People who know me know that I love Spain. It's a country that has so much to offer, and its laidback I-Need-My-Daily-Siesta lifestyle is just something that us overworked folks here in New York need to adopt badly. This wasn't my first trip to Barcelona (in fact, it was my fifth). But (ok readers, get your barf bag ready) this was a trip I took with Thomas over Valentine's day so it meant something special to me. The last trip before this was a while back so I really looked forward to returning to Barcelona again.
Nothing has really changed in Barcelona, except that the Euro is much higher now compared to the USD and everything seemed so much more expensive to us. The weather was absolutely gorgeous when we were there, considering it was the winter month of February. It was sunny and cool with temperature ranging in the high 50s everyday. I tried to indulge in some clothes shopping but the sizes appeared much smaller to me now (that's how I like to put it. The real reason is that my body size has gotten larger over the years!). We went to some great restaurants and ate really well (and you wonder why I could no longer buy clothes in Spain). We also did some walking tours on our own in several neighborhoods and visited several museums and churches. A lot of places are closed on Sundays and Mondays so please keep that in mind the next time you visit this city and plan accordingly. I highly recommend getting the Frommer's Barcelona Day by Day guidebook before you go. It really is a useful guide.
The restaurants I highly recommend in Barcelona are:
1. Cal-Pep
Placa des les Olles, 8
* locals/tourists clientele
2. Taller de Tapas
Placa Sant Josep Oriol, 9
* locals/tourists clientele
3. Inopia
C/ Tamarit 104
* predominantly locals clientele so knowledge of some basic Spanish would help.
4. Cor Caliu
C/ Roger de Lluria, 102
* predominantly locals clientele so so knowledge of some basic Spanish would help
All in all it was a great long weekend trip. However, Thomas and I have decided to stay away from Europe for a while until the US Dollars strengthen against the Euro. Having to pay 50% more for everything is not fun.
