beach and the city

similar to los angeles, barcelona has the beach and the city-vibe going for itself

you can be in the city center one min, and the beach 10 mins later

all in walking distance

i admired the barcelona alleys,

the old buildings and the simple details

i love how the reflection of the blue sky

reflected so remarkably in the windows of each building.

i have hundreds of barcelona alleyway photos, but don't want to flood you with too many...

 our hotel was in the marina

we had a delicious paella (barcelona's signature dish)

with a bottle of galician wine, some appetizers, and ending with desserts (on the house!)

all should know that my new preferred poison is alberiño, thanks to our tapas tour guide

it is the best, best, best wine.

i can ramble on how much i love it, but just do yourselves a favor and try it out

it wont disappoint.

side note: in barcelona, lunch is their biggest meal, you have appetizers, a main dish, dessert and coffee. lunch lasts forever, which doesnt bother me a bit! the more time to finish a bottle of wine, the better!

which leads me to another side a sub-side note: its hard to find a glass of wine in barcelona, everyone serves bottles, so each day taylor and i split a bottle of wine and had the rest of the day to wander the city in drunken merriment and bliss (no wonder i loved barcelona so much!)

gaudi in barcelona

gaudi gaudi gaudi!

i can never get enough of gaudi!

we spent the early day, everyday, visiting something gaudi

for those of you that don't know - gaudi was a spanish catalan arhictect in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

his work is fascinating - leaves you speechless

casa milà (better known as la pedrera) was incredible

i dont even know where to begin!

i guess i'll say my favorite part was the roof top

giving you a 360 view of barcelona

the interior and its details were amazing.. from its structure to the door handles

gaudi sure did get it right!

and then there was parc güell, a park situated on a hill of el carmel

there are gardens

and architecture

and an old aqueduct 

... and hiking!

(designed and built by antoni gaudi between 1900-1914)

and saving the best for last

we spent our final day in barcelona

visiting gaudi's casa batlló

a building restored by gaudi, built in 1877

this building is remarkable

inspired by underwater life, there are no straight lines what-so-ever

the details are phenominal

the rooms, well.. i wish they were mine

it was almost impossible to get a bad shot here, with my super-wide angle lens (thanks tay!)

i can only hope and dream, that one day i will get to return...

but until then

these photos will keep me happy...

good food, good wine, good city

barcelona is land of good food, tapas, chocolate ("xocolate"), wine...

everyday that we woke up i was excited to what amazing foods were were going to eat

i'd say the best thing we did was take a tapas tour

with a local food journalist

she walked us around the city for 5 hours

explaining the history, the foods...

our favorite stop was a tiny little cheese shop were we enjoyed some fine spanish cheese and wine

we had a bunch of foods that i thought i didnt like 

(anchovies, squid, jamon...)

but little did i know, i just wasn't having the good stuff!

we finished off with some famous spanish cocoa treats and champagne that kissed our tongues

this is the night i fell in love with barcelona

and it will forever have a piece of my heart.

 spanish goat cheese (i wish could remember the name and region!)

 pintxos!

 padron peppers

squid

tomato, capers and onion

fried anchovies

macaroons

bonbons

chocolate-y goodness lollypops

chocolate pastries galore!

meat shop

all sooorts of goodies shop

the sagrada familia barcelona

ah barcelona,

you will always have a piece of my heart

here i re-fell in love - with life, with food, with taylor, with everything

i had the best birthday to date

with a trip to the sagrada familia

i went camera crazy in gaudi's masterpiece

everything was so picture-esque.

we stayed a long while the the sagrada

we were lucky to have gone during off peak season

so we weren't surrounded by other tourists

taylor did a sketch of the interior and exterior 

(you can see his sketches here & here on his tumblr)

and i took lots of pictures

because the sagrada is built of all stone, concrete, etc

it was about 10 degrees cooler in side than outside

 i was shivering in my boots

but it was well worth the stay

to see more photos from barcelona,

please visit my flickr page!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chelsea_lyn/