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Beautiful Barcelona


Last May, I stumbled upon an amazing deal on round trip flights to Barcelona, Spain. After checking that my mother would be available to watch my boys, I booked the flights! We have been married almost 10 years and have never left the country together (except for Mexico on a cruise, but does that even count? haha). It is very unlike us to do something so expensive and so outside our comfort level. My husband, bless him, has a horrible time making decisions so he was over the moon, that I pulled the trigger without his knowledge! He has always been a huge fan of FC Barcelona and their star player, the greatest footballer to ever live, Lionel Messi. At the time I booked the flights, the game schedule was not up but my husband assured me that even just visiting the stadium, Camp Nou would be epic! So, over the next 8 months, I researched and researched and researched! It was very overwhelming at first! I finally narrowed down the list of top things to do and places to stay. It turned out to be the most amazing trip ever in one of the most amazing cities I have ever seen. Here is my travel journal with all the tricks we learned along the way.

What We Did (Our Itinerary):

Day 1: Travel to the Other Side of the Earth-I'm a sucker for $.25 slot machines. (especially the ones with cherries!). I knew it would be a great trip when I started it off winning $7 at the airport! We flew 5 hours from Las Vegas to Newark and then 8 hours to Barcelona. It was 24 total hours of travel, start to finish. There is a 9 hour time difference between Las Vegas and Barcelona. When we landed it was 9 am and we felt like we'd been hit by a truck. My advice here is to not worry about public transportation. Just pay for a cab to your hotel! Luckily, our hotel let us check-in and I proceeded to sleep for 7 hours! It was raining when we woke up so, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Day 2: Camp Nou Tour- This tour cost 25 Euros each and was money well spent! If you are any kind of a football fan, it is a must see. They have a great museum where you can see players cleats, trophies and even Lionel Messi's Player of the year awards! There is also an incredible video which is guaranteed to give you chills! The best part is that you not only get to go up in the stands but down on the pitch! You get to sit where the players sit and walk through the visitors locker room! My husband was in heaven!

Day 3: Gothic Quarter/ Las Ramblas- On day 4, we got lost in Gothic Quarter and it was incredible! We started the day with breakfast at Elsa y Fred. It was AMAZING! We saw the Arc de Triomf and then wondered around the Park de la Ciutadella. We walked down along the marina and up the famous La Rambla, which is a popular tourist spot, full of shops. La Rambla was our least favorite part of the day. It was a total tourist trap. We could not get out of there fast enough! My advice is to skip it entirely! Or shop the side streets instead of the main drag! The next place we hit was MACBA (Museu d'art Contemporani de Barcelona). Despite what you may think, the real attraction here is on the outside of the museum! It is a very famous skate spot. There were at least 30 skaters there and again, my husband was in heaven! We also found a cool local skate shop called Collective, where of course, my husband had to do a little shopping!

Day 4: Montserrat Half Day Tour/ Poblenou-

This is a must do! I wouldn't call myself outdoorsy or particularly adventurous but I absolutely loved this! The pick up/ drop off location was easy to get to and the guide, Uni, was fantastic! We met the nicest couple from Belgium. Actually, she was French and he was from the Netherlands. They spoke different languages when they met but both learned English as a common language. They were great! The tour of the monastery was very cool but my favorite part was the views from our hike. They were completely breath taking. After a much needed rest, we ventured to a very cool part of town called, Poblenou. We found a cute restaurant for dinner and then did some shopping. I bought the cutest new coat at a store called, MEISIE. This store was very cool and it is an actual Spanish brand! Most of the stores in this area felt like little boutiques.

Day 5: Hotel Switch- I decided to book 2 different hotels, just in case one was not great. So, halfway through our trip we left them most comfortable bed I'd ever slept in. I was so nervous that our second hotel would not live up to the first but.... IT DID! It may have been even better! We got so lucky to have stayed in 2 beautiful hotels! Our second hotel was called Room Mate Carla. It was downtown, which gave us a perfectly contrasting experience from our previous hotel! We spent most of this day packing, moving and napping. We picked up a pizza from Luigi's and watched the FC Barcelona match. It was a much needed restful day!

Day 7: La Sagrada Familia & Shopping-

We learned our lesson from Park Guell and decided to purchase tickets with a specific allotted time for La Sagrada Familia. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. We stopped at a cute cafe for breakfast called Sally Sucra. They had a menu item called, The American, so naturally we had to get it! It was amazing! Once we arrived at La Sagrada Familia, we had to stand in a line to go through a metal detector. My husband forgot that he had a knife in his pocket which wouldn't have been a big deal (They would have held it for him) except that apparently the type of knife he had is illegal in all of Spain so they confiscated it. Whoops! The church is beautiful and a definite must see. It is under extensive construction, as it has been for 100 years but it is still spectacular to see! The stained glass was my favorite part! After we were done there, we decided to find some shopping. I love Zara and seeing as it is a Spanish company, I figured I couldn't leave Spain without something from there! I found the cutest dress, which I am hoping is a European exclusive and not available at my local mall. 😂

Day 8: Horseback Riding/ FC Barcelona Game-

My favorite day of our entire trip! I purchased another Groupon deal. This one was for horseback riding. When I called to make a reservation, it was apparent that no one spoke a lick of English, so I knew it would be an experience! The ranch was located about 30 minutes outside of Barcelona. My amazing husband got us there on public transportation. From our drop off point we had to hike up into the mountains, which would have been perfectly fine if we hadn't come to a place on our path that had flooded. We did not know what to do. Not knowing if anyone else would be coming up this mountain, we started gathering large stones to make a sort of bridge. It was hilarious! Luckily, a car (hesitantly) came to our rescue. I literally had to beg the man to give us a ride to the other side of the water, all while he avoided eye contact. We were the first of the tour group to arrive at the ranch. They started saddling up horses for us and I thought, "oh my. Is this not a guided tour? Are they just going to put us on these horses and send us on our way?"Again, no one spoke any English. I was very relieved when other non professional horseback riders started showing up! This activity ended up being the best! My horse was great and the views were spectacular. Unfortunately, I do not have many pics because I heard a stern voice from behind me yell, "guarda tu teléfono!" which I could only assume was directed at me, as I was, at that exact moment, trying to take a picture while my horse walked in the wrong direction. My bad! After the horseback ride ended, we followed some of the nice looking participants to their car and begged for a ride back over the flooded dirt road! They were much more willing than our first man! I loved this experience and am convinced that my true calling in life is to be an equestrian. However, I found my sweet husband, once again saying, "I'll never do that again." In his defense, he had a defiant horse, that tried to run off a few times!

And now, for the grand finale! We got extremely lucky that on our very last day in Barcelona, FC Barcelona had a home game! It was truly the best way we could have ended this incredible trip! To be in this stadium with these amazing fans was something we will never forget! And to watch some of the best players in history was also, unforgettable! Sadly, the game ended in a 0-0 tie. So, seeing a goal scored by Lionel Messi will remain on our bucket list!

Day 9: Flight Home- It was a 24 hour travel day and a rough "back to reality" but these cute faces made it little easier! How adorable are they in their Barcelona jerseys?!

For travel tips and more links, see my next post!

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