Barcelona, Spain IV

Bicing = Rental Bikes. This station can be seen very often in Barcelona, especially near by subway stations. You can rent a bike with no cost for the first 30minutes and after that every half an hour is 30 Euro-cents. After that, every two hour is 3 Euros to discourage people from renting it for long hours. A bike can be returned to any bike stations.

Beach!
The water was pretty cold, but many people were in the water. I had a hard time putting my feet in the water already. It was that cold!

Somehow, it is not beach volleyball, but beach soccer.

Nice benches!

A “Don’t trash” sign.

Jungle gym on the beach.

Strange people passed by.

Of course, Tapas by the beach!

We ordered steamed muscles, and it turned out to be this many!

Our most favorite dish, grilled-sardines.

DONE!

I usually travel for work, so when I travel for private, it is such luxurious.
This was my first time in Spain, and I really enjoyed it! I learned my new favorites, Tapas and CAVA!

Barcelona, Spain III

Day Three. Antoni Gaudí day.
Sagrada Família. This church has been in construction for 125 years already and about 20 more years to go to complete. The construction started in 1882, and the current estimate of its completion is in 2026. Nowadays, because the building itself is already old, repairs are also being processed in parallel to new constructions.

A part of the Passion façade.

Casa Milà, This is also designed by Gaudí. This building is not using any straight lines, and currently it is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. To me, it looks like a horror mansion.

Casa Batlló (The second one from the right). This is also designed by Gaudí and a party of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I like this view where the building is standing among other “normal” ones.

But once you come close to it, it has a scary look.

After walking everywhere for a long time, we finally stopped by a café for a break. In restaurants or café in Barcelona, this sign can be seen very often. It is not a non-smoking sign, but the opposite. It is a you-can-smoke-in-this-café sign.

So… most customers are smokers.

Barcelona, Spain II

The next morning, Josh and I went to a supermarket for breakfast shopping. This was necessary for us to cut-down the costs; breakfast at the hotel was for about 20 EUR (about 28USD!). We actually enjoyed our own breakfast though.

The view from our room. Can you see a castle all the way in the back? It is there in left side of the second window from the right. This was our first tourist visit of the day. Do you see how far it is? We walked! For city walkers, probably this is nothing, but I was used to ride a bike to everywhere, so it was a long walk to me!

Arrival. This is an art museum called the National Art Museum of Catalonia. We didn’t go in.
This museum is suited on the Montjuïc hill where Barcelona Olympic stadium and swimming pool are located also.

Harbour. There were so many boats docked right next to each other. It was so beautiful. Not only that, but Josh and I came here for paella!

First, Cava Sangria!

And then… Seafood Paella! Somehow, the rice was orange. To me, paella is yellow in my image. But it was excellent!
By the way, have you noticed that it is so dark in this picture compared to the previous one? This is how long we waited for our food to come! Oh that’s a long time; especially when you are waiting on food.

The night was so beautiful. It is unbelievable that I have a chance to enjoy experiences like this. I’ve never forgotten how lucky I am.

Barcelona, Spain

From 19th of July till 22nd, Josh and I went to Barcelona. This is the view from our hotel room. A fantastic view of Barcelona! You can also see the water in the back.

First thing first; we went to La Rambla (See its history HERE).

When we were taking a walk on La Rambla, we found this market. Later we realized that it was a popular market for tourists.

What do I know; there were many tourists as a matter of fact. There were fruits, fish, meat, and lost more things are inside. And this place is much bigger than how it looks like from the gate. It is a big in-door market!

Pig legs waiting to be thin-sliced.

So… Tapas! Serrano ham!

With sangrias. The red one is Josh’s; it is a regular sangria based on red wine. The orange one is mine; it is made out of Cava (Barcelona Champaign). From here on, I always stuck with Cava sangria for the rest of the trip.

The area we visited on this first day was an old city. All buildings are very old and have the atmosphere that I loved.

This area is made out of these narrow streets.

At night, we headed to beaches. Here, we saw six-player beach baseball. Each team consists of three players. It was very interesting and pretty hard to play it seemed. I’d never seen something like this before.

This was our first day in Barcelona. I was so exhausted when we came back to our hotel.