dancing in the street, in barcelona

Adventure time! I haven’t been back long from Poland (maybe three weeks!) but adventure is always calling and I’m now in Barcelona, soaking up some sunshine and exploring another new city. Barcelona is another place that has been on my hit list for quite a while now and I’m glad I’ve finally been able to make it out here to do some exploring. I landed fairly late on Saturday evening so I headed to my hostel and then went and grabbed some dinner locally before coming back and spending the evening at the on-site bar for welcome drinks (free sangria) and to get to know some of the people I was going to be staying with for the next few days. Travel days knacker me, I left my house at 11:30 and I got to my hostel at 20:30, so I was ready to turn in pretty early.

First proper day and first up was coffee, anyone that knows me knows that most days don’t start until I’ve had coffee of some description so I headed to a coffee house over the road from where I was staying for my morning fix before I started adventuring. First up was the Modern Contemporary Museum, MOCO, and I think I’ve proved now that no matter country I’m in, I usually try and find somewhere like this because the art fascinates me so much. It had pieces from Jean-Michel Basquiat, Banksy, Keith Haring, THE KID, Andy Warhol and so many more, and it was wonderful to explore. When I arrived it was the most surreal thing, the museum next door, Picasso Museum, was expecting a very special guest, Barack Obama, so it was very busy and chaotic and there were people everywhere.

I had the best time checking out the artwork at Moco, I spent a few hours there wandering around the different exhibits and it really didn’t disappoint. I’ve added some pics of a few of my favourite pieces I saw whilst I was there. A real standout for me was an immersive experience where you were surrounded by mirrored walls and diamonds which changed colour and it just completely took me away, I stayed in here for a little while just listening to the peaceful music and taking in the colours around me. The Banksy exhibit was also a real highlight, I love Banksy and the random street art, which frequently appears around Kent where I live, so seeing some of the pieces in the museum was amazing.

I hadn’t really made any plans for my first day, I just wanted to explore and chill so in the afternoon I headed to the beach. The beach settles my mind so much and I adore being near or on the water, when I got to the beach I finally felt my mind slow down and silence a little, and almost get to a stage where I could breathe, relax, and forgot about life back in England. It was a perfect opportunity to put a podcast on, soak up some sun and jut enjoy being away. I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out here, before going to find somewhere for some tapas and sangria, essential.

Day two I took the train out of the city to Montserrat, and then headed up the mountains to Montserrat Monastery and had the most incredible day with the most scenic views. This was a real highlight of my trip, when I’m away exploring I don’t like to feel confined to the area I’m in so being able to jump on a train out to the mountains was perfect for me. When you got off the train there was a cable car to take people up to the mountains themselves and it was steep, I love a hit of adrenaline but I did look and think, ‘hm, is this safe?’ a few times. When I got to the top the views were just to die for, so stunning and a view of the whole of Catalunya, with rocky mountain faces and incredible architecture all around.

I headed in towards the monastery and into the church where I was surrounded by even more stunning architecture and paintings. The children’s school choir were also rehearsing whilst I was in there and it sounded so magical. I didn’t want to join the hour long queue to see the Black Madonna up close so had to put up with just seeing it at a distance. It felt like a small village at the top of the mountains, with a few shops and a little market selling homemade goods, I managed to spend a few hours wandering around just in pure amazement before getting the cable car back down and grabbing a train back to the city.

Day three was busy. I did 23,960 steps (10.7 miles) today, and I’d already completed my Apple Move goal by 10:30am. I don’t think anyone would be particularly interested in that but my feet cared at the end of the day, mainly because in typical Maddie fashion I wore my Birkenstocks instead of sensible footwear and ended up with blisters from hell. First up was Parc Güell, inside here was the Gaudi House Museum which I also took the opportunity to visit. I wasn’t too impressed with this I must say, it was only an additional 7€ on top of the park admission but I feel like it was just a bit something out of nothing kinda deal. However, the park itself was insane, some of the architecture and artwork around the park was just stunning. The mosaics and tiles that were all over were picture perfect and amazing to look at, and the views from the top of the park itself over the city were just immense. I spent a good few hours here looking around all the different parts of the park and just taking in some of the amazing scenery that surrounded me.

