Guide to Barcelona That I Would Want to Get If I Were New to This City Again

guide to barcelona that i would want to get if i were new to this city again

July 2019 Jan J Brancewicz

GENERAL

Getting there • Fly to / from Barcelona-El Prat airport. Avoid Barcelona-Girona and Barcelona-Reus - these are far away and bus ticket / taxi may cost as much as half of your ﬂight ticket • Don’t use Aerobus to reach Terminal T2 of El Prat airport (or city center from this terminal) unless there is no other option. Bus 46 is much cheaper

Public transport • Ticket T-10 Zona 1 is the best option for public transport. 1 journey up to 1.5 h costs about €1. Valid in almost all types of public transport here (metro, bus, FGC) • If you can use metro, use it. Buses are slow and usually get stuck in trafﬁc jams • Bicing (€50 / year; NIE number required) or Donkey Republic (€9-18 / month or ‘Just Ride’) bikes are some alternatives to ‘conventional’ public transport, but I recommend buying a cheap bike for €50-70. I bought mine from Paloma Bikes and usually repaired it in Ajo Bikes • After purchasing a bike, remember to secure the saddle with a lock or chain, as they get often stolen. I recommend buying one or even two solid D-locks that cost about 20% of your bike’s price • There is no Uber or Taxify in Barna. Download mytaxi app and expect high prices • Renfe app for railway transport simply doesn’t work (and again, you need NIE number to register). It’s better to check train schedules on Google Maps and buy tickets in orange machines located in railway stations (ie Barcelo Sants, Passeig de Gracia or Estacio de Franca) • Renting a car from Enterprise (https://www.enterprise.es/es/home.html) is a good option for longer excursions in continental Spain. On Tenerife, rent a car from Autoreisen (https:// autoreisen.com/) - professional customer service, decent insurance included, and much cheaper than AVIS or many other car rental companies

Getting NIE number • Oh boy, it’s problematic! If you need it (ie when buying a ﬂat, opening Spanish bank account, applying for Spanish phone number, or considering Bicing subscription), make sure to book the visit in police department well in advance (1-2 months are minimum) and ask your employer / ofﬁce of international relations to prepare all needed documents • Be warned that many companies sell „cita previa” (certain booking dates), which might be an option if getting NIE is super urgent for you • Erasmus students, even staying for longer than 3 months, don’t usually care about NIE. I didn’t.

[email protected] 2019 Jan J Brancewicz 1 of 5 RENTING A FLAT

• Is expensive and actually there aren’t many of them, so you may consider estate agency help or simply renting a room in a shared apt. Here are some websites to search for rooms to rent: - https://www.idealista.com/en/venta-viviendas/barcelona-barcelona/ - http://www.resahousing.com/ - If you’re an Erasmus student, expect some offers from university alumni sent by Dean’s Office - Sometimes there are good deals on Airbnb or booking.com, but it may work for rather short- term rentals (eg family and friends visits). However, if you decide to rent your room via Airbnb, the owner may contact you privately to bypass Airbnb fees • Most of University of Barcelona faculties and IRB buildings are located far away from the city center (640-ish Diagonal St.) while some classes take place in UPF in Barceloneta, and also there is PRBB center where you may want to perform an internship. Hence, renting a room in Sants, Corts or Eixample (slightly off-center but still close to main rail hubs) seems smart • Make sure that your room has a radiator and that windows aren’t too drafty - even in Spain winter days can be really freezing! • Rooms with no windows or windows opening to walls / internal chimneys are a €350-450 room standard. Avoid them or consult taking antidepressants • Don’t rent flats on ground or first floor - in summer there may be some problems with vermin

VISIT FOR FREE

Apart from dozens of places typically mentioned in guides, I recommend: • Bunkers El Caramel. Best 360 city skyline views and colorful sunsets. Bring your own food, alcohol and necessarily some jacket because it’s quite windy there. Gets crowded about 6pm • Sewers of Barcelona. Only if you’re into pipe tourism (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ sewers-of-barcelona) • Bar La Caseta del Migdia on Montjuic. Great sunsets and weekend parties. Open only 12-7pm on Saturday and Sunday. Moritz beer is quite mediocre, so go for local wine and barbecue • MNAC / Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Pretty good XIX-century art collection. Rooftop walk recommended. Free on Saturdays after 3pm and every ﬁrst Sunday of the month • Museo Picasso. Check free opening hours, availability and book tickets well in advance! • Don’t visit MUHBA. Completely boring and pointless, and very pale compared to eg Tate Modern • Castell de Montjuic. Free opening hours seem to change frequently. Recently I entered for free after 3pm on Sunday

