Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After hearing poor reviews from many travellers about dirty, scary neighbourhoods and the annoyance of having to always check your pockets for Spanish thief's, we were hardly jumping off the plane with excitement when we touched down at Barcelona airport. However, after spending the past 4 days there, these preconceived thoughts definitely no longer exist; it was awesome. In between the extremes of the laid-back holiday destination of San Sebastián and the craziness of Ibiza, Barcelona planted in the middle on the spectrum; a nice medium-sized city with decent nightlife situated on a coastal line of manmade beaches.
Arriving late in the afternoon physically and mentally exhausted from our stint in Ibiza, we were pleased to be greeted by such a nice hostel with air conditioned rooms, strong wifi, complimentary group dinners and breakfasts; which proved to be a great way to encourage everyone at the hostel to interact and socialise. Furthermore, they organised nightly events if heading out on the town tickled your fancy. It just so happened I managed to get myself selected as team leader for a pub crawl on the first night, seeing as though I'd known the city so well in the whole 2 hours I'd been there. With most of the boys opting to spend the night recovering with an early night, Louis & I lead the hostel group to a shooter bar briefly before going for the easy, cheaper option of taking drinks to the beach. An hour of power buying cold beers from the thousands of Indian gypsies on the beach before the night moved on to one of the most prestigious nightclubs in the city; Opium. A very modern and packed nightclub which we held in high regards; however at 14 euro for a heineken and sambucca shot, you can see how they can afford to maintain it so well & pull such high profile DJs such as Steve Aoki, Axwell & Alesso each week.
The second night in Barcelona signalled the start of the La Liga season and just so happened the first game was a home one for the Camp Nou team. Seems we had unintentionally planned that perfectly. Fortunate enough to jag some tickets to the game, we felt a massive wave of adrenalin and atmosphere hit us as we walked through into this historical football stadium and took in the sights. The 90,000 capacity arena was so architecturally different to any Australian stadiums and it was surreal to see possibly 5 of the top 20 players in the world today within a mere 50m from us. At 70 euro a ticket, we definitely got our money's worth, with Barcelona walking in 6 first half goals to finish the game with a comfortable, routine 7-0 win to kickstart their title defence.
The days in Barcelona were quite chilled, waking late and laying on the beach before paying a visit to Las Ramblas for a shop and a standard Tapas lunch, to be followed by an afternoon 'siesta'; which is one of many things that I think Australia should adopt from the Spaniards (who wouldn't want to knock off work for a few hours in the early afternoon for a short nanna nap!?). The final day saw Jack & I venture out slightly more, as we reunited with Nosti & Carrett for a day and decided to hire bikes and explore the city. We roamed to the more northerly beaches in Platja de la Nova & Platja del Bogatell which were much cleaner & prettier than the crowds of Barceloneta, as well as paying a visit to the Port de Olympic and admiring all the amazing boats and yachts we are planning to buy together once we win the Powerball jackpot. After a long day of riding we came across a restaurant on the wharf where we had a beer and a tray of about a thousand garlic-soaked mussels whilst overlooking the ocean; and was then we realised just how in love with this city we actually were.
Being our last night in Barcelona and the last night we were going to see Browny (who had travelled with us all through Spain since meeting on Contiki a month ago) we were keen to have one last big night. Kickstarting the night with a 4-course meal at an ocean front restaurant, we feasted on lobster, mussels, squid, octopus soup, grilled fish and beef steak which was definitely worth every euro. From there we decided to try another of the major nightclubs of the area; Shoko. With drink prices again ridiculously over inflated, Jack & I ventured out onto the beach for a beer, but before long found ourselves caught in the middle of a 50-man war between the Indian gypsies and the 15-year old locals on the beach, with full cans of beer and firecrackers being thrown to and fro. Quite an interesting, yet kind of scary, spectacle. Squeezing into bed on the stroke of sunrise, a late yet fun last night to see off this cool city and bid farewell to a few people we'd met and created great stories and memories with during our travels to date.
Whilst the 3 Spanish destinations we have visited over the past fortnight were rather unique from each other, we have thoroughly enjoyed each and the Spanish culture in general. From sangria and tapas, to siestas and sunbaking (clothing optional), we have all fallen in love with Spain and a tinge of regret that we could not stay longer, as we depart over the Mediterranean for the next leg of the journey; the Greek Isles.
- comments