Barcelona & Valencia

Palermo to Barcelona

After Italy, I moved on to Spain — Barcelona — but I ran into trouble on the way to the airport. Palermo has two airports and I went to the wrong one; it was the first time I've ever mixed up airports. The two airports are about a 30-minute drive apart, so I downloaded the local taxi app as fast as I could and got a taxi. Luckily, I still had 2 more hours until my flight and had already checked in online. Sadly it turned out to be an unexpectedly big expense, but the driver understood my situation and drove quite fast, so I made it to the airport in time. By the way, Italy bans ride-sharing services such as Uber and Bolt, so you basically need to find a local taxi with an official license and pay the metered fare.

Barcelona

Barcelona is the 2nd largest city in Spain and is located in the northeast. It is also the main city of Catalonia, a region with its own cultural identity. You can see their flag (yellow and red stripes) and the Catalan language in stations and many public spaces, so it's clear they are recognized as a distinct culture.

The icon of Barcelona has to be Sagrada Família — and how lucky, 2026 is the 100th anniversary of Gaudí's death and the main tower has just been completed (the Sagrada Família is famously an unfinished basilica). The architect of this basilica is Antoni Gaudí, and he's probably the most well-known architect in the world. In Barcelona, you can see several buildings he designed, and each one looks very unique.

Antoni Gaudí took over the project in 1883 and radically reimagined it — blending Gothic verticality with Art Nouveau curves and nature-inspired forms, where columns branch like trees and stained glass floods the interior with shifting light. He devoted the last 43 years of his life to it before being killed by a tram in 1926, with less than a quarter complete. Funded entirely by private donations and ticket sales, it is expected to be finished by 2026 — the 100th anniversary of his death — with the central Jesus Tower reaching 172 meters, making it the tallest church in the world.

Something else that caught my eye was seeing fruits and foods on top of the towers. I guess they might symbolize "offerings"...?

The following spots are other places designed by Gaudí. Güell is a person's name — he was Gaudí's biggest patron, and it is said that Güell supported Gaudí financially and let him create very freely, which allowed Gaudí to produce wonderful works. In my personal opinion, "freedom" is the key to producing new and outstanding art and culture in any era (Michelangelo, Mozart, Chopin... they all had major patrons too).

Valencia

I stayed in Barcelona for three days, then moved to Valencia on the eastern coast of Spain. It took around 6 hours by train. I expected the train to have F&B service, but it didn't, and I was starving.

When you think of Valencia, the "Valencia orange" might be the first thing that comes to mind. The city has consistently warm weather and little rainfall, making Valencia and the surrounding regions one of the biggest orange-exporting areas in the world.

Valencia also flourished through trade in the Middle Ages, and La Llotja de la Seda is a landmark from that era.

La Llotja de la Seda (Silk Exchange) is a late Gothic civil building in Valencia, constructed between 1482 and 1548 as the city's silk and commodities trading hall — a symbol of Valencia's Golden Age when it was one of the wealthiest Mediterranean ports. The main hall (Sala de Contratación) features soaring twisted columns that spiral up like palm trees to a starred vault, considered a masterpiece of Valencian Gothic architecture. Designed largely by Pere Compte, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 as one of the finest examples of a secular Gothic building in Europe.