Montserrat Day Out!

Right, happy new year to y’all out there. As you might have guessed one of my resolutions for 2012 isn’t to update this blog more often;) But tortoise-paced or otherwise it will blunder through another year of existence perhaps providing a rare moment of entertainment, or usefulness, en route…

The subject of my first post of the annum may as well be a rather pleasant day trip I made with a friend to Montserrat late last November. It had been on the radar for a while, but I was just waiting for a visitor to arrive with some vague cultural/outdoors interests – and as most of my friends are dissolute drunkards that took some time – so that I didn’t have to go on my Sweeney Todd.

Naturally being poor/tight/economical we elected to head to the sacred mountain by public transport – which was not as cheap as it should have been really! The rocks are only 38km out of Barcelona but you have to buy a special ticket which includes one of either a cable car or a windy train (cremallera) up from Montserrat train station to the abbey itself. When packaged together these suddenly become tourist priced! But there’s no way around it as far as I can see. Unless you fancy a very long trek up the mountain… but hiking’s not my game.

Anyway the good news is that it’s damn easy. Get your @ss to Placa Espanya train station, head over to the R5 line, and then there are two kiosks selling return tickets to Montserrat. One with the cable car, one with the windy train. We bought a ticket for the windy train, which also included a further two cable car journeys which you can make, once you’ve made the initial journey up the abbey. This cost about 23 euros. (There was a full monty ticket that also included museum entrance and lunch for about 36 euros).

The abbey of course is nice… it’s basically a big complex of which the most interesting building is the Basilica where you can – should you not mind queuing for ages – line up to see La Moreneta (Black Madonna). A famous religious icon amongst church-going Catholics. Naturally we skipped the icon and took one of the cable cars included in our ticket price down to the sacred cove – now a chapel – where La Moreneta was originally found (shepherds found it guided by a holy light of course). This was probably the highlight of the day out. The walk to the cove, after descending a little via cable car, was very scenic and marked by some impressive statues (commemorating the stations of the cross) and the holy chapel was very serene indeed… head out to the garden in the back.

I then convinced my friend that the small hiking trail we saw would lead us to some cool caves so off we set… however after about 20 minutes of some increasing dangerous trailing it was clear this was not an official path and the caves were nowhere to be seen. It was a nice jaunt, however that meant we missed the last cable car up to the very peak of the mountain… which I was a bit pissed off with myself about! However a bit of an incentive to go back at least.

Overall a great day trip and if you’re too lazy to go by public transport/train then there are tonnes of companies offering Montserrat tours leaving and returning to Barcelona.

Barcelona Travel App for iPhone

So you’re rich enough to afford an iPhone, but you’re too tight to pay for a travel app? Well you’ve got to cut corners somewhere amigo. Never fear you Mac-loving penny-pinching hipster, those gurus of travel at Lifeboat Ltd. (which I admit I might be slightly affiliated with) have released a corker of a travel app that not only covers Barcelona but some 25 other cities as well – and yes that’s right it’s completely free!

Using the Local Life app iPhone users can quickly see the nearest hotels apartments and hostels (you really should have booked in advance!), restaurants, bars (it’s even more reliable than an alcoholic’s nose in that sense) and god forbid cultural attractions if you really are running out of things to do on your Barcelona trip!

Once you’ve seen what’s nearby you can also actually check the reviews to see if this entity you’re heading towards completely sucks or not and even get directions. All in all, having road tested it a fair bit myself, I can honestly say it’s pretty handy!

So once more with feeling… for your free iPhone travel app to Barcelona click on this iTunes store link!

S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G… We’re Shopping

Right to start with I’d better post a link to the obscure Pet Shop Boys album track that I was so cleverly referencing in the title, but which you probably didn’t get (…and there’s really no reason why you should, unless like me you spent your first bit of hard-saved pocket money on Actually).

That business out of the way and I can begin the post. As the title suggests, recently I’ve been doing more than a fair bit of shopping in Barcelona. This might not seem very remarkable, but for someone whose annual clothes budget is about 1% of his beer budget, it is in fact quite rare. So, always on the look out for new subject to wax on about, I thought I’d take advantage of my new-found knowledge to share my experience of everything from Barcelona shopping centres to the city’s hip vintage boutique stores.

