The idea of going to Barcelona wasn't mine, and honestly I wouldn't have thought of travelling there either, since normally I'm more attracted to other countries rather than Spain.
Probably this was also one of the reasons why I was so blown away by the many fascinating places that this city shields.
The main reason why Barcelona is so well-known is of course attributed to Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect who worked a lot in the Catalan aerea.
Since we didn't want to miss anything that distinctive, we decided on three big art works of his to visit: Casa Battlò, the Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell.
Casa Battlò is spectacular from the outside and fascinating inside. I loved the creepy fish-alike form of the balconies and the fact that in the house you cannot find any geometric angles. Besides, every architectonic detail concerning light and colors was so thought-through that every step is a discovery.
If I may give you a little advice on visiting it, we programmed the visit buying tickets with a fixed date and time plus the fast past (for 29€) but when we arrived there was almost nobody - on a Tuesday, 18:30, one hour before closing time. So if you're not going on a weekend and you're looking to spare some money (as the city itself is not expensive, but visiting it as a tourist is), just buy the normal 22€ ticket and choose a wise time to visit.
The Sagrada Familia was definitely my favorite piece of art. From outside it's already impressive, but in my opinion the delightful part comes once inside. This church is just so unique, I'll just leave the pictures because they definitely speak for themselves!
Another little advice on the visit: I absolutely wanted to go up on the towers and we did. You have to chose in advance which tower you want to visit and we went up to the Passion one, called like that because it is situated on the back side, where the facade with the Passion scene is represented. The other tower is the Nativity one, rising on the Nativity facade.
The difference should be the orientation of the view, but in the end this doesn't matter that much because I wouldn't say the best part is the view, but more being able to see the singular peaks designed for the top of the cathedral. If you are more interested to the view itself I would rather suggest you don't spend extra money for going up the tower here (about 6€ more), but that you simply go to places like Parc Guell or, better than everything, the Montjuic - I'll come to that in a sec.
Last "Gaudian" discovery has been the Parc Guell on our last day. Here we didn't buy the tickets in advance, but for a Friday morning maybe we should have, since we arrived at about 10:30 and the first entrance possible was at 13:30. Being our last day and having to leave in the afternoon we had to skip the internal visit, but honestly I think visiting the park is perfectly enjoyable even without entering the Monumental Area - where the advantage is mostly to see some of the buildings closely, walk on the roof and visit an exhibition inside.
Here we also finally found Gaudi's house, that we entered (for 5€): it doesn't take a long time, but I had a very nice feeling discovering where he lived and understanding a little more of his personality.
One of my favorite places was definitely the Monjuic hill, of which you can reach the top and the castle pretty easily on foot or with the cableway, enjoying beautiful views over the city and the sea (and over the harbor, by the way, which was actually a little scary, making me think at the quantity of pollution there is in the sea and that we don't even realize).
The contrast that you can find in Barcelona is amazing. From the beach and Californian style streets to the Barri Gòtic, there is plenty to see. And everything is enhanced by the Spanish mood of course: a constant relaxed atmosphere, people out and around all the time and a lively language that makes you feel inspired and active.
Now I really want to plan another trip there.