Barcelona for the Second Time

So I went to Barcelona for a weekend, last weekend of July, the first time I went was 2 years ago for my 23rd birthday...

This time was went to be a group of 5 of us, spending the weekend in barca but alas things didn't go as planned, my flatmate was meant to go to Malawi for an internship, my friend didn't get her visa to spain over the fact that they do no accept internet bank statements without bank stamps ( and some banks don't stamp internet bank statements - natwest/llyods/hsbc to be specific) - the spain visa app was Drama!  Capital D, even for me...

Maybe I will one day do a post about "how to get a spain visa from UK as a Zim if you are in UK on a UK visa" *sigh*

Anyway fortunately & very thankfully my workmate came through :-) and we had a wonderful time in barcelona (a bit by the skin of our teeth as I only got my visa 1 day before travelling)

We landed at Girona airport (conveniently flew from Bournemouth so went from work to airport) & from Girona we travelled by coach into Barcelona. We stayed at the Expo hotel, ironically same place my parents stayed. Our trip was characterised by a lot of eating (& drinking)!! The food was great, we stumbled on the most amazing seafood market off Las Ramblas, I would recommend anyone to stay in self catering accommodation to take advantage of the amazing cooking opportunities because the fresh food at the market was enticing! I really wished I could take it home & try out some recipes.


Apparently - most of Spain's seafood is imported from British waters - What the hell, why is it so expensive to find in UK, and why does M&S sell Canadian scallops then?

The expo hotel was in a good location, views were not so amazing but it had great transport links. We spent our 2 days (aside from eating) checking out some of Gaudi's architectural work, namely Casa de Milla & Casa Batllo.

We also went for a night bus tour which ended at a beautiful fountain.

Best part was the Gothic Cathedral in my opinion, which had a lady singing opera to add to the eerie-ness of the place, spooky.

I tasted dragonfruit & other Chinese fruit (in Spain! I know hey oh sweet irony) for the first time & I must say dragonfruit is heavenly.


***Photo credits to my friend's AMAZING Samsung Galaxy SII Note as my camera was out of action on this trip, the pics are amazing! You would never think they are from a cellphone...8MP baybay - that's how Samsung does it.