andreawetzels

[andreawetzels]

Andrea's guide to Valencia

Places to go:

Platja de la Patacona: beach very north, a bit less busy than the beaches in the south. There is a bus stop nearby that you can go to. There is also a place where you can rent sup/surfboards if that's your thing!

Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciences: modern science building (including a museum, but I haven't been), but the park and its surroundings are just worth visiting!

Plaça de la Mare de Déu: pretty square, nice place to have a drink and do some "people watching".

Jardí Botanic: the botanic garden of Valencia. The entree price is 2,50 euros or 1,50 euros for students.

La Seu de València: the cathedral of Valencia, you can pay 2 euros to climb the 207 steps and have a nice view of the city.

Port Sa Platja (Port Saplaya): Valencia's "little Venice", a cute port with boats and coloured houses. For some reason, it felt like we weren't in Valencia anymore (or even Spain).

Mercat Central: the central market in Valencia, walk around, maybe grab some fruit, a smoothie or a snack and take it with you. The building is also just very pretty. Vegan options (like some empanadas) are almost always labelled.

Places to eat:

La Fabrica de Hielo: a cultural centre, really cool vibe, nice place to get a drink and eat some delicious patatas bravas.

Mercabanyal: a small food court where you can get a variety of food (pizza, sushi, ice cream etc). A chill place near the beach!

Dempanadas: really good empanadas, a big variety of flavours (also veggie/vegan). They have two locations!

Orxateria Santa Catalina: a really nice old looking place with churros and chocolate (to dip in). They also have other pastries AND orxata (orchata), which is a Valencian drink made from tiger nuts. So delicious!

Café ArtySana: a cute little cafe with a brunch menu (including a juice, starter, sandwich, dessert and a coffee) for 11 euros.

Buñoleria Churreria El Contraste: a buñuelo is a fried dough fritter found in Spain and usually eaten during the holidays (like the Dutch oliebollen). Here you can eat them all year round! On Thursdays, they have orange flavoured ones, and they also sell delicious churros. Order with chocolate on the side and some delicious iced horchata.

Gelateria La Romana: really good ice cream place, they also have vegan options! They have two locations.

Café Madrigal: fully vegan cafe, very affordable prices and a delicious vegan Spanish tortilla (great for breakfast).

Jardin Urbano Vegan-Bar: delicious and affordable vegan food! We had the calzone and caesar salad and both were amazing.

General recommendations:

Go to a local bar/cafe and drink Agua de Valencia (a cocktail made with cava, orange juice, wodka, gin and sugar) AND drink a Tinto de Verano (red wine and lemon flavoured soda), both should be quite cheap.

Bring anti mosquito stuff/mosquito bite relief, because there are SO many mosquitos haha!!

Eat some grilled corn next to the beach, you can add salt or lemon juice as toppings.

Rent a bike at Go VLC - bike & scooter rental: they have decent prices, cute colorful bikes and the owner is super friendly. We rented bikes and then visited: Cafe Artysana, Ciutat de les Artes i les Ciences, La Mercabanyal and Port Sa Platja.

Make sure you always check the menu and the prices before sitting down, sometimes they suddenly ask ridiculous prices for tourists.

If you don't speak Spanish, make sure to have a translation app on your phone, at a lot of places people don't speak English.

Places I haven't been but heard good things about

Aieclé vintage: vintage shop

Flamingos Vintage Kilo: vintage shop

Jardí del Túria: a park

Cabecera Park: park next to a river

270º Terrace at Barceló: rooftop bar

TALLAT specialty coffee: they serve a dirty horchata

Malafama Canyamelar: 'local' tapas and pincho place; vegan eggplant cannalones, potato with skin on and sauce is vegan. Sometimes a vegan pincho.

La Tavernaire: fully vegan place with vegan tapas!

Aloha Vegan Delights: fully vegan take-away place.

[andreawetzels]

Andrea's guide to Barcelona

I spent the past 5 months living and working in the beautiful and vibrant city that is Barcelona. I have written all my favourite spots in a small notebook, but I thought it would be a good idea to write it down once more. This time in the online world of Tumblr (so I can find it too in the future).

Favourite neighbourhoods:

El Born (lots of cool shops, think of concept stores and gift shops)

El Raval (a bit alternative, you can find various graffiti paintings)

Barrio Gótico (basically the heart of the centre)

Touristic Things:

La Rambla (not very special to me, but it’s nice to have seen it)

Placa de Catalunya (if you want to see the busiest square and shopping streets of Barcelona, then definitely go here!)

La Sagrada Familia (the most famous church in Barcelona of course, if you are under 30 and go on a Sunday after 16:00, you’ll get a discount, which means you can visit the church, go up on one of the towers ánd get the audio guide for 15 euros)

Park Güel (there’s a free nature park, which is great to walk around, but also make sure you visit Park Güel and take a photo on the famous bench)

Placa d’Espanya (walk up the stairs for a view of Barcelona)

Magic fountain (near Placa d’Espanya, fountain show with lights and music)

Camp Nou, FC Barcelona game (even if you don’t like football, it still is cool to watch a FC Barcelona game and experience the atmosphere)

Do the Gaudi houses tour (on your own, for free, look it up on the web and give yourself a tour!)

Swim & Chill

Favourite beach: Playa del Bogatell (bit more quiet, more locals there, less annoying people who want to sell stuff and a cleaner sea)

Piscines municipales Montjuïc (the olympic swimming pools of Barcelona, great way to cool off and get an amazing view of the city. Make sure to bring your own drinks and food because there aren’t really food places nearby. It’s also a good idea to bring a hat because there aren’t many shadow places.)