From Parc Güell I took a stroll down to Sagrada Família. Designed by Gaudi it is one of the largest unfinished Catholic Churches in the world, and despite not being complete, the architecture, again, was sensational. It’s due to be complete in 2026, which still seems like a really long time away but I guess good work takes time. I didn’t get the chance to go inside as the queues were insanely long but just to see the design from the outside was enough for me before heading on to my next stop of the day. Next up I went to Casa Batlló. I booked a slot to go here as it gets so busy and booked up in advance and in case you might not have noticed yet, I love Gaudi’s work, so wanted to ensure I had the chance to get in.

It felt like I was in a fairy tale whilst in there, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s known as one of Gaudi’s design masterpieces and you can understand why. It takes you on a tour throughout the different rooms with your own headset explaining the purpose behind the rooms along with the details of the architecture of the spaces, some reasoning was light, space, creating a certain feel or vibe to a space, or just around the modernism of it. I throughly enjoyed being able to wander through the spaces at my leisure and really soaking in what was around me. The tour finished with an immersive experience, The Gaudi Cube. This was a 360° experience designed by Refik Anadol and it gave the opportunity to travel into the mind of Gaudi and the design of his work. It lasted for about 3min and some people stood, some people wandered around, but I sat on the floor for the duration and felt my brain go silent. It was just insane. I have no words to describe it other than just awe inspiring. An absolute must-see in Barcelona.

Last stop was a dog walk and drinks with a pal from England. I was super excited to see someone I knew and just chat and have things in common and just take the pressure off. We walked to see L’arc de Triomf and then through Ciutadella Park before heading to a local bar for some beers. It gave the chance to see some parts of the city I hadn’t had a chance to explore yet and also just some scope for some downtime and a chance to recoup from a very busy and exciting day.

I think it’s probably a good thing to say right about now that as much as I love solo travelling and going on adventures and everything that comes with it, sometimes, you don’t meet people straight away or the people you’re sharing a dorm with you don’t have things in common with and actually as much as you might bump into people in the bar or have a chat with someone whilst out and about, sometimes, and it can get pretty lonely! I love my own company and I think that’s a real advantage because I don’t need someone all the time, I enjoy just being able to go at my own pace, I’ll grab street food sometimes because I don’t want to sit in a restaurant alone or I might just have an early night and put a film on because actually I’m not up for socialising and small talk with others. Sometimes I feel like I go hours without saying anything out loud (sounds silly) because you’re just kinda doing your thing and enjoying what you’re doing, but it’s real.

Anyway, day four, my final day in Barcelona. Travel days always bother me as I feel like I’m constantly clock watching to make sure I get to the airport on time and I end up not doing anything too fancy. I was ready to try and break this cycle and planned to go to Sitges for the day which is about an hour out of Barcelona, so I checked out fairly early and headed to the station to get a train, and it didn’t go to plan (of course). The trains were super delayed or kept getting cancelled and I waited for over an hour for a train, I finally managed to get one and I’d been on it for about 20min but it was going to a lot of stops that weren’t on the route my map was saying! I started to freak out a bit that either it was going to take me somewhere completely random (even though Sitges was still a stop) or that it was going to take so long to get there, and the same to get back, that I got off and the next available stop and crossed the platform to get a train back to the city centre. I quickly learnt to stick to what I know and stay local on travel days. Instead, I headed to Las Ramblas and a different part of the city I hadn’t really explored yet and checked out some different things, had a wander, grabbed some lunch and before I knew it, it was time to go and grab my luggage and get a bus back to the airport. So to finish off, some of my fave pieces of street art I saw in Barcelona, just because.