Barcelona Day 3: Sagrada Família, a Sushi Robot Cat and an Eventful Birthday

It's actually quite rare for me to spend my birthday outside of the UK. For my 18th birthday, I went to Paris with my family, but not on the actual day itself. On my 27th birthday, we were living in Chile and celebrated at home in Santiago. The only previous time that I'd been on a trip away on the day itself was on my 22nd birthday, when I was living in Austria and went on a weekend away to Udine. So it felt very special to spend my 30th birthday in Barcelona!

We started the morning at Madeleine by Ferrières, a French café just around the corner from our hotel, where we had one of the best pains au chocolat and coffees that we've had in our life! I love France and French pastries, so it was the perfect birthday breakfast.

After breakfast, we went to a barbershop, because Claudio had wanted to get a haircut while in Spain, and after that, we went to Westfield Glòries mall, where we picked up some Spanish turrón to take home as gifts. Claudio also got himself a new shirt from Zara.

When leaving the mall, we passed by Torre Glòries, Barcelona's most famous skyscraper.

Our first sightseeing stop of the day was one of the city's most unmissable sights: the world famous Sagrada Família basilica.

This building, which is set to be finished next year, is so much bigger in real life than I imagined it to be. It also has a lot more little colourful details to it than can be seen clearly in photos, such as a Christmas tree and bunches of fruit. It's a really unique place.

It was also, unsurprisingly, the most crowded attraction we visited during our trip. We didn't fancy spending hours waiting in line and then shuffling through the building in a massive crowd, so decided we were happy to have seen it from the outside. Maybe on a future trip, we'll go inside.

For lunch, we went somewhere extra special: Más Que Sushi. This is actually a restaurant that was recommended to us by the barber who cut Claudio's hair in the morning. There were two reasons why we wanted to go:

1) We really like sushi.
2) One of the waiters is a robot cat!

It turned out to be a really special experience. The restaurant is beautiful, and the food was delicious. It was also great value, at 15 euros per person for all you can eat. The cat robot was so much fun - it smiles and talks to you when it comes to your table! 

It was after this that the day took a turn for the worse. We decided that a great way to continue the birthday celebrations would be by going for a swim at Barceloneta Beach.

As we knew that there was a risk of our belongings being stolen while we were swimming, we decided to leave our backpacks behind and take the paper bag we'd got from Zara earlier. We also left behind my phone and our cards and money, just taking towels, our room key cards and our metro cards. In the end, Claudio decided to also take his phone in order to find the bus route to Barceloneta.

We arrived at the beach, laid out our towels and put Claudio's phone at the bottom of the Zara bag, covering it with clothes, and made our way into the sea.

We spent a few very nice minutes enjoying our swim in the surprisingly warm water. Swimming in the sea is one of our favourite things in the world, and it was especially nice to get to do it on my birthday.

We were regularly checking back to see that our belongings were still there. However, we must have both looked away for a matter of seconds at one point, because the next time we looked, the Zara bag had completely disappeared. We asked people sitting nearby, and no one had seen what had happened. I was worried we were going to have to walk hours back to the hotel in our towels and flip flops, as most of our clothes along with our metro cards had been taken.

Eventually, we ended up meeting a Colombian family who had also been robbed. They told us they had seen the thief going down a particular street with the Zara bag. We went to that street and found the bag ripped open on top of a car. The clothes, along with my metro card and hotel room key, were strewn across the street, but unfortunately, Claudio's phone (which had his metro card and room key in the case) was gone. The Colombian family were kind enough to give us one of their metro cards so that we could get back to the hotel.

We then spoke to two police officers, who told us to come with them to the station. We sat in the back of the police car, where I was trying not to have a panic attack, as the space was so cramped. At the station, Claudio tried to log in to his Apple account in order to find his serial number and make a report, but in the stress of the moment, he wasn't able to remember the password.

We then went back to the hotel room, where Claudio spent some time on my phone, changing passwords and making sure that nothing important could be accessed on his phone.

Thankfully, his phone was old and had problems with its battery life. He had been planning on replacing it soon anyway. What happened was a massive inconvenience and very frustrating, especially after the measures we'd taken to make it look like the bag had no valuables in it, but it could have been a lot worse.

We finished my birthday on a positive note with a surprisingly strong piña colada on the rooftop terrace. It did feel like my 30th birthday had been ruined more than a little bit by what had happened, so I decided then that the following day would also be my birthday! And luckily for us, it turned out to be a much better day than this one. I'll be writing about it next!

Barcelona Days 1 and 2: Gothic Quarter, Park Güell and Barceloneta Beach

As hard as it is for me to believe, I turned 30 years old last month! I wanted to do something a bit special and different for this big birthday, and naturally, I wanted that to involve travel. So a few months ago, I looked on Skyscanner to see if there were any reasonably priced flights to places on my bucket list, and was happy to find a good deal to Barcelona from Gatwick Airport. (Living in Reading, we are lucky to have a bus that goes directly to Heathrow and a train that goes directly to Gatwick, even though it is a bit of a long journey.)

