Things to do in Barcelona

Journalists, designers, art historians, musicians and other authors of unusual Tripster tours will talk about what is not written in guidebooks and show the city that is usually not shown to tourists. Today is about Barcelona.

Barcelona is such a special city that you can’t, it’s simply impossible to come just once. First, you want to lie down on the beach, sunbathe and drink mojitos in beach "chiringuitos". Then interest awakens in the Old Town - the streets of the Gothic Quarter and Born, youth bars and crowded squares of Gracia. Then it seems necessary to visit all the fish restaurants in Barceloneta - one restaurant every day. Then - ride a bike along the coast, ten or twenty kilometers. In general, there are so many exciting activities here that you definitely do not have time to complete them all at once. What to do, you have to come again and again. For those who have already completed their minimum program - lie on the beach and see the main sights of the city, we offer ideas for a curious pastime in Barcelona. Once again, they are not enough!

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1. Climb all the available terraces of the city in hotels and restaurants, drink a cocktail or a glass of champagne, look around the city from the height of a seagull.

2. Take a train, drive 20 minutes along the sea, get out and stay on a large, clean, uncrowded beach somewhere near the town of Okata. After 8 pm you can even fish here.

3. Go down the subway, find the underpasses where the El Músics al Metro poster hangs with the schedule of bands performing, and arrange an evening of free concerts with good acoustics and the opportunity to listen to musicians from the front rows. By the way, the Musics al Metro project is already 13 years old!

4. Go to the old Arab baths Aire de Barcelona, which are still working: plunge into pools with water of different temperatures, lie in a hot jacuzzi, relax with a massage, cheer up and invigorate spirit with aromatherapy.

5. On warm evenings, listen to live music in the parks. Also free!

6. Go to small hot semi-basement bars for a real, "non-tourist" flamenco - one that puts you in a trance, from which you want to cry and dance to the beat of voices, guitar and foot rhythm at the same time.

7. Visit the Sagrada Familia from the service entrance: meet the chief architect of the temple, listen to a story about how the construction is being carried out, put on the issued helmet, take a walk along the scaffolding with the staff of the Sagrada.

8. Master the drawing technique of Dali, Picasso and other famous Spanish artists in the famous Tras school.

9. Walk through the Masonic places, go to the Arus Library and other significant places of the secret lodge.

10. Hide from the heat in the old patio of the University of Barcelona.

11. Look at Barceloneta from a new angle: not as a fashionable place with hotels, restaurants, discos and a beautiful promenade, but as once the poorest part of the city, whose inhabitants did not want to surrender to poverty and became the first anarchists in Europe.

12. Eat at non-touristic cafes and small family restaurants. It is easy to recognize them: only locals sit at the tables, they are served by waiters of venerable age, black-and-white photographs of Barcelona celebrities of the 60s are hung on the walls. Prices don't bite!

13. Learn how to cook Catalan cuisine, for example in the main culinary school of the Boquería market with Chef Eulalia Fargas.

14. Take part in local festivities, such as the Festa Major de Gràcia, which takes place annually in August. This is the most famous district festival in Barcelona, but other district festivals are also held throughout the year - Barceloneta, Sarria and others.

15. Take the metro to the highest point of the city (stop Av. Tibidabo) and then go down the Balmes and Rambla streets to the sea, looking at the city like a layer cake. Upstairs, where the cream pie is usually, rich citizens live, below, by the sea, historically lived the poorest stratum of the population.

16. Buy candles in the oldest shop in Barcelona and arrange an impromptu photo shoot in the scenery of the old shop interiors.

17. Take a ferry and leave for Mallorca for three days. They also speak Catalan and love tapas, but the wind in Mallorca is still fresher, and for breakfast here and only here they serve ensaimada - twisted pastries made using eggs, sugar, milk, yeast and pork fat, poured with apricot jam or served with sausage.

We thank Tripster for help in preparing the material and personally the author Alexandra Vyal. Embark on unusual excursions from creative citizens in 228 cities around the world!