WHAT I DISCOVERED WHILE TRAVELING BARCELONA

Written By: Cienna Richards

In October of 2019, I was scrolling through the web and came across cheap plane tickets to Spain. This was not the first time I had been to Spain on a low price. My first time, I traveled to Madrid in July of 2019. It was a dark time for me, my uncle had just passed away and I needed to leave home to cope with my situation. ​

I did not know he was going to pass that June. It was sudden and unexpected. I was lucky that in February of 2019, I decided to pick up and travel the world. I also had a crazy idea to start a travel based business. That is how Your Life Travel got started. Of course, there is a lot more to that story than I am explaining, but that is the basics. Booking my plane ticket so far in advance, allowed me to find tickets for only $200 round-trip. Best experience of my life.

Even though, I would love to continue the story of my Madrid trip, this blog post is about Barcelona. Since it was kind of last minute that I booked my plane ticket for Barcelona, I spent a total of $600 round trip. Which, if you ask me, still is a pretty amazing and low price. I decided to spend my beautiful November birthday in Barcelona and here is what I discovered.

​LIFE IS NOT PERFECT

I don't think I had the opportunity to grieve when my uncle passed.I was not given the opportunity to process my uncle's passing before. When my uncle died, I felt like I had to be strong for everyone. He left behind three beautiful young children. A seven year old, a five year old, and a three year old. Comforting them and not crying in front of them was my mission. But it was not just the babies, I hid my feeling from, it was my whole family. My mother just lost her baby brother. My aunt lost her husband and my grandma lost her son. Everyone was a mess and reasonably so.

Everything hit me one day as I walked down to Port Olympic. Side note: If you're ever in Barcelona, make sure you add this to your list of things to see. Port Olympic is a beautiful marina located at the end of La Rambla. I'm pretty sure in those moments, I walked around for over an hour. I watched the boats, the people and walked around the stunning park surrounding the marina.

I just kept crying. I had realized life is truly not fair. In those moments, I finally found myself grieving. My uncle was never able to travel the world. He comes from a third-world country: Haiti. When he moved to America with my grandparents and his siblings, including my mom, they had to leave behind everything they knew. In Haiti, they were rich. They had butlers and servants. In America, they were poor. They had nothing. They all struggled to build the American dream. They all worked hard to create something out of nothing. But, my uncle's building blocks never manifested.

He couldn't travel. He died at the young age of 39, unexpectedly before having that luxury. In the middle of crying, I turned on my favorite Pandora gospel station and started worshiping God. Somehow, my tears started to dry up. Words of prayer started flowing out of my mouth. I started praying that God would protect him, forgive his sins, and accept my uncle into Heaven. During my prayer, I felt my uncle beside me. That's when I realized, even though he is gone, he is still able to see the world. He gets to see it through me and my travels.

But, life is not fair. A healthy 39 year old, left the Earth before truly getting to experience it. Death has no age. Not everyone gets to see the world the way they wish they could have and we each have to be okay with that. Most importantly, we each have to realize that and do things TODAY that make us happy. ​

MAKING FRIENDS IS EASY

Totally don't want to continue depressing you with the sad story of my uncle. Let's talk about making friends. Let's be honest, no one likes being alone, not even solo travelers. Sure, it is nice to be able to do things by yourself. At the end of the day, you're gonna want someone to talk to. If nothing else, you might even just want one person to go have lunch with you for one day during your trip.

Making friends can be a total breeze while traveling and that's coming from me. I am honestly such an introvert but I know how to pretend to be an extrovert if I need to. My tip for making friends is to stay at a hostel if you are solo traveling. If you are not solo traveling and just with one or two friends, go to hostel parties at night to make friends with other travelers.

When I went to Barcelona, I stayed at St.Christopher's Inn. It is a hostel in Barcelona. I absolutely loved staying here. They serve free breakfast if you book a room directly on there site. If you're like me and decide to book a room through a third-party site because of price, you'll have to pay an additional 5€ a day for their general breakfast.

If you are not interested in having their general breakfast, you're in luck because this amazing hostel serves breakfast at their restaurant too. However, it is a little more pricey that 5€ a day. FYI- They have hostels all over Europe too. Check out their site to see where they are located in the world. (They are not sponsoring this blog. I just loved their hostel a lot. I actually felt safe and clean which is not a vibe I get from hostels usually in Europe.)

I stayed in an all girls room with 10 other ladies and a shared bathroom. I paid less than 17€ a night for a room, which was perfect. If you're going to solo travel, I 100% recommend you stay in a hostel. Every night in St. Christopher's Inn was a party. Between beer pong, karaoke, and sports, there was always a crowd out. I got to meet so many wonderful and amazing people that way. I almost never spent a day alone. I was so happy to be able to turn 23 with new people surrounding me and singing happy birthday to me as if they had known me all my life.

WHEN IN BARCELONA, IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL ON FOOT

Truly one could say this for all of Europe. If you are capable of walking, please do so. As much as I love to just hop in my car and drive around when I am in the states, the feeling is not the same for me when I am anywhere in Europe.

Not only does walking around save you a ton of money on transportation, it also allows you to take everything in. When I was in Barcelona, all I did was walk around. The streets reminded me of home for me, New York City. It was so busy and vibrant out all the time and taxis were everywhere.

I got to see some pretty amazing things while just walking around Barcelona. Here are four things I totally recommend you see if you visit Barcelona. I have a lot longer list but this blog post is already so long.

A. La Sagrada Familia - This Catholic Cathedral is one of the most beautiful you will ever see in your lifetime. I was so in awe of this location, that I did not take any photos.
B. Gothic Quarter - I got to have an amazing photo shoot here.
C. La Rambla - I mentioned this street earlier. It is 100% a must see. You'll find food and local shops down this street. It is absolutely adorable.
D. Cathedral of Barcelona - This Cathedral is stunning both inside and out. It is located near the Gothic Quarter and will make you fall in-love with it's beauty.

​IT'S OKAY TO TRY NEW THINGS

Okay, ya'll if you know me you know seafood is not my jam. Not because I have even had seafood in a while but because I had just sworn it off. For years, I acted like a child. You know those children who don't eat food because of the way it looks or where it came from? They swear to you that they hate the food even though they never had it. We all know a child like that. That child was me until November of 2019. I decided to eat...Paella. OMG! Did I have the best Paella I have ever had in my life. Paella is a rice mixed with sea food. It is a very traditional dish cooked in the Spanish household.

I will not trade the Paella I had for the world. I attached a link to the location coordinates of the restaurant. That is the joy of just walking around a vast big city, purposefully getting lost, and stumbling into any restaurant because you're hungry. While I cannot remember the name of the restaurant, I can tell you, I only spent 20€ after tipping. Yes, I tipped in Spain. No, it is not customary but I did it because they were extra nice to me.

Those are the four things I learned while in Spain. Opps...I should tell you, they don't speak Spanish in Barcelona. They speak Catalan. I speak English, Creole, and Spanish. Because of my Spanish, I was able to get around very well but Catalan could be a little challenging.

Written by: Cienna Richards
CEO of Your Life Travel Club
Cienna is a world traveler at heart and spirit. She believes in empowering women through travel and to travel. Her journey can be found and documented right here. Join the travel FB community for women only. You can also connect with Cienna on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. ​