The most recent of my delvings into the retail world was a trip to La Roca Village… a whole fake-town dedicated to the Gods of commerce, on the outskirts of BCN. Naturally it’s not the sort of place I’d usually spend the day but I got dragged there and having forked out 12 euros for a return bus fare (they have an express service that leaves from Placa Catalunya, journey time 35 mins on the way in and 45 on the way back) I naturally didn’t want to come home empty handed. Amongst the many brands I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole (Dolce & Gabana, Armani and all that) I was pleased to find a couple of my favourites in Diesel, Puma and Energy, and in the end I bought a fairly metrosexual white and gold skin tight hoodie with an oriental tiger design on the back. Probably not my wisest purchase ever, but there you go. It was 60 euros down from about 200 (and you wouldn’t catch me paying the latter!). Anyway, shopping aside, I was pretty impressed with the business concept… La Roca is basically a purpose built complex on a cheap piece of land where famous brands sell the clothes from last season that nobody wanted for a knock down price. It’s pretty clever if you think about it. Cheap rent (miles outside BCN), clothes you can’t sell in your flagship stores and are pretty much useless and prices that people are willing to travel for to get the brands they like on the cheap. Apparently it’s called ‘smart shopping’ (according to someone much more up on these trends than me!). It doesn’t really appeal to me, as it’s way too far away and apart from one or two exceptions I try to avoid brands… but if I’d thought of doing it (and had several million in the bank to invest) I’d be pretty pleased with myself.

Anyway on the other end of the spectrum I’ve also been doing some vintage shopping. First of all I popped into Humana – fantastic charity shop and the Barcelona equivalent of Oxfam – and picked up a pair of perfectly fitting bell bottom khakis. In fact I had nothing to wear them with but by bon chance they go with the new hoodie. What I like about Humana is that the prices are genuine second hand prices… ie. 2-20 euros. There’s no labelling it ‘vintage’ and then charging more than it did in the first place – take note, hideously over-priced Holala Ibiza (90 euros for an ordinary adidas top – f@ck right off!). I also recently discovered a very charming vintage boutique in El Gotico, selling sunglasses, watches and knick-knacks. It’s called something unpronounceable to English-speakers but just check the review. Anyway I picked up a sexy blue retro watch that reminds me of my beloved Casio from the 1980s. I was the envy of the playground. Anyway if vintage shopping is your thing then I strongly suggest you take a walk down Carrer Tallers in Raval… and then head further into the district for the area around Riera Baixa. You’ll find a concentration of places… some reasonably priced, some firmly pitched at Barcelona’s numerous fashion victims. Also well worthy of note is the monthly flea market BCN event, whilst Encants Flea Market has all the cheaply produced Chinese underwear you’ll ever need. After all who wants to pay more than 5 euros for a pair of boxers?

Right, I’ve written more than I ever thought I could on the subject of shopping but just to round up…

For high street shopping… check the area around Portal del Angels and up Carrer de Pelai. You’ll find all the H&Ms, Topmans and Zaras you like.

For luxury and high end shopping… look no further than the Gaudi-bedecked Passeig de Gracia.

For boutiques… check out Raval and Born districts.

For shopping centres… check out Las Arenas, impressively housed in a former bull ring, Maremagnum, located by the old port, Diagonal Mar, done by the beach near Parc del Forum – and L’Illa Diagonal, on the huge Diagonal avenue that dissects Barcelona.

For shopping tours with a personal shopper, then Antiques and Boutiques are the girls for you.

For even more info check out this shoppers guide to Barcelona!

Barcelona Wine Tasting

In case you didn’t realise, here in Barcelona, you’re in wine country… and this is definitely a country for old men. And young men too. And women. And children. Well maybe not children. Ok then just a glass for the nippers.

Catalonia is, if not world-famous, then still pretty damn famous as a wine growing region and second only to Rioja in Spain for the quality of vintages it produces. In fact wine-making (not to mention tasting) in these parts goes way back to Phoenician times, and they settled (don’t quote me on this) around 800BC in Spain – so the locals have had plenty of time to perfect the art. Having said that the export industry only really received a boost when some canny Catalan had the smart idea of taking a leisurely holiday to France, duly noting how the French perfected the art of Champagne making and put it into action just outside Barcelona. Hey presto the Spanish sparkling white wine, known as Cava, was born, and has acted as a cheap substitute to Champers ever since… particularly popular with suit-wearing ‘professionals’ in cheesy Late Night London venues in the UK.

