Hola Barcelona! Sightseeing, sangria and sun.

Oh what a weekend and what a place – tapas, sangria in the sun, good times and good friends. After being built up to the point of no return, Barcelona lived up to its rip-roaring reputation.

All in all we had a tight crew of nine friends, which sounds like a recipe for disaster given the large number of different tastes , opinions and preferences to cater for, but worked a treat – mind you, maybe that’s because I got my way the entire time...? I’m kidding of course, although it might be best to seek a second opinion to be on the safe side!

The reason for the celebration was that it was Morgan and Jess’s birthday so off we all went on Friday night after work... Well that was the plan anyhow, but I ended up going a day earlier for work where I explored and survived the city for a good 36 hours by myself, before I was joined by the rest of the team... All except Brett and Dicko who managed to miss the flight – much to Brad’s distress as their absence meant he was the only guy amongst six other girls. Thankfully for Brad’s sake, the boys managed to catch a flight out the first thing the following morning, so he was surrounded by estrogen for a mere 12 hours before they came to the rescue.

My day and a half of sightseeing was well spent and I managed to get a good sense of Barcelona meaning I was able to act as navigator over the weekend. I'd also spoken at length with my Spanish colleagues about the best places to go, eat and drink so we very much had the inside scoop here! The only blip on the radar was when I sat down in an unknown Spanish cafe and ordered from a Spanish menu. Word of advice, if a waiter looks twice at you with raised eyebrows when ordering you'd be wise to reconsider your options! What arrived was not at all what was expected and my Mallorquin baguette (traditional Spanish meat) was instead a liquid, fatty, stringy, bright orange substance which left me with a gut ache and nausea! It's all part of the experience though!

The Spanish lead such a different lifestyle to us all, surviving on a coffee for breakfast, lunch at 2pm, then dinner at 11pm earliest! The clubs in Spain don’t even open until 3am so we were all planning on heading out when the team eventually arrived. I’d had a good few hours sleep by the time the team got to our cosy 12 bed hostel and to everyone’s surprise they were ready for bed. Despite the original plan to head out onto the town, Spanish style, we all crashed and awoke feeling refreshed Saturday morning.

We set off first thing to Barcelona's most famous site - la Palais Sagrille Familia, which despite seeing the day before was just as much a treat the second time. This palace was created by the world-famous and crazy architect Gaudi, and like all of Gaudi's work is so different and crazy that it leaves you wondering whether he was just having a laugh. Don't get me wrong, the palace is beautiful, but some of his other famous buildings left me confused and thinking 'WTF?!' We didn't go inside as the line stretched well down the street and we had a list of things to do our arms length - like eating tapas and drinking gallons of sangria - so after waltzing down Avinguda de Gaudi (Gaudi Avenue - woop woop check me out with my Spanish stylings) and seeing his famous Hospital, we set off back to the hostel to join up with long lost Dicko and Brett.

Brad was like a bear with a sore paw while he waited for the boys to arrive, and you could literally see the relief on his face as we met up with them all for lunch. In fact, a man-hug was the only way for Brad to appropriately express what he was feeling. That and a tall glass of Spanish rum on the rocks! Not that us girls were left thirsty and we were soon sniggering away as the sangria started flowing.

Thanks to my Spanish experts we ended up at a lovely and authentic tapas bar, which was so authentic that it left me utterly confused when some of our tapas started to appear – the lovely deep fried delicious goods which I thought I’d ordered left me knocked for sick when a tower of stinky cheeses arrived. Thankfully I’m a smart cookie and I soon cottoned on to the hidden gems in the menu and had set myself up for the weekend with two simple words – patatas bravas. Who cares that I essentially eating fries and aioli – if you ordered it in Spanish it was totally cultural!

The rest of the day was spent exploring the city, it’s fruit and fish markets, the harbour and the endless alleyways, followed by a rest on the golden sand of Barcelona beach!

After wandering for hours on end we were all exhausted, so we sat down, poured another dozen glasses of sangria and socialised in the bar of our hostel, before heading out to dinner. Brad managed to befriend a group of stags from Britain, who were on an absolute bender in Barcelona – in fact, after one pint too many the groom-to-be confided in us that he’d managed to spend €3500 on strippers already!

Anyway I digress, so here we are at another tapas bar, eating and drinking up a storm when we decided that it was now socially acceptable for us to hit the clubs as it was midnight. Off we trundled to the new W Hotel, which I’d been informed by my Spanish correspondents, had a rooftop bar that gives 360® views of Barcelona and as our taxi pulled up outside and we saw a stretch hummer limousine parked, we knew we had come to the right place. After exploring what we thought was every inch of the hotel and not finding even the slightest hint of a bar we were very near admitting defeat, when a woman came up to the four of us (the others had headed to a different club) and ushered us to follow her. After walking ahead of a large line of people, she lifted up a velvet rope and walked us into a hidden elevator where we were sent right up to the top of the hotel and into the mystery bar! I don’t know what it was that made us more important than the huge line of people and meant we not only jumped the queue, but also got in free, and I think it may forever remain a mystery. One thing for sure is, being given the royal treatment in Barcelona is definitely the top of our ‘travel experiences’ list so far. You should have seen the place - €100 just to sit down and four drinks would set you back NZ$90! I imagine we must have looked like utter muppets – eyes agog, smug smiles adorning our faces that would rival the Cheshire cat – we thought we were IT! This experience totally made the weekend and left us feeling pretty proud of ourselves and with rather inflated egos for the rest of the weekend!

The next day we were all understandably, a little slower, but after a good old universal Sunday breakfast, a Big Mac and fries, we were feeling in much better form. We were considerably cheered up when we were reunited with our stags who had the same Big Mac and fries requirements, yet had acquired a bright pink plastic model of the male anatomy during their night’s activities and no recollection of when and where!

After much consideration, we headed to the gothic area of Barcelona where we visited the breathtaking Barcelona Cathedral, timing it perfectly with Sunday mass. The cathedral was absolutely stunning and very much reflective of the gothic area – I loved it and it was a real highlight.

Then of course it was time for more tapas – after all, it had been a whole two hours since we had last eaten! After more miscommunication and ending up with goodness knows what, it was sadly time to head to the bus station to catch a bus to the airport. After missing the 3pm bus by a matter of seconds, we were then alarmed to realise the next bus wasn’t until 4pm! We barely breathed while we waited for the bus and anxiously endured the hour journey to Girona airport, but thankfully and to the relief of everyone’s bank accounts, we made our plane! Those that have travelled with Ryan Air will know how ridiculously nasty they are, but thankfully the generosity and relaxed spirit of the Spanish people trumped the evil Ryan Air staff and we had no issues at all getting on the plane.

We arrived back at home at 9.30pm, which meant we could unpack, do our washing and still wake up relatively refreshed for the working week. Not that it’s a painful one – with Prague and Berlin on Friday’s horizon, the next couple of days are going to be a cinch!

So much love to you all at home – we’re missing you madly but are keeping our minds off of it by jet-setting around Europe left, right and centre!

xx