Barcelona

[meHIGHyouLOW]

Im going to play in 5th World Heads Up Championship in barcelona next month. And would like hear some advices about places to check out where to stay etc.

Even tho I will spend much time at the casino, I will keep couple days total poker free.

What are some good museums and monuments to see? All kind of historical stuff is intresting.

Is there any special restaurant we MUST try?


How are the prices and will I do fine with my crappy english, or should I try to learn little spanish?

And the last question what hotel should I stay in? It should be pretty near to the casino C/ Marina 19-21
Barcelona 08005, ES

[Uglyowl]

PM jurollo... he played there last year.

[jdl22]

Barcelona is my favorite city in which to be a tourist. Check out all the Gaudi buildings, the parc guell, the picasso museum and the ramblas. You would also do well to check out a soccer match at the camp nou, but this will be quite difficult as the season is winding down (ends 29 May) and Barça are currently in first so getting tickets will be a problem.

When I was there in 2000 there was and almost surely still is a place you can go to get a coupon book for museums. It's setup as some sort of walking tour (it's not an organized group just a bunch of stuff you can see) of the city and primarily the Gaudi stuff and some museums. It's +EV only if you go to a couple things.

Not sure about the prices, I was there when it was still pesetas but it seemed pretty reasonable especially compared with places like London.

[ QUOTE ]

Is there any special restaurant we MUST try?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've got two friends from Barcelona, I'll ask them.

Oh yeah, English is ok. You don't really need to learn Spanish as basically everyone speaks at least broken English. Incidentally Spanish isn't the native language of most people there, though they all speak it fluently. They speak Catalan, which is a different language. You would probably get better results from learning a few basic catalan expressions, as the people will appreciate the effort. Here's some common phrases from Wikipedia:
Catalan: Català /kətəˈlɑ/
hello: hola /ˈɔlə/
good-bye: adéu /əˈðɛw/
please: si us plau /sisˈplɑw/
thank you: gràcies; mercès /ˈgrɑsjəs/; /mərˈsɛs/
sorry: perdó /pərˈðɔ/
that one: aquest (m.); aquesta (f.) /əˈkɛt/; /əˈkɛstə/
how much?: quant val; quant és /ˈkwɑmˈbɑl/; /ˈkwɑnˈtes/
yes: sí /ˈsɪ/
no: no /ˈno/
I don't understand: No ho entenc /ˈno wənˈteŋ/
Where's the bathroom?: On és el bany?; on és el labavo? /ˈonˈezəlˈβaɲ/; /ˈonˈezəlˈləˈβ&# 593;βu/
generic toast: Salut! /səˈlut/
Do you speak English?: Que parla anglès? /kə ˈpɑrlə ənˈglɛs/

[andyfox]

Great city. Make sure to walk down the Rambla, a pedestrian only thoroughfare that's one of the great streets in the world.

There's a restaurant in the old quarter called, I believe, Las Caracolles, which means "the snails." Its' been there forever, they serve snails, obviously, and even the bread is baked in the shape of a snail. Good roasts and paella and other things too. Be prepared to eat late, lot of restaurants don't even open until 9 or so.

There's lots of spectacular architecture by Gaudi, most especially an unfinished church that they've been building for over a hundred years called La Sagreda Familia (or something close to that). Don't miss it.

[meHIGHyouLOW]

About the soccer.

As a huge soccer fan or football as we call it in here europe.
Im more then intrested to go check one barcelona game, and actually they are playing the last home game of the season 22 de mayo de 2005 against villareal. I suppose thats a huge game, as Barcelona is pretty close to win the La Liga and villareal is close to get in to the UCL.

But as you said, its maybe very hard to get tickets there.
Or at least the prize of tickets will be very high in black markets..

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Garcia Lorca called Las Ramblas the only street in the world he wished would never end. I concur.

For the tapas hour (basically 5:00 - 7:30 PM) there are a variety of good places. I enjoyed Txampelo on Passeig de Gracia (IIRC it's a couple of blocks North of Plaza Catalunya on the northbound side). Also for basic Spanish tapas and beer open air, I liked Cervezeria Canarias in Plaza Real. There you get a fair amount of street musicians for entertainment.

If you're unfamiliar with Spain, remember that most businesses close between noon-4 PM weekdays for siesta. Traditional dinner hour is 10-11 PM and bars do not start getting busy, even during the week, until well after midnight. Clubs also stay open until 5-7 AM.

Enjoy. It's a great party town.

[jdl22]

Barça-Villarreal will be a monster match. I desperately hope that Barça can win that since I hate Real Madrid and my club, Sevilla as you can see, is currently sitting third in the table (which you can also see), but only one point up on Villarreal who have a match in hand. Fourth is good enough for the Champions.

I have a friend who has been a socio of Barça since birth, though I'm not sure he's ever attended a match (this sort of thing is relatively common since Barça is considered "more than a club" among Catalans, especially those with a (catalan) nationalist viewpoint). I'll ask him what would be the best way for a guiri to get tickets and see what he says. That reminds me that I was going to ask him about the restaurant thing...

[Jurollo]

Ah yes, I forgot to include Las Ramblas in my PM, and take a day to walk around the gothic quarter.
~Justin