Museum Nights and Fiesta Days, Barcelona...

Last weekend saw the return of two annual events here in Barcelona. 'La Nits dels Museus' on Saturday night where all the major museums open for free from 7pm till 1am (yes, past midnight!) and 'Los Coros de la Barceloneta' which is an annual parade that happens on the Saturday and Monday for Pentecost, which is also known as 'Segunda Pascua' (second easter) here and Whitsun in the UK. I'm not religious but I enjoyed the holiday from work on Monday and the music, dancing, drinking and street fireworks were great fun too.

It's very difficult to find information on Los Coros, it doesn't really get a lot of publicity in the city. I think this may be because it tends to get a bit raucous as the day progresses on Monday. The parade consists of marching bands who belong to various local workers' associations. They all march through Barceloneta all day making stops at various points, finally finishing beneath fireworks at midnight. Saturday is a bit of a practice run, they all take off somewhere for a jolly on coaches on the Sunday, then back to go at it full pelt on the Monday. Check out the video of one of the bands this year. I've also taken some photos to give you a bit of a taster. They're not great but that's what happens when you're wandering around drinking beers, dancing and generally forgetting that you have your camera with you ;-)

Band in St. Miquel's Square

Fireworks

Dancing in the streets

The museum night was obviously a lot more subdued but it was good to have the contrast otherwise the whole weekend may have ended up a bit too lively. We decided to visit MNAC, the national art museum of Catalunya. I did hear of huge queues at some of the others but we waltzed straight in to MNAC. The building is massive so was well able to cope with the hordes of extra visitors. My favourite part is the Romanesque collection. The murals have to be seen to be fully appreciated but you can get an idea here of how beautiful they are.



I was too busy looking to take a lot of photos and I don't think they would have done the art much justice but I did get a few of the main auditorium to give you an idea of how big the building is.

Pillars in auditorium of MNAC

Free jazz concert

Main auditorium

Roof of central hall at MNAC

Primavera Sound is this weekend and even though I'm not going to the main event there are also some smaller gigs being arranged by the organisers to coincide with the big festival, so I may pop along to some of those. After that we have Sonar and Sant Joan to look forward to so there'll be no rest for a while yet.

Shopping in El Born, Barcelona...

My latest feature for miniguide magazine giving the lowdown on two of my favourite shops, Colmado and Co-Shop. Both are in El Born, which is my favourite area to shop in Barcelona. Click on the picture to make it bigger, or you can read the feature online here  if you like, as well as checking out the magazine for ideas on where to go in the city if you're here now or planning to visit at any time.

This weekend is a long one for the Pentecost bank holiday (I'm not religious but I'll take the days off if they're offered!) and this coincides with a fiesta of marching bands in our barrio. I'll be taking photos and putting them up here early next week. Hasta pronto!

Barcelona on Screen...

I'm always seeing camera crews on the streets of of Barcelona and in our little barrio of Barceloneta. The city seems to inspire everyone. I've just been looking at the blog 'Living in Barcelona' which is written by a German Yvonne who introduced herself to me in a comment on this blog, and I found the following video which shows loads of scenes from literally right outside my door and all over the barrio. If your German language skills are good then you can read her post about it here or if they're as bad as mine you can use Google translate.

I love the way some of our local characters have got in on the action in this video, there are loads of familiar faces here. The beach is a big star too and the old guys playing dominoes make sure they don't miss the action either. The video really is a great snapshot of Barceloneta and the rest of the city too.

The Streets Speak...

For anyone who likes art, graffiti, street art or Barcelona, the documentary linked below should be of interest. We saw it at a launch night last week and the full film is now online. Please let me know what you think of it and who your favourite street artist is. I'd also love to hear about the artists in your city, wherever you are.

http://vimeo.com/justininbcn/lascalleshablan

I would embed the video here but Vimeo and blogspot don't appear to get along. 

Barceloneta shops...

My latest feature for the Barcelona magazine, miniguide which gives a brief introduction to some of the shops in our part of town. There were others that I wanted to feature but I ran out of room, I'll get to them on this blog in time. Click on the picture to read it or check it and the rest of the magazine out from here.

Classic motorbikes in Barcelona...

I recently went sale shopping with His Nibs to L'Illa shopping centre, which is very close to where he works. It's pretty good as far as shopping centres go, mainly because it has a really good food hall, but as usual I didn't end up finding anything I liked. I'm finding that I'm getting really fussy in my old age and have to really fall in love with something before I can buy it, even at reduced prices. A good thing for my bank balance, at least.

It wasn't a total wash out though as they have an exhibition of classic bikes of the 20th century which is on till the 16th of February. Get up there if you can as it's well worth seeing, I was practically drooling over how gorgeous some of them were, especially the amazing side cars. I must have gotten my love for classic bikes from my step-dad who is a dedicated Harley owner and  a member of an MC.

Here are a few photos from my Instagram account to give you a taste, it seems I'm not alone in my love for these beautiful machines as they're probably the most popular photos I've ever put up there.

080 Barcelona Fashion...

This week saw the return of the city's own fashion event, 080 Barcelona Fashion, showcasing collections for  autumn / winter 2013. This time the event was held at the new premises of DHUB in Les Glòries, giving a lot more space than for previous events.

I went along to check it out on Tuesday and Wednesday (keep an eye out for an upcoming miniguide magazine feature on one of the shoe designers). It was almost impossible to snap the models on the catwalk, mainly because my little digital camera couldn't cope with the lighting and fast movement of the models.

The picture above is from the Alexis Reyna show. The designer decided to not bother with the usual soundtrack or a DJ and rather bravely provided the music with his fellow band member (the previously mentioned shoe designer). Check out the You Tube clip below to get the full show. You can also find lots of other videos from the week on You Tube.

When the miniguide magazine feature is published I'll post it here for those of you who are interested in hand made Italian shoes.