Europe Travel Diary: Barcelona

Our Europe Travel Diary is an informal rundown of our day-to-day activities while backpacking Europe, starting with Madrid. If you are after recommendations for Barcelona instead, we have our Ultimate Barcelona Travel Guide.

Day 6: Madrid to Barcelona

_09/10/2021

Our 3-hour train journey from Madrid to Barcelona went fairly quickly. We were still able to take in the beautiful Spanish countryside and an episode of Squid Games on our iPad.

Eventually, we arrived in Barcelona and took a taxi to our hostel. Here we then checked in at reception and took a lift to our room. We instantly noticed how much better busier and more sociable Yeah Hostel Barcelona compared to our hostel in Madrid. We put this down to Yeah being more focused on being a hostel focused rather than a restaurant with a hostel upstairs.

Whilst checking in, the reception gave us the lowdown on what to expect during our stay; this included a 5€ buffet breakfast where you could make your own crepes. As you can imagine, Alex was instantly excited.

As it was fairly late in the day, we were very hungry when we arrived. So we literally dumped our bags away and went out in search of food and specifically paella. We thankfully stumbled across a local restaurant serving Spain’s finest cuisine. Whilst the food was very nice, it was quite expensive. Lesson learned – go looking for food when already hangry – I say lesson learned but we still do this now!

We then went back to the hostel and made some friends (finally!) with English, Romanian, and a number of Scots. They went off out to party whilst us old folks went to snore after what we considered to be a long travel day – lol if only we knew!

Day 7: Barcelona

_10/10/2021

For Spain, we woke up quite early and Alex headed down to the buffet breakfast. We then left and headed out on our mandatory first day wander, through many monuments and cool buildings, down to La Rambla and taking in the sights. Having nosed around the various stalls, we concluded they pretty much sold the same nose around the various stalls. I became quite hungry so we stopped at a local Maccies for a gluten-free burger (which was very filling).

We then continued down la Rambla before opting for a rest at a local, freshly squeezed orange juice stall. Afterwards, we wandered further down the promenade, admiring the cute dogs (one of our favourite activities) along the way. We then hopped onto the metro back to the hostel. Alex ended up chilling in the common room whilst I had a siesta.

After my nap, we decided to head off for some pre-dinner sangria and olives at “Bauma” round the corner from our hostel (we struck gold finding this place). We ended up sitting next to three young American students and chatted with them for a while. They were quite drunk (which amused us both greatly) and undoubtedly making the most of Europe’s low drinking age (I would too).

Despite having paella the previous night, the Hostel was putting on paella for dinner. As we were in Spain, we signed ourselves up and headed on down.

Dinner is a great place to meet new people. We ended up sitting (initially) with a Long Island (NY) resident and a Jordanian guy who was travelling Europe to find the continent’s best rollercoaster rides. As the group readily grew, the majority decided they wanted to go to the local club so we tagged along. We all walked 15 minutes to the first bar but the group then concluded it was “too dead” so decided it would be better to go to the beach club. Having heard it was 30€ each to get in, we decided to get a taxi home to enjoy the next day without emptying our bank balance.

Day 8: Barcelona

_11/10/2021

Alex decided this morning that he would get up and have a run around the city before I woke up; I think he’s missing gym (he seems over that nowadays). Once Alex returned with some nice pictures, we headed out in the direction of la Sagrada Familia. Obviously picking up the obligatory coffee on the way. We got hungry quite quickly and were a bit paella-ed out. Luckily, we found a noodle bar in the shadows of la Sagrada Familia which tasted very nice!

Then we walked over to the Sagrada Familia. Whilst the building itself was incredibly stunning, we decided against joining the excessively long queue. This might be one of my main regrets from Barcelona as we saw some of our hostel friend’s photos and it really did look amazing. We’ll definitely visit and go inside if it’s ever completed in our lifetimes.

