Spain: Sant Cugat del Vallès/Barcelona
Making Excuses Already:
This is a summary and what feels (to me) like a huge undertaking. We spent 30 days in Barcelona (including the 18 days we stayed in Sant Cugat del Vallès, a town just north of Barcelona), and experienced so much during that time that I have no idea how to categorize cliffnotes (not technically a word but colloquial; hang in there). There’s a lot I will inevitably leave out because there was a lot to experience. Here’s my attempt at making you feel like you were as much a part of this trip as we were.
The Smells:
I hold a firm belief that every city has a distinct smell.
Austin: truffle oil/hippy funk
New York: old man cigarette mouth (but in the best way bc no one ever looks at you twice)
Portland: cool, clean pine
Paris: antique furniture (think grandma’s couches covered in country/floral-print sheets; very comforting)
The first thing I did once we got our rental car from the airport was roll down the window and take a deep breath. I couldn’t get a whiff of anything specific. The Mediterranean Sea is so close, so I thought “maybe it smells like the sea”. Brock (my husband) gave me a look that let me know, while that was a nice, romantic thought, it was also bullshit.
It smelled like nothing! Just clean. Not Portland fresh, easy-to-breathe forest air that had a hint of trees or the thick, salty/sticky scent that I associate with going to the beach. And “clean,” didn’t feel right either, because (maybe this is just me being from the Midwest) that word is directly connected in my brain to generic-brand “fresh linens,” wax for Scentsis.
After almost three weeks of walking around The Gothic Quarter (winding streets among apartments, shops and restaurants in the middle of the city), taking day trips to Montserrat & Port Lligat and exploring Sant Cugat del Vallès (and going back to the beach to confirm that it didn’t, in fact “smell like the sea,”), we agreed it just smelled clean and like freshly baked bread. The latter came up consistently, all the time, no matter where we were. It seemed like someone was always walking by with a pastry or holding a baguette or just pulling something out of the oven. It was unique (maybe not to someone who lives there) and intoxicating and just enough to make you never want to not be eating (how I feel usually anyway).
The Languages:
If I were reading this over a month before we left, I would assume “The Languages,” referred to two things: English (the language we both fluently speak) and Spanish (the language we both know a few phrases in but can’t carry on a full conversation in).
Wrong.
Barcelona, for those of you who aren’t up on your geography (like me) is part of Catalonia, a collection of cities in north-eastern Spain with their own culture, traditions and (you guessed it) language. This made all the difference.
Catalan sounds (to my uneducated ears at least) like a mixture of Spanish and French. It’s still Latin-based (think Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) and is considered a Romance language. In short: It’s beautiful, and some of it sounds familiar (“thank you,” is “gràcies,” instead of “gracias”), but it is an entirely different language.
I am fluent in what a comic we saw while in Barcelona referred to as “restaurant Spanish”. I can order a meal or have a very boring conversation “How are you?” “What are you up to today?” “Your dog is so cute!” or ask where the bathroom is. Outside of that, I’m relying on Google Translate (and whatever new phrases I’ve picked up on Duolingo that day). So, throwing a whole other language in to the mix made it a little trickier.
I was never sure which language to start speaking in (since a lot of people seemed to know both). I tried Catalan, but a few sentences into the conversation, I usually got an inquisitive look and then a polite “English is better?” Sometimes if I started a conversation in Spanish, the other person would reply in Catalan. Once, I got through a whole interaction (a very brief one) with no English at all (but, let’s be honest, that person was probably just ready to get on with their day).
The end result was me either asking if they spoke English in Catalan (when I knew I didn’t know enough to finish whatever conversation I started) or muddling through while using Google Translate and relying on the other person to be kind enough to muddle through with me.
Lesson learned: The more of a language you learn before you go somewhere, the better it will be for everyone involved. This doesn’t mean you can’t go if you don’t learn it (from the time we booked our trip until the time we left, it wouldn’t have been realistic for us), but it’s a courteous step in being more respectful to the other person.
And if you’re not sure (as with most things), literally just ask. Assumptions never work out well, and if you have to speak just English the whole time (as long as you’re not rude), it’s fine; Chances are you won’t be the only one.
The Sights:
Montserrat (hanging cable car ride up the mountain & tour of the monastery)
The cable car ride up the mountain was exhilarating but terrifying (I’m so scared of heights). The monastery was breathtaking in a way that made you put your camera down and feel guilty for even having a phone with you. The sculptures outside, overlooking the mountainside are well-done but mostly (for me) just gave scale for how monumental it all was. It’s a place of prayer and reflection, and people travel from all over to touch the sphere held by the Virgin of Montserrat. I didn’t photograph this statue (you can Google it) because even though cameras were allowed without flash, it felt inappropriate. Brock ended up going through with me twice because the first time, a tall, loud guy (with the loudest shutter I’ve ever heard on a camera) was brushing through people and holding up the line and blocking the view of the rest of the monastery. It was a short line, and going through twice also allowed us to take more time viewing some of the smaller details outside of the large paintings and elaborate light fixtures. This was my favorite thing we did.
