| Page Views: 2,049 Last Visit to Barcelona: - | La Rambla by Jordi_Pujol - last update: Jul 25, 2004 |
La Rambla | The Rambla - easy money on the hoof |
It is summer time and temperatures and prices in Barcelona are soaring. In fact the prices made front page news in El Periodico newspaper [21st July 2004]. You can expect to pay 1.20 Euros for a beer in Barcelona's central Avenguda de Roma but this can jump to 9 Euros in the city's touristy (and rather seedy) La Rambla boulevard. A coffee on a terrace will cost you 95 cents in Avenguda Parallel (also in the city centre) but you might be charged a whopping 5 Euros in La Rambla.
So why is the Rambla so absurdly expensive by local standards (remember, this is black economy Barcelona, not highly taxed and well-administered Stockholm)? The answer is greed and Russian mafia money. The President of the Friends of the Ramblas Association points out that mafia cash has been 'reinvested' in many Barcelona tourist catering establishments. The boys from the East have been buying up cafes and restaurants in the city's tourist districts as if there were no tomorrow, paying property rentals of 30000 Euros a month for tiny business premises on short leases. The bar sign might say Cafe Lolita but the chances are that the 'investment' came from trafficking in girls from the former Soviet bloc. You can guess how the new owners make these catering establishments pay - by bleeding tourists white. The bar and restaurant terraces in the Rambla (and Passeig de Gracia for that matter) are best avoided unless you happen to have a lot of the folding stuff to throw around or are taken with the idea of helping launder other people's money (and getting taken to the cleaners in the process).
Walk down the Ramblas by all means (keeping your eyes skinned for pickpockets) but choose an ordinary side street in the city's safer Eixample District if you are feeling thirsty.
Ask to see the price list (displaying it is a legal requirement). A 'reasonable' price for a 25 cl beer or a coffee is 1.5 Euros - anything much over this and you are being stung. Make sure that both food and drink prices are fully specified. If you do fall into the trap, remember, you can demand to sign El Libro de Reclamaciones [Official Complaints book], which every establishment is required to keep by law. These are examined by the authorities and complaints about overcharging or failing to display prices are likely to get owners into hot water. Even so, it is better to avoid this kind of situation in the first place. |
| Tourists made to feel unwelcome |
|  | Barcelona bites the hand that feeds it The tourist industry in Barcelona and Catalonia, like in much of the rest of Spain, is a big money-spinner. Spanish TV stations and newspapers often carry officially-inspired stories of record visitor numbers and pompous plans for fostering "quality tourism" The latter is a bit of a bad joke since the Costa Brava has long been notorious for mass-tourism, fifth-rate services, and environmental destruction. Not surprisingly, this year British tour operators have begun striking the likes of Lloret del Mar and Salou from their catalogues as more affordable and exotic destinations come on stream.
Barcelona by contrast, is attracting an increasing number of "city tourists" and cruise-ship trippers. You might think Barcelona Council would rejoice to see the Catalan capital bucking the general decline of Catalonia's tourist industry (as foreigners seek more "bang for their buck" elsewhere). Imagine my surprise then when I read in Catalonia Today newspaper [July 24, 2004] of Barcelona Council kicking potential tourists in the teeth (if not somewhere more painful). The Council's choice of the official poster for the city's La Merce festival - celebrating Barcelona's Patron Saint (The Virgin Mary) - could hardly be more controversial and inappropriate. Designed by an "artist" called Perejaume, it carries the following inspired screed in Catalan (accents removed because VT cannot interpret them):
Hem de fer-nos
Els artistes,
pagesos?
Un turista plantat
Pot tornar pages
A pages aquell que
Ha estat turista?
Translated, it reads:
Should we, the artists,
turn into peasants?
Is a tourist established here
a fellow-countryman?
Can one who has been a tourist
ever become a fellow-countryman?
The intellectual excuse for this dose of xenophobia is the city's pretentious, high falutin' Forum of Cultures (forthcoming Tourist Trap tip). Even so, the message seems clear enough - Barcelona wants your money but don't expect to feel welcome. Come to think about it, it sounds a bit like tourism on the Costa Brava, doesn't it? |
> Add to your Custom Travel Guide [What's This?]
| Pros: | "Sunny weather" | | Cons: | "sky-high prices and tourist rip-offs" | | In A Nutshell: | "An expensive alternative to a UV lamp" |
Jordi_Pujol's Barcelona Travel Tips
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 Comments for Jordi_Pujol about Barcelona | | | | |
criminalbarcelona Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:20 UTC
Barcelona is a paradasie for thieves. Never come here. Is the police protecting thieves-why dont they act?? | maryamy Wed Jul 28, 2004 18:11 UTC
Great start! I can't wait to go back there. |
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