Rainy in Barcelona

During the dreary English winters, one dreams of a sunny Spanish paradise in Barcelona. Although Barcelona was not in our original plans, once John finally booked his flight, we knew we had to visit!

[divider class="" ]Planning:

After John finally booked his trip to the UK, we opened Google Flights and asked him where we wanted to go. We narrowed down our list to Barcelona, Budapest, or Scotland. Once we had a narrow list, we compared flight times and costs and Barcelona easily won because the flight was relatively cheap and it left and returned at great times. We were able to leave work at 5 and still have plenty of time to catch the airport bus to Luton for a 8pm flight. It was almost our first time flying Vueling Airlines, the budget airline of Iberia. (For your information, it is pronounced Vwilling)Not wasting a second, I immediately made a reservation at Blavis, the #2 restaurant in Barcelona and a highly recommended restaurant (thanks to Extra Pack of Peanuts). I knew reservations usually sold out weeks in advance and I was not missing this opportunity!!For our living, I had to look for a rare triple room. After some initial hurdles of sold out hotels, I found a great value room at Casa Gracia Barcelona, one of the best budget hostels according to Lonely Planet. Based on the reviews, people loved this intimate hostel and it appeared ideal as it had a big metro stop nearby.Flight: 140Hostel: 70Blavis: Yummy!Food and Drinks: Priceless….

[divider class="" ]Friday night:

A rare Friday night paragraph! Usually our Friday night’s are pretty boring since it is mainly traveling to and from airports and hotels. Not to forget our posh and lovely lounge life!! However, this Friday night had a very unique experience… During our boarding process, we overheard the gate agent say that they had to switch out the planes thus leaving row 32 passengers without a seat since there was no row 32. Most passengers took it well. One particular man did not. And we had a front row seat for all of this commotion!Once we boarded the plane, we saw the captain rushing to this gentleman to explain something. Suddenly, the captain walks back to the cockpit and requests the police. The guy now freaks out and is yelling and screaming at the captain. It turns awkward really quickly. Fast forward an hour, we have armed police escorting this guy and his three friends off the plane. To not lose revenue, Vueling then boarded another 3-4 passengers!

Saturday:

After a late arrival into Barcelona of 1:30am, we were all a little slow on waking up. In addition, it was already raining and the forecast was not looking good for the rest of the day… Undeterred, we still went for the 11am walking tour by Sandeman. I have been on this free walking tour in other cities, most recently in Brussels, and have always enjoyed their guides. The tour begins near the Jaume metro station in the heart of the Gothic Quarter.As mentioned previously, it was a fairly decent drizzle all day. Once you’re just standing in it, we could not avoid it! We had a great guide, Jimi Suerez, originally from Scotland. I really liked his stories and wit and how he blended the unique and troubled history and recent events into his stories. Our first stop was the original palace and the city center. We could have seen Christopher Columbus walking on these very cobble stone alleys.. if we lived around 1492!

Fun with Flags:

There are three types of flags: Spain, Catalan, and Catalan with Puerto Rico Star as they feel it is still part of the Spanish empire. We proceeded to learn more about the city’s interesting Catalion past where they were independent at one point, but either for the most part controlled via Madrid or France or the Hapsbergs of Austria throughout its existence. They are a very proud people who feel like with the recent changes in the world, they should be a free state. However, Madrid (Spain) did not approve of this plan and now all the former heads of Catalan government are in jail. To represent those in or correctly in prison, they wear or spray paint yellow ribbons.[gallery size="full" ids="1193,1192,1190"]Although the tour was great, it was about 2 hours too long in the rain. By the end, we were soaked to the bone as we only had one umbrella for three people and damp rain jackets are cold once wet!

[divider class="" ]What to do if it is Rainy in Barcelona?

Thus we said our goodbyes to Jimi and headed to one of my recommended pizza places - NAP! Unfortunately it did not appear to be a sit down for a very long time and dry off type of place but we definitely enjoyed the cheap food and warm and dry seat![gallery size="full" ids="1203,1202,1200"]Since it did not stop raining during lunch and the weather forecast was not improving, we decided to go to another EPOP recommendation - a cool craft brewery called BierCab. John was particularly excited about the place since this is his cuppa tea. They had 30+ brews on tap from around the world and tons of yummy looking tapas. Since BierCab was also really close to a top notch gelato shop, I highly suggested to everyone that we dry off at the brewery, get some gelato, then go to dinner.[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="1205,1204"]And we did exactly that! We had some amazing beers from Belgium, Spain, Czech, and Denmark! Most importantly, we almost dried off! Everyone got what they wanted as I was able to get delicious gelato while my clothes and shoes were only somewhat wet! For my extensive review of our amazing dinner, just proceed below. It will be a coma-inducing, jaw dropping, and delicious food experience! After the bar, it was fun time exploring the Casa Gracia bar and just hanging out. Then again, our dinner lasted until nearly 10 so it was a fun time![gallery size="large" columns="2" ids="1207,1221"]

