guide that walks you through various locations of the church. I payed a little extra, and was actually able to go up to the top of one of the towers. While this does sound cool, it really wasn’t all that and something I would skip over and wouldn't do again. The line is very long as you have to take an elevator up… and walk over 400 steps down. As you can only take the elevator up. Once at the top, the windows/little cut outs are so small, that it’s not a super scenic view. You can get a similar Birds Eye view of Barcelona from Park Güell (photo I posted earlier).

After walking over 400 steps down, I was back inside the church and sat down on one of the benches and just admired it for a while. Put my phone away and took it all in.

After a good bit of admiring, I grabbed my backpack, headed to the closest metro station, and headed back to the hotel for the night.

I really enjoyed the city of Barcelona and would like to go back. This city is known a lot for its nightlife, and I would like to experience this aspect the next time I visit. It was a good three days, and Madrid was up next.

See you in the next blog.