October 27
We started off the day by taking a high-speed train from Madrid to Barcelona, which was mostly uneventful; we saw some great landscapes as we entered the Catalonia region. Once we arrived, we decided to store our luggage at the station and explore a bit of Barcelona.
We started off by checking out Plaza Espanya and walking over to Montjuïc Fortress. The walk itself was pretty interesting as the Barcelona Olympic Park and the botanic gardens were on route. The fort itself was pretty uninteresting, save for the historical descriptions of old Barcelona and the epic views of the city.
We then made our way down the mountain and checked out a burger competition in the area. I tried out the winning burger of the competition, and my goodness was it good. It was probably the best burger I’ve had!
We then made our way to the most famous attraction of Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia church. While we couldn’t get tickets to go inside the church, the outside relief was already impressive. We then made our way to Parc Güell, which has a bunch of Gaudí sculptures and buildings. I would highly recommend the park: it has plenty of things to explore and it has great views of Barcelona.
As we got ready to break for the day, we checked out La Flauta, a seafood tapas restaurant in Barcelona. I wasn’t expecting much from the restaurant but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the tapas. I finally understand what makes a good tapas restaurant: high quality ingredients. Tapas in Basque Country and Barcelona are far better than what I’ve had in Madrid simply because of the proximity to the sea; this makes a huge difference to the tapas experience.
October 28
We started off the day with a guided walking tour of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. The Gothic Quarter is the oldest neighborhood of Barcelona and was constructed before the Eixample (expansion) of Barcelona. We got to explore some of the old churches, plazas and Jewish quarters while learning about the local perspective about Barcelona. I would highly recommend walking tours of Barcelona to anyone interested in history.
Afterwards, we made our way to FC Barcelona’s stadium to see the El Clasico, the main reason why we came to Barcelona. It took a bit of time to enter the stadium and get our seats but once the game started, the atmosphere was absolutely electric. I don’t really follow football too closely but I got swept up in the crowd’s fervor as goals were scored and fouls were committed. Unfortunately, Barcelona lost the game but it was nonetheless a memorable experience. I also got to see many of the golden players from the new generation, like Bellingham, Gavi and Yamal.
Afterwards, my friend group and I went out to get food and drinks. We popped by the Down Jones bar, which has cocktail and drink prices like a stock market, so the prices for drinks are variable. A couple times in the night, the stock market “crashes” and drinks become nearly free. We also popped by Paradiso, a world-famous cocktail bar. It took us 3 hours to get in but I fortunately was able to snag the waitlist code much earlier so we didn’t have to wait for 3 hours doing nothing. The cocktails themselves were alright; I’ve had better experiences in Madrid and New York.
October 29
My friend and I decided to check out Montserrat, a monastic community an hour away from Barcelona. We took a packed train to Montserrat and then the highest cable car I’ve ever taken to get to the monastery. The surroundings were absolutely beautiful and we had a great view of typical Catalonian rural areas. We checked out the main cathedral and a nearby art museum. The art museum caught me off guard as I wasn’t expecting great art, but it was filled with gorgeous landscapes and numerous portraits that gave me a window into Catalonia’s past. I would highly recommend people to visit Montserrat, but be prepared for the hordes of tourists.
We made our way back to Barcelona, had more seafood tapas and then made our way back to Madrid via high-speed rail.
Tips
- Buy tickets for all Barcelona attractions as early as possible. We made the mistake of planning Barcelona a week before we went and we couldn’t get La Sagrada Familia tickets as a result
- If you had to skip one place in Barcelona, I would recommend skipping Montjuïc. I honestly didn’t learn too much and the views are much better at Parc Guell
- Barcelona transit doesn’t have a pay-as-you-go system like New York metro, which means you need to buy tickets. I would highly recommend doing some calculations beforehand to see if metro passes are worth it
- FCB tickets are pretty hard to get and I don’t really have many tips for that. However, the tickets themselves often assign you to particular gate entrances. If we followed the one that we were assigned, we would have never gotten in. I would recommend just getting into any gate and then making your way to your seat
- Montserrat trains are incredibly packed and only come once and hour. Get on to the train as early as possible and plan your trip to catch the train on the dot. Otherwise, you will repeat the same mistakes that I made (standing the entire 1 hour on the train and missing the return train by 1 minute)