Port Lligat (Salvador Dalí’s house)
I didn’t expect more than an interesting house (from an architectural perspective), but walking through this was actually moving. The only things I really knew about Dalí were that he painted melting clocks and had a cool, kooky mustache. I’d heard his name in reference to film (he worked with Hitchcock) but hadn’t seen any of his other work. This house was just made for him and Gala (his wife/partner/muse), and they both intentionally designed it with only one bedroom so that guests could come over as often as they liked but were never welcome to stay the night (this is one of many things I learned on the tour). There was a mirror by the window in the room adjacent to his bed so that the sun would hit where he slept and he could be the first person to see the sun rise in Spain (Port Lligat is on the eastern border). And when Gala died, he just left, unfinished paintings and all. The coolest (least heart-wrenching) part about the architecture (not the deeply sad but sweet connection of their eternal emotional bond) was one room where you can hear an echo but only if you stand in one specific spot in the middle. Move two feet in any direction, and the effect disappears. Anyway, he loved his wife and made some paintings and Brock and I each ate an olive from a pile that had fallen near his outdoor pool. They did not taste good.
Park Güell (Antoni Gaudí)
It was everything we wanted it to be. Gaudí has a very specific style, and walking under the wavy, cave-like tunnels to the buildings he designed felt like wandering through a real-life depiction of a storybook. There are curves and loopy, melty edges and bright colors everywhere. Worth paying to get in.
La Sagrada Familia (also Gaudí)
This is the one thing, before I knew anything about Barcelona, that I knew I wanted to do. It’s the must-see that Rick Steves recommends and is one of those places that is so massive (both in its history/context and its literal size) that it makes you feel small and insignificant in the best way. You could pay for a tour, but we downloaded one online instead (free and only as illegal as LimeWire was; Victimless crime?) and walked through while listening to it on our phones. We didn’t plan to go around Christmas-time because of the this, but there’s a nativity scene and a lot of context related to Christ being born, so it ended up being the best time to go. If you get tickets, get there early. Everyone’s super nice, but it’s a big, well-known attraction and fills up quickly (we saw them turn away the sweetest looking woman because she was four minutes late). I would suggest going around four and staying until the sun starts to go down. With all of the stained glass (tall enough to make you feel like an ant, or something small and less generic) the sun shines through and changes the whole view. If you can only do one thing (and can’t make the day trip to Montserrat), go here.
Camp Nou (We got to see Messi play!)
Even if you don’t follow soccer, you’ve probably heard of Lionel Messi (Still no? Google him! It’s worth it). We watched Barcelona’s match against RCD Mallorca; Barcelona won 5-2 (and Messi scored 3/5 goals). The best part (besides the smell of cool air and freshly cut grass that I associate with soccer) was the whole side of the stadium (from different places, speaking different languages) pumping their arms up and down chanting “Messi! Messi!" in unison. It was electric (I’m talking Marcia Griffiths-level electric).
Sant Cugat del Vallès (exploring the center of the town)
We walked through on a Sunday (from what we read and what our AirBnB host told us, that’s the day a lot of shops/restaurants close because people just spend time with their families). We ate pasta from a shop inside a market near the square and stumbled upon a group of performers singing and encouraging the whole audience to dance along with them.
Mercado de La Boqueria (a food market just off La Rambla)
La Rambla’s the packed, “touristy,” street where a lot of the big stores/shops/restaurants are. There are a few markets (think open floor plan with multiple stands in rows under one big roof), but this one’s the big one. If you’re looking to just see a lot of different foods and try a little of everything (or if you want something specific and aren’t sure what), this is definitely the place to hit along your walk. You’ll pass giant whole pig legs (maybe three or four feet high?), fruit stands, bars, spice stands; If it’s food made in Barcelona, you can probably find it here. We had olives stuffed with anchovies, sausages and these cheese-filled peppers that blew up my brain and rocked my world.
