When I travelled to Barcelona with my family, it was an experience I will never forget. Flying the 15-hour Lufthansa flight, I expected an exhausting trip full of museums and historic monuments, that had little significance to the new business port city Barcelona was. We were staying in a comfortable place just blocks away from the La Sagrada Familia, a world-renowned Roman Gothic church, and travelled there during mid-September, which we would soon find out was the home of a Catalan holiday festival.

Within the city, there are multiple districts with their individual appeals. We stayed in the L’Eixample  District, home to the La Sagrada Familia. While slowly traversing through the long cross-shaped church floor, I noticed a sense of art and beauty to this specific church. Unlike many other historic monuments around the world, I would classify La Sagrada Familia in the popular form of installation art. The massive stained-glass windows utilized the transcendent power of colored light to make everyone who stepped inside part of the experience.

The artist, Antoni Gaudi, has many pieces around Barcelona, converting it into his miniature playground. Along the famous road, La Rambla, you will find various of Gaudi’s mosaics along the walls of the surrounding buildings, preserved by the owners. After learning this history of the city, my next trips to La Rambla, and the district of the Gothic Quarter made much more sense.

You can never experience Barcelona without visiting La Rambla. This long pedestrian road is littered with talented artists, musicians, and street performers. After talking to some of them in basic Spanish, I got the impression that they came to Barcelona in hopes of inspiration for Gaudi and his remnants. One of my favourite spots was the Wok to Walk restaurant near the centre of the load road. With lines running at least 10 minutes at any time in the day, it is marvellous to watch them toss up an assortment of noodles and vegetables in a large Wok burner with such skill and repetition.

The district of the Gothic Quarter is downtown for the entire city of Barcelona. On a Friday or Saturday night, you can consider it a guarantee that you will not find a single cab in the middle of the district. It is packed with young nightclubs and star-crossed lovers playing a guitar or piano in the middle of the cobblestone walkway. We stayed out until 4 in the morning, and it still felt like the city was just getting started. The Gothic Quarter is alive throughout the night and is relatively empty during the day. I would highly suggest visiting it if you are with teenagers or other such younger subjects.

We stayed for 10 days, and on the 5th day, while walking through Las Ramblas, I stumbled into an art exhibit with 10-foot warrior dolls. While asking one of the many security guards for these statues, he explained these dolls were part of a Catalan exhibit that comes around for only 7 days during a festival known as La Merce. I didn’t think much of it, but that night all the roads were closed and fireworks were going off. A large majority of the crowd that comes out during the La Merce party in the night are young and middle-aged college student, who speak English. My younger brother, my parents and I all had very different experiences but had a blast.

One of the unique things of Barcelona that you will not find anywhere else in the world, is the influence of both Spain and France to create Catalonia. We were there prior to the independence referendum, and many viewed La Merce as a statement to the Spanish government about their independent culture. Across from our apartment, during the night of La Merce, there were many people with passionate opinions who were being affected by the Spanish rule, and it was amazing to see them shouting across the street so lovingly.