Tag: barcelona

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food of barcelona 

Here’s a rundown off all the food we ate in Barcelona:

LUNCH/DINNER DAY ONE: LAS RAMBLAS

calamari, pizza and sangria

SNACK DAY ONE: FONT DE MONTIJUIC

ice cream 🙂

LUNCH DAY TWO: EN ROUTE TO PARK GUELL

fresh bakery tuna salad sandwich

DINNER DAY TWO: GOTHIC QUARTER

veggie paella

SNACK DAY TWO: MERCADO DE LA BOQUERIA

chocolate covered strawberries and assorted truffles

LUNCH DAY THREE: GRAN VIA

veggie sandwich

DINNER DAY THREE: LAS RAMBLAS

tapas!…we tried more than just the 3 pictured here

SNACK DAY THREE: GOTHIC QUARTER

bakery goodies

Note: There are no pics of food from breakfast becasue it was provided at the hotels throughout the trip.

cheers.

~meesh

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costa brava 

We spent our last day in Spain in the Costa Brava region which is just north of Barcelona along the coast.

The first town we visited, Lloret de Mar, is your quintessential European tourist coast town. Hotels line the beach and there are people in swimsuits everywhere. My mom and I enjoyed our time there just sitting on the beach looking out at the water. The views were spectacular. 

From there we boarded a ferry that would take us to the next town Tossa de Mar. Wow, can I just say wow. The views of the coast from the ferry were breathtaking. I was mesmerized just watching the water hitting the rocks. I loved taking it all in.

Once we got to Tossa we did a short waking tour of the old part of the town, the tour took you to the highest point in town and the views all along the way were incredible. It was all just so calm, peaceful and beautiful. After the tour we enjoyed lunch with a view of the water. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon with exploring town, indulging in gelato and taking in all the views, aka me snapping about a million photos.

Even the views on the bus ride back to Barcelona was a site to see. It offered a different view of the coast, small winding streets and houses in the hills. 

Costa Brava was by far the best place we visited while abroad. If you’re visiting Barcelona take a day to go north and visit, it won’t disappoint.



cheers.

~meesh 

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sagrada familia

Before I get in too deep with this post I’m giving a little history lesson about the Sagrada Familia for those you don’t know what it is…

Antoni Guadi is Barcelona’s most famous architect of the modernism era. He is the mind behind Park Guell, Casa Batllo, Casa Mila and the Sagrada Familia. And the Sagrada Familia was not only his dream but the city of Barcelona’s dream . It’s a modernism basilica featuring ornate details and once finished will have 18 towers. The key thing to note is that although construction started in 1882, construction is still not finished. Funds for construction are raised through donations and it’s forecasted to be complete in 2026.

Although not entirely finished you can still visit the inside which is complete. So after or morning tour my mom and I headed to over becasue our tickets were for that afternoon. Even just looking at the outside is a site to see, ever detail is meticulously thought out and all together it’s just breath taking…

I guess I didn’t know what to expect from the inside becasue I’d only ever seen pictures of the outside. And when I walked inside I think my jaw might have hit the ground. I’ve been a lot of European churches and basilicas and I have never seen anything like it. It wasn’t stuffy and dark like I’d expected, it was bright, colorful and airy. It had a completely different vibe and I loved it.

This inside has a more simple feel as compared to the outside but again the attention to detail is incredible. And, I’ve never seen stained glass create such color and light within a space.

While there my mom and I also had the opportunity to go up one of the towers. We chose the towers on the Nativity side. So basically a lift takes you up to the viewing area and bridge that connects the to towers, which was really cool and we got some great views of the city but then it was kind of creepy because you have to take the stairs down and it’s pretty dark/cramped. After we got down my mom and I needed a little breather because it was pretty intense. I mean don’t get me wrong it was a really cool experience but just wish we knew what we were getting ourselves into beforehand, haha.

Moral of the story is if you are in Barcelona you must go visit the Sagrada Familia.



cheers.

~meesh

p.s. Also not super happy with the pictures here becasue it really doesn’t do it justice…might do a post with more pictures soon

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barcelona three

Day 3 started out with a morning bus tour of the city. The difference between this tour and the hop on hop off was that we got a live tour guide and we got to do some fun activities…

What we also didn’t know about the tour was that it included a ride on the Teleferic of Montjuic (so we got to go again) and a visit to the Spanish Village, which I’ll get to in a bit.
The tour started on the busy Barcelona streets, weaving in and out of different neighborhoods. Our first stop was at the Olympic Village where my mom and I had our first chance to go down to the beach and dip our toes in the water. We also got to see a lot of older folks enjoying the beach.

From there we headed up to Montjuic where we got a history lesson about the Montjuic castle that we had visited our first day and then got a chance to ride the Teleferic again and enjoy the views.

Then we headed to one of our favorite spots in Barcelona, the Spanish Village. The Spanish Village is basically all of Spain just condensed down into a “mini village.” The buildings inside feature architecture from each of the regions in Spain and house shops that feature the food and wine of Spain along with handmade items like fans and blown glass.

It was like this little hidden gem that we didn’t even know existed before the tour and my mom and I picked up some really cool handmade items like fans (which are super popular there). I think if we had time we would have spent the whole day there just going in and out of the little shops.