[divider class="" ]Blavis:

Blavis was one of the finest meals I have had! It was a culinary experience from the appetizer to the dessert. Blavis is owned by two brothers - one the waiter, the other the cook. We were waited on hand and foot and beautifully described our future eats. It was a very small restaurant - perhaps seats 10-15 people at max. The location is quite cozy and you can see the kitchen very easily! To say the least, we were very excited! After all, this is the #2 restaurant in all of Barcelona! We began our culinary experience with….Eggplant carpaccio - Not normally on my list, but it was raved about online. It surpassed the hype! The garlic bread was delicious as well as eggplant. It was very tasty!Roast beef sandwiches - One of the favorites of the table for sure. The roast beef melted in your mouth while the flavor of sauce and bread were extremely savory. Would definitely try!Bravas - these potatoes are well-known in the Barcelona. The potatoes were very tender and the sauces were fabulous. It was awesome.Pibil (tacos) - Being from the South and close to Mexico, we felt like we are decent judges on tacos. That being said, the shredded beef tacos were out of this world. Melted into your mouth while a nice crunch from the tortilla chip!Vietnamese sandwiches - Somewhat strange that this was on the menu seeing how we are in Spain, but everyone hyped these sandwiches. It was slow roasted beef with fresh carrots and other veggies that gave it a nice crunch. Equally delicious!Cod croquettes - Again, something I would not have expected on the menu but I heard wonderful things! These were the most interesting bites, not the best, but certainly tasty.Kimchi chicken wings - Before we ordered the next three items, we were well on our way to being full. I cannot believe we almost missed these wings! The meat fell off the bone and the sauce was very tasty. Strange to see it on the menu but very glad it was there!Thai spice shrimp - Excellent shrimp with a wonderful sauce!Roasted Iberian pig - the classic Spanish tapas that did not disappoint! Melted in our mouths and had great flavors.Chocolate Fondant - Obviously since I booked the restaurant, I had my choice of dessert. It was delicious… just wish John didn’t inhale literally half of it…Strawberry with whipped creams - Homemade whipped cream with freshly cut strawberries! Cannot go wrong there. 

[divider class="" ]Sunday:

Well, we totally ignored and forgot about the European time change here since the US “sprung forward” two weeks ago. It was rude awakening once we realized it and had 1 less hour of sleep!  We could also tell it hadn’t stopped raining so we were very wary of going back outside.

Park Guell:

Nevertheless, after an uninspiring breakfast, we left for Park Guell in the north part of the city. Park Guell is the former estate of a wealthy man named Guell who commissioned the famous Barcelona artist Gaudi to design and create sculptures and artwork within the park. It was originally suppose to be a park for only the wealthy, but turns out no one wanted to visit. Thus, it given to the city of Barcelona who opened it to the public. Throughout the park, there are cool structures that Gaudi built. Known for his broken tile method, he shaped this park into one of the finest tourist attractions in the city.[gallery size="large" ids="1223,1226,1229"]One of the best views overlooking Barcelona is the top of the Park Guell. Unfortunately, every other tourist in Barcelona decided to come and take pictures. Thankfully, I am taller than most tourists so I got impatient and just hid them with my body! Perks of height! The view also wasn’t as advertised…[gallery size="large" ids="1230,1228,1225"]

The Church:

Our next stop on this cloudy, almost rainy day was to the famous church, La Sagrada Familia. When we arrived, I looked at google maps and I was very surprised to see that we were actually very far from the “church.” I typed it into google maps, misspelling it all, and had we not gotten into a taxi because the bus was too full, we would have ended up in a strange neighborhood about 20 minutes from the actual church…The church is magnificent. As we learned in our walking tour, it is one of the last cathedrals built (or perhaps still being built?) by the Catholic church. It is very impressive and the church incorporates the Gaudi style. It is very modern while going back to the Gothic architecture of the old days. The church started building the cathedral in 1855, but it has been postponed, delayed, stopped, slowed down, or any of the other many excuses...

A Rainy Beach:

Afterwards, the sun poked its head out of the clouds. Since Barcelona is well-known for the beaches (in the summer, definitely not in the winter, we decided to go to the beach and yacht port. As we strolled along the yachts, we pointed to which ones we were going to own. However, we then looked up the prices (upwards of $250 million) and decided we were fine splitting the cost! After much searching, we finally found the beach and John saw the Mediterranean for the first time! Too bad it was cold, windy, cloudy, and just not typical beach weather. However, that did not stop us from sitting at a beachside burger shack![gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1244,1245"]

[divider class="" ]The UnChartered 13:

After all this time, we sadly had to leave Barcelona. We all had a great time despite the rainy, cloudy, and cold weather. Part of me realizes we will return purely to see it during the sunny summer months! We will definitely book a return visit to Blavis…[photogrid ids="1232,1233,1240,1241,1242,1219,1207,1199,1185,1188,1189,1196" captions="no" columns="three" fullwidth="yes" ]