Exploring Barcelona With My Girlfriend
, Cádiz
April 6. Still being worried about not being able to walk to the bus station due to Semana Santa, I left a bit earlier than necessary at 06:30 AM. Under no circumstances would I want to miss the flight that would take me to Barcelona where I was finally going to meet my girlfriend again after a bit over two months.
This time the streets were empty, but for example the night afterward they even did their thing the whole night and I would have had a problem.
After meeting again at the airport, we went to check into the apartment together. It was located in the El Born area and had a cute balcony. It was funny how close the house was to the house on the other side of the street. We could have easily talked to the people on the other side if they were at the window. The area is quite good and has lots of options for food that made us want to eat in every single place.
After spending some time in the apartment, it was time for dinner. Somehow there are lots of ramen places in Barcelona, so we ate in one of them. We explored the area a bit more and also went to sit at the beach at night before returning to the apartment.
The next day we wanted to do most of the most touristic things like going to Parc de la Ciutadella, Arc de Triomf, Sagrada Famila, and Parc Güell. We checked the tickets for the Sagrada Familia a bit before and already realized that we should have gotten them at least a week or so earlier. I don't know if it's always this bad or if it was because of Semana Santa and lots of Spanish people travelling, but there was no chance anymore. Same with Parc Güell. So now I've been to Barcelona twice and have not been in either of them. The next time I know that when I book something for Barcelona I should also get tickets for these immediately.
So for Sagrada Familia we just walked around and looked at it from the outside, and for Parc Güell we still walked around in the Gràcia area.
For dinner we went home and had some pasta and wine on the balcony looking over the pedestrian street below our balcony. Really this was the best dinner for us, just a relaxing and calm evening.
After waking up the next morning, we were going out for breakfast. Not more than five minutes away from our apartment, with daylight on a busy street and with many many people around we saw two people trying to lift someone from his bike. He was screaming for help. I started calling the police, but they ran away after a short time. The victims' face was covered in blood after dropping to the ground. Seeing this left us quite shocked. Even during daylight in a good area and busy street Barcelona seems to be brutal. I needed a while to process that.
Then we went on the Montjuïc castle where a festival was happening at the moment, so there was a DJ and some food stands. That was an amazing setting for the DJ, but the festival wasn't what we wanted to attend, so we explored the castle and then moved on. One of my Seville flatmates recommended me to check out the bar Salts, which has a great view over the city. Barcelona was the host of the Olympic Games in 1992, and the bar is located right with two pools from the Olympics which add to the view.
In the evening we just went to Casa Milà and then had tapas for dinner.
On our last day in Barcelona we went up the Tibidabo mountain, the one with the church and the amusement park. This was even one of my favorite days because of the relaxed walking and the views. After taking the cable car to go a bit up the mountain there is also the option of taking a bus to go up the rest, but I definitely preferred walking.
After that we basically waited in a rooftop bar until it was time to go to the airport. Luckily, the time with my girlfriend wasn't over, and we spent another great week in Seville.
We could do a few things that we couldn't do the first time she visited, like visiting Palacio de las Dueñas or doing the cute boat ride on the little river of Plaza de España. We could also spend lots of time relaxing together and went to Cádiz again, went on top of the Setas, or watched a Flamenco show in a tablao.
On her last day there was the In The Park festival in park Alamillo where we explored the numerous clothing, jewelry, and art stands.
On the way back we walked next to the river and for the first time we noticed that there are actually turtles living in it 🐢.