While I'm still editing and posting Barcelona vlogs (though I do have other videos coming up after that!), I thought it appropriate that I should give you something a little bit more substantive about my thoughts on traveling to the Catalan capital.
1. I have never been to a city with so many French Bulldogs in my life. Why does everyone have a Frenchie in Barcelona? I don't know, but they're adorable and they are everywhere. Everywhere.
2. Despite (technically, obviously) being a part of Spain and everyone being able to speak Spanish, Catalan is the obvious preference and if you attempt to speak it in favor of Spanish, people brighten up a lot toward you. Capital of Catalonia goes without saying.
3. Without throwing my opinion on the matter into the ring, there's a lot of tacit support for Catalonian independence, whether it be flags or posters on storefronts that support the perhaps-upcoming referendum on precisely that. There is not a single neighborhood that lacks it, nor did I observe any part of town that was visibly toward the other end of the spectrum.
4. Barcelona has something of a reputation for being party central (though pales in comparison to Ibiza), though the atmosphere seems more mixed. The swarms of people around the city on New Year's Eve who didn't count down to midnight, didn't shout at midnight, didn't do much of anything except be present is a good symbolic representation of this. It is certainly no Brazilian city.
5. Tourist attractions are astonishingly expensive when you have to pay for them, but the city as a whole doesn't come close to the astronomical costs of Paris or London or Scandinavia. It's pleasantly accessible if you're not there just for the sake of touristing. Or even if you are, and don't like to just see the same churches and museums that everyone goes to on every pit stop of every famous large city.
6. Catalan is, as a language, not just some peculiar dialect of Spanish. It's different, and it's confusing to the ears just as much as the eyes if you have never encountered it before but otherwise understand Romance languages fairly well.
7. Gaudà was probably a hallucinogenics addict, or so it seems when you look at his buildings popping out of the otherwise conservative urban forms surrounding them.
8. The effects of the crisis are not immediately visible. There are very few shuttered storefronts, the shopping centers are all full of people buying things, and countless different banks are absolutely everywhere. It's quite the opposite of the situation in Lisbon.
9. Legal holidays are taken very seriously, so if you didn't know or forgot that there were three days of holidays in a row and didn't stock up on food, you're going to have a hard time not eating out and spending a fortune. Even the supermarkets in shopping centers close. There are always small immigrant-run convenience stores open to flout that general rule, though.
10. The best part about Barcelona is getting out of Barcelona, because you have accessibility to everything nearby. Mountains, beaches, two other countries, Valencia, it's all within a couple of hours at the very most.
1. I have never been to a city with so many French Bulldogs in my life. Why does everyone have a Frenchie in Barcelona? I don't know, but they're adorable and they are everywhere. Everywhere.
2. Despite (technically, obviously) being a part of Spain and everyone being able to speak Spanish, Catalan is the obvious preference and if you attempt to speak it in favor of Spanish, people brighten up a lot toward you. Capital of Catalonia goes without saying.
3. Without throwing my opinion on the matter into the ring, there's a lot of tacit support for Catalonian independence, whether it be flags or posters on storefronts that support the perhaps-upcoming referendum on precisely that. There is not a single neighborhood that lacks it, nor did I observe any part of town that was visibly toward the other end of the spectrum.
4. Barcelona has something of a reputation for being party central (though pales in comparison to Ibiza), though the atmosphere seems more mixed. The swarms of people around the city on New Year's Eve who didn't count down to midnight, didn't shout at midnight, didn't do much of anything except be present is a good symbolic representation of this. It is certainly no Brazilian city.
5. Tourist attractions are astonishingly expensive when you have to pay for them, but the city as a whole doesn't come close to the astronomical costs of Paris or London or Scandinavia. It's pleasantly accessible if you're not there just for the sake of touristing. Or even if you are, and don't like to just see the same churches and museums that everyone goes to on every pit stop of every famous large city.
6. Catalan is, as a language, not just some peculiar dialect of Spanish. It's different, and it's confusing to the ears just as much as the eyes if you have never encountered it before but otherwise understand Romance languages fairly well.
7. Gaudà was probably a hallucinogenics addict, or so it seems when you look at his buildings popping out of the otherwise conservative urban forms surrounding them.
8. The effects of the crisis are not immediately visible. There are very few shuttered storefronts, the shopping centers are all full of people buying things, and countless different banks are absolutely everywhere. It's quite the opposite of the situation in Lisbon.
9. Legal holidays are taken very seriously, so if you didn't know or forgot that there were three days of holidays in a row and didn't stock up on food, you're going to have a hard time not eating out and spending a fortune. Even the supermarkets in shopping centers close. There are always small immigrant-run convenience stores open to flout that general rule, though.
10. The best part about Barcelona is getting out of Barcelona, because you have accessibility to everything nearby. Mountains, beaches, two other countries, Valencia, it's all within a couple of hours at the very most.
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