After an awesome 4 days in Paris, Katie and I woke up at 3 am again to get to Barcelona in order to have another full day in a new city. We smoothly traveled to Barcelona and navigated to our bed and breakfast once again by Metro. We felt more comfortable in Spain because we did know some Spanish and could understand the signs better. The weather was 60 and sunny, FINALLY! The bed and breakfast we stayed in was so perfect; it was beautiful and hidden from the hustle-bustle of the city. We were the only ones staying in the bed and breakfast for the weekend, so we had the whole place to ourselves. I would definitely recommend ‘Ally’s Bed and Breakfast’ to anyone who is traveling to Barcelona, for 30 E a night it was better than any hostel you can find and the same price! After we got into our bed and breakfast, we opened our balcony to the warm fresh air and had to go outside even though we had been awake since 3 am.

Our first stop was at Sagrada Familia, the largest cathedral in the world. This cathedral is so large, is began being built in the 1880s and is still being built today. Large is an understatement. Never in my life have I seen architecture as magnificent as the Sagrada Familia. Why do you need a church that big??? I have been struggling with this thought ever since I left.

Needless to say, the church was breathtaking and even pictures cannot do it justice. We took an elevator up to the top of one of the long towers to overlook the ocean and city of Barcelona. I was up the highest I had ever been in my life, so high my knees were weak. We walked all the way down in a small spiral staircase in the tower; again I was hanging on for dear life and had to convince myself it was OK to take each step. Another experience I will never forget! You can see my fear in my arms as I was clutching onto both sides of the rail in the picture…

After the breathtaking Sagrada Familia, we went to the main street ‘Rambla’ street where all the tourist action is and markets and restaurants. Barcelona had a FABOULOUS market with all the fresh food and sweets you can imagine, so we had lunch there and sat outside and drank pitchers of the famous Sangria. After living in Ireland, it was very important to us to greet the sun for once. The harbor of Barcelona comes right into the city off of Rambla street and the warm weather brought a lot of people into the area.

On Wednesday night, Katie and I were determined to meet our other girlfriends who were studying abroad in Barcelona. They had all invited us and were involved in the same festivities, so the locations worked out perfectly. Initially we met Katie’s friends at a huge bar where everyone was watching the Barcelona playoff soccer game, so there was a lot of excitement in the air. It’s fun to watch the camaraderie of other nations when it comes to their sports teams because you can understand why they get so excited about sports. Wednesday night we had fun at one of the large night clubs in Barcelona, but were very tired because we had been up since 3 am.

Thursday, we woke up and took a bus to the famous Parc de Guell of Barcelona, which is one of the largest tourist attractions that looks over the city. 70 degrees and sunny meant it was the perfect day for pictures, and we got the famous Barcelona tourist picture on the stained glass bench overlooking the city. We did a lot of walking on Thursday; we walked all the way back to the city and found a cute place to eat lunch outside of another cathedral down by the water. We returned to our bed and breakfast for a nap and then went out for a nice dinner in the high end shopping district of the city, which was close to our bed and breakfast. I enjoyed calamari and fresh seafood from the ocean! Our fun was endless.

Location: Barcelona, Spain