Kate Comes Round By Rome: Me Encanta Barcelona

For about the last ten days I have been traveling around Europe. The first stop on my adventure was Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe, hands down. It is absolutely amazing there. We stayed at a really nice hostel close to one of the main streets and only a short walk to the harbor. The first day only three of us had arrived and we took a walk on La Rambla (The main street with lots of shops and restaurants) and ended up stumbling upon a market. However, this was not just any market. This was the Mercat de Mercats which is a market that is only held once a year is hosts some of the best of the best foods and wines of Barcelona. We spent just about three hours there grazing on cheeses, salamis, and seafood while sipping on Spanish wines. It was so much fun. And the longer we were there the more people we knew kept showing up!

This is the Mercat de Mercats

This is a sample of some delicious looking food that we saw and sampled

This served six with leftovers

The next thing we did was walk around some more and then head back to our hostel for a siesta. This was completely necessary since we needed to make room for the dinner that we were going to that night. We went to a place near the beach to try some authentic Spanish paella. It was amazing. Definitely one of our best meals. We even got sangria to go with our food! It was a little too sweet for me, but still quite good. I think I prefer Italian wine though, the Chianti that we had in Florence is still my favorite. After dinner we spent some time running around on the beach at night which was a lot of fun. Then we were off to discover Barcelona's famous night life. The club that we went to was huge and we danced and sang to the music all night. It is true that the locals stay out until 6am but we got tired before that, probably thanks to our giant dinner, and went back to the hostel to sleep. The next morning we met up with one of my roomies', Sara's, cousin. He is an architect who lives in Barcelona so he took us on a tour around the city and we got to experience Barcelona the way that the people that live there do, not just like a tourist. For dinner that night we had Tapas, a traditional Spanish dish which is essentially many different types of small servings that you choose from. Some of our favorites were the potatoes bravos (spicy potatoes), the ham croquettes, and the stuffed red peppers. The next day was devoted to experiencing the architecture of Gaudi. It was great to have an architect as our guide since he was really able to explain the importance and style of Gaudi. Here are some examples of his works:

It's so wavy!

It has a rainbow roof!

<- This church is possibly Gaudi's most famous work. It is called the Sagrada Familia and it is still under construction, long after the death of Gaudi. The four towers that are visible in this photo are only four out of twelve, one for each apostle. On the other side of the church there are scenes from the Passion carved into the facade.

This was our last day in Barcelona and we treated ourselves to an American comfort food done the Spanish way: burgers. More specifically, the best burgers in Europe and possibly the World. Yes, they were that delicious. We were unable to stop talking about them for a week. If you are ever in Barcelona, the restaurant is called Kiosko and it is amazing. The burger pictured is the Manchego burger with goat cheese and caramelized onions.

One of the most interesting things about Barcelona is that it is part of the region of Catalonia in Spain. Catalonia is currently trying to separate from Spain and become it's own nation. This is spurred by a sense of regionalism as opposed to nationalism. Catalonia also has their own language. It is more like a mixture of Italian and French than Spanish, and I actually found that I was able to read it better than normal Spanish.
Now, here are some more pictures of Barcelona: