First day in Barcelona

Barcelona so far is an awesome city with a very, very different vibe from the other places that I’ve been to so far. It is much more metropolitan and modern - Venice felt like travelling into the past, but Barcelona in many ways feels like travelling into the future. If I dropped you in the middle of one of the streets here and told you that you’re in New York, you’d believe it, especially with the concentration of American restaurants here - even places like dunkin donuts and five guys that I haven’t seen elsewhere in Europe. I think a big part of the reason it feels that way is unlike other cities here it is absolutely designed for cars over pedestrians; there are massive avenues and roundabouts all over the place. It’s clear that there is a small old city in the center and a massive, modern urban sprawl built around it. It is absolutely enormous, as I learned when taking in the views from the bunkers up in the hills, and feels a lot like an American city except it’s way safer, much cleaner, and the public transportation is better than anything I’ve ever seen - fast, simple, and covers just about every square inch of the entire metro area.
The first day was very chill, I met up with Anabel (friend from college who moved here for a year after graduating) and we did some exploring. Then we got some food and drinks and took them up to meet her German friend Leila at the bunkers, which is a very popular spot up in the hills with great views of the city. It was packed with young people, lots of music and really great time. The views of the city are just unreal, it’s so cool to see the entire sprawl of such a big city (5.6 million metro area pop) from above.Read more