We landed at the airport in Barcelona and quickly became captivated by the big tall green palm trees. In the cab on our way to the apartment we could get peeks of the locals and the buzzing live of the city. Our expectations to the vacation were big and we looked forward to eating tapas and sunbathe at the beach, which is in walk distance of the city – meaning the famous shopping street Las Ramblas.

In Spain you usually get lucky with the weather and we certainly did. Every day we went through the ‘Rambla’, which is filled with tourists at all hours. Despite the many warnings of theft in the street, we had nothing to be worried about. If we went a place with many people, we simply made sure to keep a good eye on our bags and that was enough. As an example we went to a huge market called La Boqueria, which was amazing, colourful and tempting but also filled with people. But it did not matter, because we simply walked slowly through the scenery and got overwhelmed by flavours and fragrances of the place. This market contains everything from fish, to ham, to nuts and fresh fruit.

When in Spain, you of course have to taste tapas and other delicious local cousins. We did not know how to order tapas (or how much to order), so we barely got enough and had to go to a new place to order more. It tasted so good and it was obvious that it was made from fresh commodities. Dinner is apparently first eaten at around 9pm, so one night we went to the restaurant 4CATS, which at first look does not seem like much. But when you enter the great hall, there is an amazing atmosphere and entertaining piano play. The food was amazing and the portions big. I would definitely recommend this place, also because of its’ history that goes way back, to when it served dinners for Picasso from the age of 17. He had his first exhibition there and got one of his posters on the front of the menu.

One of the last days we went to the stadium to see Barcelona play. It was a great experience despite the fact that I personally am not the greatest soccer fan. There were more than 67,000 exited spectators that day, and that was something you could definitely feel. Apart from that we also spent some days at the beach, which was highly popular and really nice – while we used the rest of the vacation enjoying cultural spots like churches, architectural buildings of Gaudi, and the mountain Montjuic. We will definitely be going back next year!