Sunday, August 29, 2004
The Famous Barcelona Nightlife
(This will give you some idea of the hours that Barcelonins keep. I went into a restaurant called Domestic at just after nine pm and they looked at me like I was crazy. Seems the kitchens didn´t open for another quarter-hour or so. The food was delicious, and when I left around ten pm only two other people had shown up).
As for the Famous Barcelona Nightlife-
It´s certainly true that Barcelonins don´t feel any particular urge to go to bed, ever. At midnight, at three in the morning, the streets are fully of people wandering about. My guess is that they are doing what I was doing: looking for the Famous Barcelona Nightlife. Because it´s not very much in evidence.
On balance, Barcelona appears to be no more exciting than Geneva, and let me tell you, Gentle Reader, I´ve seen the nightlife in Geneva and she ain´t worth the trip. Many of the bars are deserted (on a Saturday night!) and the rest, I´m sorry to say, are full of tourists. Mostly Germans (of course) or worse, English stag parties. They seem to like Barcelona for some reason. I don´t know why.
Or maybe I do, since I got grabbed by a hooker last night. Not grabbed by the arm and dragged somewhere, the way Thai B-girls and South African beggars do. She grabbed me round the waist and tried to transact business. I made an excuse and left early. (This happened on the street BTW: La Rambla, one of the biggest streets in the old town. Somehow I can´t imagine this happening on, say, Shaftesbury Avenue).
Maybe I just got the city on a bad night. I´ve heard that most Barcelonins go away in August and certainly, if a bunch of English stag parties are about to roll into town, going away is a pretty good idea. But I went here expecting something of the vibe that Cape Town has, or Prague, or even London sometimes, and I haven´t seen it yet. Oh well, at least the weather has been good...
More on this tomorrow I guess, if there is any "more" to blog about...
UPDATE: Reading over this entry I see I missed out what I found most disappointing about Barcelona's nightlife. It is an overwhelmingly target-poor environment. Single women in Barcelona do not appear to go out in the evenings, either by themselves or in sets (the whole three nights I was in the city I saw exactly two Spanish girls, and they didn't look old enough to be drinking). Again, maybe I picked the wrong week to visit; maybe all the Barceloninas were off in London trying to hook up with Brits...
As for the Famous Barcelona Nightlife-
It´s certainly true that Barcelonins don´t feel any particular urge to go to bed, ever. At midnight, at three in the morning, the streets are fully of people wandering about. My guess is that they are doing what I was doing: looking for the Famous Barcelona Nightlife. Because it´s not very much in evidence.
On balance, Barcelona appears to be no more exciting than Geneva, and let me tell you, Gentle Reader, I´ve seen the nightlife in Geneva and she ain´t worth the trip. Many of the bars are deserted (on a Saturday night!) and the rest, I´m sorry to say, are full of tourists. Mostly Germans (of course) or worse, English stag parties. They seem to like Barcelona for some reason. I don´t know why.
Or maybe I do, since I got grabbed by a hooker last night. Not grabbed by the arm and dragged somewhere, the way Thai B-girls and South African beggars do. She grabbed me round the waist and tried to transact business. I made an excuse and left early. (This happened on the street BTW: La Rambla, one of the biggest streets in the old town. Somehow I can´t imagine this happening on, say, Shaftesbury Avenue).
Maybe I just got the city on a bad night. I´ve heard that most Barcelonins go away in August and certainly, if a bunch of English stag parties are about to roll into town, going away is a pretty good idea. But I went here expecting something of the vibe that Cape Town has, or Prague, or even London sometimes, and I haven´t seen it yet. Oh well, at least the weather has been good...
More on this tomorrow I guess, if there is any "more" to blog about...
UPDATE: Reading over this entry I see I missed out what I found most disappointing about Barcelona's nightlife. It is an overwhelmingly target-poor environment. Single women in Barcelona do not appear to go out in the evenings, either by themselves or in sets (the whole three nights I was in the city I saw exactly two Spanish girls, and they didn't look old enough to be drinking). Again, maybe I picked the wrong week to visit; maybe all the Barceloninas were off in London trying to hook up with Brits...
