Visiting Barcelona in an apartment

My friends and I went to Barcelona for a week during Easter, we wanted to rent an apartment  in order to be unconstrained. Moreover, the cultural and old city of Barcelona attracted us a lot but we wanted to party as well since Barcelona is the place to do a “Fiesta”.

Day 1

We arrived at our Born situated apartment at around 4 pm. As you might know, the Born district of Barcelona is close to the sea and well known for its “Fashion Youth”. We walked around the district and much later (people usually have dinner at 11pm) we went to the “Flauta Magica”  which was quite good. Finally, we went back home sleeping at our apartment.

Day 2

The day started by the Boqueria market  where we bought our fresh food for the day. The market is also very interesting to visit (even if you don’t buy anything), particularly the sea food stand (look at knives). As a tip; you should buy a metro card during your stay, it will facilitate your run. It is cheap and easy to use. Boqueria market is situated on the Rambla which is the most famous avenue of Barcelona . When walking down the road, you should have a look at the “human statues”. I’ve never been able to make them move, it’s a challenge!

During the afternoon, we walked around Barceloneta and then enjoyed the 5km of beach. The park of the Ciutadella is located near the beach. The park is famous for its fountain realized by Gaudi. At around 10 in the evening (Spanish usually start having dinner at 11) we went to “Can Majo” a sea food restaurant. I advice you to try the fideuàs, they were excellent! We end the day by a yummy mojito at “Gimlet”.

Day 3

The beginning of the day was dedicated to the Montjuic which is a broad shallow hill with a relatively flat top overlooking the harbour, to the southeast of the city centre. It gives a beautiful view of Barcelona . Moreover, there are a lot of places to visit over there; Museum national of Art Catalan (MNAC) , montjuic Castel, the magic fountain, and so on. It is much easier to go there by using the funicular but it is much cheaper to climb to the top by foot…It took us the whole day to visit Montjuic, so we directly went to the restaurant “Can Culleretes” afterwards. It was 200 years old and supposed to be one of the best traditional restaurants in Barcelona . However, we were quite disappointed. But fortunately, the best was to come; Razzmatazz, Awesome!! Razzmatazz is a huge night club of 4000m² that can contain more than 5 thousands people. Many recognized DJ’s such as Air, Kraftwerk, Groove Armada, The Libertines went there. We saw Mistress Barbara, a woman DJ from Québec that is said to be the best girl DJ in the world. So Great! We left at 6 in the morning…

Day 4

Tough day… hang over… We rest on the beach the whole day. At 9pm, we went straight to the “Lupino”, a “restaclub” of Barcelona . Kind of a modern design for an experimental catalan cooking. The menu is cheap and attractive. A great moment. Finally, we went dancing at the CostaBreve in north of town, a cosy place.

Day 5

Gaudi Day. We bought a Gaudi tour so we were able to visit as much as Gaudi’s works for a reasonable price. The tour started by La Pedrera (Casa Milá), Casa Batlló, Park Güell, and the Sagrada Família. By making arrangement with the tour operator, you can add some more sightseeing to your tour. My favourite visit was the Park Guell where you can sit on the world longest bench. It is really interesting when you have a guide who explains you why things were built in that particular way. Sagrada Familia was not that fascinating; it is still under construction, however, the museum could be interesting if you have time to read everything, it talks a lot about architecture.

During the evening, we went to the best restaurant we have ever been to, “Cal Pep”. You really need to go there if you want to know how tapas taste like. Don’t forget to book in advance, it’s a busy place.

Day 6

Tired of all our visits and parties, we spent our last day shopping and lying on the beach. We found a few nice shops. The first one is called “moi la femme” which is dedicated to women and erotism only. Another great shop is one that sells items of limited edition, if you need to make a present but you have no idea what to offer, this is the perfect shop for you! That night, our selected restaurant was “7portes”, good even excellent but we had to wait way too long. Our last party was at La Sala Apolo, a gathering of world DJ’s. We saw Sepultura that night, a metal band, it was not our kind of music but the atmosphere was so great that we enjoyed it.

Day 7

Departure. We woke up at 11, made our luggage and left our cute apartment for an ugly bus.