Spanish Recap

Hola!
We’ve been pretttty lazy about updating our blog since we settled into Barcelona. But three weeks have flown by and we are on the road again. But first here is our roundup of our time in Catalonia!

After leaving Rome we made a pit stop in Valencia hoping for some warm weather and beach time before arriving in Barcelona. The weather wasn’t quiteeeee as warm as we hoped so we only made it to the beach on our last day–which was quite lovely. We spent a couple days exploring the city, feasting on paella and trying to learn a few Catalonian phrases (fail). We ended up stumbling upon the annual Food, Wine and Cava festival which was quite the find. It was an awesome experience–for 10 euro we got 5 glasses of local wine/beer/cava and 5 food samples. We tried everything from the mussels to paella to local cheeses and chocolates. Needless to say this was one of the highlights of our trip. It was also prime location for people watching–hardly any tourists so we did our best to blend in.

We said goodbye to Valencia and hopped on a train up to Barcelona. We immediately fell in love with the city. We stayed in an awesome location–right across from Barcelona Catedral, a 10 minute walk to the port, La Rambla and La Boqueria market plus plenty of great restaurants and shops nearby. We spent our days wandering around difference neighborhoods, grabbing snacks and juice at the market, walking the beaches and doing a bite of site seeing. We had a few visitors during our stay which made things more exciting. Amy stayed with us for awhile before jet-setting to Brussels on business and my mom arrived shortly after! Few highlights from our trip (and plenty of pictures below)….

– Going to a FC Barcelona game… we bought tickets last minute and I am so happy about that impulse buy. We arrived a bit late to the game (we were the only ones) and Camp Nou was buzzing with excitement. The fans (all 90,000 of them) have so much energy during the game it turned us into Barca fans.

– Tapas Tour… we ate our way around Barcelona with a little group and a lively tour guide. He explained the tapas tradition, different dishes as well as bits and pieces about the Catalan culture and the history of Barca. We made three stops in the city to try the typical tapas dishes as well as a trip to the market to learn about jamon iberico.

– Day trip to Montserrat… only an hour outside of Barcelona it couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the city. After two train rides to get up the mountain we spent an afternoon seeing the town and taking in the gorgeous views. The mountain was named ‘Mount Serrated’ because of the landscape looking like serrated edges of the rocks. We also bought enough cheese to feed a small village 🙂

– Weekend trip with my mom to Costa Brava.. My mom planned this 4 day adventure up the coast for us (thank you!). We rented a car and set out for some small towns and winding roads in the mountains. It was the perfect trip, C and I wouldn’t have visited these gorgeous towns on our own!

-St. Jordi Day… We learned about this on our tapas tour—April 23rd is St. George’s Day. St. George is the patron saint of Catalonia and the day is celebrated throughout the region with red roses and books. The red roses were typically given to the special ladies in your life (similar to valentines day) but the tradition comes from when St. George slayed the dragon and roses came from the blood. The books come from the coincidence that it is also Shakespeare’s birthday on the 23rd. It was an exciting day in the city. There were stalls set up selling flowers and some selling books all over the city.