I've wanted to visit Barcelona for many years, and have previously passed through the airport, but never had a good opportunity to visit. But my birthday felt like the perfect time to visit, as it is in the middle of October - away from the heatwaves and crowds of tourists that you find in Spain in the summer, but also warm enough for a nice escape from the grey and rainy UK autumn.

So on Saturday the 11th October, we took the train from Reading to Gatwick, followed by a plane to Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport, then a train to Passeig de Gràcia, and finally a metro to Llacuna station. After a full day of travelling, it was great to finally arrive at our hotel, Hotel Acta Voraport, and then to see Sagrada Família and Torre Glòries from our window! Further in the distance, we could also spot the W Hotel and Montjuïc Castle.

After getting settled into our room, the first thing we did was go up to the rooftop terrace and swimming pool (yes, this was the main reason why I chose this hotel!) to check out the views from up there. We were blown away by the incredible panoramas of the sea and the city's architecture, and super excited for what the rest of the trip would bring.

After having some pasta at a nearby restaurant, we went for a walk on Bogatell Beach, the nearest beach to the hotel. It's a very picturesque place, with palm trees on the promenade and views of the W Hotel in the distance.

Then we rounded off our evening on the hotel's terrace, enjoying the views of the city by night.

The following morning, we prepared ourselves for a big day of sightseeing with a delicious coffee and avocado on toast at Back to Back Cafè d'Especialitat. It was great to sit at an outside table watching the world go by and enjoying a bit of sun - something I don't get to do when I spend my birthday in England!

We decided to spend our first morning in the Gothic Quarter, Barcelona's historic centre. First off, we visited the city's Roman wall...

...before making our way over to the cathedral. Yes, this gothic cathedral is actually the city's main cathedral, not Sagrada Família!

We really liked wandering around the area's narrow, picturesque streets.

Of course, we visited La Rambla, Barcelona's most famous street, which is on the edge of the Gothic Quarter. I thought that this street would be really busy, but it wasn't too bad - probably because we were there in the autumn. We didn't think there was actually that much worth seeing there (it mostly had a lot of touristy restaurants) but we liked this building with dragons on it.

We continued walking up La Rambla until we reached Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona's main square. Here we took a little break to have a delicious gelato at Farggi 1957.

Next we walked up Passeig de Gràcia in order to see a couple of famous Gaudí buildings. As October 12th is actually the National Day of Spain, we had the opportunity to watch a big parade going down the avenue. This day is also Día de la Hispanidad, so we saw some flags from Latin American countries (though unfortunately not Chile!) and a big Bolivian parade following the initial Spanish parade.

The two famous Gaudí buildings on this street are Casa Batlló and Casa Milà/La Pedrera. They looked very busy inside but were cool to see from the outside. What most caught our attention were the balconies of Casa Batlló - they almost look like skulls or masks!

We then went to see another interesting building - Casa de les Punxes on Avinguda Diagonal. This was designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and looks a bit like a fairytale castle, which I really liked.

Then it was time for us to visit another of the most iconic attractions in Barcelona: Park Güell. We took a bus up a hill to the park's entrance, and were a bit disappointed to find that it costs 18 euros to go inside! The internet didn't work well near the entrance of the park and it took us a while to buy our tickets, but eventually, we were in.

This park, designed by Gaudí, is where you find one of the most iconic views in the entire city: the view over the porter's lodge pavilions and the Mediterranean Sea beyond. The two little buildings are so unique and look like something out of a fairytale, and it was great to be there in person - I'd dreamed of visiting this place for around 15 years.

However, if we return to Barcelona in the future, I doubt we will go back. We felt it was important to explore the park once in our life, but the ticket price and the crowds have put us off going back!

Having said that, the rest of the park was less crowded and also had some interesting structures and buildings to see, as well as more great views over the city. We also saw the first (and only) cat of our trip!

By the time we finished walking, we were really hungry, and went to the nearest restaurant for paella and sangría. It was a bit of a touristy place and probably not the best quality food you could find in the city, but it tasted pretty good after spending so many hours walking!

We then returned to our hotel to try out the rooftop pool! The water was actually a lot colder than we expected - almost like the ocean in Chile - but it was amazing to be up there swimming, looking out across the city and the sea.

We spent the evening at Barceloneta Beach, walking along by the port where all the fancy yachts are, and then along the beach itself by the W Hotel. The design of the hotel, which looks like a sail, is very cool, but the inside looks kind of like a discothèque! We both felt that we preferred our own hotel, with its more welcoming décor and rooftop pool!

The first day and a bit that we'd spent in Barcelona had been awesome! We'd really enjoyed the warm weather and the relaxed vibe of the city, and of course the city's architecture and beaches.

The following day was my 30th birthday, and unfortunately turned out to be the worst day of the trip! We were unlucky to have a bad experience, but there were plenty of nice moments too. I'll be writing about it very soon!