Barcelona Warning or Danger Tips by Belsaita

I'm sorry, but this is my pet-peeve.... please, please, please... do not call the city "Barca"!!!

Well, you can do it, in case you like to sound like "yet another clueless tourist thinking he/she sounds cool, but making fool of his/herself"

FYI:

Barça = is used ONLY for the soccer team
(Yes, I know many of you do not have the ç on your keyboards). It's pronounced as Bar-ssa

Barna or BCN = this is how we locals do shorten the city name

here, as you may imagine, not everybody like soccer, or are fans of the Barça team ;o))

... and, to make it even weirder for us locals, "barca" (pronounced as Bar-Ka) in both Spanish or Catalan, does mean "boat". As well, there is a town in Soria's province called Barca.

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A couple of years ago, the City Council of Barcelona abolished bullfights and any other show with abuse of animals in the city. However, this was a quite void declaration, as the City Council has no real authority over La Monumental, the only bullring that still is in function in Barcelona (the other one, Las Arenas, is being converted to a shopping centre). The authority to control bullfights belongs to the Regional Government, and they are not willing to do anything regarding these (too many potential voters from other areas do still love this "fiesta"). So, there is still a residual activity of bullfights from time to time, mainly aimed to tourist and the few ones that feel nostalgic of past times... Quite depressing.

So, if anyone really want to attend a bullfight (IMO there are much better ways to spend money and time, but each at its own) definitely Barcelona is NOT the place.

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There is a big problem about safety, noise and cleanliness in the old town area (Gothic Quarter and El Raval, so both sides of Las Ramblas). The city council had extraordinary meetings and recenntly put in force some new local regulations in order to find solutions to this problem... so it's not paranoia or a personal feeling.

Said that, don't be too much concerned about your personal safety, Barcelona is a pretty safe town if you take care of yourself. Violent crime is really rare. At least in the areas you'll probably move, the problem is petty crime. How to protect yourself?? Just behave as you will probably do at home: you probably would not wander alone and drunk around an area you don't know well, or leave your belongings unattended in a crowded area, or carry a huge amount of money in an accessible pouch... will you? It's amazing how many people behave that way here. Later they wonder why they get in trouble! Of course, I'm not saying that being robbed is your fault, but all we can made the life less easier to criminals. As well, pickpockets do concentrate in the touristiest areas for obvious reasons, so be extra-careful there.

One last remark: we locals usually do not behave in a different way than you probably do at home. We usually just don't pay much attention to strangers as we are on our own business. We don't approach people for no reason, don't call everybody 'my friend' and we DON'T TOUCH strangers. This is especially applicable to Barcelona, where we locals are know as quite 'cold' people (in comparison to Southern Spain). Therefore, suspect if anyone seems to be 'too much' friendly, better to be safe than sorry!

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