Anyway today Catalonia, and particularly the Penedes region, are still busily engaged in harvesting, grape crushing and bottling etc and as well as Cava the region also produces great non-sparkling whites and some highly-regarded, oak-aged red wines. So where to taste these delicious fruits of Dionysus? Well the wineries of many famous Cava producers are dotted about in villages etc. within striking distance from Barcelona. The most famous brands are Freixenet and Codorniu, although you might actually have more fun exploring some of the lesser know vineyards. A typical thing to do in February/March is a Calcotada, which is basically a big BBQ of Catalan onions held at a winery. The idea is you book a table at 15-20 euros, which comes with several bottles of Cava, and then you take advantage of some grilling facilities to toast yourself up a boozy feast. Highly recommended! Anyway we did this at Cava Blancher, and whilst I’m no wine connoisseur the 12 bottles we had definitely did the job.

I digress. For would-be Bacchic revellers hoping to enjoy a day of wine tasting in and around Barcelona there are two basic options. One, choose a winery/vineyard and then work out how to get there by public transport (assuming that you don’t want to hire a car, as that would kind of spoil the fun). Not always that easy but the RENFE (Spanish rail) website is available in English, and if you’re prepared to do that I highly recommend you take a look at this excellent post by Catavino: Wineries you can visit by train from Barcelona.

A feeling of smug independence and a wallet heavy with money you didn’t waste on an all expenses paid guided tour are the pros. Getting there and finding the place is closed, or no one speaks English, is a potential con…

The other option is to splash out on a ‘no brainwork required’ wine tasting tour of which there are many offered by tour operators all over Barcelona. You pay for the privilege of course, but with transport to and from your hotel, and often quite a few welcome extras these are a guaranteed good day out for tourists who don’t want to gamble with their holiday time. They vary a lot in price, but one highly recommended by our friends at Barcelona Life takes you to both the Cordoniu wine cellars for a tour and a spot of tasting, before dropping you off at a ’boutique’ winery where you actually get a full on tasting session (think Sideways), tapas meal with the family owners and a real insight into a small production vineyard. Check out ‘Barcelona wine tasting tours‘ for more info!

If you can’t be bothered to leave the city then there are a couple of great little Xampanyerias in Barcelona itself, such as El Xampanyet and Can Paixano. These authentic little bars serve laughably cheap Cavas and snacks and are a great, if somewhat intense, experience. There’s a good article here on the five best Cava bars in BCN.

So there you have it. Go forth, get tasting and be merry…

Flat Number 3

So just after two years after arriving in sunny Barcelona and I’m on the move again, this time to Flat 3#. Unlike flat number one, which was a complete hole, my previous pad (flat number two, for those not great at maths) will remain fondly remembered in the neuron corridors of the mnemonic section of my grey matter. Sure it also had cockroaches, which strangely only I saw, and never my housemates, and my room was only fractionally bigger than the Burmese prison cell that had been my first habitacion, and it was cold as hell during a surprisingly long winter, and something was always broken… hmmm come to think of it flat two didn’t start great. Casting the memory back I am now recollecting jumping in and out of a stream of water that alternated between boiling hot and ffffreezing cold for a good month before that was fixed. Then the fridge went. Then the second fridge went (have you ever tried to dump two fridge/freezers on the street? It’s a pain I can tell you!). And then the Internet broke. BUT there were plenty of good times too. Starting with lounging around with my two 25 year old German female housemate in hot pants (them not me), working in a light-filled lounge with balcony, popping up onto the rooftop terrace to sunbathe and look out over the whole city, and living in the hip but still unspoiled district of Poble Sec…

Maybe that’s why I chose my new place… it’s just down the road. Apart from meaning the move was relatively painless, it means I’ll still be able to pop for a drink on Carrer Blai, or to Cerveseria Jazz and Maumau Underground. Although not sure I’ll be going for any more runs on Montjuic without a pair of red hotpants to follow around the mountain. Somehow the incentive has gone.

