This is Vic, a capital of Comarca of Osona, which is located in the Barcelona Province, Catalonia. It's only 69km from Barcelona and I believe most tourist agency in Barcelona provide half-day/ full day tour for this place. It's a very quiet, cosy and beautiful place. What I love about this place is that it gave me a very peaceful feeling and everywhere I go, people were so friendly. Oh ya, did I mention, they sell the best sausages!!! Yup, it's mamamia!! 

You may think this place is a little old and quiet, but when you reach Placa Major de Vic (the last 2 photos), they have great cafes and restaurants, shops like Zara, Massimo Dutti etc etc. Its definitely a place you want to go when you visit Barcelona. Didn't regret coming to this place. 

We stopped at a stone-built village at Queralbs, where we catch our railway train to Pyrenees. This place is stunning!! Let's not mention how breathtaking the surrounding view was. WOW!

And finally, Pyrenees mountain. People who are into hiking, this is definitely a place you want to go. It was freezing when I went but it's totally worth it. When we reach the top of the mountain, we went speechless. I think I stopped breathing for a few seconds. It was too beautiful. My parents and I were crazily taking photos and videos and sending them to my brothers. It's too exciting.

If you are interest, you can go to www.viator.com. They provide lots of half day tour and day tour and it's really affordable.

 For Day Tour to Pyrenees Mountains from Barcelona, click the link below:

 http://www.viator.com/tours/Barcelona/Pyrenees-Mountains-Small-Group-Day-Trip-from-Barcelona/d562-3142PYREN

If you have visited Barcelona and not seen any Gaudi's artwork then you haven't seen Barcelona yet. 9 out of 17 of Gaudi's artwork is located in Barcelona (let's not count the Hotel Attraction in New York which is not built) so it definitely play a big part to what Barcelona is today. 

First stop, Park Guell. All I can say is when you enter Park Guell, you entered a totally different world. It's like you are living in a fairy tale. Childish but it's fantastic. It's a place you want to throw reality aside for a while and just enjoy walking in wonderland. I had an amazing time strolling around this beautiful park and I love it.

There's two parts of Park Guell, one is where the ginger bread house is located, which is also the main attraction of this Park (you have to buy tickets to go into this part of the park), and the other one is located around the main attraction (free entrance). Since we need to wait for an hour just to go into the main attraction of the park, we decided to skip and just enjoy the free entrance park. One advise, just because it's a free entrance park doesn't mean there's nothing much to see. You are wrong. It's best to check the two out but if you can't, you still have to check out the free entrance park. There's things you can't see in the main attraction park so don't be fool just because it's free.

Next stop, Sagrada Familia, also known as Gaudi's unfinished work. As you can see from this photo, it's truly unfinished. The anticipated completion of this Roman Catholic Church by Gaudi will be in 2026, which is also the centenary of Gaudi's death. It's 12 years from now and I hope I can get to see the finished work.

When we arrived at Sagrada Familia, the whole place was flooded with tourists from all over the world. It's impossible for us to even get a ticket without queueing for hours. Thus, we didn't go in.... All we did was just stand across the road and enjoy the beautiful beautiful exterior of this Church. Honestly speaking, I imagine the Church to be much more bigger in size and it kind of look different from the pictures I saw on the internet but overall it's truly an extraordinary architecture.

Final stop, Casa Batllo. Walking down the street of Passeig de Gracia, you will be able to spot Casa Batllo right away. Firstly because there will be lots of tourists hanging just outside the building. Secondly, the futuristic architecture itself stood out from other building beside it. Standing just in front of this building, all I could think of was the word "wow". The exquisite detailing on this building is just breath-taking. I have to remain myself to keep breathing or I will die. It's just too beautiful

Sadly we missed out Casa Mila since once we arrived at Passeig de Gracia, we got way too distracted by all the shops around. Both Casa Batllo and Casa Mila are located at Passeig de Gracia, one located at block 43 and one at 92, which is not far apart. If you arrive at Casa Batllo, it wouldn't be too difficult to locate Casa Mila since it's just down the street. You will be able to spot it right away as most tourist will be there.

One day is truly not enough to visit all Gaudi's work in Barcelona. My next visit to Barcelona will be  to visit Bellesguard, Casa Calvet, Colegio Teresiano, Guell Pavilions and Casa Vicens. Oh, and of course Casa Mila. This time, I will make sure I won't get distracted by all the shops at Passeig de Gracia. 

Escriba is a well-known cafe in Barcelona and apparently they will be launching in Singapore soon. They have one branch in La Rambla and one just across SOHO Hotel Barcelona where I stayed. 

Chef Christian Escriba is behind this amazing cafe and the displayed cakes will definitely lurk you in. Chocolates in shaped of a heel, a cartoon character and a hansel and grater like candy house. It's amazingggg... 

