14th~19th Mar 2006, Barcelona

Came back from Europe this Monday evening actually but was very busy with work, struggling with my thesis, adjusting to the jet lag and got a friend in town. Finally, I got settled down a bit today and thought of putting down my Barcelona trip as a lot of people are asking about it. ; )

I can only say "I LOVE BARCELONA". It is a very relaxed city to me. Maybe it's because I'm on holiday there. Beautiful city with nice weather, nice food and the most important the nice "companion".

I have one group of very close girl friends and we knew each other back in uni because some of us were from the same faculty and also because of AIESEC. Ariel is taking her MBA in Barcelona and I had been thinking of visiting her in the past two years but finally I made it this time. Tina is actually studying in US for her MBA also but she is having her exchange program in Germany. So three of us happened to be on the same continent and we definitely got to meet. ; )

15th March - Day 2


I always like to walk around the city whenever I am traveling as I believe that is the best way to"feel" about the city. So I started my walking trip in Barcelona on my 2nd day there. I start walking from Ariel's place to the major business and shopping area of Barcelona. That is a whole stretch of nice buildings as you can see from my photos. I like those kind of European buildings which are so elegant and beautiful. It made me feel that I'm in another world. The best thing is the weather. It's so cooling as it's only about 15 degree but "sunny". So it's not cold at all and I can just walk walk and walk without sweating.

Besides, food in Barcelona is also quite nice. I'm those kind of people who like to try a lot of different things but just a very little portion. So their tapas is just nice to me. Furthermore, I love the cafe there. I'm not a person who drink coffee every day but I did drink coffee there every day as it's so so nice at every single shop I visited.

That night, I joined Ariel with her classmates at a nice Japanese restaurant for dinner. I was surprised that the Japanese food there is quite nice and can match our Asian standard. That is also my first time to learn the interesting lifestyle Spanish has. They normally start their dinner very late say 10pm and it can go on until midnight. After that, they can continue to go to bar or clubbing. That is also my first time to learn that I'm really lousy at drinking and Ariel has been well trained in the past 2 years. ; )

16th March - Day 3



I continued my walking trip in Barcelona to the National Catalunya Museum on my 3rd day there. People in Barcelona are actually a total different group of people from the rest of Spain. They have their own language and culture. So this museum is displaying the original Catalonia culture which is heavily influenced by their religion, catholic. There are a lot of paintings, sculptures and decorations to show the progress of the culture and the city. I also love the view from the museum as you can see almost the whole Barcelona there.

One of my interesting finding is the nice restaurant inside the museum. The deco is very elegant and luxury and the food looked and tasted good also. That is really a nice place to go with the loved ones but seems I was enjoying myself there quite a lot also.

This is also the day Tina reached Barcelona to join us. That night, we went to Arile's MBA team dinner. That was a very nice Argentina restaurant and it's good to see that Ariel got such a nice group of friends taking care of her for us. : )

17th March - Day 4
I got Tina joined me on the Barcelona walking tour on that day. We went to the famous Sagrada Familia on that day. That is a catholic church design by Gurdi and the construction has been going for at least 130 years and they expect to finish it in another 30 days. That is really an amazing church because of the creative idea on this church. However, I personally preferred the classic side as I don't really like things too modern in a way I guess.

After that, I went to Ariel's school, IESE, to join her for lunch. That is a very nice campus though it's quite small. The buildings are just the classic Europe style. They got grass and flowers almost every where. Guess it's really "spring' already in Barcelona.

That afternoon, Tina and I started our walking tour in the old town of Barcelona. We walked around those old buildings to enjoy the nice European atmosphere and we went to Picasso museums also though they do not have much collections there already.


That night, we have a Taiwanese gathering there together with another two classmates of Ariel and we went to try the famous Spanish seafood rice. It tasted quite good though it's quite salty for all of us. After dinner, the whole group of us just walked along the famous beach of Barcelona. I can imaging how good it would be during summer.


The last part and also highlight of the day was we went to a small local bar that night and it happened to be the St. Patrick's Day. The whole area were full of people and we were kind of excited to see so many people around. However, when we were thinking of heading back home, things were quite different. A lot of people were drunk and things were getting messy. Some people started to attached cars or trash beans around and polices are all over the place. We three became a very obvious target as there are very few Asian girls there. So we were kind of worried and tried to walk as fast as possible to get out of that area. I was really shocked and scared in a way as I have never really experience violence like that but it was a good lesson that we need to be extra careful when traveling around.




18th March - Day 5

This was our SHOPPING day in Barcelona. We started our day in the early afternoon at the centre of the city. We walked, shopped and ate the whole day. Just for your information, Mango and ZARA there are actually not so cheap. It might be quite cheap compared with prices in Taiwan but definitely not Singapore. So people who are keen on Mango and ZARA can actually visited Singapore and I got 5% discount card for Mango here. : )

That night, I tried the 2 most famous and authentic Spanish food. The Chorrus and Tapas. It really tasted very good with the super thick chocolate. As to the Tapas, I can say "amazing". We can teel how creative the chef is from the all different types of foods presented on the counter. That is really wonderful and it was considered one of the cheaper meal over there but it's just "nice".



19th March - Day 6
This is our last day in Barcelona as Tina and I were flying off in the evening. We started our day quite last as well and the first stop is to get my stomach full. We went to one of the local bakery and coffee shop. The baker and coffee in Europe are really nice. Luckily, I'm living in Asia. Otherwise, I don't know how I can resist those nice things. That morning, Ariel was rushing to fax something back to Taiwan and that's where we learn how Spanish works. The service there is still not as good I would say and maybe it's also because of the racism. So they tends to be quite slow and not so attentive to Asians. Guess that's also the reason why I choose to stay in Singapore where they really practice EQUALITY among races.


In the afternoon, we went to the famous Park Guill which was built by Gurdi as well. That was a wonderful day. The sky was so clear and blue. The weather was just cooling and sunny. It's those best weather for picnic. We took the most pictures here as that is really a very beautiful and interesting place.






It's always good to hang out with old friends like this. It's so comfortable to walk, eat, shop, sleep and club together. It is definitely one of my best trips ever and I really want to organize another one for all give of us. That's going to be great. Hey girls, I'm going to New York to visit Tina during New Year. Anyone wants to join me?? : ) Looking forward to traveling with you all again.

P.S. Visit Jenny in Barcelona for all the wonderful pictures. : )