I, however, do not like hot weather. I do not enjoy sitting by the pool all day working on my tan. I was brought on a few of these sun holidays as a child and the scars still remain.
Now, Barcelona is said to be a sort-of exception to this "sitting by the pool" rule. A vibrant, fun, cultural city which makes a great city break. I wasn't hugely interested in going, but it's a close-by destination which regularly gets rave reviews by the many who have been. So to cross it off the list, I booked my flights.
On the whole, I did not enjoy Barcelona. I wouldn't hugely recommend it and I would not like to go back. I found that while it was nice, it was in many cases over-hyped and often times disappointing. A fine example of this is all the works by artist Gaudi which dot the city - some are OK, some are overpriced and a bit rubbish. If, like me, you have no interest in art, then most of his works are a waste of your time, despite how much everyone on TripAdvisor can try and tell you how amazing it is.
Weather
You go to Barcelona for the blue skies don't you? Well, we visited in late April and the weather forecast stated there would be rain for the four days of my trip.... This updated the day before we left and stated the first day would be sunny, and the rest wet. So we ran around our first day in a desperate attempt to get some nice photos before the rain hit. As it turned out, it never rained, but we had sore legs and feet from the stress of that first day that it somewhat put a damper on the rest of the days there.
Gaudi
I like to travel cheaply, and more often than not I will avoid paying entrance fees to attractions I have no interest in. Following this logic, I saw the Sagrada Familia cathedral from the outside only, as I did with Casa Batllo. I don't think I missed out hugely as most of the photos you see of these places online are also taken from the outside only.
We decided to splash out on one attraction, and pay entrance to visit Park Guell. You really need to book a time online (even just a day or two before), as it's a very busy attraction and there are many cases where people show up in the morning for all the timeslots to be already sold out until much later in the day, or totally sold out. Thankfully the website is in English, fast and easy to use and the tickets were sent as pdf to my emails and scanned off my phone at the entrance.
The website however did not inform us of the following: the park is still a work in progress and half of the famous rooftop view was obscured, and the park is a trek to get to. We went to the nearest metro, and then had to walk for a long time down a business district with very few restaurants or cafés. Based on the amount of time and effort it took to get there, plus the disappointing interior, I was unhappy I had spent my money on this attraction.
Castell Montjuic
I really enjoyed this place, and probably because it wasn't hugely over-hyped in the same way as many of the Gaudi works. We got there by getting the funicular halfway up the hill (it's great because it is attached to the metro and you can use your metro travel card, saving money). Once you get out there is an option to grab a bus, however we decided to walk. It was an uphill walk but nothing too strenuous and there were nice views along the way. Another option is to get the cable car, which does look good but not so much if you're saving money.
Entrance was cheap at €3/5 and the views were fabulous. One of the highlights.
Las Ramblas / La Boquiera Market
Las Ramblas is literally just a long pedestrian avenue with suspicious looking people loitering and others trying to sell grossly overpriced souvenirs. It was an uncomfortable experience and I felt paranoid I was going to be pickpocketed or kidnapped. The only reason to go there is to get to the wonderful La Boquiera market. Among the fish, meat and cheeses there were lots of juices and fruit cups that were great value at around €1.50. Again another gem in our visit.
