21st Birthday in Barcelona

Hello lovelies! A few exciting things have happened over this bank holiday and I thought I would write a post for you telling you all about it, its not really a surprise because it is in the title but ... It was my birthday on Thursday!! I am officially 21 so I guess I should book a ticket to America to go buy some alcohol, you know just because I can.

On the Tuesday night me, my family and my boyfriend went out for a meal to celebrate my birthday, we had the meal two days before my birthday because for the last few months Cal had been planning a surprise for my birthday with my family and he wanted to tell me at my birthday dinner, I knew he was taking me away some where so I wanted enough time to get prepared and pack so I planned the meal a few days before we left. To be perfectly honest I thought he was taking me to somewhere in England, my first thought was Cambridge because he knows how much I enjoy it there. He was a little cutie and made a moon pig card with lots of hints to where I was going (even though I didn't get any of them and thought it was Newcastle...) and it turned out that he was taking me to Barcelona!

I am not ashamed to admit that after 5 minutes of  'really? are you kidding? are we really really?' that when It sunk in we were going there I cried, much to Cal's shock. Then another thought hit me, what am I going to take to Barcelona?! That will come in another post don't you worry.

We travelled there for what equalled to 3 days (one morning and evening and two full days) and now that we are back I plan on resting in bed until I am back at work Wednesday. There is so much to do there I was knackered by the last day! We stayed in this holiday in a really quite area in the Inner City called Tryp Condal Mar  which was so lovely. Silly me was too busy exploring to remember to take photos of the hotel or even our rooms but trust me it was amazing.

The hotel was a 10 minute walk from a big shopping centre called Diagonal Mar (which we took full advantage of) and the metro. Every day we left the hotel around 9 and went to the metro to travel to our first stop. We got a 3 day travel card which was 20.50 euros each which is really good. With only a Barcelona map and a tube guide we travelled everywhere!

Since Cal had planned and paid for this whole trip we definitely had to visit the FCBarcelona Stadium for him which he loved. Even I enjoy walking round the stadium, and sitting on the balconies and walking by the Pitch. Cal also got a photo with a picture of Messi so he was extra happy.

We went to see the Cathedral and two of Gaudi's houses which are so cool. The only annoying thing we found with these places is that the queues to go in them are ridiculous! We weren't prepared to waste our days in queues to see one thing, we were happy seeing the outside and then moving on to another place. Sagrada Familia is definitely worth a visit, the building is amazing and it is right in front of your face when you walk out of the metro.

The Cathedral

Sagrada Familia



Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Gaudi's house

Gaudi's house

We went to two museums while we were there, Museu d'art Contemporani de Barcelona and Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge, and although the buildings where amazing to look at, the art didn't really appeal to us.  At both museums though there was other great things to do, at the contemporary museum there were stalls outside selling clothing and jewellery and lovely little things for presents and at the national museum there was a huge shopping centre Arenas de Barcelona which had loads more shops.

Museu d'art Contemporani de Barcelona

Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge

Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge



Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge

Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge

Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge

Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge

Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge

Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge

We also visited the Zoo which was a lovely trip and we got a few photos there (well Cal did because I was too lazy to take photos all holiday) but as you can see from the photos, most of the animals were sleeping which was annoying! I guess the heat was too much for them which I can understand.

One morning and one evening we took a stroll down to the beach which was lovely, it was really quite and peaceful and the only people we saw was runner after runner first thing in the morning. I can imagine it being packed during the summer and I would like to go back to sit on that beach in the sun, but then again there is too much there to just sit around for hours.

The place we probably visited most and spent the most time in was a stop on the metro called Jaume. It had everything we needed there, the cathedral, street after street of shops (mostly Mango, it was ridiculous how many Mango stores we walked past on the same street!), the market. I did find a Body shop and a Sephora there which made me extra happy and I will do a post on the few bits I bought.

On our last night after dinner in our favourite restaurant in the Diagonal Mar centre ( the best steak house ever) we went to the arcade to get rid of a few of our last change and ended up finding a bowling alley at the back. We played a game to end the night (which I lost badly) and then went to leave to go back to the hotel when Cal stopped to play on a grab machine (you know the ones that you use the grip to pick up a cuddly toy and it always lets go after a second), he used a few euros and didn't win anything. Then we went to leave again and he spotted a minion one and wanted to have one last go, so I found a euro at the bottom of my purse and... he won me a minion! It was the best way to end the holiday as he has a thing of buying me cuddly toys. Even before we got together he got me a Boo toy from monsters ink and a Olaf toy from Frozen. So now we have another minion to add to our collection. Meet Little Messi!

And that I think is it in a nut shell, I think we did more but I cant remember names and the weekend feels like a blur now. It was the best way to celebrate my birthday and I think me and Cal will go back at some point, to cover the places we didn't get time to go to this time. It is so easy to get around there with the metro and we had no trouble there what so ever. I definitely recommend Barcelona if you are a person who likes to go exploring all day instead of sitting around by the pool on holiday. We did go when it wasn't so hot that you were sweating all day so it might be a little more hard work in high heats but the views and experiences are worth it.

The only thing I found we were a little disappointed about was the nightlife over there, although we didn't want to go crazy and get drunk in a Spanish club, we wouldn't have minded some bars or restaurants to drink in in the evening. Although some nights we were so tired from walking we went to bed at 9, they were 12 hours days I think we were allowed haha.

 I plan now to soak my feet in the foot spa all day and eat lots of white chocolate eggs (yes I have white chocolate eggs!!) and try and plan something equally amazing for Cal's birthday next year, wish me luck! :)