Nice to meet you, Barcelona!

Working a full-time job, 30 days of vacation max. and the weekends of course on which you’re usually too exhausted to do something. There doesn’t seem to be too much time left for traveling. But sometimes you have the opportunity to visit a nice conference. And sometimes this conference happens to be in Barcelona. Let’s figure out how to use that time effectively!

The good thing about conferences that end on a Friday or Saturday is that you can easily extend your stay. Just kindly ask your employer! Most of the time they agree on a train/flight back on Sunday night and you have 1-2 extra days in the city. In my case this meant a full extra Sunday in beautiful Barcelona!
I hope this post can show you that you neither need much things (see picture below) nor a lot of time to explore a city.

3 days of OFFF – 1 day off

One day doesn’t seem too much time for exploring a city like BCN and of course you could use it for running around and do as much sightseeing as possible. I prefer the laid-back way trying to get a feel for the city, strolling down small alleys, eating a lot of local food and resting at beautiful places. Here’s a little insight on these 4 days of Barcelona. Best soundtrack for this visual journey: The “Walking the streets of Barcelona Mixtape” by Nina from smaracuja.

Buildings & Architecture

In fact it doesn’t really matter where you walk–  you won’t escape Barcelona’s impressive architecture. The unique mix between old, historical and very modern buildings give a special flair to the city. I really enjoyed walking down the streets looking for food/the beach/anything else and stumble upon beautiful buildings at simply every corner. You can go about it as clumsy as me but you could also check out this architecture guide to Barcelona for more advanced information.

Local food

Food! There’s nothing better than exploring a culture through food! Since the famous Boqueria near La Rambla is closed on Sundays I strolled around Barceloneta and found a small market with several booths at Carrer de la Barceloneta where I bought the popular Catalan fuet, a very tasty salami speciality! Afterwards I couldn’t help trying some legendary ice cream at Eyescream – a real ice cream experience! You have to check it out when you’re in town!

 

A tiny bit of sightseeing

Sunday morning I was still full of vim and vigor to visit at least one tourist attraction, so I decided to check out Park Güell which I regretted right after my arrival: there were way too many people. You really shouldn’t visit it on a Sunday (and maybe not on weekends in general).
After I escaped from the tourist trap I wandered around Barri Gòtic, the historical centre of the city which wasn’t too crowded. A real bliss to walk through the chilly alleys of this Medieval labyrinth!

Barceloneta

You haven’t experienced Barcelona if you didn’t visit Barceloneta! I was lucky enough to stay in this neighborhood and so I had my after-conference-late-night-dinners right at the beach (not on the beach after I saw what a lot of guys do there..). Barceloneta feels like a totally different place when it’s night: less skaters, less bikers, more “Cerveza-Beer-Bier”-Indians and treasure hunters. I preferred the day-version!

The Night

With acceptable temperatures around 25°C at nighttime you can imagine Catalan nights are full of life (well, the picture below is certainly no reference). And of course, there are a lot of good bars and clubs, too many to check out in 4 days. One of these excellent bars I had the chance to spend a night at is Bar 68 in a side street near La Rambla. The three young Italian flairtenders mix some of the best cocktails I’ve ever tried in the midst of second hand furniture and canister lights – it’s really worth a drink (or two or three…)!

Never been to Barcelona and need more information than my spare hints? Check out this short guide for BCN first timers by Travelettes!

Want to know more about the OFFF design conference? Here’s a recap of OFFF 2013!

Okay, that’s enough reading– Let’s watch the video!