Ok so people always say how quickly time passes and they can’t believe that x amount of time has already passed, but cliches are cliches for a reason and boy I can’t believe my 6 months in Barcelona are already over!
Fair enough, it doesn’t feel like it was only “yesterday” that I arrived, but it does feel like I arrived like 2 weeks ago or so.
My last couple of months in Barcelona were filled with new experiences, trips to new places, a whole new group of interns that arrived and new friendships that I will hope to maintain for a very long time.
So now that my time in this amazing city is over, I want to show you a list of pictures with the highlights of my stay (mainly for me to look back to when I think about this period of my life), followed by a list of things I recommend people should do if they visit or live in Barcelona at any point.
My personal highlights:
The first friends I made: My amazing flatmates who lived with me under the roof of a crazy Mexican lady who ended up kicking all of us out weeks before my internship ended. But damn do I love them!
The second group of friends I made: the interns at the firm. My Spanish family ❤
They are one of the reasons I felt at home in Barcelona and 100% of the reason I speak Spanish the way I do.
I really hope I get to see all of them again soon!
Watching the sunrise over the bunkers with my dad when he came to visit. I loved it so much that I went back with my boyfriend and then again with my girls straight from the club at 7am.
Anna Banana coming to see me was another highlight. We had met in Germany during my previous placement and it meant a lot to have her be part of my second placement to a certain extend. This is us watching the sunset over the bunkers moments before a storm started (yes, the clouds are a strong indicator, but we didn’t think it would start raining). We ended up drenched in rainwater and running down the hill and nothing went like planned but I couldn’t stop laughing because there we were, in Barcelona, running together in the rain.
My girls. Where do I even start. Most of them only came a month before I was due to finish my internship but I can’t even express how happy I am that they came.
This one month was all it took for us to form a bond that I hope will last for a lifetime.
Trips to Sitges, rooftop sunset picnics, photoshoots during golden hour, crepe making sessions at Dilara’s kitchen, nights out and techno festivals and many more things happened within this short amount of time and made my final months the absolute best I could ever have hoped for.
So these are some of my highlights, the ones I have pictures of, at least. Of course there is also Bhav’s visit in August, my mum’s visit and our road trip to the south of Spain in May, my boyfriend’s many visits throughout the 6 months there and, of course, when by best friend came just days before we flew to Morocco together (but that is getting its own post).
Now on to the list of things I recommend people do if they ever visit or live in Barcelona.
A lot of these things were suggested by a friend of mine who had been there for much longer than I had (yes Eve, I mean you) so I can’t take much credit for discovering many of these, but I can confirm that they were things I genuinely enjoyed!
1. Go have a drink at the Antic Teatre Bar. This cute little outside space is amazing for non-rainy days and relaxing drinks with your friends. You have to order at the bar and take your drinks outside to your table. Careful: You can only pay by card from 5€ onwards.
2. Sol Soler. Ok guuuurl, this is like the best tapas bar in Barcelona in my humble opinion and was 5 minutes from my first house (yes, the one I was kicked out of). I went there on my first day with Eve and this is the day I started liking beer (Moritz, the love of my life) and went back with Melanie on my last day. Highly recommend sitting outside at Plaza del Sol and watch all the young people sit on the floor and have drinks until the police comes and tells everybody to go.
3. Mamas Cafe Gracia: This place is really nice for some brunch. The food is really good, however the space is quite small and the chances that you won’t find a table if you come a bit later are quite high.
4. Elephanta Gin Bar, yet another jewel in the Gracia neighbourhood. This bar made me get into gin and tonic (my taste changed a lot during this placement). They also have a cute table with two chairs outside if you feel like doing some people watching while drinking your gin. They tend to have a gin of the month as well that you can ask for. The one I had was amazing.
5. A vocado, a cheeky Spanish pun with the expression “a bocados”, this restaurant actually offers less avocado meals than I expected, but the food is still very good with some great menu options (starter, main, desert) for 12€.
6. Acai&Me , if you are really into Açai or, like my boyfriend, haven’t tried it before and really want to, this place, right at the Barceloneta beach, is an amazing spot to grab a healthy, protein-filled, Açai bowl in the summer while looking down at the beach.
7. Alsur Cafe in the Born neighbourhood…I can’t even put to words how amazing and beautiful this place is. Hands down the best place I ever had brunch at. Careful, though, the bill can’t be split! The food and the ambience are worth it thoooo!
8. El Sabio Infante – Ok I really am into my brunch. This lovely cafe in Gracia has some amazing brunch options and super tasty pancakes (I’m a pancake kinda girl). The interior design is interesting and absolutely random at the same time.
9. La Oveja Negra (at least that’s the Spanish name, in Catalan L’Ovella Negra), which Eve described as the Spanish Weatherspoons, except it is cuter and right next to Razzmatazz. Really good to have some beer and Sangria. If you’re really thirsty, they also offer 10L pitchers of either beer or Sangria. Yeah, you read that right.
