More Barcelona Graffiti

As I mentioned on a previous post, I love some of the graffiti in Barcelona, and the great way that some shops decorate their dull grey shutters. This has the double effect of a big free advert in a modern art form, and also serves as a deterrant for the wanting to scrawl their tag on an open canvas, or in this case shutter.

The best place to see some of these quirky artworks is the old town, but not exclusively. I've seen some others in Eixample, for example - including the witch cafe shown here.

These pics are 2 of my favourites. The sausage makers in Raval for it's cheeky pig, warming and burning it's behind on the bonfire, and the other, running through the hills like Maria in The Sopund of Music. Classic.

The witch cafe, just because I think it's brilliant, and shows what amazing talent these guys and gals have - no prushes, all cans.


For more information on Barcelona, see this Barcelona Guide.

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Do's and Dont's for visiting Barcelona

Barcelona is a great city to visit, and in recent years has overtaken such European cities as Venice and Berlin as a top destination. If you've visited or live here, then you'll know what all the fuss is about, but if not, then it's wise to have a few ideas of Do's and Don'ts with regards the city.

DO visit the city's stunning architecture and great museums. Barcelona was awarded 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites - 8 of which are in Barcelona (the 9th is Colonia Güell, just outside the city) - and all are worth a visit, even just from the outside, sitting on the tourist bus, for example. There are some great museums, too, such as the Picasso Museum, the Erotic museum (!) on las ramblas, and the Chocolate Museum. Make sure you visit these places, but....

DON'T turn up in beachwear, or inappropriately dressed. I don't mean as these are religious places, so you need to cover up, but it's a real pet hate of the locals to see guys in trunks and flip flops with no tops, or Girls in bikini tops and a "pareo" waltzing along las Ramblas, or even worse stopping into Carrefour or Corte Ingles. Keep the beachwear for the beach, guys.

If you travel by car to Barcelona, DON'T leave your valuables in the car when you street park. I know of some people who parked right in front of the restaurant they were eating at in Barceloneta, and even sat outside, almost in full view of thier car. When they returned to the vehicle, the back window had been smashed, and they lost a mobile phone that had been left in the back, and then had the annoying episode of having to report the incident to the police for their hire car company.

DO hydrate yourself around Barcelona, especially the young ones in Barcelona. I could restrict this to the summer, but often temepratures are just as great in April and late september, so use this rule as a norm.

DON'T fall for the street scams - the dancing dollies (see my recent post here ), the 3 cups game, and the Barcelona dance. These are all easy to see, and if you watch the beer intake you should be ok!

DO visit the Boqueria market on Las Ramblas to try the "pata negra" Iberic ham (black hooved ham). It's one of the best, and is fed only on acorns. They also have some chorizos of the same animal for you to either try there, or take back to your Barcelona apartment to prepare. However, ...

DON'T stand on street corners with a big map, announcing the fact that you're lost! Try and find a phone booth, or a well lit shop entrance to find your bearings, and don't be afraid to ask. Things have got a lot easier recently with the installation of map-posts and directional arrows, to help you along your way.

For more information on Barcelona, see this Barcelona Guide.

Barcelona Scams. Dancing Dollies.

This is going to be a post that I'll constantly add to, as it's far too long to all squeeze into 1 post. After living here for 9 years, I have seen and heard of loads of scams, and I'm surprised that the majority of them still work today. There is a guy who has compiled a whole website to do with Barcelona scams and it's huge and spans a fair few years. I've read a fair bit of it (a couple of years ago I stumbled accross the page) and whilst some are real one offs, some of them are still going on today.

The one I'm going to mention this post is the Dancing Dollies. There are variations on this scam, using coins as weights for the feet of the little dollies, but the concept is the same. This scam has been revelaed on BBC's "The Real Hustle" as well, and was even easier to scam the public.