Barceloneta Beach (including an outdoor gymnastics area)
The only other beaches I have for reference are on the East Coast of the U.S. (you’re more likely to see half-dressed, middle-aged men and corny t-shirts than waves) and Pacific Beach (pretty but cold when I got to visit). I’d never been to a “sea,” before and wondered how different it would be. Beaches (any of them, including the ones on the East Coast ~shoutout to my Florida homies~) are my happy place. I love the way the water leaves a filmy residue on your skin and the way the sand always finds a way back into awkward places (even after you try hard to prevent it by using the public shower heads) and the weird, spotty spots where said sand ended up that are the only places where you’re not sunburnt. The waves here are massive. I dragged Brock there as many days as I could, and on a couple of windy days, there were as many as 10 people surfing at one time. You can see the skyline, palm trees marking the edge of the street, the tall buildings of the city and borders of rocks around multiple docks leading out to the water (some have bars implying you shouldn’t go out farther, but it’s worth the view if you’re careful).
Bars/Clubs (Craft Barcelona, Nevermind, El Bosc de Les Fades)
We went to an English-speaking comedy club (Craft), where there were quite a few funny comics and ended up coming back again before we left. We didn’t go out to drink a lot (mostly because we would have had to drive back up a mountain at night when we were in Sant Cugat del Vallès), but Nevermind was dope (a skateboard-themed bar with a concrete ramp and pull-down wooden seats for when no one was skating on it). We walked to both it and El Bosc de Les Fades (a fairy/forest-themed bar with art and a chill vibe).
Can Paixano (I know this is a restaurant and should probably be in the food category, but everything about it was so good that it deserves its own icon.)
This place is tiny and was filled to the brim every time we went (at least three separate times). Everything’s in Catalan, so we looked at the menu on Yelp before we went, wrote our order on a note, and I confidently shouted (it’s so loud) what I hoped was our order. It’s mostly sandwiches (the bread was like thick, fluffy rolls cut down the middle) with a few side options like anchovies (not my jam, but Brock enjoyed them) and artichokes (delicious). “To-go,” didn’t seem to be a thing; Most people said “take away,” instead (Is it that way a lot of places? Let me know.), and they didn’t have boxes so the guy working put everything (anchovies included) on its own napkin on top of the next thing in two plastic bags. It worked for us! That was some of the best food we tried.
The Food:
Tapas
This is the one thing that we knew for sure we wanted to try when we got here. Even though it’s a style of food (a lot of small dishes shared among the whole table), not necessarily a few specific dishes, it was the part of Spanish cuisine I knew the most about before our trip, and it did not disappoint.
Paella
If you haven’t had it (Barlata in Austin does a great job, but it doesn’t touch what we had in Spain), it’s a rice-based dish, usually with seafood & served in an iron skillet (Brock’s fave). It’s a tasty dish with enough variety that all you need on one plate (or in our case, in one skillet with two plates to share).
Patatas Bravas
This turned out to be my favorite food while we were there. Yes, we did have a lot of nicer meals with more high-end dishes, but damn if those fried potatoes didn’t win me over anyway. They’re cut into small pieces and covered with salt and “bravas sauce,” a tomato-based tangy/smokey sauce that was savory and had just a little bit of kick (no more than any mustard). We ended up getting a bottle of the sauce for our place while we were there (~€2.50 if you buy it in Barcelona or ~$15 if you order it from the U.S.).
Bombas
Delicious (and very similar to croquettes). They’re basically fried balls of meat covered in mashed potatoes covered in bread crumbs (I’d imagine there’s a little more to making them than that, but those were the three flavors that seemed to stand out. The ones we had weren’t too meaty, and the outer crust was like a well-made potato pancake (crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside).
Iberico Ham
This showed up everywhere: on pizza, in sandwiches, in little cones with bread pieces and cheese. It was pretty good (Great if you’re really into ham. Is anyone really into ham?) and had a rich flavor you don’t get with a lot of other proteins.
Afterword:
Wow, I’m tired. You too? Thanks for hanging in there for that long. I know I got off-topic a couple of times (Why am I giving travel tips if the object of this is just to relay our experiences to you through the power of the internet?). Anyway, you got through it. Are you thinking about buying the bravas sauce even though it costs a lot to ship to the U.S.? Might be worth it.
I do have pictures from everywhere we’ve been on this list (Photo dump possibly coming soon?). My goal (set yesterday) was to post here every day and to update you on where we’ve been so far. This is a lot of what we experienced in Spain (Yay!), and the Geneva summary is next. I do hope to update this with corresponding images from each thing we’ve done, but right now I have a sleepy person snoring next to me, snuggles to be had and logs to be sawed before another full day in Paris tomorrow.
Another goal I’ve made for myself (Maybe this is more of a rule/limit in life) is to be more present. We’re not using data while we’re abroad (it’s an exorbitant amount to add to a U.S. plan, and a lot of places have WiFi), and working quickly to meet deadlines is how I’ve always written anyway (If I had longer, I’d still wait until it was almost “due”).
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading. I look forward to sharing stories from our time in Switzerland and, moving forward, live updates from France. Let me know what you thought!