Barcelona.
You are beautiful.
You love shoes.
You smoke a lot.
You are clean as hell.
You LOVE football. And I mean... capital L.O.V.E football.
Recently, I made my way to a city where every Irish citizen seems to have escaped to in years gone by. It's a city where the winter weather is 100x better than any Irish summer, so it's no wonder everyone escapes to this wonderful city. Plus, it's a real city. It's always alive with people and culture. There's always something happening. Always shoes to be bought, always a baguette to be eaten.
And always someone getting pick pocketed.
Now, coming from North America, I'm used to travelling very far distances and spending copious amounts of money in order to visit any European destination. The fact that I was able to travel to Barcelona by plane for just $60 CDN and to be there in 2 hours time completely boggled my mind. I was able to leave a city with rain and cold winds, and enter a place where palm trees flourished and sun glasses are considered a third limb.
For those who need a bit of a background, Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain. It's second to the capital, Madrid. It is the capital of Catalonia (a Spanish community all to its own). The Catalonians even have their own form of Spanish, Catalan, and a wee lisp as well. You can tell you're in Barcelona when you start hearing their infamous lisp. If you want to know more about the history of Barcelona and the reason for their lisp I'd recommend googling it, it's pretty interesting!
In order to experience Barcelona to it's fullest I'd recommend walking through it, but I'd highly recommend renting a bike. We rented our bikes from a great place called "My Beautiful Parking". If you plan on visiting the city, please go here and rent a bike. You won't be disappointed. It's a fantastic way to explore the city, and find different areas that you'll want to stop into. However, make sure to remember where you found these cute spots since they can be hard to find later on. Trust me. The streets of Barcelona can be tricky to navigate in. I'm pretty sure the same can be said for any European city.
What did I eat in Barcelona?
Well, I didn't eat any tapas. I know... that's THE food to eat in Spain. However, we were too nervous to really understand how tapas worked. Our Spanish was very minimal, and we couldn't bare the embarrassment of not understanding how to order tapas. We did have some delicious paella though, with lovely seafood.
But the real thing to eat in Barcelona seemed to be baguettes with salami and cheese, or just a plain old baguette. The amount of people walking around with fresh baguettes during the day was surprising. I thought it was more of a French thing. The Spanish love their bakeries. So much so they are even open to 9pm! Crazy right? So, my diet in Barcelona consisted of baguettes, fresh juice from the market (and I mean FRESH, no water added kind of fresh) and cafe con leche. Cafe con leche translates to "Coffee with Milk", but it's not just that. It's a particular ratio of espresso with hot milk. I've tried making my own at home... but there's something about the way the Spanish do it that just tastes so much better. It's better than a latte and cappuccino in my opinion.
oh, and you should probably try their thick and dark hot chocolate with churros. Amazing. I also tried some traditional mato cheese with sugar. Also amazing.
hmm what else.
Did I mention the Spanish LOVE shoes. There are shoe shops on every corner. They also love Zara and Mango (which are Spanish brands), and H&M. I'm pretty sure those three brands have taken over the city. They are everywhere. The Spanish also seem to love to smoke. If you walk around the city early enough, you see the city cleaners sweeping up cigarette butts left, right and centre. That's another thing. Barcelona has an amazing street cleaning service. People are constantly spraying down walk ways, and keeping the city tidy. You'll even notice shop keepers sweeping their floors like it's part of their religion.
Now, I can't talk about Barcelona without mentioning football.
The Barcelona Football Club is religion in Barcelona. The city loves them. Everywhere you go you'll see something related to the team. Lucky for me, I was in Barcelona when they played their ultimate rival, Real Madrid. The game was also a home game, which made it even more intense. Seeing as my fella is a huge Barcelona fan, we just had to go to a bar and watch the match. We found a wee bar that was absolutely packed with fans and was lined with bottles of Estrella on every table. We had no idea what beer to order, so we just followed the masses. Turns out Estrella is a Barcelona beer, so we made a good choice. The cheering and excitement with each goal was incredible. I want to say that it's the same type of excitement back home with hockey.... but there's something different when it comes to Barcelona.
I should also mention how much they seem to love escalators. I was amazed at how many outdoor escalators there were, and how randomly placed they were as well. Even when we got lost and were in the non-tourist parts of Barcelona, there were escalators. I had never seem anything like that before. Strange.
I could keep going on and on about Barcelona, but then I'd be here all morning writing about it.
Point is, you need to make sure to visit this wonderful place. I'll be visiting again, I'm sure of it.
What European city will I visit next?
You'll have to wait and see!
Barcelona gets 100 thumps up from me.
Keep Smilin',
M.
ps.
And about pickpockets. I was worried about them before I went over. But to be honest, if you just keep your belongings close, and don't "look" like a tourist, you'll be fine. Just keep an eye out, and don't do anything silly like leave your bag on the ground. We noticed that if you catch them before they catch you, then they'll back off. If you see someone eye you up and down, and their buddies are pretty close as well, then just look them in the eye and they'll see you've notice them. Just keep an eye out, and you'll be fine!
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