My Experience with Tomorrowland Discover Europe – Barcelona
First Night In Barcelona
My travel companion Jenni and I arrived late evening in Barcelona, our 2nd choice of city on the Tomorrowland Discover Europe tour.
It was midnight by the time we found our hotel and settled into our Spanish-inspired room.
We were starving at by this point and due to the late hour, our only option was McDonalds. We were served by a cute kid named Alejandro who was very flustered and didn’t speak a word of English.
All of the menu items at McDonald’s had the word “grand” added in front of it: Grand Big Mac, Grand Chicken Burger. As we had named Amsterdam “cute,” Jenni and I decided that Barcelona is “grand.”
We returned to our hotel and decided to do our laundry in the hotel sink to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro,” prompted by our very flustered McDonald’s server.
Cue shenanigans.
We only stopped when our neighbor banged on our door, yelling, “My plan was to f*king sleep!”
The Tomorrowland Tapas Experience
Jenni and I spent our first full day in Barcelona casually strolling through the city and falling in love with its beauty. We agreed that “grand” is indeed the right word to describe Barcelona. The grandeur of the Spanish Empire can be seen fully in the architecture and décor.
When in Barcelona, be prepared to shop! I personally think the shopping in Barcelona is the best out of everywhere that I’ve visited in Europe. The style is fashion-forward with summery inspirations. Whites and pastels are popular.
After our stroll through the city, we hopped on a train in search of the Tomorrowland-planned event for Barcelona.
We were greeted by our Barcelona Tomorrowland Fairy guide, complete with pink dress and flower shawl.
The restaurant was small and cozy, and decorated with more Tomorrowland pillows like on the boats for our Amsterdam canal cruise. Again, people were asking if we were allowed to take these pillows, and again the answer was no.
At the end of the evening however, our Tomorrowland Fairy discovered a pillow with the cover missing. Bad form, guys 🙁
During the evening, we ate delicious tapas, gushed about how excited we were for the quickly upcoming festival, and made friends with beautiful party people from around the world.
Among these world travelers was a group of guys from Mexico and two guys who were coincidentally also from Vancouver, like myself! One of the guys from Vancouver is Hispanic and spoke more elementary Spanish, as second-generations tend to of their native language.
He was discussing the similarities and differences of the Catalan language compared to Spanish with the Mexicans.
I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and have been out long enough to forget almost all of it. Interestingly enough though, I was able to understand every word the guy from Vancouver was saying, however could barely comprehend the Mexicans’ fluent replies.
Our tapas experience included 2 drinks, although almost everyone ordered considerably more and some bought cava – a sparkling Spanish wine native to Catalonia – for the table.
We were all adequately wine-drunk and thrilled to have made so many new friends by the end of dinner.
A Night Out In Barcelona
After our tapas dinner, a large group of us stumbled the 15 large Barcelona blocks back to our hotel to get ready for a night out.
We had all been greeted with a bottle of cava upon our arrival to the hotel the previous night. Some had already drank theirs but those who hadn’t all brought the bottles to the beach.
The famous beach in Barcelona is lined with swanky nightclubs, the most famous of them being Opium and the newly-opened Ibiza-native club Pacha.
As most people are aware, open liquor is allowed in public in Europe. The beach of Barcelona is filled with groups of pre-gamers at night getting drunk before entering the clubs, where drinks start at around €8 and go upwards from there.
The beach is also full of hawkers selling beer and samosas for €1 each. Considering they do all of the legwork and fetch said beer and samosas for you, I think this is a very reasonable price.
They also offer various illicit party drugs, of which I don’t partake therefore cannot provide any more information on this subject.
*As a PSA and having been trained as a harm reduction volunteer, I’d like encourage everyone reading this not to buy unregulated drugs from untrustworthy sources. If you must, please be responsible about your own body and use a test kit, which can be purchased here.
The water was a bit to cold for swimming (which didn’t stop a lot of my crew) but that didn’t deter me from letting the waves of the Balearic Sea roll over my feet!
As you can see, the clubs on the beach of Barcelona are swanky. Shorts are unfortunately not allowed, despite the clubs being located within sand-trekking distance of the beach.
We popped into both Opium and Pacha, and found that a large group of our Tomorrowland tour had booked 2 tables at Pacha where Danny Avila was spinning.
