Excerpts from Barcelona - 13
A weekly glimpse into my Catalan adventures
My week started off in Girona with a 26 (turned nearly 29) kilometre trail race! It was my first ever trail race and longest run. I finished in just over 3 hours, and I’m super proud of myself. I think being in Barcelona and Spain have really pushed me and my running because the terrain is so varied, making it excellent for training and a lot more challenging than what I’m used to back home.
Post-race I explored (and fell in love with) Girona, which you can read more about below because it was my highlight of the week!
There isn’t much else that happened this week as I spent the rest of it relaxing, trying some new coffee shops, and taking it easy to recover from my run.
Lodetto Cafe, pictured left, was a super cool spot I discovered while walking to SIP Coffee Roasters a couple of weeks ago. I saved it on my Google Maps so that I wouldn’t forget about it and finally went this week. The coffee was really good, the service was awesome, and the interior was really cool too - the walls were covered in fun art and stickers.
I also finally got to try Morrow Coffee. I didn’t realize they were coffee roasters as well, until I visited the shop. Their coffee was really nice and I liked how the roasting happens in the cafe (I love seeing the roasters working in the back!). I also loved that they had indoor and outdoor seating.
Highlights of the week
Girona!!!
Many people told me that Girona was a beautiful city but I underestimated (or maybe they simply didn’t love it as much as I do) just how beautiful. Dare I say… I like it more than Barcelona? The city has a lot of history, ruins, great coffee shops, and is so close to the mountains. I explored the murals of Girona, the old town, and the Cathedral.
No wonder so many of the best trail runners are from here… they have an awesome playground to train!! I wish I’d have been able to spend more time in Girona, and ideally with more energy and less tired legs.
A glimpse at next week…
The moment I’ve been waiting for… I’ll finally be visiting La Sagrada Familia this week! I booked a guided tour with a visit to the towers, which took surprisingly long to find. I knew that if I’d be paying extra to visit the towers, I wanted it to be the Nativity facade, which was designed by Gaudi himself, rather than the Passion facade, which was designed post-Gaudi.
I now officially have only two months left!!! It’s so strange when something you waited so long for is starting to wrap up. And I know that two months is a long time, but with each day getting sunnier and hotter, the weeks are feeling shorter and shorter. I’m now also trying to balance accomplishing everything I want to do while I’m hear with saving money for my next adventure… Luckily, there’s always something to do in Barcelona and so many free-to-join activities!