Barcelona: The 2016 Experience

I don’t really know why I decided to wait nearly a year before posting about my trip to Barcelona. Better late than never, but never late is better. So, here it is; a semi-detailed blog about my trip to Barcelona last year for New Years.

Before continuing about my trip, here’s a little bit of information about Barcelona:

“Barcelona is the capital and largest city of Catalonia, and the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within city limits, its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the Province of Barcelona and is home to around 4.7 million people, making it the sixth most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres (1,680 feet) high.”

Not to mention it’s home to the famous soccer team, FC Barcelona.

The trip itself was so amazing. It was my first visit to Spain and Barcelona. We basically pulled an all nighter and drove to the airport at 3:30am to catch a 6:30am flight. The flight took 2 and a half hour so I got to sleep that entire flight.

My brothers and cousins waiting at the airport to board. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

When we arrived, we had an amazing family offer us transport for the entire week. We stayed at the Villa Olimpica Suites, a four-star hotel that included breakfast.

Villa Olimpica Suites

And the VIEW from my hotel room was just to die for. I couldn’t have had a better view.

Photo Credit: @acloudslife

My view was to die for. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

Photo Credit: @acloudslife

My view was to die for. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

I loved the fact that we were close to El Raval, Barcelona. It’s one of the most famous-known neighborhoods in Barcelona and we did almost all of our shopping in that Area. AND we also found a Coca Cola bottle with my last name on it!

The colors of the buildings looked so pretty. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

Photo Credit: @acloudslife

Thank God the sun was shining bright that day. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

Photo Credit: @acloudslife

My brother’s capuchin made for a good object in the picture for some reason. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

In this mega supermarket we found a Coca Cola bottle with my last name on it and it was a pretty cool moment. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

One of our challenges was finding lunch and dinner in the city. We went to several places, but my favorite restaurant we went to in Barcelona is called Shaka & Shack Buuurger and I still miss it. Mind you, we were four families in one, so it took us two separate pictures to get everyone together.

Shaka & Shack. By far my favorite place in Barcelona. Photo Credit to Gee.

Took us two separate pictures to get everyone together. Photo Credit to the amazing waitress who served us the whole night.

We also went to a Taco Bell somewhere in Barcelona and even though I would want to say I enjoyed it, it wasn’t as great as the ones back home in Aruba.

On one of our last days, we took the liberty of visiting a few famous Cathedrals in Barcelona. One of them; Templo del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, took a lot of walking to get to, but it was a beautiful view later on. We also visited the famous; La Sagrada Familia, and at last the Santa Maria del Mar Cathedral.

Photo Credit: @acloudslife

The Cathedrals were a beautiful experience. Photo Credit: @acloudslife

Photo Credit: @acloudslife

After it takes you a while to climb all the way to the top, there’s a merry-go-round and a few other things you can find. Photo Credit: Google search

That same day we visited Parque Güell. It took us a few hours to walk around and get to know the place. I ended up getting two beautiful paintings from there from my family. I would definitely recommend people to visit the Park Güell when on vacation.