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I love lists 😅
pros:
1. Nature. I missed conifers and greens in general so much.
2. Beautiful forest and parks.
3. Lots of art galleries (yey for me) - some of them are free, some - 15-20 euros per person. Lots of modern art. Some pieces are for sale (expensive, but still...)
4. Unrealistic architecture. Not only Gaudi, but in general. I loved Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Lluís Domènech i Montaner.
5. If you are fine with crowded places, you will love this city. It is very beautiful.
6. Amazing collections in stores.
7. Our hotel had a great breakfast! So gooood, very tasty croissants, lots of fruit, eggs, sausages, choose whatever you like, good coffee.
8. People. Friendly, helpful, nice.
cons:
1. Hotel. Way to expensive for what you get. Extra daily charge for the pet (which was not indicated on Booking) and 200 euros guarantee if something gets damaged. Neither room nor hotel are worth it. Hotel stated 4 stars (I would barely give it 3), Waldre took an upgraded room with extra pay (scared to imagine the not upgraded one). Valencia´s 4 star was so much better (sooooo much) and way cheaper.
2. Water. It´s straight up horrible. Greasy water from the tap. I got skin irritation, eyes irritation and swelling. Also, water dried my skin and hair.
3. Amount of people. The major con. Everywhere you go you´re in the crowd, which just picks you up and carries like a strong flow. Lots of people are pushing and just straight up rude.
4. Which brings us to the facts that you can not really appreciate Gaudi and museums, because of the crowd. It was also difficult to look at Picasso, each painting had a few people in front, so you are in line to look at each and every piece (and there´s a lot).
5. Prices. Food is expensive. A sandwich was 17-18 euros. A bottle of water which we buy in Alicante for 80 cents, here was 2.20. Pasta, paella, coffee everything felt overpriced. And unfortunately, not tasty. Sadly, we didn´t have time to find where locals eat.
6. As everywhere, you have nice people and some horrible people. The taxi driver overcharged us (although we knew the price we should have paid) and tried to get money in cash (pretending the machine is out of order). We didn´t have time to argue, needed to catch a train. But paid with card anyway, to ruin his plan at least a little bit.
7. Lots of homeless people. Lots.
8. Have not found a single parrot. I was looking up and down all the time. In every park, on every street.
9. Language. They seemed not to understand the word I was saying. Which is odd, because people understand me in Alicante just all right. Is it because I don´t speak Catalan? But they do speak Spanish...., right?
10. Lots of people smoke on a go, so the smoke is always in your face. - because you are always in the crowd.
It is almost painful how beautiful and fun Barcelona is, but it´s totally, completely, fully not my city.
I will keep looking.