Barcelona – from disgust to my favorite city
Are you done securing your flights to Spain? Is everything set for your much awaited holiday? Well, just before you fly to this well-loved city, allow me to give you so many reasons why tourists can’t help but fall in love with Barcelona!
What comes to your mind when you hear the word Barcelona? Maybe Gaudí. Maybe La Rambla. Or maybe Sagrada Familia. But when I hear Barcelona, the first thing I think of is MY FAVORITE CITY. Yes, now I just absolutely adore Barcelona. But my opinion changed massively since the first time I visited. It was July 2004. Me, a friend (the same one who went hitchhiking with me to Madrid when I ended up in Italy instead of Spain) and my boyfriend (the one looking exactly like Ian Somerhalder – why the heck did I break up with him?!?!) took a road trip to Catalunya.
From Olomouc, Czech Republic where all three of us used to live at the time, across the country, Germany, France and finally Barcelona. 26 hours. I guess I don’t have to say more about the trip itself. The plan was to find a job for 2 months. But life changes, right? So just holidays.
We did not have any hotel booked, just spent 18 days sleeping at the beach, campings (for free) and in tent everywhere possible. We were changing the place to stay over almost every night so no one could actually kick us out as it’s not legal to sleep at the beach in Barcelona.
It was the hell of an adventure, trust me. I will never forget cooking lunch at Burger King car park, jumping over the fence to the camping site to have a hot shower and enjoy swimming pool at night, waking up at the beach by a dog licking my face or even worse, by naked old all-wrinkled men when by accident we put over sleeping bags at nude beach, but most of all I will always remember watching sunrise at the beach just from ‘bed’ and then fall asleep again for a bit. During 18 days we explored 80 km of the coast a couple of times, all the towns from Barcelona to Lloret de Mar, such as Badalona, Montgat, El Masnou, Mataró, Arenys de Mar, Canet de Mar y Pineda de Mar.
All the experience was better than great, but like I said I did not like Barcelona itself at all at the beginning. It was typical ¡que asco! for me. One of my first impressions of the capital of Catalunya was just disgusting. Full of smog, it was really smelly in the morning, the clouds were quite low and they had a weird kind of pink, orange and grey colour. I seriously hated it in early morning hours.
Then all the traffic jams, bicycles, scooters and motorbikes absolutely everywhere. Some areas of the city (even in the center) were so filthy and with homeless people annoying you all the time to give them spare change. Sometimes too overcrowded.
Very dangerous place, too. Saw many thieves and many people being robbed till once a guy stole my handbag as well. Thank God he just took the phone, the wallet and debit card, and left all the rest with passport, an expensive watch and a lot of silver jewelry. So he left me with no money and the holiday was over. We went back to Czech Republic 2 days after.
But then very quickly I changed my opinion and I realized how beautiful Barcelona is.
Now a big part of my heart belongs to this Gaudí’s city. Barcelona has it all. Nice beaches, great history, breath-taking views, tasty food, cheap accommodation, all the shops you can imagine, many parks to relax, pubs and clubs, precisely decorated buildings, is a good place for sports … I’m sure everyone can find here what he likes. I’m wondering what exactly makes me so happy every time when I’m in Barcelona. I guess, it’s all I mentioned above together with the atmosphere and having some good friends there.
So far it’s the only place I’ve been to, where I could imagine living for a longer time, i.e. more than a year or so. Since 2004 I go back to Barcelona every year. We made it a habit with my best friend – at least once a year a couple of days there. Usually before the summer to enjoy the first sunbeams and not overcrowded beaches. In 2010 I enjoyed Barcelona even 5 times. I know the streets by heart now.
I know where to go shopping and where to relax. After so many times in Barcelona, I still find it stunning and each time I visit, there is something new to see plus it’s still cool to see everything again doesn’t matter if I’ve seen it 3 or 100 times already. It’s a city of never-ending possibilities. And just to be in Barcelona makes me superhappy. That’s why my first disgust about Barcelona disappeared completely and it became my favourite city. If you want to know what to visit in Barcelona, you’ll find at least 30 must see’s in Barcelona.
