Lots to write about Barcelona but not much time right now — an absolutely beau­ti­ful city — and it´s no won­der why it rates among the top most liv­able cities in the world.

It rained on the first day and I did a bit of walk­ing around but couldn’t get too adventurous.On the sec­ond day I man­aged to take in a few of the sights includ­ing the Palau Nacional, the Mon­tjuic Gar­dens, Placa Catalunya, La Ram­blas, Mer­cat La Bou­que­ria and Barri Gotic. I par­tic­u­larly enjoyed wan­der­ing around the Bouqe­ria and Barri Gotic, along the cob­bled streets and nar­row alleys feel­ing like I was trans­ported back in time!

What I liked best about the city is that they have a bar in every street and every cor­ner, thus ensur­ing that you´re never very far away from your next drink! I am actu­ally glad I don´t live here. I would be tipsy most of the time :)

My hosts Emma and Romain have been so won­der­ful! And Romain’s been cook­ing up some­thing nice every evening, even as both of them come home after a hard day at work. “It’s hard to find men who can cook in India,” I com­ment to Romain. He replies, “It’s harder to find women who can cook at all, in the West nowa­days”!! On my last evening, we visit a place called Frague, off the Las Ram­blas, where we have loads of san­gria and I sam­ple a deli­cious seafood paella.

Time to say good­bye to the city. But I am def­i­nitely com­ing back to Barcelona some­day. The wide tree lined avenues, the beau­ti­ful peo­ple, the ancient archi­tec­ture blended with the Mod­ernistic influ­ence of Antoni Gaudi — all makes it a com­bi­na­tion dif­fi­cult to resist.

A few pic­tures from Barcelona