We had breakfast there and the pastries and sandwiches were great. We didn't managed to try their cakes (regret), but their pastries and sandwiches were great. It's one of those trip advisor place and truly people don't lie about it. It's a cosy cafe with very friendly waiters. You can enjoy watching all the bakers decorate the chocolates and cakes while you are having your breakfast or afternoon tea. It's definitely one of the place you want to try when you are in Barcelona. Thumbs Up!!

Escriba Gran Via

Address: Gran Via Les Corts Catalanes, 546, 08011 Barcelona

Tel: 93 454 75 35

Escriba Rambla

*I read a lot of comments about this brand saying how messed up the services were so I would recommend the branch at Gran Via since I had a wonderful time there. Great service and great food.*

Rambla de les Flors, 83, 08001 Barcelona

Tel: 93 301 60 27

Website: http://www.escriba.es/base_en.html

DRESS: COS

BAG: VALENTINO

SHOES: STYLENANDA

NECKLACE: BVLGARI

WATCH: LONGINES

BRACELET: ASOS, DARIO MAMBRETTI & HERMES

After staying in Madrid for 3 days, we headed to our next destination, Barcelona. The train ride was surprisingly easy, convenient and fast. When we reached Barcelona, honestly speaking it's not what I've expected. It's a great city but you know how you saw pictures on the Internet and it came out to be something different? This was how I felt. I might have let my imagination go wild on this one. I still had a great time though. 

Apparently Madrid seems to me much safer than Barcelona. All the taxi drivers, the hotel staff, the waiters, etc etc kept remaining us to be careful of our belonging and make sure to put our handbags in front of us. It seems scary at first but then as long as you are careful about your surrounding, it shouldn't be a problem.

Stayed in SOHO Hotel during our visit in Barcelona. I highly recommend this hotel if you are visiting Barcelona. I give a 4.5 out of 5 stars to this hotel. Firstly, it's a very affordable hotel. Secondly, the rooms are even better than the pictures shown in their website. It didn't lie like the hotel I stayed in Madrid. I've totally black-listed that hotel and I will never go back again. Angry....

Anyway, SOHO Hotel have the best staff I tell you. Our rooms wasn't ready when we reached and since we were earlier ourselves, we didn't blame them but the staff there actually upgraded one of our rooms as they felt bad letting us wait at the lounge area. Very friendly staffs. They even went through the Barcelona map with us patiently and recommended us to some amazing restaurants, cafes and the hottest place in Barcelona. That service for the price we pay, AWESOME!! Not to mention how fab is the rooms. 

SOHO Hotel Barcelona is located at Gran Via and it's really close to most the shopping areas and attractions. How great and the moment you step out of the hotel, there's supermarket, cafes and restaurants. How convenient is that. This is definitely the hotel you want to stay if you are all about affordable and convenience. Thumb up!!

Checked out the Barcelona Pavilion, Magic Fountain of Montjuic and Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which are all located at the same area. Fabulous fabulous place. It's definitely a must to go if you are travelling to Barcelona. My dad is a builder and he's all about interior and architecture. The first thing he wanted to see is the Barcelona Pavilion that his architects talked about. A very modern, timeless architecture built in 1929 designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. This building is 85 years old and it simply doesn't look as old. Simply stunning. It's a place you want to sit and draw, while enjoying the fresh air and beautiful view. 

Barcelona Pavilion

Avenida Francesc Ferrer i Guardia, 7, 08038 Barcelona, Spain

Opening Hours: 10am - 8pm

Restaurante Sobrino de Botin is one of the earliest restaurant in the world according to Guinness Book of Records. It's located at Calle de Cuchilleros, 17, 28005 Madrid. It's not the typical kinda restaurant you see down the street but it's hell of a famous restaurant. Since taking cab in Madrid is so affordable, you guys should totally check out this place when you visit Madrid. 

This restaurant is known for their Roast Suckling Pig. They do serve other dishes as well that you might want to check it out but everyone seems to come here for their Suckling Pig. It's famous! Let me remind you the portion is quite big if you order the dinner set. I would recommend you guys to share it with someone because the pig itself is really big. The dinner set includes the soup of the day, 2 gigantic slices of suckling pig with baked potatoes and a dessert ice cream. If you are sharing, you can try out other dishes as well. The waiters there are really friendly so you can ask them to recommend you some other food.

Oh wait, please make reservation before you go because you will never get any seats if you go without a booking. If you are lucky and willingly to wait, you will have a table at 10 or 11pm. If not, please make reservation before you go. We had to come back the next day because the only table available is at 10pm and we were too hungry to wait so we made reservation there and come back the following day. This is how famous this restaurant is.

Restaurante Sobrino de Botin

Address: Calle de Cuchilleros, 17, 28005 Madrid, Spain

Telephone: +34 913 66 42 17

Website: http://www.botin.es/?q=en

Menu: http://www.botin.es/?q=en/nuestra_carta

Online Reservation: http://www.botin.es/?q=en/reservas