Re-Energizing In Barcelona
Barcelona is an incredibly fun and high class city. Take a walk along the city's scenic beach and you'll get a great taste of the striking and very creative restaurants and clubs the city has to offer. Anywhere you travel in Barcelona you feel a good vibe. A vibe that comes from a people that love to have fun, and are always looking forward to the next night out with family and friends.
Barcelona is one of those cities that re-energizes you and makes you feel more alive. It's the type of place that beautiful Spanish men and women flock to, and just try to pass the time each day, looking forward to the next great night out. And it's a city synonymous with people that party every night of the working week. Barcelona is a city of siestas, fine food, great shopping and some of the best bars and clubs I've ever been to. And I loved the time I got to spend there!
What We Did In Barcelona
Barcelona is filled with amazing attractions and things you've just got to see - like the Les Rambles, Plaça de Espana, and Le Segrada Familia. The Les Rambles is a series of streets that are joined together one after the other, that lead from Placa Catalunya (with its massive Christopher Columbus pillar) to the sea. And it's the main shopping street in Barcelona. Walk down Les Rambles at any time of the day or night and you'll find people strolling it's streets. I highly recommend taking at least part of a day to relax, shop and take a stroll down Les Rambles to the beach.
While I was in Spain I did quite a bit of shopping along Les Rambles because the prices there are just incredible! In total I picked up a new zip-up sweater, nice shirt, a pair of pants, belt, and hat for around $150 US. In the United States for that quantity and quality of clothing I would have easily paid over $300! So I couldn't pass up the opportunity!
The Plaça de Espana, or Plaza of Spain, in Barcelona is one of many plazas throughout the country. But this one has an absolutely breathtaking view during the day, and a very cool and colorful water show during the evenings. The true beauty of plaza and its many fountains comes out at night. Each weekend (Friday through Sunday) from around 7 PM to 9 PM, the plaza starts to come alive. Music begins to play from around the square, and the large circular fountain in the center begins to "dance", change colors, and display different emotions. It's amazing to watch! Just make sure to get there early, because it gets extremely crowded at night.
Le Segrada Familia
Another incredible site in Barcelona is Le Segrada Familia. And this one will take a bit to setup, so bear with me. Le Segrada Familia is actually the oldest building in all of Barcelona, and amazingly it's still under construction, and they're still following the original building plans left by Spain's famous architect Antonio Gaudi. The massive structure is estimated to be completed sometime in 2015 - largely because of the Spanish Civil War, and general unrest that filled Barcelona after that time. The building has suffered a shortage of funding and has been completely halted several times during its construction.
But Gaudi's masterpiece is something incredible and odd to behold! The structure is meant to reflect the Gothic ideals (as it's built passionately in Gothic style) of creating structures that ignore formal concerns. It was Gaudi's goal to create something monumental that would instill viewers with a sense of sublimity and awe. And the structure does just that! One look at it and you can tell it was meant to be way over the top in scale, freedom in expression, and shock factor. The church is complete with fruit sculptures, a bush over one entrance that has birds flying out of it, and a general sense of chaos and boldness in its architectural design.
And what's truly amazing about the structure, is just how great of an example it is of what is essentially Barcelona's culture. Le Segrada Familia is bold, colorful, thought provoking, and absolutely massive. It's a perfect picture of just how open Barcelona, and Spain in general, are to freedom of expression and boldness of personality. You see this all around Barcelona in the color, fashion, look and sound of its people. Everyone in the city embraces their uniqueness and has their own unique and beautiful sense of style. And of course a part of this is always a bright green or yellow pair of Pumas. But that's just Barcelona, and it's something you come to love and admire about the city!
The Unbelievable Night Life
But even with all of the great attractions and sites, the real reason to visit Barcelona (and the thing I love most about the city) is its absolutely amazing nightlife! In no other place that I visited along my forty-day trip were the parties and clubs as energetic, fun and crazy as they were in Barcelona. And what's great about the city is that if you don't want to party, there's plenty of quiet and beautiful restaurants and bars to visit and hang out in. But if you want to party in Barcelona, you can find parties that are better than anywhere else in Europe. Barcelona is the party capital of Europe in my opinion!
In Barcelona you have the perfect combination! You've got great music, awesome clubs, and an abundance of beautiful people that know how to dance, live to party, and know how to have fun. You can't beat that! You really can't!
Our first night in Barcelona, I went out with Jocy and met a few guys from my group at Mare Magnum. And while getting to the club after being dropped off at Port Olympico (and finding our own way through the streets of Barcelona) was an interesting experience, the club was well worth it. The party was so good we all ended up taking a bunch of other people from our group there the second night!
Mare Magnum is a great place to go out in Barcelona! The club is on the top level of the Mare Magnum shopping center that's right on the bay. The top level doesn't open up until late at night - around 11 PM or so. And it consists of six different bars and clubs. There was a pub or two with live music, but absolutely no party. And then there were clubs, and some were just absolutely pumping! They all had live DJs that really knew how to make the crowd go crazy. And the music was louder, the bass lines were deeper, and the parties were better than they were anywhere else!
To sum it all up, Barcelona is an amazing, creative and energetic city to stop at and explore for a few days. I highly recommend all the sites that I listed. And I also recommend spending a few days just exploring the city and soaking up its re-energizing atmosphere. And if you like to party, definitely don't miss the great clubs and nightlife that Barcelona is known around the world for. The parties are absolutely incredible and memories of the clubs will make you want to dance each time you think about them!
- August 23rd, 2006
- By Daniel Scrivner
