Gaudi's Barcelona

We stayed 2 nights at this apartment right in the Barri Gotic. In fact, it was a block or two behind the City Hall and very close to all major attractions (eg. La Rambla, seafront, etc.) and the metro (the closest one is Jaume I). The apartment was very spacious: two double bedrooms, one kitchen, one dining room/living room, and one bathroom. I shared the apt with three friends. Each of us paid 70 euro for our entire stay (2 nights), which I thought was totally worth it. The owners were also very helpful in terms of giving us suggestions of where to go for great food, views, etc., as well as streets and places to avoid, even in bright daylight!

You can check the guesthouse at http://www.barcelona-guesthouse.com/city-bb.htm.

If you're thinking about visiting the Parc and getting there by metro, I would recommend taking the metro to Vallcarca instead of Lesseps, because it's less of a walk from the station and there are outdoor escalators that take you up to the park if you take the Vallcarca exit. From there on, it's all downhill, so it's less tiring, even though you might feel like you're not taking the "conventional" route by not entering the park via the front entrance, where the famous mosaic dragon is.

The park is definitely worth visiting. The mosaics and the gingerbread-house-like buildings are so cute, and there's no admission charge!

The Casa was truly extraordinary! The Casa looked exactly like the ones you see in photos. That's how picturesque it really is. The admission into the Casa is bit expensive, though, if you're planning to see the whole thing. It cost about 12 euros for students, which included an audio guide and entrance to the apartment, attic, and roof. It can get quite crowded when a lot of visitors are jammed in there, but you still get a great look of the fantastic interior decoration. The audio guide was really helpful in telling us what exactly we were looking at, the story behind each part of the building, etc. It was truly a magical experience!

Casa Mila was another fabulous must-see sight, not to mention that it has an almost unrealistic exterior structure, and the roof top garden was also very magical. It was said that the apartment block was built without any straight line or right-angle corners, so everything looked really smooth, flowing, and alive (you know what I mean?). The admission cost is significantly lower than Casa Batllo, and there's a fabulous museum about Gaudi's architecture in there, so it's definitely worth a visit! Aside from the cool rooftop (I somehow felt like I was on a beach when I was up there) and the fantastic museum (with an audio guide included), the apartments and the lobby of the entrances were also very amazing!

We went to Parc de Joan Miro before Pablo Espanya. We thought that since it was near the metro station we got off, we might as well go take a look at it. But I must say that the Joan Miro work that dominated the park was amazing, and to the west end of the park, where a lot of buildings are, there was one building that had a huge mosaic of a butterfly on its facade. Try to look for it when you're there. It's not difficult to find. We went to Pablo Espanya at about 9:30am on a Saturday morning, but the place was basically deserted. There was hardly anyone around, and all the stores and exhibition halls were not open. But we really got a chance to take pics of beautiful, empty streets full of very "Spanish" (it's really diverse) buildings. I don't know why there were so many cats when we were there, but cats on empty Spanish streets create very picturesque moments!

If you fly to Girona with Ryanair from London, it's definitely worth taking a 30-minute coach ride from the airport to the city centre of Girona. You can get a very helpful (and free) tourist map of the city from the tourist info in the airport. The streets, buildings, and cathedrals really had their characters, but the city felt really quiet, almost dead, when we were there. I guess it was because it was Sunday, so everything was closed. But still! Where were all the people who lived here?! It felt a bit creepy at times when we were walking on those "unless streets. It was also very interesting to see a park named after John Lennon there! I thought that was very hilarious. You could get a superb view of the town from the top of Parc de John Lennon. The Catedral is a must-see, and the buildings along the river are also worth some photo ops.

This is what our itinerary looked like:

Day 1: Stay overnight at the Stansted Airport in London for our flight that leaves early morning the next day. It was pretty bad. There were hardly benches, and it was freezing cold in there.

Day 2: Take an early flight out to Barcelona with Ryanair. But Ryanair only flies to Girona, so we had to take a Ryanair coach from Girona to Barcelona (which took about 1 hour). We arrived in Barcelona around noon, took the metro to Jaume I, and had to find our apartment (right behind the Town Hall in Barri Gotic), whcich was in a very central location. Then we went around Barri Gotic and La Rambla. We got some Catalun pizza in a restaurant in La Rambla. It had a superb taste, but we had no idea how much that cost till we had to pay for it (about 8 euros). Then walked around La Rambla to the cool market and some touristy shops nearby. We went to the Picasso museum in the late afternoon. It was really quite scary walking the narrow streets of Barri Gotic. Even though it was very well-lit, a lot of times you felt you were the only one walking on the street. It was a bit claustrophobic, too. We went back to our apartment and COOKED our own dinner!

Day 2: Parc de Joan Miro -> Pablo Espanya -> Casa Batllo, Casa Amatller, Casa Mila (didn't go in)-> Sagrada Familia (didn't go in) -> Parc Guell -> shopping for souvenirs -> Placa Catalunya & La Rambla -> back to apartment -> Port Vell (seafront, where the statue of "Face of Barcelona" is), where we found an okay restaurant and got a decent meal for 15 euros

Day 3: I just can't imagine coming to Barcelona without going into Casa Mila. I felt I would deeply regret that so I went to Casa Mila by myself. and I was right! If I have not gone there, the thought of "could have been there" would really torture me. I totally loved the house, but it's too bad I didn't have a lot of time to look around. I had to get back to our apartment to check out within 50 minutes, so I basically flew back and got there right on time. (You can't believe how far one has to walk to transfer from the different metro lines!) and went to the Girona airport to take a bus to Girona. We spend an afternoon in Girona, which was enough. and there were lockers (left luggage) in the train station (right beside the coach station), so it was very convenient (there were none in the airport). We got back to London Stansted around 12am and had to sleep in the airport again because there weren't trains going back to East Sussex at that hour.

Day 4 - We caught the earliest train back to East Sussex and really FAUGHT for it. We ran as fast as we could to our connection from Victoria Station. It was pretty intense!