The scam involves a portable cassette player and some loud dance music. You see 2 little paper dollies, next to the music "dancing" away. It looks so cool, and is something that every music system needs. The dollies are usually your favourite cartoon characters, like Homer and Bart Simpson, Mickey and Minnie, Buzz lightyear and woody, Pokemon classics, and other variations. There is the intuition to ask "how does it work?" and the guy selling them simply stops the tape, and the dollies stop dancing, and then he presses play again, and they start the dance again. He speaks just enough to be understood "2 por 4 Euros, 2 for 4 Euros" and this is also part of the scam which I'll explain. You'd be surprised at the joyous faces of children walking up and down las Ramblas with a new packet of worthless colour paper cut-outs and string legs.

So here's how the scam works - I've even seen it being set up in broad daylight. The cassette player has a mechanical wheel on the back of it, with a peice of fishing wire, or some kind of transparent wire on the back whioch makes a loop, and is then either stuck to the back wall, or to a corner, or to a bag. In this photo, you can see that the guy's rucksack is conveniently placed so that you can't see the back of the machine. So the wheel is turning around like a bobbin, and the only thing needed is to "hang" the little dollies on the invisible wire and wait for the punters. All it needs is one to work as the convincer, and everyone else stops, and forks out the cash. In a very short space of time, the seller can be out of his stock.

The great thing about the scam is what I mentioned, that the seller never speaks enough of whatever language it is you ask him the question, so you just have to accept that it's cool, and as it's cheap enough for the gamble. This way the seller doesn't need to answer any "how does it work?" questions, and the best part of the scam is that by the time you get back to your hotel room or Barcelona tourist apartment to try it out on the stereo system, the seller will be long gone.

For more information on Barcelona, see this Barcelona Guide.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you!!

I've noticed over the years of living in Barcelona as an ex-pat, that the Catalans like to complain. I mean, everyone complains and more often than not we have our innate human right to complain about something.
I remember for example being absolutely amazed at the sights in Barcelona just a few days after the "War on Terror" and the invasion on Iraq. People would coordinate for 21h and bang pots and pans outside their windows, honk horns (if you were on the way back from work and hadn't had the chance to get back to your kitchen)and this would go on for at least 20 minutes, at first for successive days. This struck me as a very humanitarian episode, but at the same time a futile exercise. Who is going to hear you? The Spanish government, maybe (it made the news for a few days), the people or the soldiers in Iraq? I doubt it.

And this has gone on ever since - not so much the pots and pans banging, but many manifestations and gripes about one thing or the other. My family and I were out walking one Sunday, and happened upon a group holding up traffic on Las Ramblas. Problem was, as much as I tried to read 15 metre-long the banners they were holding, one end was held by a person smoking and chatting and the other was at least 5/6 steps behind making it almost impossible for anyone to read just what they were complaining about. Unfortunately I have no hard evidence to show for these ramblings, but I do have two new ones, which again strike me as odd. I may well ruffle a few feathers here, so beware.

The recent festivities of "La Merçe" festival for me have been the longest in recent memory. I think the fact that the actual feast day of Our Lady of Mercy this year fell on a Wednesday made the whole festivities stretch out that bit longer. Events started on the previous Thursday, and continued right up until the fireworks on Montjüic on Wednesday night. A typical stroll though the Gothic Quarter on this week is a great way to visit Barcelona and appreciate its popularity - with residents and tourists alike. So, lo and behold, what do we see on every free space available on walls but "flyers/posters" in (it has to be said fairly arty) protest to the activity brought about by La Merçe.

The poster says "Neighbours - a species in danger of extinction". Now, I know that there is a high proportion of tourism be it hotels or Barcelona apartments for rent within the old town, but it's the centre of the city, so it's to be expected. Spain's main income (and that includes Catalunya) is from Tourism, and according to the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Spain, Catalunya (read Barcelona) has the Lion's share of this influx. There are so many low cost airlines arriving daily to BCN, Reus and Girona, it's impossible to keep up!