So what’s the new place like? (I know you don’t actually care, but what are blogs for? Making your insignificant life seem important by publishing dreary minutiae from it on the internet in the deluded belief someone is reading it. Right? Well that’s what my blog is for). Since you asked it is pretty kick ass. The door is right off the street (no stairs:) and leads into a dim room that is ripe for conversion into mini home cinema. From there a corridor reveals three bedrooms, all of which have double beds. No more uncomfortable nights perching on the edge of the mattress on the rare occasions when hot chicas follow me round to my place. After that there’s a small lounge, a conservatory (almost) and – wait for it – a garden! A garden in Barcelona. Que raro! Ok it’s mainly a concrete garden but there are a number of small trees, a flowerbed and even a sun lounger. Shamon!

It remains to be seen how well I will get on with my new housemates as they are both away for August. In their place are a heavy metal chick with a hairless cat (creepy but cool) and two lesbians. Importantly all are Spanish, so you never know I might actually finally improve my language skills.

Festival Madness. Primavera + Sonar!

I don’t know about you, but I only have to hear the word ‘festival‘ and I start to feel ill. They normally end up as a gruelling test of stamina, when your body is pitted against alcohol, drugs, junk food and overexertion for an assault course lasting several days. The worst thing for me though is the lack of sleep.

Although in my 30+ years I’ve been known to party hard, at least part of the reason I’ve been able to do that is because whereas most people got up in the morning to play rugby for the school team, go to lectures, or head into the office, from my school days up to the present I always stayed in bed instead… allowing my body the full recovery it needed.

Freak out!

Festivals however rarely allow for that. I always get sucked in on the first day to the party atmosphere and, having drunk my way through the concerts, only leave the dance stage when they switch the music off, followed by a struggle back to my tent/apartment/house. Instead of a lie-in though the temptation is always to get up the next day as early as possible in an attempt to see that important concert and get the first beer of the day in. Things like breakfast and lunch quickly get bypassed, and before I know it my insides have been liquified, my ears are bleeding and my legs are knackered from too much dancing and walking between stages – always on the opposite sides of humungous fields.

So it was with Primavera Sound Festival. In some kind of sick nervous anticipation my stomach managed to go AWOL before the first note had even been played – as if it knew what was in store – and so pumped full of Immodium I made my way to the Parc del Forum, queued a f@cking hour and a half to get my media pass (missing Of Montreal in the process!) and then launched myself into the swing of things. To begin with I trudged around the stages following the big names… (and, whereas I can’t be bothered to review the music, I must say each of the stages were awesome set ups. I’m not sure anyone really knows what the architects of Parc del Forum were thinking when they created this concrete monstrosity on the edge of the city, but Primavera has certainly found a great purpose for it. In particularly the ATP stage (?) where Caribou played was perfect, set in a little dip with trees on one side and an expansive staircase/seating on the other, moon rising behind. Ahhh!)… but my favourite part of any festival is always the mash up at the end. On the first night this kicked off with El Guincho at the Llevant stage at around 3.30am. I nearly missed the gig after not realising there was no way through from ATP, but nimbly avoiding the securty guard I climbed over the wall and slid down the nicely curved 20ft parapet to the encouraging cheer of passers-by – burning a hole in my, admittedly cheap and crappy, jeans. After rocking out to Bombay and other El Guincho specials, cheesemeister general Girl Talk let rip with some crowd pleasing mash-ups that get us going until 6am…

Carte Blanche do what they like

The next day, wanting to soak up the day vibe, I got there a bit earlier – for Warchild I think – and once again patiently endured the big names. I’m not really a concert person. Just buy the CD… it sounds better and costs less. The vibe was good though and I sunk into some beers as the sunset. When nighttime came I went to check out the Pitchfork arena, but the music was a bit too dark and the people a bit too weird… so back to LLevant it was this time for Carte Blanche. There was a decidedly 90s vibe to their set, esp. with the co-ordinated black and white strips and dancing rollerskaters! Still the music was excellent and the feet kept going until around 5am when they kicked us out…

And then came the tricky third day. It’s usually by this time that my body gives up on me. Surprisingly my stomach wasn’t the first to go, but my legs. The Main Stage and Llevant stage are miles apart and it seemed that on both friday and saturday the best concerts were alternating between the two (plus of course there was the Champions League final, which was shown on a big screen at Llevant)! Factor in the previous days dancing and my advancing years and when, at 2am, I was faced with a choice of warm comfy bed or DJ Shadow I trudged off to get the metro, 90% sober, and 100% dead.

