Barcelona – The Catalan capital! We fell in love with this city as soon as we arrived and roamed the Gothic Quarter to find our Airbnb. We lost ourselves in the labyrinth of alleys and narrow streets all around La Rambla. After days of baguettes and secondhand cigarette smoke in Paris, we were excited to try the local foods of Barcelona…tapas and pintchos.
The tapas are ordered by the plate, and we felt they were similar to appetizers in the US. Pintchos (“peen-chohs”) bars also lined some of the streets, and they each had their own concoctions. Pintchos are little hors d’oeuvres with toothpicks through the middle. The ones we had consisted of a thin slice of bread topped with various meats, cheeses, vegetables or fried bites. You grab as many as you want and then they add up the toothpicks at the end (1 euro per). Luckily, we also found a Mexican food restaurant that had some pretty good street tacos that really made us miss home.
Finding good food has been a bit of a struggle on our trip so far. The food in Europe is ok, but it doesn’t come close to American food. We are longing for Chick-fil-a or Texas barbecue. We would even be happy with some ice. No one puts ice in their drinks!!!
In Barcelona, we also came to the realization that we could no longer sleep in a place without air conditioning. We have gone almost a month without a/c, but luckily the weather has been somewhat cool, at least in the evenings. Barcelona was the first taste of real summer heat with no cold air to escape to. The city was sweltering, and our Airbnb in the Gothic Quarter had only a small fan that circulated the hot air. It was miserable. We stuck it out for a couple of nights and then found a decent hotel on the other side of the city with a/c. We kept that room like an icebox for the remainder of our stay.
We rented bikes to do a lot of the sightseeing since Barcelona is a very bike-friendly place. We went everywhere from the Arc de Triomf to the famous Park Güell that features the works of the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. We spent 2 full days at the beach and partied all night long on the beach to celebrate the birth of St. John the Baptist.
Barcelona is a really amazing place. The food is unique and tasty, and the architecture of Gaudí and the Gothic Quarter is just stunning. We can’t wait to go back someday. Next up, we catch a flight over to Naples, Italy to visit Sorrento and the island of Capri. Stay tuned.
