Sorry this is long but a few people off here are going to Barcelona this year so I said I'd try and remember stuff for them....plus I like chatting lots 
My birthday celebrations started early on the Wednesday as I went to see a Marketing agency about some freelance work and they offered me the role and it's working on the ____/World Cup marketing account (best not say who it is in case my new employers read Spotlight ), how cool, but even better it now means I work 5 mins from Jamie - uh-oh I see trouble ahead 
After a few celebratory wines/dinner it seemed much more sensible to stay at Jamies (I wonder how many times this is going to happen ) and get Tom to pick me up enroute to Stansted at 5am.
Got to Stansted in good time, raided the MAC counter, had a wine and then boarded and up in the air by 7.30am so landed in Barcelona before 10am to glorious sunshine (me in parka jacket and Uggs - Sil I love you to bits but please never become a weather woman 
). Got taxi to hotel, we were staying in the Banys Oriental in the El Borne area of the city and my Mum and Dad had booked us a suite there as a little birthday treat. The suites are just down the road from the main hotel and the coincerge took us to them and showed us our room, me and Tom were just like OMG 
The room was amazing, very modern and minimal, a huge 4 poster bed, balconies on each side overlooking the street - in fact I would have been quite happy to spend the next 5 days in there
Went for a wander up Las Ramblas where Tom decided on a new vocation in life - to rival the street impressionists he's going to become a Ronaldihno impressionist (pictures to follow ). I was more concerned about the fact that they sell pigeons on the streets We walked all the way past Placa de Catalunya away from the main tourist areas and then sat out in the sunshine eating tapas and drinking beer. Then we embraced the Spanish lifestyle with a little siesta before heading out for drinks and then dinner (feeling very continental cos we didn't eat til gone 10pm ). We went to a restaurant called La Crema Canela, the food was excellent, very Mediterranean, lovely decor and great service - 3 courses for Tom, 2 for me, wine and water and it came to the cheap price of 45 euros - it was so cheap we thought they'd got the prices wrong Then we had a few drinks at a little local bar near our hotel.
Friday had a lovely long lie-in and woke up to even sunnier and warmer weather (why didn't I bring my flip-flops ) so we headed to the beach. Went to a fab restaurant called Agua right on the beach and had some yummy seafood and rose sat outside in the sunshine thinking this is the life Then we headed to Segrada Familia, while we were walking Tom saw posters advertising that Oakie was playing Pacha Barcelona the following wkend (he'd already missed him cos he was playing London the wkend we were in Barcelona), I swear I jinx poor Tom and his Oakie fixes 
When we got to Segrada Familia I'm sure those manana builders haven't built anymore since last time we saw it nonetheless the building is as impressive as ever.
Friday evening we went to meet Sil and she took us to 52, her friend's bar/restaurant. It was fab meeting up with Sil again and the order of the evening was wine/beer, tapas, joint, wine/beer, tapas, joint, Tom doing his Ronaldhino impressioins for Sil, joint etc etc. At midnight the owner came out with a little cake and candle for me and everyone sang Happy Birthday and we drank lots of Cava Sil came back to our hotel so I could show off our suite and we drank there and it was a semi-respectable 4am finish.
Saturday was my 30th YAY so Tom woke me up with Bucks Fizz in bed and gave me my presents. He'd already given me a Anya Hindmarch weekend away bag the night before we came so I could use it for the trip, then he gave me a gorgeous Tiffany chunky bracelet and necklace - I really did feel like the Birthday Princess Then he gave me a piece of paper and I'm thinking 'what's this??', Tom had only saved the best to last Everyone knows how much I love dogs but we're not allowed to have one in our flat 
so as the next best thing Tom had sponsored me a dog from The Dogs Trust so I'm now the proud Keeper of a little northern toerag dog called Kenco
For the rest of the day we did the whole tourist thing and went on the Tourist Bus and stopped off at Parc Gruel which was just amazing (how much would I like to be in that place on mushrooms ) and then saw the rest of the city.
In the evening Tom had booked dinner for us at Torre d'alta Mar which seemed like a lovely romantic way to spend my 30th, til we got to the restuarant and had to go about a million metres up in the sky in a glass elevator (and I'm not good with heights ). Fortunately once we got up there (and Tom repeatedly assured me that no the restaurant wasn't moving ) I began to enjoy the views across the city. We had the most amazing meal (more fish for me and steak for Tom), lots of champagne, wine, liquers and the service was second to none. If anyone is going to Barcelona for a special occasion I can't recommend this restaurant enough. After dinner we had thought about clubbing but there was no-one DJing who we were desperate to see and we knew if we did, Sunday would be a write off (hark at me being all grown-up now I'm 30 ) so instead we spent the rest of the night drinking in some of the little local bars around the port and the Gothic Quarter.