A quiet night out Zaragoza style

And if I thought that was bad, then came Sonar. Having overdone it on the mojitos and beers on the very first day session, I work up worse for wear on Friday only to find that the organisers had decided to upgrade my free media pass to include night sessions as well. I was too scared to say thank you in case it was all a big mistake and ran out of the office clutching my new shiny pass, without so much as a backward glance. With night sessions to account for too I was determined to eat something and lunched on a surprisingly good Sonar sandwich (3.5 euros) before hitting the drinks, dancing, napping and rocking up to the Sonar by Night party. If Sonar by Day had had it’s fair share of chemical romance (not me I might add) then By Night was effectively sponsored by Disco Dust. Not one to buy sweets from strangers I opted for the vodka red bulls instead which gave me the energy I needed to mosh heavy metal style with a load of scary-looking guys to Dizzee Rascal ‘Bonkers‘. Unfortunately teh same vodka and red bulls meant that when I got back at 6 or 7am I couldn’t sleep… so Saturday day session started worse for wear and was conducted on nothing more than a bottle of water and two cereal bars. Actually it was probably the best day session, because it meant I didn’t spend half my time queuing for the toilet! I did watch enviously as my new friends from Zaragoza (side note, check out the Manuscript Found in Saragossa for one of the best books you never read!) guzzled beers at a scary rate, and some other substances too, knowing that if I joined them I would keel over instantaneously.

I probably would never have made Sonar by Night on the Saturday if I hadn’t met a cute Belgian girl the night before… both exhausted we persuaded ourselves to get a taxi over and at least check out some of the bigger bands! In the end it turned out to be an exhausting but fun night, with Buraka Som Sistema the highlight as well as some loopy dancing to dubstep courtesy of Magnetic Man… sadly nothing happened with the Belgian girl in the end, but then again that’s probably for the best. By the end I’d truly run out of energy.

Sitges Beach Resort… New Guide!

If you read my post about the Sitges carnival, then you’ll already know that just down the coast from Barcelona exists a lovely little summer retreat/beach resort called Sitges! With its famously good light – there was a school of Modernista painters who relocated here specifically to capture its radiance on canvass – seventeen beaches (count ‘em!) and charming, bar-laden alleys, it really is the perfect place to escape Barcelona for a day or five.

Looking back over one of Sitges seventeen beaches

Not that Sitges is a quiet little village, with nothing going on. It’s reputation as a gay party resort means that all kind of tight-speedo-wearing hombres turn up to make eyes – and quite a lot more – at each other, especially during the summer months when the nightlife is in full swing; but as long as you’re not a homophobic type then you’ll find there’s plenty of room for all. The only thing Sitges doesn’t tolerate is intolerance, and this liberal laidback town is popular with families, couples and straights too. Plus around 30% of residents are from outside Spain so the vibe is very cosmopolitan and international.

I would tell you a lot more about this charming little place, just a day trip away from Barcelona, but it would be pretty pointless as my friends at Barcelona Life have beaten me to it… by launching a brand new travel guide to Sitges, called Sitges Life of course! It’s literally fresh out of the box, so you’ll have to give it a couple of months before every hotspot has been discovered and charted, but you’ll find much of the wisdom you’d expect from such a website, starting with the lowdown on tourist attractions, to information about Sitges hotels, apartments, restaurants, bars and clubs, plus of course a map of Sitges and the latest weather.

If for some reason you can’t find what you’re looking for then check out the official website of the city, which should be able to help out.

Barcelona Apartments vs Hotels

Right just a little idiot’s guide to booking apartments in Barcelona, and the verdict on whether the pros of ditching hotels for home comforts outweigh the cons. As with all good idiot’s guides I’ll leave it ambiguous as to whether the eedyot is the person who needs to read a guide about booking an apartment, or the person who bothered to write the guide in the first place… Shall we just call it an honourable draw?

