Hola Barcelona!

Get ready for a long and messy post.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmMwbvNUERg?wmode=transparent]

Barcelona! My first time there. 2 Days. Amazing. Already planning to go back. Completely out of my expectation. The thought that comes to mind when I think of Barcelona is beach and partying, but that’s cause the majority of what I’d heard of the place came from friends who went there just to do that. I’m very glad that I got to go with my mum cause it was just such a surreal experience.

We stayed in a little boutique hotel, out of the tourist area but close enough to walk to it which was perfect. In fact, we didn’t even venture into the touristy parts properly until the second day and when we did we were shocked! I’m very glad we had a chance to explore the back routes and get lost in Barcelona instead of going straight to the tourist roads and thinking ‘well, this is Barcelona’ – cause it’s sooooo much more than that.

Ok, how to put this in a good order.. lets start with.. FOOD!

(Note: I am now on a health diet following this trip, this is not regular behavior)

 I went out in search of a toothpick restaurant (known as a pintxo bar where they serve platters of bite-sized food served on bread), and came out successful. HOW CRAZILY COOL IS THIS?! You pick what you want and they charge you for the amount of toothpicks you have at the end. AMAZING. It wasn't pricey at all either. Actually, nothing in Barcelona seemed too pricey. This wasn't my favourite place but certainly was very, very yummy. This place was called Euskal Etxea.

My FAVOURITE place we went to was a place called Catalana, recommended by a few people to me with promises of a queue up to 40 minutes long.

THANKFULLY me and mum hung around the bar and managed to score 2 seats after a few minutes. We liked the place so much that we went back the following night and the chef recognised us and helped us get the same two seats - what a sweetheart!

Gahh! Look at all that yummy food! Remenising about this isn't doing me and my health diet any good, hahaha. Bummer. ANYWAY! I have this weird thing about having egg with anything else but breakfast stuff (at breakfast) so I was a little hesitant when the chef recommended having potato (french fries) with egg. I'm so glad I love trying new things - It was yumyumyumyumyummy. I love sharing food too - mum and I tried loads of stuff - that's just a little sample above (from 2 days, remember folks, haha).

Had a little trouble with the alcohol too. As there was a beer bar I thought it was only logical to try some of the local beer. I went red within seconds. Thats me with one of my few sips of that huge glass of beer.

And that's us finished with our Sangrias, hahaha. It's not our fault! We don't have the enzymes! My mum and I aren't big drinkers anyway to be honest, but it was very fun trying out the local beverages.

Another place I hunted down was called Escriba on La Ramblas (very touristy, but gorgeous gorgeous street to walk down).

Known for its chocolate, the shop was packed with very pretty looking delicacies. By this time we were stuffed so we sat down and had a hot chocolate and a coke (theres nothing quite like having a coke with lemon in europe).

BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER. Well, that I can remember to date. The pretty looking chocolate on the right was alright, nothing amazing. But the hot chocolate, ohhhh the hot chocolate..

The other great thing about going around european countries is that you never fail to spot a gelato store. And here's the thing - they're always amazing.

This one REVOLVES!?

Mmmm mint chocolate..

Mum and I decided to share a scoop at this point at a hopeless attempt of trying to be healthy.

And then we ran into all of this.

patisserie after patisserie after patisserie.

This was probably the most expensive place we ate: La Vinoteca Torres

And even then the most expensive glass of rose was only 3.30 euros!

Oh how I love tapas..

There were so many places we wanted to try, so many places. This is definately not the last you'll hear of me + Barcelona + food. BUT, there deffinately has been too much talking on my part (well, typing) and I have a lot more I want to share so I'll try be as brief as I can and feed your eyes instead!

LA BOQUERIA

Hotel view.

Flowers are so beautiful.

Weird and wonderful. Look at that doggy!

You can actually RENT these and go on a tour in them! They have a sat nav and everything to direct you to tourist locations. Mum wasn't too up for it but I'm SO doing this next time (well, if I ever get my drivers license. Anyone with one care to join me?).

YAY HAPPY PILLS!

So cute and colourful!!

Of course, we did look at some beautiful cathedrals as well. Well the architecture was so beautiful all over Barcelona but these were .. 'omg' magnificent. Gaudi's amazing Sagrada Familia was, as they said it would be, breathtaking.

As said below (how cool is this), "Give us this day our daily bread" in 50 different languages. The key on the left is for the first photo (bottom row second along) - it tells you what statues represent what events. Fantastic.

Another beautiful cathedral near our hotel.

The people were so friendly here too. Not once did a taxi driver try and rip us off, they even asked us to keep our change sometimes! The metro was pretty easy to work out as well (thank gosh - my mum and I are both clueless with directions).

Blowing kisses from the window! Wish we had a chance to go to a Pizzeria. 2 days was far too short. There were so many things we wanted to do such as watch the flamingo dancing and go to Casa Batllo but I guess, on the bright side, we got to save some things for next time. We did more things but I think you guys are probabaly bored to tears by now and I don't wanna get into the whole shopping scenario, haha. We actually did quite well for 2 days - living under my dad we learnt to do things very fast (whether that's a good thing or not, I don't know).

So we had our coffee and danishes, and got on a train to Malaga.

Off to see the family for my cousins birthday - beautiful journey. Looking out the window just reminds me how beautiful the world is and how lucky we are to be here. I know its cheesy but, everything is just so beautiful it always amazes me and leaves me in awe to think that we can get so caught up in our own lives that we forget how amazing this world is. It makes me smile, and makes me very happy. I really like train rides. It was longer, but I prefered it to taking a plane. I think my mum felt the same way too.

Do you guys like to hear about my travels or rather me stick to Singapore stuff? Do let me know! I'm just a ameteur blogger so I'd love the feed back.

 

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Til next time,
Ming xx 

P.S. If you do happen to go to Barcelona, this is a really good website: http://www.timeout.com/barcelona/features/35/20-great-things-to-do-in-barcelona