This is my third time in Barcelona and although I recognize many places and streets I feel like a complete tourist in the city. First time I visited in 2009 I met a very dear Cuban friend from Havana, who was working here for two months and he picked us up, took us to his place and showed us around intensively. At that time, we also had some friends living in BCN so they took us out for drinks and food. We only stayed for three days but went to Gaudi’s Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, la Sagrada Familia and Guell Park. We spent some time at the beach (Barceloneta) and even had time to see a little bit of Mont Juic. As for museums we attended a free exhibition of Maurice de Vlaminck’s work in Caixa Forum. It was amazing.

The second time we arrived in Barcelona in the summer of 2010. We planned a road trip from Barcelona to Rome and spent only 24 hours in the city. The visit was memorable as again we met some friends here and had a busy day and night. We did not see much but remember the summer vibe of the place, the time spent at Tasca El Corral, a sidreria in Calle de la Merce, the streets full of people and illegal night sellers offering “cerveza/beer” on our way to the beach at 4am. As little as I stayed I had the chance to say Hi to Botero’s cat sculpture in La Rambla. It is now considered good luck for us if we come to BCN and to go touch the cat. 😉

Now I count time number three. I have not visited a city as many times and have stayed as little every time as in Barcelona. We will be here for three days and today I already have sore feet from all the moving around. The culture of real tapas does not exist in Catalunya (free tapas when you order a caña is science fiction here) so yeah, in Barcelona I will probably walk more than in Madrid or the south of Spain.

There is so much to see here and the city is so touristic that I was surprised to find myself alone today in some of the gothic neighbourhood little streets. I guess this is still a good time to visit before the crowd arrives.