We then trekked to the local flea market which was definitely a sight to behold. Anything you can think of was being sold here with specific shops dedicated to tools, kids’ toys, electrical equipment; just everything, madness! Looking back this was actually one of the highlights of our Barcelona trip. You don’t see this place on many travel guides as it’s definitely outside of the typical tourist area. As such, it was full of locals and was a really cool place to experience and wander around.

Our next stop was the beach. This was even more of a trek, thanks to Alex refusing to get the bus. Bar some crane dodging (I have a bit of an irrational fear of cranes), we got there in relatively good time. We decided to chill at a restaurant/bar on the pier where we had a well-deserved cocktail. We then summoned the energy to walk to the metro to go back to the hostel for another siesta.

When we eventually woke up, we visited Bauma for our daily sangria and olives before heading back to the hostel for dinner. Tonight, dinner was bacon-wrapped chicken and was quite underwhelming but at least it didn’t leave Alex hungry. At dinner, we met a few more people including a 40 y/o Brit, who was in the last 6 weeks of his holiday and gave us some advice on what to do in both South East Asia and Venice. It was then time to go to bed, ready for another big day tomorrow.

Day 9: Barcelona

_12/10/2021

Woke up reasonably early and psyched ourselves up for the walk up to Park Guell. Safe to say, this was easily the hardest bit of walking we’d done so far given the heat and incline. The coffee we got on the way did little to energise us. After a 30 minute walk, we eventually made it to the Park and the views were definitely worth it! you absolutely must go!

After pottering around the park and taking in the views, it had reached food time so we found a GF taco restaurant (traditional I know) just outside the Parc gates to refuel. We both really enjoyed the food so that was a bonus.

We then decided to take a 15-minute taxi ride west to CosmoCaixa. This turned out to be an amazing find and one of the highlights of our visit to Barcelona – we actually found this on Tiktok which is surprisingly a really handy app for finding activities and restaurants. The museum was split into Science, History, and Animals. Our favourite bit was definitely the rainforest section where we saw a turtle riding a caiman’s back. To get home, we used the city’s bus system. Safe to say it definitely took some time to figure out in our tired states.

Post siesta, we walked into the city’s Gothic Quarter for some sangria, olives, and dinner. We ended up at a very cultural restaurant. I attempted to order the Spanish pig but they were all out so I had to settle for steak and chips. Alex on the other hand had MORE paella!

We then walked around the corner to Bar Paradiso (voted the 19th best cocktail bar in the whole world) for some cocktails. We both used to be bartenders and are massive cocktails fans so we do try to go to some highly-rated bars as a bit of a treat when we are travelling around (even if it’s not exactly in the normal backpacker’s budget). This speakeasy bar was incredibly cool. It had an electronic space-themed menu and the bartenders were incredible.

When seated, we were placed next to two middle-aged American couples (the two guys were obviously drinking bottled Peroni in a world-famous cocktail bar with the khaki shorts) to who Alex ended up speaking to about the NFL. Turns out they were huge Carolina Panthers fans who live in Charleston, SC and they kindly invited us to stay with them in the US. They have a whole basement apartment for visitors and wanted to take us to a Panthers game!

After the obligatory two cocktails here each, we then ventured home for a well-earned night’s sleep.

Day 10: Barcelona

13/10/2021

Today we decided to join the “free” walking tour organised by the hostel. To fuel ourselves, we both went down for breakfast. I quickly regretted taking part as I couldn’t have anything apart from fruit and coffee. To be fair, Alex did warn me but I was convinced there would be some cereal or something I could eat. On the other hand, Alex filled himself with anything edible he could find!

The walking tour took us around the old city of Barcelona where Paolo (our tour guide) spoke about the importance of each building and a brief history of Barcelona. We found the topic of Catalonian Independence especially interesting to hear about and even more so from a local. Having previously eaten nothing all day, bar an orange, I was pretty hungry. Alex found a GF sandwich shop (literally) around the corner which did the job.

After relocating to a nearby cafe for refreshments. We soon realised that nine days of doing a lot every day, was starting to catch up with us; we were exhausted! With longevity in mind, we headed back to the hostel for a siesta and some well-earned chill time.

