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Anyone from Spain

Watch carefully your phone and belongings specially in those tourist places and do not wear expensive writchwatch at sight, sadly Barcelona has one of the big concentrations of pickpockets in Europe, mostly not spanish locals. Except this, is a great place to visit. You can go to Tibidabo or Montjuic to see all city from above. Have a good trip.
 
Nachooo1 said:
Watch carefully your phone and belongings specially in those tourist places and do not wear expensive writchwatch at sight, sadly Barcelona has one of the big concentrations of pickpockets in Europe, mostly not spanish locals. Except this, is a great place to visit. You can go to Tibidabo or Montjuic to see all city from above. Have a good trip.
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Good advice, this one. I have an acquaintance that got robbed in Barcelona. Unfortunate, but that's how big tourist hubs are 99% of the time.
 
I spent a lovely summer in Barcelona almost 20 years ago, working in Port Olympic helping a friend restore an old wooden motor cruiser that had nearly sunk in the harbour. The boat was basically very rotten and we had to change many of the ribs and re-plank it, among many other jobs to do.
I stayed in Barcelonetta in a friend of a friends art studio.
I'm a bit out of the loop but i would recommend trying to find places off of the beaten track rather than the tourist traps. There was a great little restauraunt in the residential part of Barcelloneta, where you could buy plates of rabbit or pork with green peppers swimming in olive oil with nice cheap carafes of red wine, followed by a coffee mixed with brandy.
The ramblas is rammed and very touristy but if that is your bag, it's worth a look. We found an absynthe bar off of the ramblas with a nice ambience. The proprietress was called "the panda" due to her heavily mascaraed eyes.
Yes , you have to watch out for the pick pockets. We didn't get much attention because most of the time we looked like down at heel workers .However, one night, for some reason we found ourselves in a horrible night club by the port and on the walk home by the beach, a bunch of young Spanish started walking with us. One of the guys put his arm round me and started talking to me about English footballers (i'm English but not that keen on football) and he lifted my wallet. As they said goodbye and sauntered off in front of us and i am realising i no longer have my wallet, i approach the miscreant, put my arm round him and lift the wallet back, waved it in front of his face and said "what's this then?????". It all ended reasonably amicably.
I would also recommend going into as many old buildings as possible, not just the Gaudi stuff. Probably loads of stuff that i have missed. Most of my best memories are of food which just goes to show how much of a boring twat i was even then...
Ive got a mate that lives there , so if you need any specialist inside information he may be able to give some insights. He's got 3 kids now, so may be out of the loop when it comes to hedonistic adventures tho.
 
Nachooo1 said:
Watch carefully your phone and belongings specially in those tourist places and do not wear expensive writchwatch at sight, sadly Barcelona has one of the big concentrations of pickpockets in Europe, mostly not spanish locals. Except this, is a great place to visit. You can go to Tibidabo or Montjuic to see all city from above. Have a good trip.
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I will be careful. Thanks for thee heads up
 
jamesisleo said:
I will be careful. Thanks for thee heads up
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Avoid specially at night The Raval zone which is in the surroundings of famous Ramblas place. If you are interested in local food, you should visit el Mercat Central, known as La Boqueria where locals buy food. If loking for a restaurant avoid places where tourist eat, there you will only find classical famous Paella, tortilla at high prizes, etc, instead look for the ones used by spaniards workers which will have better food and will be cheaper. Traditional catalan cuisine is very good : Esqueixada, escalivada, butifarra amb mongetes, cargols, suquet.. Lot of seafood and also food from the countryside. I miss that a lot..was born there...
 
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