Sunshine and Sangria : Barcelona

Last year while we were looking at the new cities we could visit in 2024, we were randomly looking at the flights to figure out which one could be the cheapest city to visit in January and also because it was supposed to be my pre-birthday trip. By the way I am not gonna reveal my age, but yeah I am getting old.

It turned out that Barcelona was one of the cities with the cheapest flights, and we ended up booking the flights for it.Now, Spain is known for its weather, culture and food, but since we were going in Jan, I didn’t expect much at least in terms of weather.

Contrary to what I anticipated, the moment we landed in Barcelona, it was a pure bliss.Coming from the Netherlands especially where this month of the year, it’s always raining, windy or quite gloomy, having a lot of sun just made my day, I was excited about the weather and the sun and was determined to fulfil my Vitamin D quota.

Barcelona is a big city and and to me it almost felt like a sibling to Paris, because of its wide streets, but also a just more lively in terms of atmosphere and people, there are people singing, dancing on the streets, which is a sight to watch, especially when the weather is so good. And, of course, who could forget the joy of sipping Sangria with a view.

One thing that I always try to do when I am visiting a new city is to go for a walking tour. After all, what better way to familiarise yourself with a city than through the eyes of the locals and believe me you’ll always find a free walking tour. The tour that we took was supposed to teach us at least 10 interesting things about Barcelona and how cool is that!

Through this tour, we got to know about couple of facts about Catalonia region and how Barcelona is considered to be a capital of this region and Madrid is considered to be a capital of Spain. We also learnt about Gaudi, the famous architect, who has influenced some of the famous buildings in Barcelona like Casa Mila and Casa batllo and not to forget about La Sagrada Familia, the famous church.

Also, This year my friend and I decided that apart from going to new cities, we also want to experience some new things.There has to be atleast one new element that we have never done or seen before. This time for our Barcelona trip we chose, a Spanish dance, Flamenco which is a dance style. The expressions of Flamenco dancers are often intense and serious. You would almost try to understand the emotions they are trying to potray whether it’s happiness or sadness but it’s difficult to figure out . However it was a captivating experience for sure.

The culinary scene in Barcelona is amazing too. Right on our first day we went to La Boqueria market which is a large public market on the La Rambla street and it’s known for it’s fresh produce and lot of restaurants. Trust me, you’ll get the best food here including a variety of exotic fruits.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to try Paella which is considered as one of the best-known dishes in Spanish cuisine. We learned that apparently each Paella is prepared on request and it takes approximately half an hour to prepare it. Perhaps something to look forward to on our next visit.

Barcelona surpassed all our expectations, making for the perfect start to the year. Despite feeling tired on our journey back, I was left sun-kissed and Barcelona-blissed. Until next time!

¡Hasta entonces! te amamos Barcelona!