I thought it would be best to start with the area that we stayed in.
We stayed in the north of the city in a quaint little place called Sant
Andreu. The town itself is still very much an up-and-coming area, and
the area surrounding our hotel seemed very much under development, but
never the less, it had everything you could want in a village. There was
a huge mall next door to our hotel, which was fine for getting
breakfast in the morning, but it was the place we had put last on our
list of things to do, the kind of place you went on the afternoon of the
last day, which is exactly what we did.
The centre of
Sant Andreu is a wonderful and vibrant place. My previous holidays in
Spain mainly consisted of staying in resorts, and my last trip to
Barcelona was mainly packed with everything you were expected to do as a
tourist. I wanted somewhere largely untainted by tourists and the village offered the exact opposite to the 'norm' and what I was searching for.
Sant Andreu was full to bursting of bakeries, cafes and delis.
Everything I love. Pantaiberic was by far my favourite deli, and one
evening we bought a cheeseboard and deli meats and savoured every bite.
Every morning was full of the smell of fresh bread, and each evening the
village came alive with locals gathering in the main square. There was
an abundance of fruit and vegetable shops, and it only made me annoyed
that I couldn't buy it all and get cooking.
If
anything, this place has everything you could want in a community,
because it was exactly that, a community. People stopped on the street
and took time to chat to each other, they gathered on benches in the
evening and conversed. One evening, a reading group filled the square
with chairs and stories.
