Barcelona!
My last trip to Barcelona was full of sightseeing, hikes, and cross-country day trips. This one is a bit tamer. That girl from Andermatt, AKA Valeria, has been making easter egg appearances in a couple of my travel stories, and now it’s finally time to visit. She’s from the US but was studying abroad in Barcelona (pronounced Barthelona, obviously). As I flew out of Nice, I also had a ton of long-overdue homework on my plate. Who knew you had to study when studying abroad!? This trip also had the dual purpose to catch up on some of those homework assignments and recorded lectures.
I landed in Terminal C, which was a tiny terminal designed just for EasyJet. It caused some taxi-related confusion, but we eventually prevailed and I made it to LIV Student apartments. Interestingly, it was right next door to Aparto, which is where I stayed on my last trip to Barcelona. You could say I’m a local in the Selva de Mar area.
I had some authentic quesadillas and got an exclusive room tour of her apartment, but was pretty tired from my bike-riding and beach-exploring day, so I was happy to get to bed.
Valeria had school during the day, but I got to sleep in and wake up extremely late. I spent most of my Tuesday working on a German assignment that was due at midnight. Funny enough, her roommate, Steffi, was from Switzerland and spoke fluent German. I would have asked her for help but I am simply too good at German and recorded my presentation later that evening. Afterward, we played a couple of rounds of chess that I won handily. My reward was homemade chicken soft tacos that were so delicious I still think about them sometimes (if you’ve read my previous posts, then you know I think about food often).
Before we knew it, it was time to go to bed. Once again, I woke up SUPER late on Wednesday and figured it was my body catching up from all the traveling I did in Nice and Monaco. I was really getting spoiled because Vale made me breakfast tacos for brunch. Afterward, she had to go to school again, so I took the time to work on an assignment for my class on snow and avalanches and also catch up on a biofluiddynamics lecture. Soon, it was time to go pick her up from school. Being the local that I am, I had zero issues navigating the metro. Afterward, we both went to Diagonal Mar to finally do what I came here to do: shop! The Spanish prices were so much lower than Switzerland’s, so I got some shirts and shorts from Pull&Bear.
For dinner, we went to this incredibly authentic, romantic Mexican establishment: Taco Bell. Heartbreakingly, they didn’t have Mexican Pizzas, but I was super excited to finally get some Taco Bell. Besides McDonald’s, I hadn’t had fast food in months and was happy to go back to my American roots. We head back to LIV to eat and do a bit more work before going back out for the night. From my last trip to Barcelona, I remembered that the parties start super late at night, but still, I wasn’t prepared.
We left the apartment at 2 AM (!) to go to Razzmatazz, the most famous club in Barcelona and arguably the world. It features 5 floors, each with multiple dance floors and different types of music. The top floor was closed because Wednesday’s theme is El Dirty, complete with DJs and backup dancers on one of the floors. It was a lot of fun wandering between rooms of American throwbacks, Latin music, techno music, and ones that were a mix of everything. I also realized that people tend to move out of the way for girls much more than they do for guys—I’m used to fighting my way past people, but I never had to do that once when with her. The night went on, and at about 4:30 AM, still early for Spaniard standards, we threw in the towel and headed back.
It goes without saying, but the next morning I woke up very, very late. We discussed whether we wanted to go to Ibiza, but both of us had too much work on our plates to handle another trip. Speaking of work, she went to school and I got hard at work on our snow and avalanches project. Side note: she kept her room so well-stocked with my favorite snacks that I had the time of my life downing sleeves of Oreos. For dinner, we went to Poblenou and got burritos at the creatively-named Burritos (on Google as Burritos – Poblenou). It was super delicious, and I ordered in Spanish which made victory taste even sweeter. We picked up some wine before heading back to watch the Sixers-Celtics Game 6 and play some more chess.
For a change, I did not get up criminally late on Friday because we had places to be. We hopped on a tram and headed to Glòries, an outlet mall with some cool outdoor parts as well. I was starving, so we grabbed a waffle brunch at Goofretti. Next on the agenda was pant shopping, and we tried several places like Mango. Ultimately, it was time to go to ol’ reliable, Zara, for which we had to go outside in the rain. Side note, but it rained almost every day I was in Barcelona. I thought this was supposed to be the land of sunshine and beaches! Even the mall was unprepared for this level of rain and there were several roof leaks in the indoor portion.
Although a little damp, I got 3 new pairs of pants for under 70€. This was a critical buy. Before this trip, I had one singular pant because my others took too much wear and tear. We also grabbed some rings from this designer jewelry store, H&M, before heading out to Diagonal Mar. There was a tapas place on the rooftop, and we got some classic tapas dishes, like patatas bravas and croquettes. The food was great, but I was just happy that my wardrobe doubled in size.
At night, we watched Pinocchio, which is portrayed with a much darker story than the initial children’s tale. That made the movie interesting and added a lot of depth that I didn’t expect it to have. Being a recently released film from Guillermo del Toro, though, it made perfect sense.
The following day, I woke up super early, packed up the backpack I’d been living out of for the past 8 days, and headed for the airport (Terminal C again).
The trip flew by, especially since I wasn’t running around every second of the day like most of my other adventures. It was a nice change of pace to relax and get some work done. I was very thankful to LIV for being such a great accommodation. Oh yeah, and I guess to Vale too for letting me live rent-free.
Takeaways
- Spain never ceases to amaze me with their food. It is one of the only places in Europe where you can get actually spicy food, especially if you know the chef
- Spaniards are downright crazy when it comes to nightlife. Leaving the house at 2 AM when I would usually be asleep at that time in the US?
- Big shoutout to Spain’s low prices for shopping and allowing me to have more than 1 pair of pants
- The only thing I love more than travel is sleeping
Rose-Bud-Thorn
Rose (what went well): This trip felt very gentle and relaxing, which is very rare. Usually, by the end of a trip, I’m low on sleep and ready to collapse, but it was quite the opposite on this one.
Bud (what was good but could be improved on): Both of us were pretty busy and had limited free time, but it would have been nice to spend more time in the city. I’d already done the touristy stuff on my trip with Walter, but it would have been a lot of fun to wander around the streets in different neighborhoods.
Thorn (what did not go well): The rain did throw a wrench in some beach-related and outdoorsy plans. Apparently, it only rained the week I was in Barcelona, so I guess I must have brought it with me!
Rohan Chhaya 