Summer Days in Barcelona

Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of my posts as of late, BUT I AM IN SPAIN!!! I am sure you can imagine my stress and lack of time which I have been experiencing due to having just uprooted my life to live in Spain for half a year. Anyway, before I went to my assigned city, I managed to squeeze in a couple of days in Barcelona. 

Sorry about the wonkiness of this picture...blame my mum.

Barcelona has been my first choice of city to stay for my year abroad (which didn't happen because my university only has the exchange programme during the Spring semester; where I am supposed to be in China). Nonetheless, seeing as I was going to be in Spain anyway. My mum took pity and decided to take me to Barcelona (mainly because I will be spending my birthday alone in a strange city and I have gone on and on about wanting to visit Barcelona for over a decade now). 

On the first day of the trip, being in a different city where you don't know anything about anything can be quite daunting. So luckily for me that I went travelling with my mum because she paid for us to go on the tour bus which meant that we got to see everything in the limited amount of time we had. Also, we didn't have to worry about getting lost. The first stop was actually at La Sagrada Familia but after seeing the length of the queue. We decided to get back on the bus to have a look at other things because we only bought one day ticket and wanted to make the most of it. The second stop that I made was at Park Güell; another one of Gaudí's famous work, which you can see from the picture above. Personally, I could not recommend visiting Park Güell enough because it is honestly just so beautiful. I love the colourful mosaic tiles and the curvature of the place. I feel like there was a smidgen of Arabic influence in the work but that might just be me.

After Park Güell, we got back on the bus and had a look at other places like Montjuïc, La Rambla, Plaça Catalunya,  Gothic Quarter, Passeig de Gracia, Port Vell, etc. Although, I wish we had more time at each place but I can always come back to Barcelona later. We ended our day quite early because my mum got sunstroke. It was too bad but you can't pick when to be sick.

On the second day, I got up bright and early, thinking I would be able to beat the queue to get into La Sagrada Familia...how wrong was I? because everyone had the same plan. The queue was even longer than the day before, it started pretty much at the opposite side of the entrance but seeing as La Sagrada was one of the main reason why I wanted to visit Barcelona; we endured the queue and the €22.50 entrance + visit of the tower. Even though, normally I am quite a stingy person when it comes to paying an entrance fee but I don't mind paying for La Sagrada Familia at all because the money is going into finishing this beautiful building.

Everything you see in the church is a piece of art, you can see that everything has been thought of even before the building began and everything has meaning. For example, the colours of the stained glass, where the windows are placed and even the pillars are made of different materials and shaped so that they can support each part of the building perfectly.

I love how different side of the church has a completely different style. The latter one representing the nativity, which just looks absolutely breath-taking. I can't quite believe that they are both from the same building. Every part of the church has some religious meaning, even though, I can't say that I find religions particularly intriguing. I still believe that you can enjoy La Sagrada Familia even if you don't care for the religious tones because every part of it is a piece of art.

Here is a view from La Sagrada Familia's tower

To go up this tower,  you have to buy a ticket at the entrance (€4.50). From there, on the right side of the entrance has a lift to take you up to the tower. There is another tower on the other side but when we tried to go up there, they told us to go on the other side, I'm not quite sure why...

On the way down, you can either walk down or use the lift. I opted for the lift because I'm not a fan of height (I wouldn't say that I'm scared of height because I am not; height just makes me feel uneasy).

La Boquería

Having finished my tour at La Sagrada Familia in about 3 hours time, we still had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. At first, I really wanted to go to the Gothic Quarter but I couldn't find the closest Metro stop to there, so we got out at Plaça Catalunya and was planning on walking there. However, we took the wrong turn and ended up walking from Plaça Catalunya to La Boquería and pretty much all of La Rambla.

La Boquería was definitely one of my mum's favourite place. It is filled with colourful fruits, vegetables and jamón. Definitely, a good place to take colourful pictures and buy some unusual fruits.

Just like the day before, we ended our day at La Rambla. These performers are fairly entertainment but I wasn't quite brave enough to go and have my pictures taken with them. I just looked at them from afar. Seeing as we had an early train to catch to Vitoria the next day. We decided to go back to the hotel and relax. 
Overall, I like Barcelona. I'm so glad and thankful that I finally got to visit my dream city. Although, I feel slightly glad that I don't have to live there. Mainly because people aren't super friendly (we asked a guy that works at the train station for direction to the Metro and he just ignored us and walked away), most people can speak English and it was a nightmare getting my suitcases on some Metro because they don't have lifts (so we had to take a taxi instead). So I guess, in my next visit (if I ever go back there) I will definitely be packing light.   Also, keep reading for more updates on my year abroad progress.

Have you visited Barcelona? What is your impression? If not, would you like to visit Barcelona?

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