Booking Apartments vs. Hotels

Cost: Whilst hotel prices in Spain decreased by 2% in 2010, Barcelona is still one of the most expensive places to stay in one of the world’s most touristic countries. In other words, rooms ain’t cheap. According to my top secret sources the cheapest you could expect to pay for a double room would be just over 40 euros per night – and that would be a lowly one star room in January! The average price of a five star room in October is 190 euros, with 170 euros about average over summer (I’ve no idea why October came in as the priciest). For a 3 star room March to October you’re looking at 90 euros a night, so 45 euros each. The cost of apartments vary wildly, but with so many agencies entering this competitive business you’re in with a good shout at saving some cash. Whilst no reliable statistics are available on flat rentals a browse around the sites of some of the top providers (more on them later) reveals that nearly all have apartments available from 20-25 euros per person per night, going up to around 40-50. If you’re planning on staying for a number of nights that could turn into quite a saving!

Convenience: Hotels are pretty convenient, with the obvious pros being that you just need to turn up hand over your passports and let the cute receptionist usher you to your (almost) always lushly turned out rooms. Taxi drivers know how to get you home at night (useful when you’re sloshed, after overdoing it in the Barcelona clubs), breakfast is on hand in the morning, and that same receptionist can be a fountain of a knowledge – and may even hand you a map for exploring the city. Plus there’s a debonair feeling of being a high roller as you rock in and out of the hotel foyer and empty out the mini-bar…. However apartments to have some advantages too. Ok it can be a bit of faff getting and returning the keys (most decent agencies make an effort to make this as painless as possible however), but once you’re in you’ve got your very own home in Barcelona. Ok trashing the place is probably not a good idea, but if you do get lucky at least you can bring your victim back to the lair without any dirty looks, or worse still being turned away with a “no guests allowed” policy thrust in your face. Plus having your own kitchen, and sometimes washing machine etc, can be a big advantage if you want to save some money on eating out, or give your socks their annual bath.

The Verdict: Overall apartments definitely win on cost, so if that’s a deciding factor there’s your answer. For convenience it may depend a little on how long you’re staying. The drop in and out service hotels provide is probably easier for a short stay, but for three or more nights having your own place – and your own rules – can make up for the lack of room service. Bear in mind that most apartment agencies have luxury pads on their books with all the mod-cons of a five star hotel… so you needn’t forgo your roof-top Jacuzzi!

If you do go down the flats route, here are some respectable outfits recommended by our friends at Barcelona Life… you can check out their reviews and public opinions etc by clicking on the links below:

Grau Apartments Barcelona – A small family-run set of rooms.
Daily Flats Barcelona – Local operator who cut out the middle men.
Barcelona For Rent – Agency with 130 flats in great locations around the city.
Visit All The World Barcelona – Global rentals company.
Fisa Rentals Barcelona – These guys actually own the apartments they rent so good rates guaranteed if you book directly with them!
City Siesta Barcelona – No damage deposit required so perfect if you want to trash the place (pls. don’t!).
Oh-Barcelona Apartments – One of the biggest and best rental companies in BCN.

Click here for an A-Z list of accommodation in Barcelona.

Club Guestlists in Barcelona

Barcelona’s nightclubs can basically we split into two halves. Studenty and posh. Personally I prefer the studenty ones – yes there may be too many dicks on the dancefloor, but at least you can wear whatever you like, and really go wild and have fun without basically giving a damn (which is what clubbing should be all about right?).

The other sort, which the Catalan locals seem to love, as well as female guiris (I guess I’ll have to do a post on guiris some other time! Basically tourists, who look, act and embody every stereotype of tourists) are the ‘exclusive’ nightclubs. I tend to avoid these places, as 1) I hate shoes 2) I hate people who wear shoes 3) no one actually has any fun at these places, they just check each other out a bit and then go home.

Most of these clubs, like Opium Mar, CDLC, Shoko and Sotavento can be found on the Port Olimpic, just by Barceloneta beach. Others like Sutton Club are up by the Diagonal. Many of them are run by the same people, and they are all basically identical copies of one another. If you’re on holiday, have a bit of cash and like your girls/guys nice and dressed up, then there are some merits to a visit – esp. to Opium Mar. This is the one place (I’m not counting Catwalk) which stays open to 6am on the Port Olimpic and the club which pretty much everyone tries to get in. During summer on a saturday night that can be tough!

Anyway the point is that none of these ‘exclusive’ clubs are in fact exclusive at all (hey they even let me in on occasion). You don’t need any special contacts or to grease the palm of the bouncer. You just need to follow a couple of basic rules about dress and get yourself on the guest list… how do you do that? Well there are a tonne of nightlife agencies offering guestlists to all the above clubs and a thousand others you’ve never heard of, desperate to fill the dancefloor of each, from Monday to Sunday. (During summer in particular most of the top venues will throw parties every night!)