FOOD

• La Xampanyeria. Most ‘local’ and ‘authentic’ bar in Barceloneta. Crowded, tiny and noisy. Good cheap €3.85 burgers. Bring cash and be patient • La Bombeta. Another ‘authentic’, nonpretentious place, also in Barceloneta. Good seafood and famous ‘bombas’, ie potatoes ﬁlled with meat and covered with spicy sauce. Cash! • Xurreria Trebol. Located in Gracia, cash only. Best churros, quite expensive. Try thick ones ﬁlled with vanilla creme and don’t buy more than two (you won’t be able to eat even this much) [email protected] 2019 Jan J Brancewicz 2 of 5 • Bodega La Puntual. Ask for €10 „white champanyet” and olives • Irati Taverna Basca. Delicious tapas. Don’t forget to collect toothpicks, otherwise they’ll charge you with some general restaurant fee • Xino Mandarino. Nice Chinese restaurant in Eixample • O’Toxo 3 Hermanos. Best paella in El Raval, overpriced as any other. And crema catalana, served in the plates of the size of a little pond • Oval. Located in Eixample, quite posh and pricey. Tens of tasty, customizable hamburgers, also for vegans • Carrer de Blai. Tens of tapas and vermouth bars. La Tasqueta de Blai is one of my favorites • Tintoreria Dontell. A restaurant behind a fake dry cleaning service. Forever amazed. Closes soon :(

PUBS

• BrewDog Barcelona. Good inexpensive tap beers, every week new types. Good music • La Chapelle. Gay (but hetero-friendly) pub in Eixample. Heart-warming collection of Mary- Jesus-St John ﬁgures and almost any type of devotional articles • Botanic. Another gay pub, usually very quiet. Lovely jubbly banana garden in the backyard • Le Journal. Good vermouth place • 100 Montaditos. Cheap, ‘I’m-waiting-for-my-salary’ bars where you can get a decent beer. Located everywhere in the city. Learn asking for ‘caña’ (small beer) instead of a regular pint! • Rubi Bar. Tasty, middle-priced drinks in the heart of El Born • Bar Mut. Invite your rich parents and ask waiter for the most expensive white wine. Waiters will also help you to compose your perfect, personalized meal or dessert, based on your taste, mood, zodiac sign, dream journal and shoe size • Placa d’Osca. Good place to jump for a moment with friends if you live in Sants. Bring your own alcohol because pubs close pretty early there (around midnight) • Berenjenal. Too ‘studenty’ for me, but mojitos for mere €3 are a thing, right? • Many others on Carrer de Joaquin Costa, C. dels Tallers, C. de Muntaner and in Eixample

CLUBS & PARTIES

• Sala Apolo. Monthly gay party called Churros con Chocolate is the best party event in the city and literally everybody attends it. Always on Sunday, starts super early. Come no later than 7-8pm. Free entrance until 10pm • Razzmatazz. Most famous, 5-ﬂoor monster. Expensive and you need to pay extra for concerts • Moog. Little, dingy techno club in El Raval. I’ve heard that best parties take place on Thursdays • Safari. Frequent gay event called Mordisko is also worth recommending • DICK’S. Another popular night club. You’ll meet there nearly everyone • Input. A bit bizzare and quite hard to localize at ﬁrst (https://www.inputbcn.com/)

[email protected] 2019 Jan J Brancewicz 3 of 5 BEACHES

• Montgat. Number 1 beach in Barcelona surroundings. 30 minutes by bike to the north of Barceloneta or R1 train from Barna Sants. Long, quite windy and never crowded. Perfect for water sports • Platja de Castelldefels - Cala de la Ginesta. Small and not as crowded as the main 5 km-long beach in Castelldefels. Rocks shield you from wind and form a nice enclave • Tarragona - Platja de Ambassador. Broad, separated from the town and covered by remarkably nice yellow sand. Visit Waikiki Beach too if you feel like going 1 h from the railway station to enjoy privacy and beauty of this place (https://one-week-in.com/waikiki-beach- tarragona/) • Badalona Beach. Close to Barna, clean and broad. Music beach bars every 100 meters • Premia del Mar. Tourists don’t usually go that far, and it’s its main advantage

Don’t: • Garraf. Super crowded and not as pretty as in pictures • Sitges. Always crowded and the sea tends to eat up the sand. The town is worth visiting tho, so if you still feel like having a beach day, I recommend nothern part of Platja de Sant Sebastia • Barceloneta Beach. Crowded, noisy, dirty, and occupied by „blanket people”