Our tour then finished with a walking portion through the gothic quarter of the city. We’d been there before but it was nice to get some context and learn about the area’s history. Plus I’m a big fan of walking tours because I think the best way to see a city is on foot.

Once our tour finished we headed back to the Sagrada Familia….which I will go into detail in the next post.


^^tbt to when my shoes where this white

cheers.

~meesh

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barcelona two

The next morning we headed out to conquer Park Güell…the thing is, no one tells you that you have to get your tickets in advance and that you then have a specific entrance time…same goes for the Sagrada Familia. Also, no one told us that you can purchase tickets online ahead of time…Sooooo after we walked all the way to Park Güell and bought our tickets to go inside that afternoon. We then somehow walked from there all the way to the Sagrada Familia only to find out that couldn’t get tickets for the next day in line, you have to get them online…

At that point I was exhausted from walking and so pissed off that we couldn’t just go and see things as we pleased. It took a lot of the fun out of traveling and just became a pain in the ass because we wasted a half a day just figuring out how to “sightsee” in Barcelona.

After that debacle we got on our hop-on hop-off and got to relax and see a lot more of the city, that we hadn’t the day before. Woah, is Barcelona huge…the guide on the bus was listing all of the things you could do in different areas of the city and it was like you could easily spend a week there and still not see/do everything.

At that point we were starving so we picked up baguette sandwiches on our way back to Park Güell …I only mention the sandwiches because 1. they were incredibly delicious (pic to come) and 2. it reminded my mom of when she traveled Europe back in the 80s with my dad. …And so we proceeded to spend 20 minutes trying to recreate a photo in which my dad was eating a sandwich, only instead it was of me eating a sandwich. No, the photo did not turn out…

Okay, so we finally got into Park Güell and….don’t get me wrong it was really really cool/unique but it just wasn’t what I expected. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that my only reference point to Park Güell was how it was portrayed in the Cheetah Girls movie…but still. It was just a lot smaller than the vast openness I had expected.

After that we enjoyed the hop-on hop-off bus some more before doing some shopping around the gothic quarter, getting dinner and calling it a night.

cheers.

~meesh 

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barcelona one

For anyone that followed along during my study abroad travels then you’ll know that my favorite way to travel through Europe is by train. It only seemed fitting that as we traveled from Madrid to Barcelona that we did so by train.

We arrived in Barcelona in the early afternoon and both my mom and I were eager to get to the water, after all Barcelona is a port city. So we dropped our bags at the hotel and headed out to find the water. Our hotel was near Las Ramblas, the major street that takes you to the port so that’s where we started. We stopped for some lunch and sangria and then soon found ourselves at the water’s edge. 

What better to do at that point then get on the water? So we boarded a ferry that takes you around the port and the nearby beaches. The views were stunning all around, though a bit windy it was worth every penny. And, we even got a little show as we passed by one of the many cruise ships and got mooned by one of the vacationers.

After our boat ride we (and by we I mean me) decided to head up towards Montjuic which at the top you’ll find Montjuic castle and gardens along with the Olympic stadium and a bunch of other things. Man did I put my mom through the ringer on the hike up there…I don’t think either of us where prepared for the climb, but luckily we took the Teleferic de Montjuic (aka cable car) the rest of the way up which offered incredibled views of the city and sea. 

Once at the top we explored the castle until it closed and then headed down towards the Font de Montjuic to see the water/light show. On our way down we stopped at the Olympic stadium and got to see some of the plaza and arenas where the 1992 summer games where held.

Finally we arrived at the Font de Montjuic eager to see the magic fountain show, we grabbed some ice cream and settled in to await the show, which doesn’t begin until it gets dark….so here we are waiting and waiting and it’s getting darker and darker out but no show…we waited some more before we finally called it quits and headed in for the night.

Once I got wifi back at the hotel we were able to find out the show only takes place Thurs-Sat, of course we were there from Sun-Wed and of course would not be able to see the show. I guess that’s just a reason to go back someday…

  

cheers.

~meesh 


 

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post update

So I know what you are thinking… Where are all my travel posts? …Well my intentions were to blog about my travels while I was abroad. I even brought my computer with me and managed to get my London post up while there. But, I underestimated the amount of time that I would actually be spending exploring different cities each day.

Now that I am state side I will be starting to post about my travels within the next few days. I’ll also be posting some other travel tips and tricks plus I have some hopefully exciting news to share with you all.

So stay tuned because the travel posts I promised are coming!

Here’s a little sneak peak…

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cheers.

~meesh

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post grad travel

Ok so as promised I have some exciting news to share today! Although I have know for a little while I’ve been so busy with gradation that I haven’t had time to share the news. So here goes….someway somehow I am going back to Europe for a few weeks this summer!

If you would have told me I’d be going back to Europe after graduation in the fall I would have laughed in your face. But, after hearing of all my friends travel plans I started to feel a little FOMO so I had to make it work and I did.

So what does this mean for you? Some more travel posts yaya!

It’s been a while but I’m excited that I’ll get to share my travels with you all once again. On tap for this trip is a little bit of England and a little bit of Spain. And, becasue there will be no studying involved I’ll be sharing a whole lot more, from food to fashion, things to do and pictures…lots of pictures!

So cheers, becasue takeoff is only a few days away!

IMG_4779

cheers.

~meesh

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