Our amigos at Barcelona Life have just started to add some information about club guestlists in Barcelona to their website, starting with info on the all-important Opium guestlist, Sutton guestlist and more. After all it’s one thing to spend a night in a crap venue, but it’s definitely worse to be rejected by one! For some of the other nightclubs you can do some simple Googling to find an agency.

Sadly, all of the best music clubs in the city, like Apolo (home of Nasty Mondays and Crappy Tuesdays!), Razzmatazz and La Terrrazza don’t operate such lists… relying instead on old fashioned methods, like having a good DJ, to get people in.

Sitges Carnival: A Fancy Dress Fiesta!

For most of my life I have been inclined to see fancy dress parties as a royal pain in the @ss. Choosing who or what you are going as is the first hurdle, then going hunting for whatever you need round every second hand store in town (or your mum’s wardrobe if you’re lucky enough to not have been kicked out of the parental nest… ah those were the days!), then coming home trying it all on and realising you have just spent 50 GBP to look like a prize tw@t. At least, in this scenario, no could accuse you of not making the effort, whilst the other alternative – to turn up with a sheet over your head with two holes cut out, or possible a sword and eye-patch made out of the back of a cereal packet – guarantees you the social acceptance of a known sex offender.

More recently however I’m coming around to the exact reverse way of thinking… I can only assume that because I go out a lot less, making the effort for one big night seems less of a hassle. I’ve even started enjoying putting together a costume (I like to think of it as a creative challenge) and I understand now that the effort and expense you put in before a fancy dress party are all part of the anticipation – the build up! That’s why I was really looking forward to the Sitges Carnival this year, and I must say it didn’t disappoint. Yes, there were a few lame devil horns and plastic forks, but by and large the costumes on display were fantastic. Babies were a popular theme, as were air hostesses – the best ones for my money being the cross-dressed ones, and a wag in a Zapatero mask proved a big hit with the cameras. Others went to further extremes, coming as giant-sized multi-coloured clothes pegs, Barbie dolls still in their boxes, 1980s rally drivers, or a troop of Flintstones, complete with the iconic foot-powered car (which was a bit of menace in the narrow streets of Sitges!).

If you’ve never been to Sitges Carnival then there’s really not too much to explain. It’s basically a big piss up on the streets of Sitges, just down the road from Barcelona and is pretty much considered the best place for Carnival in Spain, after Santa Cruz in Tenerife and Cadiz. Everyone descends on Sitges en masse, usually via train from Barcelona, and trawls the streets booze in hand shouting and singing and laughing at one another’s costumes. Whilst there was no denying the party spirit here in Catalonia, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of official entertainment. In our, admittedly limited, wanderings we didn’t come across any live music or DJs, although of course all the bars and clubs were open and improbably dressed drunkards stumbled between them all. If I were to go next year I’d probably choose either the Sunday, which boasts the enticingly named Rua de la Disbauxa (‘The Debauchery Parade’) or the closing night, which falls on Tuesday. The Tuesday is marked by the Rua de l’Extermini (‘Extermination Parade’), another huge affair this one known for it’s proliferance of drag queens… and I did see some nice flamenco dresses when I was out second-hand shopping…

Some quick tips for those thinking of going to the Sitges Carnival in future years…

1) Aim to get there about 11pm, this is when things start going
2) You can catch the train from Sants Station in Barcelona. Buy a return ticket (6.30 euros in 2011), the police were out in force at the station.
3) The train timetables can be found on www.renfe.com. I think the first one on a Sunday morning left around 5am. We got one at 5.30 or so.
4) Dress warm. It may be Spain/Catalonia but it’s still February/March time… I was wearing a helmet, gloves, leggings, and four layers and still got cold after a couple of hours of being outside. Mind you there were plenty of guys dressed as Baywatch Lifeguards who seemed fine in just a red swimming costume, blond wig and pair of fake tits.
5) Bring your own supply of booze… but not in glass bottles as police will stop and search you at the train station and glass not allowed. I recommend a carton or two of Don Simon sangria available at all good supermarkets for around 1 euro.