CITY-BREAK TRIPS

• Sitges. Unpretentious yet bustling town to the south of Barna, remarkable for its enormous Carnival and vivid gay scene. Beaches are always crowded but the views are picturesque. Also, Old Town has ‘this thing’. I recommend seafood and vermouth in Karmela Terracita restaurant • Tarragona. Roman town to the south of Sitges, also totally worth recommending. Don’t miss the picturesque Carrer Major and watch the sunset from the terrace • Bike path from Barceloneta to Vilassar del Mar. Unfortunately later merges with a busy highway • Costa Brava. Playa de Aro is a perfect place for a moment of solitude, but Tossa del Mar is the actual pearl of this coast. What about a trip from Blanes to Portbou? • Vineyards in Penedes. Again, renting a car may be necessary (https://www.spain.info/en_GB/ que-quieres/gastronomia/rutas-vino/barcelona/rutas-del-vino-y-del-cava-del-penedes.html)

Consider cheap ﬂights to Mallorca (my cheapest hit was €17), Lisbon (and also TAP Portugal / Vueling connections with western European cities via Lisbon) and Tenerife (Pico del Teide, highest mountain in Spain and third highest volcano on Earth is waiting for you there; remember to get an access permit at least 1-2 months in advance https://www.reservasparquesnacionales.es/real/ ParquesNac/usu/html/Previo-inicio-reserva-oapn.aspx?ii=6ENG&cen=2&act=%201 or drop me an e-mail on alternative route to the peak � ). Check also Ouibus journeys to nearby French cities, eg Toulouse, Carcassonne, Montpellier, Marseille and Bordeaux

I regret I didn’t have enough free weekends for: kayaking in National Park of River Ebro Delta; visiting postcard pretty towns: Manresa, Cardona, Rupit i Pruit, Masia Freixa, Lleida, and Zaragoza; and Salvadore Dali Museum in Figueres. All recommended by local guides

[email protected] 2019 Jan J Brancewicz 4 of 5 TREKKING

It’s hard to get some decent paper maps of surrounding mountain ranges. Download OsmAnd app • Collserola. Huge forest just behind Barna. You can start from Tibidabo (funicular!) or take S1 / S2 FGC train from Pl. Catalunya to Baixador de Vallvidrera. A number of easy, color-marked trails start from Information Center (https://www.parcnaturalcollserola.cat/user/ed/Walks %20Collserola.pdf), but I recommend exploring wilder parts of Collserola, eg green trail to Mas Pins and then to Les Planes / La Floresta • Montserrat. Bizzare rocks, dope wildlife and absolutely stunning views. Quite crowded during weekends. Start from Pl. d’Espanya (train R5, direction: Manresa, €10.50 return ticket) and take off in Aeri de Montserrat. I went all the way by foot, to St Jeroni via Monestir de Montserrat and then to Monistrol de Montserrat via Sta Magdalena and, again, Monestir de Montserrat. From Monistrol take R5 to Pl. d’Espanya. Avoid spending too much on cable car / funicular! (https:// thewholeworldornothing.com/montserrat-barcelona-hike/) • Montseny. Probably most peaceful and greenest mountain range in Catalonia. No tourists. Start from Montseny village (easily accessible by car), ascend Turo de l’Home (highest peak) and then Les Agudes (https://pl.wikiloc.com/szlaki-wycieczki-piesze/turo-de-lhome-i-les-agudes-des- de-montseny-massis-del-montseny-4094412) • Zona Volcanica de la Garrotxa. Green, rural volcanic area 2 h by car from Barna. Start from Olot town and visit Sta Margarida volcano and Castell Colltort • Pyrenees - Val de Nuria. A real Alpine-type experience, only 2.5 h by car from Barna. Start from Queralbs and follow GR-11 trail to Nuria. On the way back, don’t miss Colada de Fontalba • Longer walking in Pyrenees. A bunch of ideas: https://www.barcelonaesmoltmes.cat/ documents/18771743/39658088/10+TRAILS+IN+BARCELONA-EN.pdf/ c1f97fd2-6596-4f07-9509-b4aaeb8c8a14 (I suggest Cami dels Bons Homes and of course famous Way of St James) • Wow, Costa Brava trekking! https://www.costabravalifestyle.com/activities/costa-brava-hiking/

EVENTS

I was living in Barna from January to July, meaning that I have little knowledge about what happens in summer-fall season. Events that I enjoyed most are in bold • February: Carnival in Sitges http://www.visitsitges.com/en/carnaval-sitges-2019 • February: Correfoc http://hiszpania-portal.pl/correfoc-i-ball-de-diables-parady-diablow/ • First week of March: Sant Medir in Gracia • March: Las Fallas in Valencia • April 23rd: Sant Jordi in Las Ramblas • May/June: La Patum in Berga - UNESCO www.lapatum.cat • June 23rd: Sant Joan • Terrassa Jazz Picnics in Parc de Vallaparadis https://www.jazzterrassa.org/ • Barcelona Jazz Festival www.jazz.barcelona • June: Summer solstice bonﬁres in the Pyrenees • June-August: Open-air Film Festival https://www.salamontjuic.org/en/

[email protected] 2019 Jan J Brancewicz 5 of 5

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