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ONLY BE BARCELONIAN
Only-Be Barcelonian
The Habaneras of Calella de Palafrugell
Some traditions never day if one wants to get to know the place that he´s visiting and integrate himself to its lifestyle with ease in order to make his holiday a success and the habaneras concert at Calella de Palafrugell is one of those traditions. It´s a wonderful summer event that will allow the visitor to integrate to the local Catalan culture, listening to the habanera songs on the 7th of July. The habaneras concert in Calella de Palafrugell began in 1966 but it wasn´t until 1969 that it acquired the status that it has today, transforming itself into one of the most highly-awaited parties in the Costa Brava summer. It takes place on the first Saturday of July at Cala de Port Bo, lasts two hours and costs 25€. Calella de Palafrugell is a small fisherman´s bay that has maintained the aesthetic of yesteryear and preserved itself like it was before the arrive en masse of tourism, which is the reason why it´s so attractive. That´s where the Catalan singer/songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat got the inspiration to write the song ´Mediterréaneo´, based on the beauty of the towns on the Costa Brava. Habaneras are fisherman´s tavern songs that were part of their refuge during merciless days, when bad weather, rain and cold stopped them from doing their work. This music maintains a culture and is part of the nostalgia that united the Mediterranean coast with Cuba, a link which was interrupted but not broken during the Cuban War and the ending of the Spanish colonies in America in the late 19th century. There´s a popular saying that summarises...
Cruïlla Festival in Barcelona
Cruïlla Festival is a festival in the venue of El Fòrum in which not only will we find concerts but also many activities, such as games, workshops, circus, charity and social project organizations and a lot more. You can´t miss it! In the first fortnight of July, over forty bands will go on the four stages of the festival, from 6pm until 5am. After seven years, a legend of rock is back in the Catalan capital, Iggy Pop, the godfather of punk, with all of his out-of-control energy and accompanied by his legendary band, The Stooges. Give up to his music and his show on stage. One of the most influential artists of the last decade, M.I.A., will also be playing at Cruïlla Festival. Nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2005 for the song ´Paper Planes´ from the film ´Slumdog Millionaire´ and for ´Swagger like us´. After a few decades without playing in Barcelona, one of the most sought-after bands of the festival are back, the ska reference The Specials, who will definitely make the Barcelona crowd dance like crazy. This summer, at Cruïlla Festival, hip hop comes in the shape of Cypress Hill. This legendary Californian band will be playing for the first time in Barcelona the songs of their new album ´Cypress X Rusko´, their first incursion into dubstep, alternated with classics that have been anthems of the last two decades. To guarantee the party, the kings of bootleg will finish off the nights of this edition of Cruïlla Festival 2012. 2manydjs will storm onto the dancefloor and make us jump up and dance until the end...
Live music in Barcelona: Gràcia district
Live music in Barcelona: Gràcia district
Wine Tourism: the best wineries in Barcelona
Barcelona is known for the beautiful architecture of the great Gaudí, and for being a modern city open to the Mediterranean Sea. But what not many people know is that Barcelona has a wide range of quality wines that are produced on its land. The orographic variety and diverse microclimates in the region, allow the production of very different quality wines. There are three designations of origin attesting to the quality of the wines produced in the province of Barcelona, D.O. Penedes, D.O Pla del Bages and D.O. Alella. This is one of the reasons why wine tourism experts, travel to Barcelona to visit the main and oldest wineries in the region. We will recommend a few waypoints that will facilitate your journey through this enoruta. We start the tour visiting some of the most significant wineries in the D.O. Pla del Bages, located within the province at Masies d´Avinyó home of the Abadal wines. This cellar wine making opened in the twelfth century. The great setting and the charm of the old farmhouse contrasts with the modern facilities, which currently produce their wines. You can visit the museum and learn more about their fantastic red and white wines. At Oller del Mas, a majestic castle from the fifth century greets us. This fantastic historical setting, tradition and modernity coexist harmoniously, giving rise to wines so beloved as Châtau Arnau Oller. The family Margenat is the current owner of the 400 hectares of vineyards and forests surrounding the wineries. Now we should head to the south of the province of Barcelona, Penedes, which is one of the first wine...
The Best Summer Destinations in Barcelona
Barcelona is one of the best cities in the world to spend a summer vacation. This city is not only about the beach and sun, but is also full of entertaining sights and nearby places that allow you to choose the best activities to transform each day into a unique one. To give you a few ideas about what to do on your vacation so you don’t have to waste precious time looking for activities, we will give you some guidance about the most attractive destinations in the surrounding area. Do you enjoy nature and swimming in the sea? If so, we recommend you go to the nudist beaches where you can enjoy the soft sand, sea and sun in direct contact with all of your skin. A few kilometers from Barcelonaone can visit the beautiful town of Sitges with its nude beaches. Els Balmins is one such beach and it’s located in the urban area of the coast. There you can find all kinds of services, and since it is very easy to reach it has a high number of visitors. If you prefer to enjoy nudity in more private locations, Sitges offers two alternatives: Cala Morisca and the Playa de Roses – La Desenrocada. These are, however, more difficult to access and don’t offer any services. You can also stroll through the city, eat at restaurants along the beach or watch the sunset with a cocktail by candlelight while enjoying good music in the Bar Villa Lola. Or if you want to eat delicious food in a place with ambiance, the restaurant Pic Nic is a good...
