Seeing a futbol game in Spain was on our bucket list and let me tell you, the atmosphere was unreal. I can’t believe I thought Jazz games were intense haha. People were bowing to Messi and so enthusiastic that you could hate soccer and have the best time, the energy was so contagious.
Hike up to the Bunkers de Carmel for some awesome views.
making friends with the locals. 
The inside of the Sagrada Familia is AMAZING. Hearing about how thought out the architecture and how the sun rises and comes through with the warm colors and sets in the cool colors. It’s so cool.
Palacau de Musica (we even got to hear some of the show which was cool)
Didn’t get to see my high school crush Ronaldo but I visited where he plays!
Barcelona was better than I could have imagined! The food, the architecture and the people were amazing. We got to cross off some bucket list items in Spain- Barca Game, a Flamenco show in Madrid (HIGHLY recommend the place we went to) and just being in a new country in general. See a bull fighting show is on a lot of people’s bucket lists but I recommend you research it, it’s so disturbing. We did go to a free museum where we learned a lot about the history and a guy tried to tell me they used the meat so it was okay, which is good, but how inhumane to suffer that way. Anyway, below I listed some tips for Barcelona first timers.
Barcelona Tips
First off, BOOK ALL YOUR TIME SLOTS FOR ACTIVITIES BEFORE. Are capital letters necessary? Probably not. This is so important though. We didn’t even go during the busy season but if you go to the Sagrada Familia or Park Guell without a ticket, they will have you get a time slot and you will have to go back hours later. It will not be close to the time that you are there and you will have to switch your whole day around and go somewhere else and ride the metro back. It’s not hard to book and you can do it the day before but if you are going during Summer I would book it far before just to be safe. It will just save you time and money to do it before and do things that are close to each item while you are there. We did not do this and we had to back track a lot but we quickly learned our lesson.
For the Sagrada Familia make sure you go to the very top! It has cool views and it’s such an awesome piece of architecture. You can rent just one audiotape and each use an ear and save money by the way. I recommend this because it tells you the coolest things about the Sagrada. It’s fascinating.
When staying in Barcelona book a hotel off of LA RAMBLA. This is what my friend who lived in Barcelona told me and I think it was really good advice. La Rambla is a big fun street with lots of food places, shops and street performers. It’s right near the boqueria which is a little food market and nice for breakfast! This is a nice area just because you are close to everything and it felt really safe besides two tourists who got into a fight over KFC (Just Kidding I think…we saw blood and cops and a spilled bucket of KFC so we just put the pieces together).
Don’t miss Mt Tibidado. Just don’t. You take a tram type thing to the top and it gives you amazing views. Lyle and I rode this ride that takes you high above it and you should totally take a selfie stick because your picture would be money. I know they are lame but they can be so useful and if ours hadn’t broke we would have had the sweetest picture ever. There is an amusement park up there if you have kids and its just amazing. Kinda kitschy but I loved it. You don’t have to pay to go into the park to ride the ride we did btw, you can pay for individual rides. Also, the bus takes FOREVER to come get you and take you up but it’s worth it. We rode it up and then didn’t feel like waiting to go down so we walked and big mistake haha. You spend all day every day walking and it was hot and exhausting, so just wait.
We had planned to do a day trip to Montserrat and we didn’t get to fit it in and I am bummed but we have a lot to still see in Northern Spain so I hope to go back. I would look into it if you have a lot of time though, there are tons of cool day trips out of Barcelona actually.
Casa Batllo, Park Guell, Mt Tibidado, La Rambla, Camp Nou, Mercat de Boqueria, casa mila are some awesome things to see. To read about the amazing Barcelona food you can look here.
My heart misses you but my waistline will not.
XO Cait