An Unforgettable 24th Birthday – Barcelona Style

Celebrating 24 years of life in Barcelona has by FAR been the best birthday of life YET :)) AH – I was so, SO pleasantly surprised/infinitely appreciative of the thought that went into this day!

The day started bright and early at BRUNCH AND CAKE (read more about this restaurant from an earlier post linked here) where we had the absolute best possible breakfast accompanied by the cutest lil ambiance – great waiters wearing matching plain white tees with black suspenders and pants, repurposed wood tables, comfy couches and a menu full of awesome variety and main dishes accompanied by lots of colorful fruits and veggies! Not to mention the fresh juice smoothies were AWESOME.

Even though it started to rain and we had to reroute our initial plan to rent bikes, we headed to a local paint shop where we bought some supplies and spent a bit of the rainy morning painting 😀 (WOO, Andrés savin’ the stinky weather moment with an awesome plan B.. I think he’s a keeper).

Once the sun came back out we went to CHÖK right near La Rambla, where we bought a pistachio filled cruffin (croissant/muffin), chocolate/oatmeal/lemon meringue cronut (suggestion of an employee there!) and a chocolate covered chocolate-stuffed cookie on a stick with sprinkles!

• Two locations for CHÖK in Barcelona –

  c / Carme, 3 Barcelona 08001  t: +34 933 042 360

  c / Ramelleres, 26 08001 t: +34 936 817 849

We kept them in our bag and quickly headed to buy a fresh loaf of bread (where they also kindly slice it for you!) at Tasta Pa on Via Laietana – brought along some jelly, brie and red wine and set up the literal best picnic of my life in the PARC DE LA CIUTADELLA.

After spending most of the afternoon lounging in the park we headed to our dinner reservation that Andrés had made at this incredible, little hole-in-the-wall Catalan gem in the Gothic Quarter. It was such a beautiful restaurant with lovely tall ceilings, brick walls clearly maintained from the buildings original interior and a super delicious dinner (Ahí Tuna over a salad + variety of flat bread!)

The night ended with the funkiest party at our apartment thrown by the coolest landlord, Tutti (when we got back to the apartment she was already in full party-mode, wearing a purple wig ;P.. she rocks).. and apartment-mate, Claudio (also in full party attire aka giant smiley emoji costume, :D:D). + we broke out the Sardina film camera Andrés got as my birthday gift (AHHHHHHH :D:D:D) and took some of my favorite photos from my time in Barcelona.

Pretty sure no birthday will ever top this one. I seriously still day dream about how beautiful every aspect of the day was and the absolutely, overwhelming thoughtfulness of Andrés for the planning and seamless execution of each piece.

SO. SO. SO, MEGA THANKFUL.