Life's a Beach

I like to keep busy. So after finishing my finals, running a half marathon and canoeing across Scotland, I was very happy to be off on yet another adventure - BARCELONA!

Me, Cat and Vicky decided to jet off to someplace new and exciting, involving sun, beaches, sangria and cool buildings. Barcelona is tip top perfect for all four of those things, so we were pretty pleased with our choice.

We stayed at Casa Gracia, a beautiful hostel with marble floors and a plant-filled terrace, in a neighbourhood filled with narrow streets, squares and bars. We had breakfast each morning outside in the sun, where we planned our culture- and food-filled days and repeatedly told each other how happy and care-free we felt!

Weird juice at Flax & Kale

I have a new (cringey and slightly unhealthy, some would say) obsession with Instagram, and somehow ended up following a few vegan cafes in the city and drooling over their b-e-a-utiful photos of yummy food whilst I was meant to be revising.. so I tried to drag the others to one - Flax & Kale, a 'flexitarian' restaurant - on the day we arrived. We tried grilled watermelon, all kinds of weird juices, and salads with some pretty suspect ingredients, and loved it. Obviously we instagrammed all of our experiences (otherwise it didn't happen) so you can check out all of those photos here.

The facade of La Sagrada Familia -
Gaudi's beautiful cathedral, still under construction

The architecture of Antoni Gaudi have helped with Barcelona's fame. His most famous (and most impressive and beautiful, in my opinion) piece of work is La Sagrada Familia, to which he dedicated 43 years of his life. We booked tickets in advance as we knew there would be hours of queueing in the sun for us otherwise, and it was definitely worth it. The outside is stunning, and despite being nowhere near finished (it's meant to finish at three times its current height) it towers over the rest of the city and can't be missed from any viewpoint. The interior is something else though. Every tiny detail was so well thought out - the stained glass windows let in the perfect amount of light and spread colours across every surface, and the pillars holding up the structure branched out like trees to a ceiling reminiscent of palm fronds. It was 100% the coolest building I've ever been into (and that's saying something, living 5 minutes away from Durham Cathedral).

Stunning stained glass windows of La Sagrada Familia

The Mercat de la Boqueria is a heavenly food market just off La Rambla, the main touristy tree-lined street leading to the sea in the city. Hundreds of stalls are overflowing with fresh fruit and vegetables, rainbows of fresh juices lined up in rows, and as many different pastries and meats as you could possibly ever want. We had lunch there a couple of times, finding it incredibly difficult to make a decision on what to buy, and bought lots of dried fruit, peppers and spices to take back home. 

Delicious empanadas at the Mercat de la Boqueria

Although the city is in Spain, it's actually culturally Catalan. So apparently all of the quintessentially Spanish things that tourists expect to be there (sangria, paella, tapas etc.) are actually not native to the region. Good thing they were there though, as all of them made me very happy indeed! We enjoyed sangria and Spanish beer together every night, and shared lots of tapas and paella. I absolutely adore padron peppers, tiny little sweet yet bitter green peppers, fried and covered with salt. My plan for Sunday is to recreate a big paella for my family, but I can tell it just won't be the same!

The floor in La Sagrada Familia,
showing Jesus entering Nazareth

One of the city's main draws for us was the beach. It stretches for miles along the south of the city, with the bright blue Mediterranean sea to cool us down and burning hot sand to warm us up again. After long mornings of sightseeing and visiting galleries, it was a perfect way to rest and relax (despite the constant calls of "mojito! cool fresh mojito, buy a mojito! mojito, sangria!" from people walking along the beach selling lukewarm 'cocktails' in plastic cups..). I definitely made up for my lack of sleep (first out and last back to our hostel room, every time!) from naps in the sunshine - so much relaxation!

An afternoon at the beach

We visited the Museo Picasso after wandering around La Ribera, an area of the city full of arty boutiques and cafes. The museum/gallery is dedicated to the works of Picasso, but it also had a temporary exhibition called 'Picasso/Dali Dali/Picasso', comparing and contrasting a number of pieces by the two artists. The main lesson I learnt was that artists copy each other a lot.. I wasn't a massive Picasso fan before I went and I certainly haven't changed my mind.. but I'm still glad we went!

Early evening at the Marina, enjoying the reflections

On our last day we visited the Fundació Joan Miró - a gallery exhibiting Miró's works - on Montjuïc, a hill to the south of the city that translates as either the Mountain of the Jews or the Mountain of Jupiter. The terrace of the museum has an incredible view over the rooftops of the city (still dominated by La Sagrada Familia) and the building itself is also impressive. I like Miró's work much more than Picasso or Dali's, especially his strong colours and simplified forms. Alexander Calder's mercury fountain was probably my favourite piece - a small fountain filled with mercury instead of water, with the dancing metallic beads flowing around the system in a mesmerising and soporific fashion, that I could have stared at for hours..

One of Miro's wacky sculptures,
on the rooftop of Fundació Joan Miró

Overall, we all had an awesome time and were pretty sad to leave! It's such a beautiful, vibrant and varied city, and I'd love to go back sometime to do some more exploring.

Now I promise I'll stay in this country for the next five weeks, before I fly to India!