Arrests & Disturbance After Final Pass

It seems that Football reared its ugly head off the pitch as well as on the pitch with the culmination of the Barcelona victory and ticket into the final of the Champions League at Wembley. In what is seemingly becoming normal procedure, a small minority began throwing flares at the press who were camped in the Hotel Lloret on las ramblas to film the celebrations. Bottles and cans were thrown and the riot police duly charged and dispersed the crowds to avoid any serious damage being done as in previous years.



Latest reports a show almost 30 people injured (including police) and more than 20 arrests. I know that it's often not even the real football fans that cause these kind of problems, rather the anti-system anarchists and those people just joining in the crowds to use an excuse to vandalize, although there were a fair few news reports with the Boix Nois heavily featured, so you just never know. Good job they won!!

Either way, congratulations to Barcelona, and let's hope for a much better final in Wembley on 28th, and that Canaletes and Las Ramblas braces itself once more for the riot police skirmish!

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Random Warning Posters Spotted

One of the biggest problems in citizen surveys that are published in the press over the years has been security on the streets of Barcelona. Percentages suggest that we're no better off now than the previous years despite clean up operations tackling different areas and degrees of security. I've blogged before on here about many of Barcelona's scams and unfortunately none of these seem to be disappearing.

So I know the changing face of graffiti and street art in Barcelona evolves quickly - like scrawls to real art and then the stencils-style, but I've been seeing an increasing amount of fly-postering recently, and thought I'd share this one. This was spotted on a typical Barcelona old town street not one which I would consider to be a particularly high crime area, but guess there'll be more out and about too. Good on whoever is doing this (I could see no means of tracing or identifying the authors) - it's direct, but not shock tactics. Click the picture for a bigger image, but the caption at the bottom says "Look back, there's a pickpocket behind you". Anyone else seen anything similar ? I know these usually crop up in more than one. Let me know in the comments (or take a pic on your phone or whatever).

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Last "Classico" tonight - Job Done?

Tonight sees the second leg semi-final of the Champions League between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. After last week's poor advert for what is generally a great sporting event, Barça came out on top after a pretty soft explusion for Real and that man Messi wowed us all with two pieces of individual skill.



As usual, "El Traductor" Jose Mourinho had plenty to complain about when teams were finally allowed out of the dressing rooms after being held back by UEFA representatives at the Bernabau last week to calm things down. Jose's such a bad loser, and blamed almost everyone including UNICEF (Barca shirt sponsor) and every referee that has given a decision against a team he has managed. With the 2-0 advantage, it's looking pretty much like job done, but you never can tell in football, can you? Real certainly have strength in depth and I certainly wouldn't be taking things lightly knowing Kaka is likely to start, despite the suspensions that Madrid are having to deal with.


Barça are taking no chances, and (obviously) have been very calm "job not done yet" kind of comments all week and after last week's win. And they will be wanting to make the atmosphere count as that 13th man, too, tonight in Camp Nou. Each seat will have people posters to make the Catalan and Barça flag, and there will be 1500 brave Madrid fans who will be taking their seats - presumably alongside Jose Mourinho who was sent to the stands last game and misses this one, too - in the stands to cheer on their team.

I'll be hoping for a proper game, a lot less scrappy than last week, and I really think it could go one of two ways. Mourinho won't want to be carved open on the counter so won't go all out attacking, but then again they need to score at least 2 goals to have options in the game which is no mean feat away from home. I think he might just try and stifle the game and play too defensively and rely on the odd set piece to try and get the gaols. However, I hope I'm wrong, and he throws caution to the wind!! We'll have to see.


By the way, if you're looking for somewhere special to watch the match, you can choose from one of the city's finest terraces to watch the match if you like. Don't think it'll be raining looking at the skies today!

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Barcelona Under the Stars

There's a pretty smart initiative for the coming month - assuming the weather behaves itself. I've spoken before about some of the best places for a rooftop cocktail in the city, and really only touched on a few places. However, from the 3rd to 7th May you have the opportunity to step up to 36 of the city's best terraces (many rooftop) with a variety of different activities ranging from hip hop music, magic shows, cinema screenings, gastronomy demos to literature readings.



Launched via the Gremi d'hotels de Barcelona, the idea is to encourage the locals to take more of an advantage of the fantastic spaces throughout the city to go out for dinner and a drink. There is also a photography competition running throughout the 5 days for those with a fancy for snapping with prizes of ipod shuffle, camera and a night in a 4 or 5 star hotel up for grabs.

Funnily enough the first night is the return leg of the semi-final of the Champions League between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barça look to have the tie pretty much wrapped up after Leo Messi's brilliant sparks of individual skill this week, but hey - pretty cool place to watch the match, right?! For a full programme of events and dates, see the website here. Do you fancy any of the nights? Let me know in the comments.

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Easter Graffiti Anyone?

It's been a while since I've posted about graffiti, but for those new here, it's worth mentioning that I quite like it. Not the scrawls and the tags left almost everywhere possible, and I'm not that impressed by those that are like transfers (although some are great - like real Banksy style) - I mean the real arty stuff that takes time, effort and real imagination and above all skill.

So with the week being Holy Week, and me having covered some of the cool traditions in the past such as the processions I didn't want to repeat stuff you'll already know, but have a lot of respect for this time, too. So when I saw the graffiti here below, I thought it might be (cheekily) appropriate to post.



It was raining, so it's a little bit blurred, but you can clearly see the "back from the dead" zombie theme and click for a bigger pic. Good Friday today, so maybe I'm posting a bit early as no-one has risen/come back from the dead just yet, but there you go. Not sure how long the work will last either, as the council are pretty quick in spending the public's money covering up some perfectly good stuff - but this is on a building site, so may be safe for a while. Thoughts? Leave me a comment guys.

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Copa del Rey Big Screen Or Not?

This evening sees the second of four encounters of FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid - the first being a 1-1 draw in the league on 16th April. Jose Mourinho has been heavily criticised for the way he went about the game, but has responded by being "not bothered" in typical style.



Tonight's game is the final of the King's Cup and obviously cannot end in a draw. The game is being played at Valencia's Mestalla stadium and tickets have been sold out for a long time. Barça are perhaps favourites with their record in the cup (25 wins) and their all-round football this season plus their slender lead in La Liga too.

I was alerted this week for plans of a Big Screen to broadcast the match at Plaça Catalunya, so imagine my surprise when the big screen today is displaying the note of "The match will not be broadcast" ?! Now, I don't know if that's because it was TV3 and the match is not going to be broadcast on TV3 or if the powers that be have really decided not to put the match on at all.

Unfortunately, FC Barcelona fans have a poor record of public behaviour (whether they win or not) and given the date co-incides with a huge influx of tourists due to it being Easter Week, maybe the authorities have decided against people being caught in the crossfire? There was no-one around to ask and check, so I'm unsure!!?

Let's hope for a great match this evening, much more open as points are not at stake, and another great dress rehearsal for the up-coming semi-finals of the Champions League featuring the two teams again.

Anyone shed any light on the big screen? Is it or isn't it? Seems a waste to set the whole thing up, then not show the match, right?!

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