Another poster that I saw today caught my attention. This was also a prostest, but against the whole system - the poster invites you to "celebrate 20 years of social and urban destrucion...dirty war...mobbing (what the Barcelonans have dubbed as aggressive estate agencies hounding you out of your home), tourist exploits..." you get the idea. This protest was to be housed on the Rambla del Raval - just as the new 4 star (well overdue) Barcelo Raval hotel opened it's doors. I don't think anyone would disagree that the new hotel will shine like a beacon in the new Raval (kind of like the original idea of the rambla del raval) and that it can only have a positive effect on the area. The new Filmoteca is underway (again, well overdue), and it's great to see development in the middle of the Raval, to follow suit with upper Raval (MACBA, CCCB, etc.) The poster depicts the new hotel as a backdrop to slums and a cheesy yougster smiling in the foreground.

I suppose the puzzling thing is that all of these new improvements are geared towards the end user - which is not always the tourist. This summer has seen an amazing amount of new "bicing" points scattered around the city (in fact you can't go too far without finding a new one), not to mention huge overhauls in bike lanes and the removal of Zona Blau (zone parking). How is all of this funded? Tax payers - main income = tourism. Many, many industries thrive on Barcelona tourism (and I'm not talking about the tourist shops dotted along las Ramblas) and not just the hotels. I sympathise with the house pricing in Barcelona which according to minimum wage is an absolute joke, but to generalise the whole system as including tourism as a negative aspect, I find ridiculous. Just ask Madrid how tourism and businesses were affected after the atrocious bombings - this is by no means a "be careful what you wish for" message - just a confused foreigner in the old town, maybe missing the point.

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Last chance of the summer for La Terrrazza!!

Barcelona has got some cool clubs. Everyone knows that. It's a shame that recent public complaints have had an adverse effect on some of the best clubs in Barcelona - or maybe not the best but the best fun! For example, not long ago "La Paloma" on Calle Tigre was a favourite haunt to step back in time and watch the ballroom dancers worm the floor for the ravers, in an old style theatre/Moulin rouge setting (as an aside, the real Barcelona Moulin rouge - El Molino - is also undergoing a bit of a facelift currently). Sadly La Paloma has gone.

Another cheesy but always full place - Baja Beach - has made way for Opium down on the beach front - cue sighs and groans from all the stag and hen parties. It also seems the Discoteque, although name changing to new club D and the like did nothing for it in the normal location of poble Español has also recently moved to Space's venue up on Calle Tarragona.

So it's great when one of the classic clubs manages to keep going. I'm talking about La Terrrazza. This is also in Poble Español, and right next to the old Discoteque, and has had it's fair share of troubles in the past. A couple of summers ago, it didn't open - sufficient complaints from the Montjüic/Poble Sec residents had managed to ruffle the feathers of the council, and soundproofing was allegedly installed (although I have no idea where, as it's an open air club!).

Well, anyway, this weekend sees the last night of the "summer" (so lets not hope for rain) in the über-cool club. Partying along under the stars is a privilege not many clubs in Barcelona can boast to having and it's sure to be a great end to the season. See you there!!

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Barcelona Graffiti

This is all about Barcelona Graffiti. Certain cities in the world are renowned for their graffiti - I remember being handed a leaflet as a backpacker in New York City years ago with "10 free things to see in NYC" and one of them was to take the "X" train (can't remember, sorry) to see the amazing graffiti. Now Barcelona is not far behind with some amazing artwork, especially at designated places that the artists are let free - bottom of Paralello going round to Montjüic and the Parc de 3 chimineas nearby are 2 great examples, but there's some local graffiti that you can just as easily see, and this is more than legit - it's even paid for.

It's funny, as I've actually been preparing this post for a while, as the pics I'm going to add speak more than the words I could add to describe, and recently Barcelona Metropolitan had the exact same feature but obviously more in depth and with interviews, etc.

The idea is that local shop owners are sick of having drab, stupid scrawls and signatures on their already grey metal shutters at night, so what better way to combat this than siding with the enemy, and getting a graffiti ad for your bar/shop/venture. This is obviously at a prime in the old town, especially Raval and the Gothic quarter, and as the graffiti code goes, you never graffiti over another artists work, so the result is a great peice of modern art, an ad for your business if you happen to be closed at the time people pass by, and also pretty much a guarantee of saving yourself from gritty scrawls and nonsense in the meantime.

There are so many I see when out and about that I love, and I'm probably going to add to this as I see more that impress me, but here are a few. Enjoy.

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