Visiting Barcelona: A dream come true!

“Alé alé, alé alé, Força Barcelona alé” — this is the raucous chant that reverberated through the Nou Camp when I put my foot in. Ah, the Camp Nou, home to my club, FC Barcelona and might I even add, the home of football. ❤

Before I even started planning my trip to Paris for my internship, I knew I had to travel to Barcelona. Being a huge Barça fan, no way I was going to miss a chance to visit Barcelona. The plans waned at times throughout when I couldn’t find a good time to visit since there were no matches. But luckily just before I was leaving Europe, Joan Gamper Trophy between Barca and Boca Juniors was supposed to happen and hence without wasting a single seco`nd, I booked my tickets and started planning for my trip :D My cousin brother who also is a Barça fan and had traveled to Barcelona before helped me identify must-visit places and plan my travel. I planned to travel alone and spend 5 days in Barcelona.

I took an SNCF train from Paris to Barcelona which actually was a nice experience. I reached Barcelona around 10 in the morning and went directly to my hostel.

The first two days of my stay in Barcelona, I explored this historic city, visited all the famous places including La Sagrada Familia, La Rambla, Park Guell, Plaça Sant Felip Neri, took a cycle tour, clicked a lot of pictures, ate a lot of tapas and grew a beer-belly :D

To my surprise, Bengaluru FC who were on their Pre-season tour at Spain were also supposed to play Barcelona B at the Mini Estadi. I was so lucky to watch Chettri, Gurpreet and my favorite Indian team play in Barcelona. Since this was a preseason match, entry to this match was free :D Amongst a lot of Spanish fans, there stood a small group of enthusiastic Indians who were singing, dancing and supporting BFC. Hahaha, what an amazing experience it was.