Sunday we had arranged to meet Sil and Pep for lunch so we met Pep for the first time who is absolutely adorable and then they insisted on taking us to this lovely restaurant called L'Olivia where we had lots of starters and then a huge seafood paella.
After we left them we headed to Camp Nou, had a quick look round the shop so Tom could get his nephew a shirt and Tom tried to make money doing his Ronaldhino impressions and then got into the ground early to savour the atmosphere (ie so Tom could sit there enjoying the stadium while having a joint 
). I'd been to the ground before and thought how impressive it was but nothing can compare to seeing it in full swing. We had booked seats in Goal Nord and had an excellent view right behind the goal as we watched the teams warm up and then began chanting Barca songs Sil had taught us Barcelona are such a good team to watch (although Tom still thinks that Chelsea will beat them ) and we were treated to 2 goals (one from Messi who Tom really wanted to see in action) although Ronaldhino missed a penalty. We felt like true Barca supporters at the end of the game and even got on a bus with the rest of the fans and then went for later tapas dinner and a few drinks.
Monday was our last day so we had to check out our lovely suite We did some shopping (new Matinee CD and some huge pink D&G sunglasses for me) and then cos the weather was so lovely again we took a long walk on the beach and then had a late lunch in a restaurant by the harbour called La Gavina . A couple of final farewell drinks and then I went to say bye to my pups This was the only thing I didn't like about our trip, quite close to our hotel there was a pet shop and they kept these adorable dogs in glass cages, it was so sad By the end of the holiday I'd given them all names and I would have brought them all home with me if I could
Taxi to airport, bit of duty free shopping and couple of drinks and final farewel to Barcelona before landing back at Stansted at 11pm to sub-zero temnperatures
It was an absolutely fantastic five days, I fell in love with Barcelona when I went before but love the city even more now and wouldn't have wished to spend my 30th birthday anywhere else. I would recommend the city to anyone but a special mention must go to my personal Barcelona tourist guide Sil who gave us so much information/tips to make the hols even better
My birthday celebrations started early on the Wednesday as I went to see a Marketing agency about some freelance work and they offered me the role and it's working on the ____/World Cup marketing account (best not say who it is in case my new employers read Spotlight
), how cool, but even better it now means I work 5 mins from Jamie - uh-oh I see trouble ahead After a few celebratory wines/dinner it seemed much more sensible to stay at Jamies (I wonder how many times this is going to happen ) and get Tom to pick me up enroute to Stansted at 5am. Got to Stansted in good time, raided the MAC counter, had a wine and then boarded and up in the air by 7.30am so landed in Barcelona before 10am to glorious sunshine (me in parka jacket and Uggs - Sil I love you to bits but please never become a weather woman
). Got taxi to hotel, we were staying in the Banys Oriental in the El Borne area of the city and my Mum and Dad had booked us a suite there as a little birthday treat. The suites are just down the road from the main hotel and the coincerge took us to them and showed us our room, me and Tom were just like OMG The room was amazing, very modern and minimal, a huge 4 poster bed, balconies on each side overlooking the street - in fact I would have been quite happy to spend the next 5 days in there Went for a wander up Las Ramblas where Tom decided on a new vocation in life - to rival the street impressionists he's going to become a Ronaldihno impressionist
(pictures to follow ). I was more concerned about the fact that they sell pigeons on the streets We walked all the way past Placa de Catalunya away from the main tourist areas and then sat out in the sunshine eating tapas and drinking beer. Then we embraced the Spanish lifestyle with a little siesta before heading out for drinks and then dinner (feeling very continental cos we didn't eat til gone 10pm ). We went to a restaurant called La Crema Canela, the food was excellent, very Mediterranean, lovely decor and great service - 3 courses for Tom, 2 for me, wine and water and it came to the cheap price of 45 euros - it was so cheap we thought they'd got the prices wrong Then we had a few drinks at a little local bar near our hotel. Friday had a lovely long lie-in and woke up to even sunnier and warmer weather (why didn't I bring my flip-flops
