After three years in Barcelona, here are the things I still tell every person who visits me here. Not all of them are obvious. The Palau de la Música Catalana is not optional. I know you’ve seen photos. It’s better in person. The building was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and completed in 1908,…
One of the things I got wrong about Barcelona before I lived here: I thought it was a city of clubs and beach bars. It’s not. Or rather, that’s not the part that matters. The part that matters is the scene that operates at street level, in the squares and the markets and the neighbourhood…
Barcelona’s craft beer scene arrived late and made up for it fast. Ten years ago the city had almost nothing. Now it has enough good options that you can spend a week here drinking exclusively well-made local beer without repeating yourself. Here’s where I actually go. BierCaB (Carrer de Muntaner 55, Eixample) is the closest…
Barcelona’s craft beer scene is ten years old and finally serious. Here is where it actually lives.
Barcelona is a bilingual city with a complicated relationship with both languages. Here is what it actually looks like to live inside that.
People ask me which neighbourhood they should live in. I’ve lived in Gràcia my whole life, so I’m not exactly neutral. But I’ve spent enough time in Poble Sec — and watched enough friends make both choices — to give you an honest answer: it depends entirely on who you are. Gràcia is a village…