The club was bumping for a Tuesday. Our crew ordered bottle service and their table bookings were complete with shisha.
Jenni, my travel partner, and I referred to the guy in the center of the photo here, whose name I can’t remember (I’m sorry!) as Pitbull due to his incredible wardrobe and raspy voice. He even had a hot Colombian girlfriend (the beautiful girl in the white lace) to complete his character.
Jenni and I then cabbed back to our hotel at 4 or 5 in the morning and promptly passed out.
Basilica de la Sagrada Familia
Barcelona is extremely hot and humid in July and as much as we wanted to leave our hotel early to explore the city, we had a hard time finding the will to leave our comfortable air-conditioned hotel room before 2pm, partly due to our adventures the previous night.
Eventually, we managed to head to highly recommended destination, the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia.
And I could understand why both tourists and locals alike list this as a must-see in Barcelona. As Jenni and I rounded the corner and saw the basilica for the first time, our only reaction was “WOW.”
The basilica is massive, the engineering work on it astonishing, and the decor like nothing I had ever seen before.
Parts of the basilica are free and open to public access. We hadn’t done our research properly prior to our visit, therefore tickets to see the inside of the main part of the building were sold out.
That being said, it didn’t stop our awe at this magnificent architectural masterpiece, which is still incomplete after over a century of construction.
Las Ramblas and the Port of Barcelona
After our visit to the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, Jenni and I headed to another Barcelona visitor stable: Las Ramblas.
Las Ramblas is an iconic tree-lined pedestrian path lined with trees and shops that leads from Plaça de Catalunya, a square at the center of the city, to the Port of Barcelona.
The street is busy at all times of day and night. I also hear there are a lot of pickpockets in the city, most of whom operate within this area. Thankfully, I didn’t have any belongings stolen, although I did hear of a girl who walked less than one block to finally notice that her wallet had gone missing.
Las Ramblas leads out to this: wide, open spaces surrounding the grandiose Port of Barcelona.
We strolled through the boardwalk at sunset. The boardwalk is lined with street vendors selling selfie-sticks, knock-off handbags, football jerseys, fans, and an assortment of accessories.
I don’t like using the word “blessed” to describe situations wherein one is considered to be “lucky,” as I mostly believe that “luck” stems primarily from hard work and the personal willingness to challenge undesirable life circumstances.
However, at this point in time, I did consider myself to be “blessed” – I was living through some of the happiness moments of my life despite having faced a difficult year to date.
Deep thoughts aside, this bracelet is also really pretty!
This sign is located in Plaça de Catalunya. And yes, Barcelona is an inspiration in terms of beautiful sights, great parties, and friendly people.
Boarding the Tomorrowland Party Flight to Brussels
And then it was time to leave. We arrived at the airport in eager anticipation to board one of the infamous Tomorrowland party flights to Brussels where a weekend at the largest festival on earth awaited.
Some people from our tour went on an overnight trip to Ibiza, which is a short flight from Barcelona. From the sounds of it, they had the time of their lives. They were also so tired that sleeping on an airport floor was a non-issue.
So we were off! 3 nights in Barcelona and some 100 Tomorrowland party people were about to board a Tomorrowland party flight to Brussels! More updates to come!
Discover Europe Vouchers for Barcelona
- Tapas Experience at Samsara with the Discover Europe group
- Free entry to Opium and Pacha all night with password “Global Journey” at the door
- 20% bike tour and pub crawl with 4 pubs and welcome drink
- Bottle of cava upon arrival at the hotel
Random Things I Learned About Barcelona
- People do not speak Spanish in Barcelona! Ignorant me was looking forward to Barcelona so I could practice my high school Spanish that I haven’t used since. They speak Catalan, which is akin to a combination between Spanish and French, due to the close proximity of Barcelona to France.
- Catalonia, the province where Barcelona is located has often wanted to separate from Spain the same way Quebec often wants to separate from Canada. Valencia also has separatists.
- City blocks are very long. If you look at a map and think you’ll arrive somewhere in 10 minutes, it usually takes 25.
- Good Taiwanese-style bubble tea restaurants exist in the city, and the owners speak a plethora of both European and Asian languages.
