cuuuuz.. theres more...muuuuuuch much more than just the city I love. The coast of Catalunya is very pretty and has many cool places and cities to visit, within a day or stayover trips.
SITGES
Sitges I like a loooot..its a small town by the sea, south of Barcelona, about 30mins by train from center, trains go all the time from many stations, so very easy day trip. Sitges is funky.The Gayparadise of Catalonian Coast already since the 1960's and still living very strong. Athmosphere is very relaxed, beachy and busy. Its so close to BCN that lot of people lives in Sitges all year round. Sitges is alive always even though some hotels and bars do close for the winter. Water at beach is clear and the sunset just beautiful. Sitges is also veeery romantic..the athmosphere the people the feeling.. you just cant go there without kissing.. ( or I cant :)) just note that the trains do not go all night long.. the last one back to BCN is early like 10/11 pm.. I found it out too late and had to call my catalan tiger to rescue me .. and he was so far from home that would have taken forever to pick up another helmet... at the end.. we actually had a lovely night at the beach on a hot summer night.. so maybe I should recommend everyone to miss the train :)
TOSSA DE MAR
Tossa is another jewel along the coast, north of Barcelona on Costa Brava.. about an hour and half by bus. No trains go to Tossa, its either bus or a private car. I took bus, was around 20e return ticket. Lovely place,built around an old castle and the "town " around it. Clear beach and calm feeling which was really nice after hectic and busy BCN. I had once seen already in Malaga a travel program on tv from Tossa and ever since wanted to go there.. so I did. Alone. My weekend. Just me and silence and pretty sights. Heaven. Tossa de Mar is mainly a summer place and most of the hotels bars shops restaurants are closed between November to April.I had cool girl working in my hotel, from Andalusia, a place very close where we used to live. Kinda unreal moments for both of us, girl from Finland and girl from Andalusia, to have chats about differences between Catalunya and Andalusia.. She was excited to go home in couple weeks and I remember she saying how much she misses her friends and family but had to come up north for work cuz situation down south is really bad..
Buses stop running during those winter months, they run only weekdays on mornings and afternoons for those who lives there and works in BCN. I was there in October.. still super nice weather but I could tell the city was closing down for the winter... buuut ... Im not complaining, prices were really down!
I found these little sightseeing boats from the beach.. few hours at the sea discovering little caves on the huge rocks by along the costa. And a little stop at a very quiet small beach at place called Giverola. These little boats goes every 2 hrs and I could stay in that Giverola, enjoy lunch and beach and take the next boat back. Lovely afternoon.
Next to Tossa de Mar is another summer city called Lloret De Mar.. ufff. what a place. very crappy, full of hotels and discos and bars and -oh yea- action. But definately seen the best days by now.. I felt im too old there on summertime, heh! I went there with kids on Xmas time and then it was nice, well, it was ok.. half closed cuz out of season but was enough for us and very relaxing break from the city. Normally, on summertime, Lloret is nothing but one huge party for under 30's all over Europe.
TARRAGONA
what a city! old Roman town and still has it all there! Its about 80kms south of Barcelona and train takes about 1hr. Also these trains go all the time from many stations in BCN - eaaasy!
Tarragona is cool!! I think its the second biggest city in Catalonia after the BCN surroundings. It used to be a huge Roman town and as said, its all still there. I was told that in Tarragona is something called Microclimate and the weather is always good, or atleast better than other parts of Catalonia. Exactly the reason also why the Romans once went there, to Tarraco, as it was called on Roman times.
CATALUNYA IS JUST THE BEST! SALUT!
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