Day 14 & 15 - Barcelona - Steph Ventures

We are officially half way through our honeymoon which is wild. I’m also a little sad that we are at the halfway point. The first 2 weeks were incredible, and I have a feeling these last 2 weeks are going to fly by. Unfortunately I was sick with a horrible cold the entire time we were in Barcelona. Stelios was sick also but started to get better on our last day there. (Don’t worry mom & dad, by the time I am writing this we are both doing much better). Regardless we did our best to explore the city and try to enjoy our time there. We both agreed we liked Barcelona better than Valencia, but we definitely didn’t get the full Barcelona experience since we were sick. Below is a recap and highlight of our 2 full days there:

Day 14 – Barcelona: Park de La Cituadella & Besta

This morning I slept in until 11am while Stelios woke up at 9am to go for a morning stroll and explore the city. He brought me back some hot green tea and I mustered up some energy to get ready for the day. We decided to walk towards Betlem, a tapas restaurant recommended to us by my friend Ali. We grabbed a table for 2 outside to people watch and enjoy some local tapas. There were a lot of people with dogs in the square and it is wild to me how many dogs are off leash and well behaved in Spain. They just prance around the square not bothering anyone and casually folllowing their owners. I wonder if dogs in Europe are more well behaved because the environment and the people are more relaxed? In America it’s very rare to see a dog off leash and not barking all the time when other people or dogs pass by. The tapas we ordered were delicious, the only thing missing was enjoying it with a nice glass of wine. We ordered the goat cheese salad, crab ravioli, veal cheek cannelloni, and the local Catalan cheese and honey dessert that I forgot to take a picture of.

We decided to walk back to the Gothic Quarter and go down Las Ramblas, a famous street but it was too touristy for me and I was not impressed.

Some other highlights of today:

We stopped at Puff Bocadillos, and decided to share the “Barcelona bocadillo” after how much we loved the bocadillos in Ibiza. This one was very tasty and the ingredients were fresh but S’Escalinata still reigns supreme.

We walked to Parc de La Cituadella where apparently locals salsa dance in the park on Sundays. Most of the people there dancing were VERY good but we decided to join them for 2 upbeat songs.

On the way back we passed Joncake that had a line that looked like an hour long. I googled it later and all of these people were waiting on line for American pastries which just seems nuts.
Dinner was at Besta Barcelona, a Michelin restaurant that specialized in Seafood. We decided to order a bottle of white wine to share that would pair well with the fish forward tasting menu. I would later regret having the wine in the morning. The dinner was excellent and I was most impressed by the skate cheeks in bechamel sauce. Back home when my dad catches Skate he throws them back, so I asked the chef how they filet and prepare them here. He was shocked we throw them back in the states and told us in Spain the cheeks are a delicacy and people also eat the fins, but they are very hard to filet. I took some notes from the chef so we’ll have to see if Captain Mike can figure out the filet process next summer. After dinner we called it a night since I was low on energy and needed to rest. I couldn’t wait to kick this cold.

Day 15 – Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia

Our alarms went off at 8:30am. This morning we had booked a tour of the Sagrada Familia. I was doing worse than yesterday but again powered through because I refused to miss this tour.

The outside of La Sagrada Familia is immaculate. You can see the original architecture from when Gaudi was alive is much more detailed than the newer sections being built. The outside of it is like a cement story, each section of the face of the building showcasing a different stage of Jesus’s life with other symbols embedded in the structure.

What really blew me away was the architecture inside of the Sagrada. Gaudi relied on elements of nature that were all represented in the Sagrada Familia. The columns holding up the ceiling resembled a cement jungle of trees, the spiral staircase in the towers inspired from the shell of snails, and the stained glass windows were just simply breathtaking. I was in complete awe of the basilica.

Half way into the tour I and tuned out our guide (half because I was sick but also his English wasn’t great) so rather than try to listen intently, I had the audio on in the background and just wandered around admiring the different sections of the Sagrada Familia. Stelios on the other hand listened very carefully and enjoyed the guided tour very much and all of the added fun facts the guide added into his dialogue. He gave me the spark notes later. After the tour I needed to lay down and decided to skip Park Guell. Stelios walked back with me to the hotel, and I took a nice long siesta. He went on to explore the park since we had already bought tickets and took pictures to show me when he got back.

The Sagrada Familia was definitely the highlight of our stay in Barcelona, and I’m so glad we got to experience the beauty of it together. We decided to stay in so I could rest and hopefully kick this cold for good. Tomorrow was a travel day and we’d be heading to Sicily.

My final thoughts on Barcelona:

It is a city full of history and Catalan/Spanish culture.
The food options are very diverse. While tapas spots and Spanish restaurants are the most common, I also noticed a lot of Japanese sushi and ramen spots. But you can probably find every type of cuisine here as it’s a large city
There is a great energy in the air, but it is very crowded. I honestly can’t imagine coming here during peak season in the summertime 1. Because of the crowds and 2. Because of the heat
The El Born section was my favorite and I’d like to experience more tapas spots and cocktail bars along with the Barcelona nightlife when I return
Gaudi is truly an architectural mastermind. I would definitely tour the Sagrada Familia again. I would also want to see the inside of Casa Battlo and Casa Mila