There are lots of secret places in Barcelona, lots of not so famous places despite the quality of their service, food, drinks or prices. There are so many places that will be the labor of a lifetime to point out every single outstanding corner of this ever changing city… There are too disappeared places, demolished in times when nobody cared about the value – architectonical, historical or symbolical – for a city with too much history. Today I’m speaking about the most luxuri

Did you know that you could travel almost to every part of Spain without moving from Barcelona? That was the purpose of Poble Espanyol, this big open-air exhibition in Montjuic. It was constructed in 1929, when the International Exhibition took place in Barcelona. This exposition brought development and progress to the city, especially to the Montjuic area. It brought to Barcelona not only the Poble Espanyol, but The Magic Fountain, Espanya Square, the Greek Theatre, the Olym

I’ve been in a big bunch of places (whose names I’m not going to reveal), where after getting the first sip of my drink the full lyrics of a famous song by Alice Cooper start scrolling inside my head. That’s because I only drink things the barman uncap before my eyes. This idea came to my head last Friday, when suddenly this song starts playing in Fantastico Club and I found out that I was enjoying my drink as much as the music. Indie music, great night and stories to tell: a

Pa amb tomàquet (bread with tomato) is one of the more beloved meals in Catalonia. It is for everybody, all social classes, and always welcome. We are never lazy about preparing some and where we are not in our country is what we are missing the most. Involving the pa amb tomàquet, I have noticed that there are two big mysteries yet unresolved: 1. What is the perfect pa amb tomàquet? 2. Why has no one copied it yet? Why are they not offering it in China o the EEUU? I'm totall

You know those places that are cool? Cool for the cool? Naive cool? With the aspiration to be cooler everyday? That is Manchester Bar. Usually the trendy places keep unknown and undiscovered, hidden in conveniently narrow streets and surrounded by signs that advertise that there is something worthy to discover very near... if you know how to search. A priori, there is nothing new inside, but for sure they will be the first to offer. How themselves say: “the coolest music is f

Don’t you think Barcelona is the perfect scenario for one of those Freemasons Stories that people read in the metro? It’s the excuse to blame the Freemasons for everything evil that ever happened, or relate evil to something less ghostly and complicated than Market Laws. The corny true is that the Freemasons were no more than Trade Unions when the associations of workers were illegal and punished (think about how it works as a secret message: who is the freemason now, Dan Bro

Ok, then. Here is the second tradition for Christmas that only happens in Catalonia. It's the Cagatió. Before explaining anything it's important to tell you about the origin of the word, because it can cause some confusion. If you can understand some Spanish you will know that "caga" means - as we explained before - "to make shit", but "tió" doesn't mean "dude" -if you were thinking so- it means "log of wood" (see the picture). The whole word means, literally: the log that m

This may seem kind of a joke, but it is not. In fact, this is one of the most popular and funniest traditions in Catalonia. Everybody knows that in Spain there is a particular tradition when Christmas arrives: in most of the houses the family arrange a -we can call it- diorama made of clay figures, wood, musk and sawdust of the moment the Three Magic Kings (Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar) arrived in Bethlehem (the one 7 miles away from Jerusalem, not the one in Arkansas or Nort

Coffee and art were born one for another. It's not a risky afirmation, it's a fact of the real life I digged from my experience. For both you need a contemplative mood and a passive attitude. And if you think about it, there is nothing you can tell about a coffee that you can't repeat looking at a paint ( It's armonious, It's hot, It's strong, It's intense, It's liquid, It takes a time to digest, I don't feel quite well after it, or it resurrects me!) and meaning it... So, th

Some places are so old - so frozen in time - that become trendy for a little while. I don't want you to think that Mundial Bar is a cool place disguised as a typical bar of tapas for the amusement of the foreigner. Mundial Bar is a relic trapped in amber, what is knonw as - and we can barely use the term - neighborhood bar, one of the few that remain the same. For more information: Mundial Bar #bar #barcelona #mundialbar #barcelonaguide #beer #birra #born #cerveza #coolplaces