Affordable, delicious food, great culture and weather, its got the Miami vibes but with efficient public transportation. This is my kind of city, Barcelona. So Rosy, my travel buddy and I had set up an 11 day journey through Spain with one small exception of stopping in Lagos for a day and a half. This was the best country to choose to explore as a break away from Rome. The weather was finally warm enough (for us South Floridians) and it was great to breakaway from pasta and the weird Italian music scene (combination of American top 40 and American music from 5-10 years ago). Nevertheless, here are some of my favorite shots to illustrate most of my experience in Barcelona.

Rosy and I at Park Guell exhibiting Antoni Gaudi’s modernist architecture. I have to say the mosaics are beautiful, but the lack of edges really makes things look like ginger bread houses. He did get some inspiration from Hansel and Gretel for the houses in this particular park.

Barcelona’s Gothic cathedral.

This was really beautiful and a nice change from the Baroque architecture I am used to in Rome.

This is a view of on top of the Parc de la Ciutadella Fountain.

There were street shows everywhere, but this kind I’ve never seen. It was a group of guys and girls tap dancing in a little pavilion.

Of course we had the sangria while chilling by the water.

I love seafood paella and had to find it here. We were recommended by a local where good paella was, he told us the name and we went to look for it. I’ve always deemed paella as a complete street food so I figured it would be a small restaurant. We get there to find it to be this fancy-table-cloth restaurant, but hey, it was really good!

Honey, pecan, lemon crepe

The incomplete, never ending La Sagrada Familia. Really incredible, ambitious architecture full of complex forms never really used before in art history. Gaudi was a strange but brilliant man.

The idea is to get lost in the melting evolving detail.

I really enjoyed the different execution of traditional religious narratives.

Here’s my construction of a vertical panoramic. It’s not perfect, but I wanted to illustrate the feelings of great depth and height of the building. This feeling of crawling beneath the canopy of forestry was incredible. It made me feel minuscule in this evolving building. The columns looked like they were growing.

Where the stained glass windows were complete, the light illuminated the inside incredibly.

Organ pipes illuminated by the light through the stained glass.

This was my favorite Gaudi work and totally worth going in. However, this church makes bank with what they charge and how many people see it on the daily, yet it still isn’t done. I believe the predicted completion date is 2026 (or something like that).

Food was absolutely amazing, mostly because there was so much seafood (my favorite) and it was super affordable. One meal costed us at most 12 euro a person and that is including 3-4 tapas.

This is their famous open-air market off Las Ramblas which is very different from those in Rome. It had more exotic foods, mostly novelty, and amazing fruit juices.

There were about 10 different fruit juice stands, but all were amazing. I had the kiwi coconut one mmmm :)

Exactly what I was looking for lol

Every part of the lamb right here

Dried peppers

All kinds of spices

Cold cuts galore

For dinner, octopus seafood cocktail

Patatas bravas

Chicken confit with a sauce I forgot.

To finally get some dishes with meat and seafood was great because in Rome it is typically pretty pricey to get meat or seafood dishes. Spanish tapas and pinchos are probably my new favorite style of eating and offer some of my favorite types of food that are equally meaningful and cheap. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the night life, but maybe that’s better lol. More to come about Seville, Lagos, Granada, and Madrid!