Parc de la Creueta del Coll (beautiful parc with small pool/lake, a lot of locals with small kids go there)

Vintage shops and markets:

Lost & Found Market (basically a big flea market, I wasn’t a big fan of it)

Two Market (everything only costs 1 euro, but the entrance fee is also 1 euro, if you go early you can definitely find something cool and cheap)

You will find most vintage shops on Carrer Tallers, like: Holala vintage, Flamingo, Flamingos vintage kilo, etc.

If you’re looking for new and second hand vinyl or cds, go to Revolver Records on Carrer dels Tallers 11. They also sell band shirts.

Palo Alto Market (great market every Saturday and Sunday with food trucks, clothing, lifestyle goods, live music and much more!)

Nature & Sights

Ciutadella park (a lot of green, also a lot of people who do work-outs there)

The Montjuïc (one of the most famous hills in Barcelona, there are also a lot of touristic things to visit there, my recommendation is to go to the Teleferico Barceloneta and take the cable car to the Montjuïc)

Tibidabo (visit the Basílica and go up on the tower for a fantastic view)

Bunker El Carmel (it is quite a walk, bring some food and drinks, go in the late afternoon and have a nice picnic while watching the sunset)

Parc del Laberint d’Horta (nature park to walk around, which also features a maze!)

Food & Drinks

En Ville (very fancy menu del dia, if you’re into that)

La Tagliatella (good and cheap chain Italian food)

UDON (cheap fast food, asian style, go for their variation of the menu del dia)

Spice cafe (best carrot cake in town, seriously!!! Also try their homemade raspberry lemonade, it’s very refreshing)

Federal café (great for brunch, nice poached eggs, also a good place to work at)

Surf House (especially great in summer, after an afternoon at the beach, have the burger, fries and mayo-mango sauce or the phi phi salad!)

Eyescream and friends (very cute shaved ice cream with little eyes on them, you can choose the ice cream flavour and two toppings. It’s super yummy, they have cute branding and it’s very instagrammable!)

Bacoa (if you like eating burgers, this is the place to go to!)

Maka Maka (also a great burger place, with a very nice looking exterior)

La Boqueria Market (thé food market in Barcelona, definitely worth a visit, buy a cup of fruit or a smoothie or try a macaron ice cream sandwich from MIMA Ice Cream)

Brunch & Cake (delicious and extremely good looking brunch food! They have two locations, one by the sea and one in the city. Be sure to come early, because it gets very busy and you’ll have to wait in line to get a table)

FOC BCN (great latin food and cocktails, but make sure to tell the staff if you don’t like coriander)

Cosmo bar (very hip and trendy looking bar with great food, amazing cakes and nice coffee & juices)

Café Cometa (same owners as Cosmo bar, same hip-trendy-quirky restaurant, but with more light and it’s a bit more relaxed. Try the munch brunch, you can assemble your own brunch plate)

Chök the Chocolate Kitchen (amazing donuts and cronuts, they have two locations, but not a lot of seats, mainly focused on take-away, try the Kinder bueno donut)

Trópico (healthy and tropical foods and AMAZING juices and smoothies, try the smoothie with pink dragon fruit!)

Ice Wave (they take cream, add your toppings and create it into ice-cream rolls, which is already a show to watch on its own, they also sell fantastic ice-cream crepes)

Gaudí Bakery (incredible cakes, also great to take-away, try the Red Velvet!)

Can Dendê (Very cute little brunch/lunch place, try the pink lemonade, bagel with salmon and waffle fries)

El Nacional BCN (bit more expensive, but definitely the most beautiful eating place with multiple restaurants inside, especially magical around Christmas time)

Granja Petitbo (restaurant with a vintage and hip looking decor, try the waffle with cheese, chicken, spinach and strawberries)

Syra Coffee (brilliant coffee, kind baristas and amazing sweet goods from Lukumas)

Flax & Kale (worth a visit for the healthy food lovers, try the pink salmon burgers, coconut yoghurt with fruit and granola or the banana bread, or ALL OF THEM)

Tapas tour (book yourself a tapas tour and learn more about the history and culture of Barcelona, while eating tapas at various places)

Museums and Art

MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani (Keith Haring mural

Museu Picasso (

Disseny Hub Barcelona (if you’re into design, then go here! From graphic design to furniture, there often also are cool exhibitions)

Google online for a free street art tour (or find a tour yourself and go explore the city!)

CCCB (museum with contemporary art, last time I was there, they had three exhibitions going on, very interesting!)

On Placa d’Isidre Nonell, there’s a mural of two lips kissing each other, made out of small photos: “The sound of a kiss is not as loud as that of a canon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.”

Clubs, bars and parties

Brunch in the park/Brunch in the city (in the summer, there’s brunch in the park on the Montjuïc, which is really cool, in the winter it’s in the city, most of the time in Poble de Espanyol)

Sala Apolo (a lot of events, but especially concerts, I went to Allah-Las for example, very authentic venue)

Paradiso (if you go through the vintage fridge doors, you’ll find yourself a secret bar with amazing cocktails! Try the pineapple one)

Shôko (club which often has R&B, hiphop and classics playing)

The Lime House (cheap and strong mojitos)

The George Payne (Irish bar for a night of karaoke, they also sell a cheap black-out tray for 20 euros you’ll get: 2x Sex on the Beach, 2x Sangria, 1 caraffe of Vodka + Redbull, 2 shots Jäeger, 2 shots Tequila and 2 shots Sambucca)

Pacha (club if you’re more into techno/deep house)