Cool Things to do in Barcelona

If you live in Barcelona you can enjoy both the wonderful beaches starting in the city with the Barceloneta beach, going all the way out to the forum area.
In the winter time when it is too cold to swim or sunbathe at the barceloneta beaches, they are used frequently by surfers… and if you do not know how to surf, there are schools to teach you surfing. At the Barceloneta beach there is a surf school where you can learn surfing, wind surfing and kitesurfing. The school is positioned right on the beach, where you cannot miss it!
But not only can you swim and surf in Barcelona… If you like skiing or snowboarding, the solution is only 2 hours away… Andorra is the best place to ski and snowboard in Spain. With the nearby skiing area “Gran Valira” you can get a skiing weekend for as little as 110 - 120 Euros. This though means that you’ll live in a crappy little hotel room, and must be able to live with yelling and screaming at 4 o’clock in the morning. If you buy the ski trip through an agency, it is the cheapest solution, but as mentioned also the worst. There is always an included breakfast and dinner in those offers, but I would strongly recommend that you go out and eat at a restaurant in Andorra Vella, as the food is quite frankly horrible at the hotels…
Personnally when I go to Andorra, I get a room in Andorra la Vella, because there is a chance to go out and get a drink and have some fun. But if you only want to go skiing hardcore, it will not cost you more to get a room on the piste… as they also have crappy but inexpensive rooms in tarters, soldeu and so on!

The Skiing in Andorra is pretty good, and on a sunny day I would say very close to the larger areas in France. The pistes are very well groomed and beginner minded. There are few black pistes, and the ones there are, are very short and propably would have been red in France. There are not that many skiers, so you wont see huge lines at the lifts as you will in France or Austria either.

If you choose to stay outside the main city Andorra la Vella, there will not be much entertainment at night, I know that caus e I spent some rather long nights reading spanish tourist brochures at a hotel outside the city, because we insisted to get out and ski early in the morning… personnally I will not recommend it, but you are very fresh to go skiing in the morning. But if you are in Andorra la Vella, there are quite a few bars and discotheques in the city. Most of those I wont waste your time with here, because there is actually only one place you want to go… Its called Buda Bar, and though it has nothing to do with its famous name- (or almost name-)brother in Paris and Barcelona Buddha Bar, it is a really cool disco, with lots of beautiful people and great music. So if you go to Andorra be sure to go to Buda Bar, it is situated a little bit outside the city center, but it is no problem getting a cap neither to or fro.

Another cool place if you are in Andorra, is the water center called Calders, It will set you back 30 euros but I have never met a person who didn’t say it was definately worth it. They have turkish baths, huge inside pool, outside pool and lots of health and thermic baths. The thing I think is the coolest is that you can swim from the inside pool to the outside one, with out getting out of the 35 degrees hot water… and that there is snow outside in the winter time!

If you buy a package skitrip you can probably get the whole thing ex. ski rental for about as little as 110 euros including the room, insurance, breakfast and dinner, and lift card to the biggest area (Gran Valira). The ski rental is not included, and will put you down from 25 Euros for a pair of ok beginner skis (and boots), for 2 days, up to 75 Euros for a great pair of hardcore skis (without boots).

hostel the movie

This is not only a cool little sandwich bar in the Raval with an annoying owner… The sandwiches are so good you will take shit from the guy behind the bar to get your hands on one of those… Below I put a picture of their menu… Which really pissed off the owner, but Ill go through that just to give you guys my best reviews of Barcelonas Cool Places

Notice the mango and mozzarella Bocadillo in the bottom…. Arh…. to die for guys… as so the brie, mango and ham bocadillo….

The sandwich stand can be found at Calle Robador

hostel the movie
hostel movie

Skateboarding in Barcelona is propably one of the biggest sports, where the city is used. Barcelona is great for skateboarding mainly because of its skateboard friendly surfaces (that propably was ment for disabled people)! Recently (well not that recently) Tony Hawk put Barcelona in The playstation game of the same name, as this city is getting to be the largest skateboarding city in the world! If you want to meet other skateboarders, I would recommend that you go either to the Plaza in front of MACBA or Museum of contemporary art in Barcelona! This is one of the biggest places for meeting and skateboarding in Barcelona…

Another place for skateboarding and meeting up is the Plaza Sants, not far from Plaza Espanya. This square or plaza has a huge amount of obstacles that are as made for skating…. just as the front entrance to the MACBA in Raval! The two above mentioned places are the ones I would recommend to visit if going to barcelona for skateboarding. Another thing that you should be aware of now is that the police are on a hunt for skaters at the moment! If they catch you they will definately give you a find! Its a part of the new clean Barcelona Identity. It is also forbidden to buy beers from our indian friends now, and you can get a hefty find for drinking in the streets! Also buying “fake” stuff from the street merchants, such as sunglasses and sh*t can get you in a lot of trouble!

Plaza Angels at Macba

Plaza Paisos Catalans at Sants Estacion

Hostel the Movie

hostel movie
hostel the movie
movie hostel

For a nice little free peek at some of (or most of-) the hottest designer furniture in the world, VITRA provides a great little exhibition of just that in their cool shop in Barcelona.

This I think is a cool way of checking out great furniture by famous designers… as Vitra Design Museum puts it:

The original intention of the Museum to give visitors access to design not only by means of publications, but also in the form of three-dimensional objects, resulted in the creation of a unique museum product: models of the most important pieces of furniture in design history on a reduced scale. The Miniatures of the Vitra Design Museum are exemplary teaching objects with regard to quality and craftsmanship, and also iconic manifestations of the Museum Collection. They not only fulfil the financial purpose of contributing to the Museum’s budget, but also serve as ideal demonstration pieces within the context of academic studies or skilled trades. Among design connoisseurs, the Miniatures of the Vitra Design Museum have become coveted collector’s items. At present, the Miniatures Collection encompasses almost 100 different models, which are sold in exclusive design shops all over the world.

 To name a few exiting designs shown at vitra:

eames collection
nelson collection
prouvé collection
noguchi collection
panton collection
meda collection
bellini collection
citterio collection
vitra standards
morrison collection
vitra edition
air line

And much more…

In case you want more information check out vitra.com