Skip to Navigation

Barcelona 2003

It’s been over two months that we returned from our "in 10 days we can do it all" tour of Spain. We treked across Barcelona, drove for endless hours in gigantic Palma de Mallorca, did Sa Trinxa in Ibiza and discovered lovely Formentera.

Here are some things that you should know about Barcelona. The stories about other places will follow. We hope. For the record, we learned our lesson and will, from now on, write our stories on the spot, not 2 months later.

In any event, we tried our best to reconstruct the experience and here’s the result.

Start your introduction to Barcelona with Nieke Stein’s book 100% Barcelona. Nieke doesn’t bother with irrelevant details. She wrote the book that doesn’t contain the clutter of every possible fact on Barcelona. It gives you enough information to quickly acquire the familiarity of the city and get rid off the touristic feeling.

Keep in mind that Barcelona metro works only until midnight. Straight from the airport we rushed to the metro eager to sense the vibe, hear the language and see the people, only to find out that we are just going to have to take the cab:) We thought the metro machine does not like us nor our money when in fact it was just passed midnight. It took a while to figure that one out as there were no signs nor metro personnel to gently remove us from frantically trying to feed our euros to the metro machine :)

Don’t stay at Hotel Principal. However, do visit the neighborhood. El Raval is an up and coming neighborhood of Barcelona. Graffiti, dodgy streets, contemporary and crowded restaurants, groups of young people hanging out ‘til the early hours, regardless of the day of the week. While exploring the neighborhood, pay special attention to those extremely narrow small streets. They seem deceptively non important, yet they are cruical to finding your way around.

If in the mood for good paella, excellent decor inside park Ciutadella and quiet romantic atmosphere with someone super special, go to the restaurant Hivernacle. The fresh and hot bread served before the dinner is delicious. Our gallery photos will give you an idea of what the restaurant looks like.

For all not fluent in Spanish, consult our list of useful phrases. It will help you blend in, a little bit :)

  • la cuenta por favor — politely ask for your bill
  • bocadillos — fresh bread sandwich
  • cerveza Estrella — try the beer preferred by the locals
  • cortado — short black (espresso) coffee with drop of milk
  • mas fino — everything in Barcelona is mas fino :)) just keep repeating it
  • tranquilo — chill and enjoy

Over all we enjoyed the beautiful average life(tm) girls on motorinos, small dodgy streets, colorful sexy graffiti, even more colorful food markets, widespread anti-war slogans on banners, walls, terraces and doors, chill bars with interesting crowds and good tapas, buldings that breathe of romance, balconies overflowing with flowers and much more.

Here are some links for additional information:

Here’s a peek at Barcelona we know.

By danijela on Nov 24, 2003 in