Having eventually mustered up the energy to get ready. We went to Bar Bauma (again) around the corner where we had the mandatory post-siesta sangria and olives. Very nice.

After deciding that hadn’t filled us up, we went to the Sushi bar opposite the restaurant. Alex had a sushi platter all to himself, whilst I had a very tasty chicken and rice dish.

Day 11: Barcelona

_14/10/2021

Given that the last 10 days we’d be going pretty full on around both Madrid and Barcelona, we decided today was a chill-on-the beach day. Looking back, I wasn’t really much of a beach person; oh how things change! We thought it was about time we chilled and read our books for the day considering we were all tourist-ed out!

Once we woke up, we got a coffee and some breakfast and headed down on a long walk to the beach. We found our spot and set up shop. We were then quickly bombarded by beach sellers walking up and down the beach asking to massage us or sell us mojitos. Not the most relaxing but if you pretend to be asleep you can get a bit of peace.

Halfway through the day, Alex became restless (shock) so I volunteered him to go get ice creams (and this was after he went for a dip in the sea).

Once it started to get cold, we packed up our stuff and headed inland for some light refreshments I.e. cocktails! We ended up at Dr. Stravinsky – another very highly rated cocktail bar. Safe to say it was a pretty cool place – the bar staff and drinks were both very good! Alex took this occasion incredibly seriously so decided to attend in shorts that he’d be in the sea in just a couple of hours earlier – luckily it was very quiet when we came in!

We then made it back to the hostel for a 9pm dinner which was Paella again (not that we’re complaining). As our social battery had all but died, we had no energy to partake in the “where are you from” conversation. As such, when the Christmas candle-tasting desserts (creme brûlée) arrived, we made a beeline for the exit to pack our bags ready for the next day.

Once we’d packed, I mentioned that there was expanding long-life milk on the communal desk. Thinking nothing of it, we went to bed.

Day 12: Barcelona to Marseille

_15/10/2021

By the time we had woken up, the inflated milk cartoon had expanded even further and exploded all over the floor. As Alex was the first one up, he was first confronted with this mess. Unfortunately for us, this was the one day we didn’t leave our bags in lockers underneath the bed. We instead leaned them up against the wall so that we’d minimise our noise in the morning.

Unfortunately for me, the shorts I had planned to wear on the coach were covered in not-so-long-life milk. As we had no way of washing them before getting on the bus in 3 hours, Alex resorted to the good old-fashioned technique of (attempting) to wash them in the communal sink and dry them with a hairdryer. Safe to say, they ended up in his bag (wrapped in a towel) rather damp. All in all, it could definitely have been worse so we’re counting our lucky stars.

Despite this fiasco, we hopped on the metro with all our luggage and made our way to the bus station 30 minutes away. Having refuelled with the most bang average food we can find next to the bus station. With a boiled cheeseburger for Alex and some cremated fried eggs for me, we located our seats on the bus and relaxed. Turns out that our bus was by far the dirtiest bus I’d ever been on. Nothing epitomised it more than the snot stain on the window; we’re definitely still getting used to this travelling malarkey!

Whilst the journey to Marseille wasn’t that long on paper, our chain smoker of a bus driver certainly made it long! Stopping what seemed like every 20 minutes for a 30 minute stop – all good fun!

Barcelona Summary

Alex: In comparison to Madrid, Barcelona was superior in some aspects. For instance, the hostel we were at was definitely friendlier, more welcoming and more of a classic “meet other people” hostel. The dinners the hostel put on we’re definitely a highlight. The city itself was very beautiful and there was a lot to do. We probably stayed about the right amount of time considering we wanted a day to chill. The only downside of where we were staying is that it was a 30-minute walk to the most notable places like La Rambla, Parc Guell, and the beach. We would very much recommend going to CosmoCaixa – definitely a highlight.

Leah: I’d been to Barcelona before but I have to say I think October is a perfect time of year to go. You get nice weather still but with far fewer people. While I still think I preferred Madrid, Barcelona is a beautiful city rich in history and culture, despite the thousands of tourists that flock every year.