Phil
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I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t fully appreciate Barcelona at first, but the trouble is, I want to like it, I just can’t.
I mean don’t get me wrong, some parts of Barcelona are beautiful, and as far as architectural geniuses go – there aren’t many better than Gaudi, but try as I might every time I go I just wish I’d been somewhere else.
I know petty crime is Spain’s one big problem, but it’s so much worse in Barcelona – even I’ve been caught out, and I’ve lived in Spain for years. It just feels like the city is one big trap to take tourists’ Euros. Either by fair means or foul.
Barcelona is a nice city, but I don’t think I will ever ‘get’ the iconic status it enjoys amongst fellow travellers.
Am I doing something wrong?
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Not sure if you are doing ”something wrong” Phil. I do not like all the stealing and those things either, but still see more positives there than negatives :) Maybe you need more time :D Or you just like different cities ;) Everyone is different …
Crazy sexy fun traveler
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@ Jeff @ GoTravelzing:
I agree! I was robbed in BCN once too, they got all my money and phone. Well, at least my passport was ok :)
Jeff @ GoTravelzing
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Barcelona is one of those places that people either love or they don’t. Usually the reason they do not like it is they got pickpocketed or mugged which is not a good reason to not like it.
I love it.
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ Matthew Hirtes:
I gotta agree with you, Matt!
Matthew Hirtes
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Great post, Alex. The more you get to know a city, the more you get to love it. The trick is to go native: https://www.spain-holiday.com/Barcelona-city/articles/go-local-in-barcelona.
Octavio Ba Fo via Facebook
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Extraño el flamenco en el tarantos, la playa de la mar bella, y sus mujeres guapas.
Jim O'Donnell
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It is absolutely my most favorite city.
Silver Fox via Facebook
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i had the same feelings with this beautiful city the first time afterwards just enjoyed
Lauren DiMarco via Facebook
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to me, barcelona feels ALIVE! can’t wait to revisit next week!!!
crazy sexy fun traveler
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You definitely will! Barcelona is full of history and lovely buildings wherever you go ;) I miss it already and was there in June :D
Henry Lee
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Alex, it would be great to see Barcelona through your eyes. My initial guess is that Praha itself (and certainly the old town on both sides of the Vltava) is perhaps more compact than Barcelona, and the latter lends itself to even more wandering and discovery. I hope to get a sense of that, too.
crazy sexy fun traveler
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Ok, deal Henry :) I love Prague, too, but the weird thing is I don’t know it that well as I do Barcelona.
fotoeins | Henry
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Alex, I feel similarly about Praha! But if I do end up visiting Barca next year, I’ll let you know. :)
crazy sexy fun traveler
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I gotta go there, I so love Barcelona, walked it through thousand times :)
fotoeins | Henry
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With this post, Alex, you have become an important Barcelona “guide”. ;-) Barca is one of the potential cities (rather high in the list, I might add) in my RTW next year …
Diego
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Barcelona is absolutely beautiful, but utterly dangerous, too. I see LOTS of people being robbed or having their belongings stolen because of lack of watching their stuff. I could be one more on statistics, but I’m a Brazilian living in São Paulo so I can’t fancy being uncautious! hahaha :P
Still I have spent only 3 days over there, and it simply blew my mind away! So beautiful it is, I will DEFINITELY go back there as soon as I can. :)
crazy sexy fun traveler
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Diego, I totally agree, u saw so many people being robbed during just 3 days, so imagine how many I’ve seen on my like 20 visits there during months! But like u said, now I know how they steal so no one could steal anything from me … unless they wanna get some of my boxing technique back :D
crazy sexy fun traveler
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;) R u Spanish? I would never guess!
Lovely, Paris is a great place! I’m sure u will enjoy it!
Kirsten
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I’ll be traveling to Paris in March for two weeks and because I am Spanish, very much hope to hop on over to Barcelona for a few days. It seems like an inspiring place. Thanks for sharing your adventures!