Places to Visit in Barcelona

Nihan Uğurlu · Keyfi Yazılarım · 2016-05-03

Travel memories from 2016. Hours and prices may change; check official links before visiting.

Personal travel notes, discoveries along the way and photographs from the original story.

Travel notes

Population recorded at publication: 1,604,555

Barcelona, Barcelona… Along with Milan, one of the places I cannot forget. It is the capital of Catalonia's autonomous community and Barcelona province, and Spain's second-largest city. Famous for its distinctive culture and beauty, its architecture bears the strong influence of Modernisme, led by Gaudí. Catalan is widely spoken. Some visitors may be surprised that Catalonia is autonomous and has three official languages: Spanish, Catalan and Aranese. Although Barcelona lies within Spain, many residents identify as Catalan rather than Spanish. At the time of this post, I described dissatisfaction that a region earning so much through tourism and football had been badly affected by Spain's economic crisis. My notes referred to Spain as having Europe's highest unemployment. Catalan flags could be seen on many balconies and windows.

Barcelona is one of Europe's must-see cities. It is beautiful, and both its buildings and people felt familiar to me—Mediterranean people, after all 🙂 Italians and Spaniards often remind me of us. It is also a football city; almost everyone knows FC Barcelona. There is something for every taste: narrow streets, art, history, the sea, beaches, weather, historic buildings, museums, music, people, nightlife, pubs, restaurants and Spanish food. You can find so much to do that getting bored seems almost impossible, even over days or months. Spring is lovely, but for swimming and beaches I would say June to September.

Sagrada Família is Barcelona's symbol and tourism icon, the famous 'unfinished church'. Gaudí died before completing it. In 1926, aged 74, he was struck by a tram. Because he was working directly on the building, his clothes were shabby and dirty, and he wasn't identified at first. He was taken to a public hospital. When people realised who he was, prominent residents offered to move him to a private clinic, but, according to the account I recorded, he refused, saying his place was there. He sadly died, leaving a dark moment in Barcelona's history. At the time of my visit, work continued through donations, with completion planned for 2026, the centenary of his death. The huge, unusual building reminded me of a sandcastle 🙂 Book online before going inside: otherwise, I warned of a queue of at least two hours. Even online ticket holders queued, but moved faster. The price I recorded was €20 per person.

The interior is truly worth seeing. The columns supporting the building resemble tree trunks, and the stained glass creates extraordinary plays of light throughout the space.

Park Güell

My strongest practical warning for visitors was to watch out for theft. I felt it was a serious problem and linked it to the high unemployment at the time. Take particular care of cameras, phones, passports, wallets and bags. If you trust your hotel's safe, leave valuables there, or do as we did and wear a money belt under your clothes. We saw people affected while we were out, which made the problem feel very real. Even while sunbathing on a beach, a phone or wallet could disappear beside you. Please take this warning seriously!

They say that if you drink from this fountain on La Rambla, you will return to Barcelona. I drank quite a lot 😀

Casa Batlló is a lovely, unconventional building whose roof I thought looked like a fish's back. I had heard there was no furniture inside, but wonderful detail. Sadly, I didn't get to go in—next time, I hope 🙂

Casa Milà is also known as La Pedrera, meaning the stone quarry.

Park Güell began as a residential development, rather like the luxury residential compounds we supposedly love so much in Istanbul! When that didn't work out, the few houses and surrounding green park became a visitor attraction. Gaudí lived in one of the houses, which you can visit for an extra charge. We bought tickets there, but beware of visitor limits: once the allocation is gone, you cannot get in. Go early in the morning. It is a wonderfully different place. I had heard that materials broke on the journey there and that Gaudí used the little pieces one by one to make the mosaics. So much work went into it 😉

Entrance ticket

You walk up towards Park Güell from here. This place caught my eye along the way.

Barcelona from Park Güell

La Rambla is Barcelona's lifeblood, full of people like Istanbul's İstiklal Avenue. It is a living street, with souvenir kiosks, human statues and street performers, enjoyable at any time of day.

Plaça de Catalunya—Catalonia Square

La Rambla is about 1.5 kilometres long, with Plaça de Catalunya at one end. We might compare that square with Taksim: a meeting point for Metro lines and a place for Catalan demonstrations, almost the centre of Barcelona. Hard Rock Café is here too. From the square, you can explore Rambla de Catalunya, which feels like a continuation of La Rambla, and stop for a meal. Or head towards Passeig de Gràcia, with the city's luxury shops, rather like Bağdat Avenue.

The other end of La Rambla reaches the square with the Christopher Columbus monument near the sea. The nearby Metro stop is Drassanes.

Don't miss the market on La Rambla: officially Mercat de Sant Josep, but popularly La Boqueria. Facing the sea, it is on the right. My notes warned that it was closed on Sundays. Inside are all kinds of fruit, vegetables, seafood and meat, and enormous crowds. Pick up some fruit or juice and keep exploring.

About halfway along La Rambla, turn left into Carrer de Colom to reach one of the loveliest squares, Plaça Reial. Many people compare its architecture with Cuba. It is busy, decorated with palms and fountains, and the street lamps were designed by Gaudí. Restaurants and cafés line the square.

Barri Gòtic, the Gothic Quarter, is a pleasure to get lost in. There are lovely shops, tiny cafés, narrow streets, charming homes, street art and vintage boutiques, plus a magnificent cathedral. Carrer de Ferran is its busiest street, but the little side streets are even more worth seeing.

We couldn't come here without a Barcelona match at Camp Nou 🙂 It wasn't really planned: while we browsed the club shop, staff asked whether we wanted tickets. At €63 each, we suddenly decided to go. Most people around us seemed to be tourists, and our seats weren't close to the pitch. We went down for photographs, noticed empty seats nearer the front and sat down, ready to move if their holders arrived. Luckily, nobody did, so we watched from much closer. That was our experience, though seats belong to their ticket holders. The goals were all at our end, too! Messi was injured at the time, sadly, so we had to make do with Neymar 🙂

The Barcelona shop beside the stadium

Start the day with a good Spanish breakfast. It was distinctive and delicious, especially the fritter-like dish 🙂

Potato balls

Vegetable fritters, rather like mücver

There were lots of tapas restaurants like this.

Food in Barcelona means tapas and paella, with sangria as the famous drink. Tapas are small dishes for snacking and sharing, rather like meze or canapés, often displayed along a restaurant's bar for you to choose. They were lovely, though our meze are something else 😉 With so much variety, you should find something to your taste. Paella is rice, often with seafood, though meat or chicken versions exist too, coloured yellow, orange or brown and cooked in a distinctive black pan. People warned us not to eat it just anywhere, as it could be oily and disappointing.

Paella

Sangria

Sangria is a sweet, tasty wine drink with pieces of fruit. It is usually made with red wine, but there is also a version with cava, the local sparkling white wine, called cava sangria.

Churros

Churros, a Spanish speciality sometimes called Spanish doughnuts, remind me of our halka tatlısı, the ring-shaped fried dessert. I tried them and will eat them again when I return 🙂 The chocolate you dip them into matters enormously: without good chocolate, they can seem rather plain. They are less sweet than our syrupy rings, with a mixture of sweet and savoury flavours. Worth trying if you enjoy something different.

This was house-made beer served in a jar, and it tasted very good. Snacks came with it immediately. The burger and chips were delicious too, and the place had a distinctive atmosphere. I would stop by 😉

This burger place is called Kiosko and has a different concept. You fill in the form in the photograph with what you want to eat and the ingredients you would like, then hand it to the server. The burger and chips were really excellent. Another unusual place on my recommendation list.