10. Razzmatazz, Apolo (my personal fave), Jamboree, Shoko and Catwalk were some of the clubs I went to during my stay. Apolo was my favourite, just because of the vibe and music they had the times I was there. They have two rooms with one of them playing techno (which I now started liking as well. Barcelona changed me!) and the other playing a different types of music depending on the week. Razzmatazz is the biggest one with 5 rooms playing different music. It is really well known and a must do when in Barcelona. Shoko and Catwalk are right at the beach and full of tourists. I suggest getting in before 1am if you don’t want to pay to get in (the drinks in there will cost you an arm and a leg) but if you want to party Spanish style, don’t even think about getting into a club before 3am .
11. Paradiso, one of the speakeasy bars I visited. It looks like a pastrami restaurant during the day (I think they even sell pastramis) and during night, the fridge door leads to a secret bar. Unfortunately the queue outside can be quite long sometimes, which takes away from the mystery. This is not a bar to get drunk in. Be prepared to pay 15€ for one drink, but it will be worth it!
12. Bobby’s Free , the second speakeasy bar I went to during my time in BCN. Similarly to Paradiso, this bar looks like something it isn’t. With the facade of a barbers shop, you would never guess this is a bar. The queues for this one also tend to be a bit smaller, which doesn’t make things too obvious. In order to be let into this bar, you will be greeted by a gentleman with a goat beard, who will ask you for a password. This password can be found on the bar’s instagram page and changes every month. Once you tell him the correct password, he will let you into the bar through a door you didn’t even know existed.
13. Tibidabo Amusement Park. Ok so I didn’t looove Tibidabo, because I got me and my boyfriend a ticket to go on all the rides and at the end there is one rollercoaster that is worth going to and that’s it. I do, however, recommend it to see the beautiful church that is there and for the viewing platform and Ferris wheel for amazing views of Barcelona.
14. Ok how haven’t I mentioned the Bunkers yet? You have to go there too, for sunset, sunrise, your call. It’s just beautiful, for free and always open. You can take a beer, wine, snacks with you or buy them there from the people that are there every day selling snacks and drinks.
15. Montjuic, one of the hills, literally meaning, Jewish mountain, close to the beach, can be reached by the cable car from Paral-lel or even walking. There are a number of beautiful parks, a castle and an olympic swimming pool, by which you can have a reasonably-priced beer with a view over Barcelona. From this spot you get a nice view of the sunset over the Tibidabo Amusement Park.
16. CosmoCaixa – this science museum which only costs 5€ to get in to (unless you have a bank account with Caixa, then it’s for free), is super fun if you like to read about random things in the history of science or if you want to discover their replica of the Amazon forest, the bosque inundado, as they call it, which includes plants and some very exotic animals. It is just on the bottom of the Tibidabo hill, on which the amusement park is, so if you’re too lazy to make the trip twice, you can combine a visit to this museum, followed by the park!
17. Brunch Festival – I know I mentioned I like brunch, but this has got nothing to do with food. Nope, this is a techno festival (yes, I like those now). A really good one, in fact. It takes place throughout the whole year, almost every Sunday and if you buy your tickets early enough, you’ll get them for 12€. Make sure you have a few drinks beforehand though, because they like to overcharge for theirs.
18. Also make sure to go to Figueres and Cadaqués! Those are the cities where Salvador Dali was born in and lived at. Both have museums that you can visit. The one in Figueres doesn’t have to be booked in advance and is super worth seeing. The one in Cadaqués is basically his house. Do make sure to book this in advance, as when I went, all tickets were sold out and Matteo and I were only able to go into the garden, which was also super worth it:
Cadaqués looks like a Greek island, but might be a big expensive to stay the night at. I suggest taking the train to Figueres, exploring the city and sleeping there at a hostel for 18€. Then take the bus to Cadaqués early the next morning and be there within 1h. Spend the day in Cadaqués and take another bus straight to Barcelona in the evening. Absolutely beautiful and worth it!
19. Go to Sitges! Yet another beautiful town south of Barcelona with some beautiful beaches if you make sure to go along the beach, as far from the train station as possible, where all the tourists gather. Apparently is is also really good for a night out and for gay clubs.
20. Go to Girona! This was the first trip I made when I arrived, together with Matteo. It is in the same direction as Figueres (if you wan’t to combine them) and is a beautiful town with some old walls that you can walk along.
21. And, finally, go see as much of Spain as you can! The south, Andalucia, is so completely different from Catalunya, it might as well be a different country! I haven’t had the chance to see the north, but it must be amazing and completely different as well. Make the most of your time there!
After these adventurous six months I am, however, super excited to be back in the UK next week and see what the next and final year of uni brings.
I do know, for sure, that I want to go back to Barcelona at one point because I absolutely fell in love with this city.
A foreigner abroad 