Feb 10, 20164 min read

Girls Weekend in Barcelona

January has to be the worst month.

The holidays are over, there are no more Christmas parties to look forward to, and the weather is dismal.

So unless you want to wallow in a pit of misery until summer you really have no option but to book a nice weekend away, at least that’s what I told myself.

A plus side of travel early in the New Year is that you can get seriously good deals on hotels and flights which is a major key as all that Christmas shopping tends to take a toll on your wallet.

In our case, we were back in college for approximately 5 days before we decided we just couldn’t face it and we needed to leave. We started an epic googling session of all the hotels in Ireland but nothing quite seemed to work, until by chance, (not really I was plugging for a trip abroad all along) I spotted super cheap flights to Barcelona.

Within a day all 5 of us had booked both the hotel and the flights! Seriously, if we could study that efficiently we would probably own our own private clinics by this stage.

Our little group of 5 have all been friends since the start of medical school but this was our first trip away together. What was interesting was that we all soon assumed our unique roles for the holiday.

First there was Philippa, aka Sergeant Pip who made sure we were all promptly at the gate and ready to board a good three days before the plane was actually due to take off.

Next there was Prima who showed a strong commitment to making sure we never went too long without a glass of cava in hand, starting of course on the plane ride over.

Once we landed in Barcelona, late on a Friday night, Pip and Amber joined forces as the only Spanish speakers and directed our taxi driver to our hotel – U232.

Hotel U232

U232 is a cute little boutique hotel in the Eixample neighbourhood.

View from our room

It is a rather quiet area but there were one or two restaurants around including Balthazaar, which is recommended by Conde Nast.

Rooftop at U232

We were delighted with our interconnecting rooms as we had seriously struggled trying to find a hotel that had triple rooms!

By the time we organised ourselves it was past 1 am and the only place open to eat was Hard Rock Café *hangs head in shame*…. Anyway, on to day 1!

After we were all dragged out of bed the next morning by Sergeant Pip, we enjoyed a leisurely carb filled breakfast at U232.

Actually, I can’t remember what everyone else ate, I can only assume it was all green juices and lean protein, but I will be honest and admit to having several small pastries. Delicious!

At this point Catherine came into play as our Barcelona expert. C recommended the beautiful Mountjuic as our first port of call.

The whole area surrounding Mountjuic is gorgeous and offers excellent views over Barcelona.

The perfect place to photograph the urban sprawl!

Unfortunately, the fountains didn’t turn on while we were there but we managed to entertain ourselves.

It wasn’t long before we all wanted to eat again, I mean we walked uphill for at least 10 minutes, we needed sustenance.

So we headed to the main street Las Ramblas in search of tapas.

We ended up at a little street side café in the La Boqueria market.

When it came to ordering food Amber’s role of making us ingest various green substances was made totally redundant as she was firmly over ruled by the rest of the group.

We did of course think fondly of kale and quinoa while we ordered every variation of potato on the menu.

Which were all washed down with a glass of cava or two.

During lunch we learnt some life lessons. Mainly, when you order gambas (prawns) in Barcelona they will come out looking as if they have been plucked directly off the ocean floor.

It was far too upsetting looking at all their little eyes staring up at me so I may have covered them in a black napkin in what was then dubbed as the prawn funeral. RIP.

Once we had finished we went on an ice cream hunt through the market.

If you do visit Barcelona I would highly recommend a trip here, it was such a vibrant colourful place filled with fresh produce and tasty treats!

Finally full, we left the market and hit the shops. Yeah I know, worst idea when you have just eaten.

We made our way to Zara as C has taken to visiting the same coat in several different countries.

Once the coat had been sighted, admired, then put back on the shelf we then decided that the city centre was far too chaotic and a trip to the port was in order.