) so we headed to the beach. Went to a fab restaurant called Agua right on the beach and had some yummy seafood and rose sat outside in the sunshine thinking this is the life Then we headed to Segrada Familia, while we were walking Tom saw posters advertising that Oakie was playing Pacha Barcelona the following wkend (he'd already missed him cos he was playing London the wkend we were in Barcelona), I swear I jinx poor Tom and his Oakie fixes When we got to Segrada Familia I'm sure those manana builders haven't built anymore since last time we saw it nonetheless the building is as impressive as ever. Friday evening we went to meet Sil and she took us to 52, her friend's bar/restaurant. It was fab meeting up with Sil again and the order of the evening was wine/beer, tapas, joint, wine/beer, tapas, joint, Tom doing his Ronaldhino impressioins for Sil, joint etc etc. At midnight the owner came out with a little cake and candle for me and everyone sang Happy Birthday and we drank lots of Cava
Sil came back to our hotel so I could show off our suite and we drank there and it was a semi-respectable 4am finish.Saturday was my 30th YAY so Tom woke me up with Bucks Fizz in bed and gave me my presents. He'd already given me a Anya Hindmarch weekend away bag the night before we came so I could use it for the trip, then he gave me a gorgeous Tiffany chunky bracelet and necklace - I really did feel like the Birthday Princess
Then he gave me a piece of paper and I'm thinking 'what's this??', Tom had only saved the best to last Everyone knows how much I love dogs but we're not allowed to have one in our flat so as the next best thing Tom had sponsored me a dog from The Dogs Trust so I'm now the proud Keeper of a little northern toerag dog called Kenco For the rest of the day we did the whole tourist thing and went on the Tourist Bus and stopped off at Parc Gruel which was just amazing (how much would I like to be in that place on mushrooms
) and then saw the rest of the city. In the evening Tom had booked dinner for us at Torre d'alta Mar which seemed like a lovely romantic way to spend my 30th, til we got to the restuarant and had to go about a million metres up in the sky in a glass elevator (and I'm not good with heights
). Fortunately once we got up there (and Tom repeatedly assured me that no the restaurant wasn't moving ) I began to enjoy the views across the city. We had the most amazing meal (more fish for me and steak for Tom), lots of champagne, wine, liquers and the service was second to none. If anyone is going to Barcelona for a special occasion I can't recommend this restaurant enough. After dinner we had thought about clubbing but there was no-one DJing who we were desperate to see and we knew if we did, Sunday would be a write off (hark at me being all grown-up now I'm 30 ) so instead we spent the rest of the night drinking in some of the little local bars around the port and the Gothic Quarter. Sunday we had arranged to meet Sil and Pep for lunch so we met Pep for the first time who is absolutely adorable and then they insisted on taking us to this lovely restaurant called L'Olivia where we had lots of starters and then a huge seafood paella.
After we left them we headed to Camp Nou, had a quick look round the shop so Tom could get his nephew a shirt and Tom tried to make money doing his Ronaldhino impressions
and then got into the ground early to savour the atmosphere (ie so Tom could sit there enjoying the stadium while having a joint ). I'd been to the ground before and thought how impressive it was but nothing can compare to seeing it in full swing. We had booked seats in Goal Nord and had an excellent view right behind the goal as we watched the teams warm up and then began chanting Barca songs Sil had taught us Barcelona are such a good team to watch (although Tom still thinks that Chelsea will beat them ) and we were treated to 2 goals (one from Messi who Tom really wanted to see in action) although Ronaldhino missed a penalty. We felt like true Barca supporters at the end of the game and even got on a bus with the rest of the fans and then went for later tapas dinner and a few drinks. Monday was our last day so we had to check out our lovely suite
We did some shopping (new Matinee CD and some huge pink D&G sunglasses for me) and then cos the weather was so lovely again we took a long walk on the beach and then had a late lunch in a restaurant by the harbour called La Gavina . A couple of final farewell drinks and then I went to say bye to my pups This was the only thing I didn't like about our trip, quite close to our hotel there was a pet shop and they kept these adorable dogs in glass cages, it was so sad By the end of the holiday I'd given them all names and I would have brought them all home with me if I could Taxi to airport, bit of duty free shopping and couple of drinks and final farewel to Barcelona before landing back at Stansted at 11pm to sub-zero temnperatures
It was an absolutely fantastic five days, I fell in love with Barcelona when I went before but love the city even more now and wouldn't have wished to spend my 30th birthday anywhere else. I would recommend the city to anyone but a special mention must go to my personal Barcelona tourist guide Sil who gave us so much information/tips to make the hols even better
