Barcelona!

My first trip of 2025! Book your trip to Barcelona here

Barcelona has been on my wishlist for a long time. When I was in high school, I visited Spain with my Grandparents and my Aunt, but we didn’t have Barcelona on the itinerary. It always looked so beautiful and I wanted to go. In 2023, I spent one night there before going to Sitges with my high school bestie, but we stayed out of the city so I had literally only seen the airport. So I was very excited when we decided to plan a trip there with some friends of ours to attend a convention. 

We decided to take the train from Sevilla instead of flying. It’s about a two-hour drive to Sevilla and then a few hours on the train with a changeover in Madrid. There are so many options for trains in Spain; that is one area that Portugal is lacking; the train system here is not that great. The trains were very comfortable and super smooth. I very much prefer it to flying, since I actually have a lot of anxiety about flying. Not to mention, you get to see so much of the countryside. 

We got an apartment in the Urgell area. (this listing is from the same company but I can’t find the one I got to link it to) It was a great apartment! The listing said it was a 2 bedroom, but we were surprised when it was actually 3. Additionally, the pictures showed a small balcony but in reality, there was also a large outdoor patio complete with furniture. It was very comfortable and clean and perfect for our group. I liked the apartment a lot and the company that runs it seems great. In the apartment there were all the toiletries including a dental kit and slippers. There was also a small welcome kit with coffee, tea, tiny bottles of Spanish olive oil and red wine vinegar. It was also in a good location. There was plenty around the area and it was also very close to the metro stop, which made getting around Barcelona really easy. 

Exploring the city

On our first night in Barcelona, we went out for Mexican and Latin food at Kiltro Restobar. I always find a Mexican restaurant everywhere I go for a few reasons: first, I love Mexican food and I grew up on it, second, I like to see how others do it, and third, we don’t have any great Mexican restaurants anywhere near me in the Algarve and I don’t go home often. The place was highly rated and it was deserved. The food and drinks were delicious, it had a great vibe with authentic decorations and they were very knowledgeable about gluten and what I could eat. You can read more about it here on my post about everything I ate in Barcelona. After the restaurant, we went to a brewery and had a couple of drinks. We called it an early night though because it had been a very long day of traveling. 

The next day we went to the convention but it was very disorganized. It was rough getting in even though we had prepaid tickets. Additionally, it was raining and cold and some areas were very muddy. By the time we got in, all our spirits were a little down so we didn’t actually stay for a very long time, just a couple of hours. We made our way back and took a nap before heading out to explore the city. 

That evening we grabbed some food and then headed over to see the Sagrada Familia which I was so excited to see. I have always seen pictures and heard about how it’s been under construction for over 100 years, I couldn’t wait to see it in person. Let me tell you, the pictures of this place do not do it even the slightest bit of justice. From the second I walked off the escalator from the metro and saw my first glance, I was speechless. Antoni Gaudi was a genius with his designs and there aren’t enough words in the English language to describe how brilliant and beautiful it was. It is breathtaking! It was already dark by the time we went, and it was cold and rainy so there weren’t a lot of people around. The combination though made it possible to get some really amazing pictures from all sides of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go inside but I will absolutely be going back to Barcelona to do all the other things I missed so I will next time. After the Sagrada Familia, we went to an Irish Bar to warm up and chill out after another long and exhausting day with a delicious cider. 

More exploring

We had decided beforehand that on the next day of our trip, we would skip the convention and explore the city because it was going to be sunny and no rain. We planned out a rough agenda and set out to see some sights. We first walked to a 100% gluten-free bakery and got some treats and explored that area. There were lots of cool vintage shops and boutiques. From there we headed to the Plaza de Catalunya area. We hit up a couple restaurants and had drinks and snacks while we made our way towards Casa Batllo and Casa Mila, both places were also designed by Antoni Gaudi and were also so visually stunning. His influence on the whole city was just amazing. I can’t wait to go back and see more. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around and just exploring with a few random food breaks.  If you know me, you know I love big cities. The energy I feel just makes me happy so I am always content just wandering the streets and seeing whatever I can and trying different foods and drinks along the way. That evening we met up with a couple of other friends,  had dinner, and hung out. 

The next morning we got up and got ready to head to the convention. We hit a couple roadblocks (literally) along the way. First, we were going to take a taxi to the convention center but there was actually a marathon going on that day so we had to walk for forever until we got past the blocked-off race area. Then on the way, my husband started feeling sick. We had to have the driver pull over because he was going to be sick. We spent the next hour and a half on a bench until he felt better. We made it back to the apartment where he was able to rest. 

Luckily after a few hours, Karl was feeling better and we decided to head out and do some more exploring as it was our last night in Barcelona. We took the metro over to the Arc de Triomf. From there we walked towards the El Born neighborhood. El Born is a trendy neighborhood in a medieval area. It was really cool because there were so many cool boutiques, restaurants and bars. We actually wandered across a really cool bar called Especiarium. It looked really cool from the outside so we wandered in. It actually turned out to be voted one of the best bars in the world. It had a really cool aesthetic and the drinks and hummus were delicious. All the drinks are based on spices and have a tie to the city. It was probably the coolest place we went in the city. Read more about it here. 

From the El Born neighborhood, we wandered to the Gothic Quarter. This was another really cool area. All the streets are so old and the buildings too. It’s really weird to think how old everything is and how far back people have been wandering the same streets, being amazed by the architecture and feeling what I felt at that moment. The Barcelona Cathedral is in this area and it is also so beautiful. It was night and closed so again, I didn’t get to see the inside. It was really great though because there were a couple of different street performers. One was a girl who sang beautifully, we watched her and danced in the square with the others. The other was 2 men who were singing opera on the side of the church. The alleyway they were at had amazing acoustics so they sounded incredible. It was a great way to end our evening. 

The next morning we headed back to the train station and back to Portugal. 

Barcelona was absolutely amazing. I definitely want to go back and see everything we missed. I love that it’s not that hard to get there from Tavira. Flying is even easier but I wanted to experience the train. But either way, it’s just so easy to get there and to so many other places in Europe. There are still so many places I want to go. This was such a big part of why we moved to Europe. Life was good in Las Vegas but there’s something so different about my life now. I’m experiencing so much more and seeing so many amazing places. This world is so big and I just want to see it all. When I’m 90, I want to look back and remember the nights I danced in the streets of Lisbon and Barcelona, and the food I ate in Paris, and all the other memories I haven’t made yet and just be happy knowing that I got to live. 

Thank you for reading. Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see more of my adventures as an expat in Portugal and more of my daily life. 💙

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