At the end of May, I departed sunny Florida on an 11-day journey to Europe – alone. Well, I wasn’t going to be completely “alone”, but I was traveling solo to Barcelona, where I would meet 38 other strangers and continue traveling together through Nice, Monaco, Cinque Terre, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Rome, and Vatican City.
I travel often and was itching to take an adventurous trip to explore more of Europe, but with the schedules and budgets of my friends, there’s not always a partner in crime to come along. So, I began researching tour group companies that focused on planned tours for my age range (18 to 35). I came across Contiki and remembered my friend did a tour to Greece last year with them and raved about it (more on this in a later post). After browsing through some more reviews, I was totally sold. I booked their Mediterranean Quest tour, which was a ten day trip that started in Barcelona and ended in Rome. From everything I have heard about Barcelona, I decided to add an extra day onto my trip and go into Barcelona a day early to explore.
I’m going to be following this post with a series of posts for each city that I visited, but let’s start with Barcelona – one of the cities that stole my heart…enough for me to be moving there for 2 months next week…
My first day started with a walk past the Arc de Triumph on the way to the Gothic Quarter to meet one of the girls in my group who I had touched base with, since she also arrived early.
Once we met up, we wandered the Gothic Quarter and made our way to La Boqueria Mercat – a huge market with amazing fresh fruits, meats, spices, and sweets. I can’t wait to return here to do some shopping for my stay in Barcelona!
We stopped at chök, a place that I had found before I arrived. I decided to get this delicious chocolate hazelnut cronut to-go!
By the time we returned back, another girl from our group had checked into the hostel (these 2 girls and I became fast friends and were like the 3 musketeers during our Europe adventure – we already have plans to see each other in December). We went to La Cava that night (sister restaurant to La Pepita which is supposed to be amazing, but the wait was too long) and enjoyed our first official Spanish tapas and sangria!
The next morning, we went to La Sagrada Familiar together, and then I ventured off to explore the city on my own – something I was really excited to do! I haven’t spent much time wandering solo in other countries, so I wanted to spend the day visiting some of the spots I had on my list, and really just enjoying the day exploring on my own.
Here’s just one shot of La Sagrada Familia – walking around it to see all of the different styles of architecture was amazing. We didn’t make it inside, but I will absolutely be going to see the inside once I am back in Barcelona.
My first solo stop was Park Güell. I walked up to this area to snap this photo, though the park continues upward, and there is an area which a huge mosaic wall that I also plan to return to.
Next up was admiring Casa Batlló!
I continued my walk, admiring the streets of Barcelona – there is such a great energy and vibes in the city. It’s modern and hip, very walkable and beautiful, yet still holds so much history. Here is one of my favorite corners that I stumbled across.
My plan was to head from Casa Batlló to “Brunch & Cake”, a restaurant I had come across on Instagram when researching foodie spots ahead of time, and I knew it was a MUST! Their menu is all brunch items and cake (as the name implies), and not only is their food delicious, but their plating and presentation is truly art. They have several locations, and I’m excited to visit their others, especially the one by the beach!
This was almost like a fancy deconstructed egg and smoked salmon bagel sandwich. It had feta and fruit, this amazing whipped avocado spread, and I honestly don’t even know what the creamy yellow dip was, but I just remember it being amazing.
The plan was to meet back up at 7:00pm at the Parc Montjüic metro station to climb up to Castle Montjüic. I had about an hour an a half until then, so I decided to walk all the way there. I ended up timing it perfectly, arriving right at 7:00 (I ended up walking a total of 15 miles/38,000 steps that day!).
We stopped at the Magic Fountain and captured this beautiful sunset, and then headed back to the area where we were staying for some paella!
My two days in Barcelona were so incredible. I walked the city alone with the help of Google maps, which is amazing because as long as you save your destination locations ahead of time, it shows you in real-time where you are. This really helped, as I was able to see where I was on the map at all times, and navigate myself to all of my pit stops. This was so empowering for me, and really what gave me the confidence to decide to return to Barcelona for 2 months on my own.
Stay tuned for more posts from the rest of my Europe trip!
