Whilst in Barcelona we had decided on Marseille as our next stop, however by the time we actually left the hostel and made our way to B.Sants we were considering Montpellier and Nimes as well. Arriving at the station, drained and tired from San Juan, we soon discovered that due to striking going on in France (…!), there was no way we’d be able to cross the French border by train.
Initially this felt like a personal attack by France, sabotaging our plans and throwing us off our planned course. However, after some debate and a lot of uncertainty, we decided to travel to Girona, a small city (compared to Barcelona, however is actually the largest in north Catalonia) an hour between Barcelona and the French border.
We didn’t really know what to expect in Girona, but regardless, our expectations were not only met but exceeded.
Girona is a very beautiful city with a river running through it, separating the old town with the new. We arrived in the afternoon and had some well and truly needed down time before making the short walk into town for a romantic meal, where we discovered a plaza full of restaurants. Extremely happy to find that it was a lot cheaper than Barcelona (sangria in Barcelona €9, sangria in Girona €2), so it’s safe to say that we felt Girona was going to be good to us.
We spent the second day wondering around Girona discovering the old city. Beautiful! Imagine cobbled, narrow winding streets, old buildings built on hills, intimate side alley ways lined with small stores, a Cathedral, a Jewish quarter (El Call) and Arabic baths.
Girona at night was relaxed yet fun. We discovered there were a few clubs here and there although we didn’t go to any due to a (supposedly) early wakeup call the following day. The previous night we had spotted a cocktail bar on our walk home with deck chairs outside which looked busy, even on the night of San Juan, so seeing as it was now a normal Friday night we decided to check it out.
Outside we lounged in comfortable bed-like deck chairs and later we ventured inside. Weirdly decorated, the bar (Cocktails and…) seemed to have an almost burlesque feel to it. After we were befriended by a bar tender, we ended up enjoying a night of free drinks and amusing conversation with some of the locals. Both M and I put (her) Spanish and (my) Italian to good use, and mixed with some very dodgy English from the locals, we got by.
One amusing thing we realised is that most people thought we were ‘Eras-moos’ students. Clearly we were the only outsiders, which we thoroughly enjoyed!
If you ask M and I what we thought of Girona we’ll tell you one thing: GO!
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