Playa de la Barceloneta

We made the most out of our last full day in Barcelona by chasing the last rays of the sun on a beach even if it meant walking in what it seemed a marathon distance. That's me talking after hustling my day since the early morn.

From La Rambla, we fancied getting to the beach on foot, not even hundred percent certain if we were headed to the right direction to begin with. It was only instinct that dictated us, to further march on. But as you can see, we made it to the beach alright. It would be a big disappointment if it weren't so. The calories we burned! Lethargy was clearly imminent.

While extremely delighted after seeing the great blue sea, I readily laid my scarf on the sand, kicked off my shoes and my cousin and I just lazed there until the sun finally gave way to the moon. This idyllic situation made all the distractions we ignored during this quest, somehow trivial and of inconsequence.

La Rambla

We're back in Barcelona! I mean not at this moment. I could only wish. But this post is one of my countless long overdue posts which go back to 2013. I know. I could never be good at this. Taking it slow is the name of this game, I suppose.

So, in that sunshiny afternoon on the 16th of October, 2013, we joined the exodus of people along La Rambla. We just got back from Montserrat and we chose to spend our remaining time of that day, ambling in this long pedestrian-only stretch. I had nothing in mind as I contentedly soaked myself into the bedlam of the various scenes around me, like the pop-up stalls which were more touristy than not, the restaurants, the row of historic buildings on both sides and the other interesting sights that I happened to lay my eyes on. But my cousin had a specific thing in mind. The first time we walked here, we were out of luck because it was already nighttime and what she's looking for could not be found. This time around however, we were constantly on our toes and we almost lost hope after having covered a considerable distance. But we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and in this case, the light at the end of La Rambla. 

Join me in retracing our steps towards our main goal on that fateful day.

Montserrat Monastery

Santa Maria de Montserrat Monastery is located high above the rugged mountains of Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain. We made a day trip to visit this fascinating monastery which took us away from Barcelona for the meantime. The visit required us to be up early, head to the market that's yet about to open, fill our stomachs with an energy breakfast and buy our take-away lunch. If there's one thing we couldn't let happen, it is us getting hungry. :p

In this Euro trip, we had no concrete plans for the activities that we intend to do each day. We only had a list of things or places, spread throughout the days that we were in a country. And since we were only two, it was easy to tweak our agendas as we went along. As a matter of fact, flexibility had brought us to the monastery in finality. It was when the Filipino couple we met in Park Güell highly recommended it to us. They had nothing but only good words about the monastery and in those words, it's almost as if they were indirectly saying, we shouldn't miss it for the world. And boy, we were glad that we didn't!