A Rainy Weekend in Barcelona: What to do when the spanish sun sods off to England

Hi all!

 
So it's definitely been a while (and yes, I sound like a broken record starting off every post like this) - my final term in my final year at uni has been tough and long and tiresome, and when I haven't been working i've been eating, sleeping (story of my life) and making the most seeing my friends.

Anyway, I have finally finished University! I say 'finally' but I'm actually v v sad about it (boo). But somehow I actually feel ok about moving on to the next chapter, whatever what it may be.

In between all this uni mayhem/getting my head around the fact that I now have to adult (lol), we had some bad family news that meant that I had to jet off to France last min and I had to push everything back a week. Essentially its been NON STOP.

I did run a poll though over on my Twitter (@libsmithblogger) just before I had to go to France and you all said that you wanted to hear about my trip to Barcelona that I took with my bestie in April for her 21st, just before the final uni mayhem commenced - so here we are!

Just because luck generally doesn't ever seem to be on my side and I seem to be a bad omen for pretty much life, the weekend we flew out it was warmer and sunnier at home than it was in Spain, not only that, it chucked it down with rain for a good chunk of the trip. Fortunately, Barcelona is a city that has soooo much to offer so despite the rain we still had plenty of fun things to do/see that meant our trip wasn't really compromised (hurrah!)

Barcelona port - would 10/10 NOT recommend on a windy day, we got drenched lols

Here is my list of the 5 best things to do if you catch Barcelona on a rainy day:

1. Plan your day accordingly - one of THE BEST things about Barcelona, rain or no rain, is that it is alive and buzzing alllllll the time. This means that if it raining 2pm, go out in the morning, sleep in the afternoon (or do whatever normal people do who don't need 20 naps a day lols) and head out again in the evening. Not only are there plenty of places to eat, drink, and get groovy, Font Magica also known as 'the Magic Fountain' is lit up at night with different coloured lights and is accompanied with music. Think Spain's take on Vegas and you're pretty much there. It runs throughout the night in the summer and is pretty spectacular tbh. Better still, it's free!

Font Magica at dusk - looks even cooler when it's pitch black!

2. Eat lots of food and drinks lots of coffee (or alcohol, whatever floats your boat) - there are sooo many hidden gems off the side streets of Las Ramblas, from chic little restaurants to insta worthy coffee shops. This means that if the heavens open (which it did for us), then there are plenty of places to nip into to get some food and something to drink. We went out for dinners on one of the evenings to a hip bar and restaurant called 'Luzia'. It's off one of the side streets of Las Ramblas and OMG the food was heavenly! The have such a great menu and plenty of veggie/vegan options too which is always a bonus. Their cocktails were also amaze, which meant to me probably drinking too much but oh well, I was on my holibobs. I'm struggling to find a website for the restaurant unfortunately, but if you happen to stumble across it (it's not too difficult to find!) then go and eat until you're heart is content, and then some more.

Brb just gonna go cry about how amaze this pizza was

3. Go shopping - Barcelona has 3 major shopping malls, all of which (I believe) are indoors. This means that even in the rain, you can have a major shopping spree and not feel guilty. We managed to visit 2/3 in the three days we were in Barcelona for; Arenas de Barcelona is one of the better options; not only does it have such a wide variety of shops, there is a rooftop viewing platforms where you get insane views of the city, and it also has a cinema and a swimming pool inside.

Arenas de Barcelona

4. Head inside La Familia Sagrada - if you fancy something a little more cultural, then opt to head inside La Familia Sagrada, Barcelona's famous cathedral. We didn't actually do this because the day we wandered over the sun actually appeared so wanted to make the most of it and do all the outdoorsy bits before the rain inevitably hit. The queues are also quite long, so I would recommend either going early in the morning or later in the day - avoid midday, you will standing for a long time, which is no good if its raining or boiling hot tbh.

The sun actually made an appearance THANK GOODNESS

5. Visit a museum or an art gallery - again for all the culture vultures out there, Barcelona is home to some amazing (as well as some questionable) museums and art galleries - the Picasso Museum, Fundacio Joan Miro (a park of Miro's artwork), Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art and so many more - plenty of places to visit and enjoy on a rainy day!

Didn't have any pics of museums so here's me sippin on  a cocktail 

Of course, Barcelona has soooo much more to offer, like the beach (which is kinda a biggie) and Park Guell - but these are the things that we either opted to do, or would have done if we had more rainy days, in Barcelona. Just because the sun sodded off back to England (where it was 20+ degrees thank you very much), it doesn't mean your trip has to be a wash out!