Around the beaches of the Cap de Creus Natural Park
Far from the hustle, crowds, contamination and wild urbanism are these beaches that make up the Cap de Creus (Creus Head), not far from Barcelona. They´re a succession of secluded beaches, almost inaccessible, with a clean and crystal-clear sea, wild nature with its many pines and low hills, towns that still preserve the lifestyle of previous decades… all of that and more you can find at the Cap de Creus. Here, time goes slowly, man coexists in harmony with natural spaces, bands of migratory birds go from north to south and from south to north, the bottom of the sea is paradise for snorkelers and divers… oh! and the beaches… the beaches of the Cap de Creus are made up of fine sand, at the bottom of mountains (actually, we´re at the eastern tip of the Pyrenees), the aroma of marjoram and thyme mixes with wild flowers and the transparent sea water allows us to see the small fish that venture close to the shore in search of sea weed. “A place created for the gods” said Salvador Dalí, the illustrious summer visitor of these coasts, around about the 1920s, when the avant-gardes shook old Spain. This was a place that he came to right until his death. You only have to remember that in one of these towns, Cadaqués, Dalí lived with his partner, Gala. A few steps from the sea, inside towards land, there´s Púbol Castle, a unique witness of the peculiar art of this surrealist genius. The castle is “a delight to feel the passing of time, drop by drop” according to the words of another local writer,...
The chiringuitos (bars) on the beach
It is one of the postcard images culled from the successful marketing campaign under the slogan “Spain is different”. Do you remember it? Don´t you know it? Well, I mean that picture of a beach bar (said of an unstable establishment between a kiosk and a food peddler located on the beach) filled to the brim with people, where you are uncomfortable and bad food is served. Well, dear traveler, that does not exist in Spain. Fortunately. The current bars have become what they are: comfortable spaces to relax, to taste typical Mediterranean dishes, where sunbathing and live music makes them a summer oasis. The most elegant, also have been reworded so that they are no longer called bars. They are the exclusive beach clubs. All beaches on the Mediterranean coast, and in the cosmopolitan city of Barcelona is not an exception to this premise, these beach bars are comfortable restaurants (some decorated with designer furniture) which serves traditional dishes from this part of the world, in the vast majority of cases, well cooked by local chefs. Juicy paellas, fresh fish or salt-grilled sardines on skewers, colorful salads , frozen desserts and some other international succor cuisine dish (like pasta or grilled chicken) often are on the menu of most beach bars in Barcelona. Of course, there will be one that gives her special touch with a different recipe and / or more elaborate. Apart from eating, some have showers, hammocks and parasols services and liven up the evening with live music. Paz Vela and Bestial, both in La Barceloneta, are some of the bars that are located in...
Portishead concert in Barcelona
Product of his extreme aesthetic need the fundamental works of Dylan Thomas are contained in a volume that does not reach more than two hundred pages. This is an approximate amount of barely 100 poems written during his lifetime in increased time spans convinced of the need of not to make art, but only to create that that is absolutely essential. Although it is difficult to resist the temptation of wishing he had ritten poetry more often, his fiction is significantly heavier compared with the view of the extraordinary results obtained. It would be unfair and inconsiderate to blame him for anything. For its very title, which coincides with the first verse of the poem, are compositions of raving beauty that make you vibrate, you feel pushed to the limit, words to spread into the world in silence which may be reached only after digging into a foreign language within the language itself, to use that style as suggested by a certain French philosopher, the phrase of Proust that suggests that all masterpieces are written in a kind of foreign language. In perhaps similar way, in the eighteen years of their existence of the cult British band Portishead, have only produced three studio albums. It Is said they are taking some time working in the fourth, but as Geoff Barrow admitted last January along with singer and founding member Beth Gibbon , it may take at least ten other damn years. The same dosage, this same slow and pure crystallization process seems to have rubbed off on their own live performances, of which there are only five scheduled this...
Thermal circuit close to Barcelona
The benefits of hot, sulfurous and bicarbonate waters have been known since ancient times, with archeological references that date from times as far back as the Roman civilization. Although the Hispanic Muslims, who occupied the whole Iberian Peninsula until 1492, were fans of water in all of its varieties, this practice was progressively abandoned in the dirty middle ages. For this reason, thermal springs, community pools and spa areas were left in disuse and became ruins. It wasn´t until well into the 19th century when the local Spanish bourgeoisie, copying all those imported from Europe (Baden-Baden in Germany, Lido in Venice and Evian on the French-Swiss border) that people started spending long summers close to the old thermal springs. That´s how spa resorts started around the country (Lanjarón in Andalucía, in the south, Mondariz and La Toja in Galicia in the north and La Garriga in Catalonia), at the same time as comfortable centres were built that canalized, managed and saved these resources. Towns became luxurious second residencies and they changed the whole urban layout to accommodate this select and distinguished clientele who was looking for resting and relief cures for bone and breathing illnesses. In these exclusive spas, predecessors of today´s modern resorts, was where the aristocratic dame, the casanova-wannabes, the successful businessmen and the artist searching for inspiration came, along with the rheumatic elderly people, for the need to regain strength and experience an intense social life. These 19th century spas began to decline in the mid-20th century but, in the last decade, a clientele used to urban spas has put them on the map again. And...
Sónar Festival Contest Winners!
We´ve got the winners of the Sónar Festival Contest 2012 Congratulations to: Mark“Metronomy!Because songs like “The Bay” are awesome!” YJoudi “To me, it´s Lana. Her voice sounds quite different in live performances, I´d like to see/hear that for myself, but of course, I want to see her dance too!” Jordi Cano I voted for John Talabot. Good electro house to party in such an amazing festival like Sónar. Although other artists like New Order, Hot Chip, Fatboy Slim or Lana del Rey or Die Antwoord make me want the Sónar to begin already The tickets will be sent directly to the winners by e-mail! Thanks everyone for taking part in the contest. *The contest was made through the random.org system. Maria Climent Remember that we´ve got apartments in Barcelona if you need accommodation for the Sonar festival....Promotions
