We took Barcelona pretty slow and tried to keep our days relaxing, but still saw most of the sights after 10 nights. We need a break from packing and unpacking and Barcelona was the perfect stop to settle down for a bit.
The night we arrived, we met up with some friends from home for dinner. I’ve known Tiffany and Greg since college and we all studied abroad in Thailand together our Junior year at WSU (Go Cougs!). Tiffany and I also worked together at the Marriott Residence Inn in Bellevue a few years ago. Tiffany and Greg were visiting Amsterdam and made a side trip to Barcelona (because why not??) and their friend Aaron from Amsterdam also came down with them. The 5 of us all let up for dinner and it was so fun to catch up and hang out in Barcelona together! That night, we also FaceTime’d my dad for the Seahawks game again at 2:30am. I made the mistake of staying up until 2am thinking I had the energy to stay up for the entire game. I set my alarm and woke up after a 30 minute nap and watched the first half while Lawrence dozed in and out. At half time, Lawrence woke up and then I dozed through the entire 2nd half. As hard as I tried, I could not keep my eyes open. Thankfully, Lawrence woke me up for the last play where we stopped the Patriots from scoring, YAY!! Note to self- if you can only watch 1/2 a game, make it the 2nd half.
The next day Lawrence and I walked La Rambla, which is a huge pedestrian street that cuts through the middle of town. It had the expected souvenirs stands and people trying to sell selfie sticks, but in the middle of La Rambla is the best food market we’ve seen our entire trip, Mercado de La Boqueria. Vendor after vendor was selling cured meats, fresh fruit smoothies, kebabs, gelato, spices and more. Later that night we met back up with Tiffany and Greg in the Gothic quarter for our own little pub crawl, which ended back at their hotel on the pool deck drinking champagne under the super moon. Loved it! Tiffany also gave us all the freebies from their room since they didn’t have much use for them. We’re still wearing the slippers, eating the jam and using the face wash (thanks Tiff!).
Tuesday was awesome. We slept in, made breakfast in our Airbnb and then went to Camp Nou (pronounced ‘no’) for a tour, which is where FC Barcelona plays. We bought our tickets to Saturday’s game vs Malaga and then walked through an interactive museum, located in the stadium. We learned about the clubs history, saw all their trophys and even got to sit in the press box. FC Barcelona won the UEFA Champions Leage last year, which is like the Super Bowl but for European soccer. They’re kind of a big deal. It was a fun day learning and celebrating part of Barcelonas history and identity.
The next day we were on a hunt for some shoes. I stressed out so much before we left about getting a good pair of shoes, and the ones I got have been hurting my heel pretty bad after a long day of walking. So we set out for the Asics store in downtown and I was able to find a new pair! We broke them in right away by hiking up to a castle that overlooks the city. We timed it right, and we were at the top of the castle for sunset. It was the first time this trip we just sat and intentionally watched the sunset and it was so peaceful. That night, our kickball friend Rachelle came into town and joined us for a few days! She also bought a one-way ticket and is traveling for a few months on her own. It was great to hang out for her first few days while she acclamated to life on the road 🙂
With Rachelle in town, we were excited to start seeing some of the sights. The next day was all about Gaudí, the famous architect. We visited Park Guell, which was originally designed to be a huge park with 60 plots of land for homes. The idea didn’t catch on and only 2 homes were actually completed, one of which was Gaudí’s. It’s a beautiful park with arches, palm trees and mosaics throughout. After Park Guell, we went into the city to visit 2 other architectural landmarks, Casa Batlló and La Pedrera. After all the sights, we came back to make dinner and stayed up until 2 playing rummy.
Saturday started out with tapas and beer for brunch and then we headed to Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona take on Malaga. We entered an outter gate before going into the actual stadium. We found a food/beer vendor and snagged a beer before going in to find our seats. It wasn’t until we were already in the stadium in line for another beer that we realized the beer we bought outside the stadium was the same as what was sold inside the stadium – alcohol free. What!? Why would anyone buy alcohol free beer before a soccer game? I’m sure it’s a form of crowd control to keep the 90,000+ fans fro rioting, but really!? Afte realizing we just wasted $10, we headed to our seats. We were surprised at the lack of fan fare, but impressed how everyone in the stands got into the game. We’re used to Seahawks games with flames, the raising of the 12th man flag, big screens and all the other pre-game entertainment. At this game, they announced the players on a small screen, the whistle blew and the game started. BUT I will say, similar to Sounders games, they had an energetic crowd behind the goal with a drum leading songs and waving huge flags. Their club’s song is all in Catalan, but we sang along to the last verse “Barca, Barca, Baaaaaarca”!! 
Sunday. Seahawks game day. Lawrence and I spent the day walking around the marina and the stopped by an Irish Pub to make sure they would be playing the Hawks game. Later we met back up with Rachelle for some dinner and then made our way back to the pub for the game. It was packed with quite the eclectic group of people. There was a few Americans there for Football, a lot of locals there for fútbol, and a group of drunk guys on a stag party who showed up for cheap shots, kareoke and girls.
Monday was a weird day. We woke up not knowing what to do. We were checking out of our Airbnb that day, but hadn’t rented our RV and the RV rental required 48 hours to guarantee a rental. So, we could either stay in Barcelona for another 2 days, or make our way via bus to the RV depot and cross our fingers that we could rent something on the spot. We ended up sitting in a McDonalds for a few hours to get free wifi and debating what we should do. In the end, we decided to rent our RV online starting on Wednesday and stayed in another Marriott hotel for a few nights and research more for our trip. 
Martin Adventures 
👍😘
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Ahhhh just stumbled upon the card you gave me for this website!
I’m gonna be up late tonight reading about your amazing adventures. Sooooo happy for you!
Make sure you let Lawrence have dessert now and then 🙂
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