Plaza de la Concordia, Barcelona...

His Nibs is currently working up at Camp Nou, and it's become a weekly ritual to go and meet him after he finishes work on Friday evening. We usually go into the centre of town for a drink or a coffee, but tonight we thought we would find somewhere closer  to the stadium. 

 Apart from the stadium and the enormous L'Illa shopping centre, the area of Les Corts isn't really somewhere that attracts a lot of tourists as it's a bit quieter than the old town and not very well known. However, it is home to one of the prettiest squares in Barcelona, Plaza de la Concordia.

We popped into Fragments Cafe for some coffee and cake. This is a really lovely cafe /bar with a great terrace at the back, it was a bit cold to sit out there today though.

 Apologies for the blurry pictures, twilight is lovely but tricky to photograph.

 This beautiful civic centre, Can Deu,  also has a lovely cafe and garden at the back and has to be the prettiest civic centre in Barcelona.

The black cherry crumble went down a treat with our coffees. It was quite difficult to choose between this and the tarte tatin, and we shared which led to some spoon duelling for the last piece (I won this battle).


As I say, you may not find yourself in this part of town very often, but make sure you seek out this lovely plaza if you do. There are quite a few bars and restaurants in the immediate vicinity too.


Feliz fin de semana!

Illamasqua - Barcelona Miniguide

I'll be back with more Barcelona news soon, but in the meantime, check out my feature on Illamasqua cosmetics for Barcelona magazine, miniguide. I hope you like it. By the way, if you're coming to Barcelona, or if you're already here, the miniguide is an excellent way to find out where to go and what to see. Look out for the pocket sized magazine in bars and shops when you're out and about.

Illamasqua - Barcelona Miniguide

Barceloneta Correfoc, Barcelona...

Last night we popped out to watch a Correfoc being hosted by Els Diables de la Barceloneta. We could have just watched from our balcony as it finishes right in front of our building, but it's much more fun to get up close to dodge the sparks and flaming football flying towards you, not to mention dancing in front of the mini burning man. There's an ambulance parked up in attendance just in case, although I've never seen anyone get burned (although I'm sure it does happen).

Burning Man really getting going...

Goal!

Relighting the football...

Standing back a bit for safety after the ball escaped one too many times...

It was cold last night which meant the crowd was small, but great fun nonetheless. I think this event is a pretty new tradition in Barceloneta but it's a good way to break up the tedious days between Christmas and New Year. I'm working this NYE so the next big event for me will be the Three Kings parade, I'll let you know all about that soon.

Diaghilev's Ballets Russes Exhibition, Barcelona...

If you're in Barcelona before the fifteenth of January 2012, I highly recommend that you go to Caixa Forum to see the free exhibition of the costumes of the Ballets Russes. The costumes are on loan from the V & A, and wonderfully well preserved. As well as costumes there are old posters and other memorabilia, and some really effective video installations. I'd say anyone who is interested in history, costume or dance will enjoy this exhibition a lot. 

The company toured extensively in the early twentieth century, including appearances in Barcelona. Pablo Picasso designed their ballet 'Parade', making them the first company to have sets and costumes inspired by cubism. They were a truly innovative company led by the enigmatic Sergei Diaghilev, and shocked the world with their bold sets, costumes, music and choreography. I won't bang on too much about them as you can find out more all over the internet or at your local library.

The Caixa Forum is well worth a visit itself for the architecture and history, and exhibitions are usually free, so even better. 

I managed to get some pictures but they don't do the fabulous costumes justice, make sure you get to the exhibition if you can. 

Vintage Me, Barcelona...

Thursday night saw us venture out in the rain and wind to check out an event that was being held by Vintage Me at Jaleo Bar in Raval. Jaleo is right next to MACBA so it's a great spot for people watching, defintely worth a visit if you're looking for a drink in the Raval barrio.

Vintage Me, a vintage clothes company based here in Barcelona, were using the bar to have a sort of mini market/sale, and seeing as our mate Gigi D'Amico was also spinning a few tunes we decided to pop down for some beers and shopping. By the way, how fab is Gigi's hat? 

Unfortunately my photos are not brilliant as the lighting in the bar was a bit dark. It's a shame as there were a few items that really caught my eye and it would have been good to give you all a proper look at them. Luckily, Vintage Me have a great website so you can see some of them there.They currently have a sale on too, even better.

I never like to buy things without trying them on, and the bar wasn't really set up for that, but I did manage to pick up two scarves which I'll probably wear turban style. Look at the print on this one, it's a piano playing octopus...

We ended the night by popping over to another Raval bar, Marmalade. They have a beautiful art deco bar which you can see behind my head in the photo below. It gives the bar a kind of speakeasy vibe which is helped by the velvet curtains in the doorways, copper plated walls and the ornate billiard table. I'd recommend this bar if you're on a date as it has a cosy intimate atmosphere even though it's actually quite a big bar for Barcelona.

I'm on the hunt for a handbag big enough to bring to work. I love vintage shopping, but all I'm seeing everywhere is tiny bags and clutches. I may have to resort to ebay, even though it's annoying me at the moment. If anyone in Barcelona is reading this and they've seen any good second hand large handbags anywhere, let me know.


There is another market on tomorrow which I'm going to try to get to before work. If I do manage to get there, I'll tell you all about it in my next post.

Brass and Copper, Barcelona

Hola todos. I'm off to a second hand market in a bar very soon (photos to follow) but I just wanted to quickly  share a recent find with you.


A couple of weeks ago I paid a flying visit to a craft fair. I didn't blog about it because I literally only had half an hour there before having to go to work, so no time to take photos or really shop.


One stall I did visit and grab a card from was Brass and Copper, jewellery designers who are inspired by Victorian and vintage styles and make the prettiest gee gaws I've seen for a while. These earrings in particular are on the wish list.

I can't figure out from the site if they deliver overseas, but I'm sure if there's anything you love then they can arrange something for all you non peninsula dwellers.


I'll be back tomorrow with a longer post and some photos from tonight. See you all then.

Arancino, Sicilian food in Barcelona...

If you're heading down to the beach to catch the sun before autumn really takes hold, make sure you pop into Arancino on Passeig Joan de Borbó, to try their very tasty food.

http://www.arancino.es 

We've been meaning to check it out for ages but we were trying to behave ourselves on the 'eating out' front (way too easy to spend a lot of money doing that in Barcelona). We finally succumbed to the temptation on Monday night. 

http://www.arancino.es

The basic idea is to bring a taste of authentic and inexpensive Sicilian food to Barcelona. It's not a restaurant, more of a take away, but that's ideal if you want to have a chilled day on the beach without spending too much, or if you're lucky enough to live just around the corner, like us. 

http://www.arancino.es

The main item on the menu is the arancino. I've sadly never been to Sicily so I've never had one of these before, but I think they may be my new addiction. The website describes them as a 'fried rice ball with a diameter of 8-10 cm, filled with meat sauce, mozzarella, peas and varied ingredients'. That doesn't really tell you how delicious they are, but oh my lord, they really are. Crunchy on the outside and melt in the mouth gooey goodness inside. The ragu is very tasty, a real tomato taste, not at all synthetic. So filling too, don't make the mistake we did of ordering 3 of these between the two of us, one each would have been more than enough. (Our eyes are always bigger than our bellies, which is saying a lot).

http://www.arancino.es

They have a great deal on at the moment too, which gives you an arancino, cold drink or granita, dessert (try the cannolo) and coffee or chupito for 6.90 euros, very good value indeed. I think this is a summer offer so get down quickly to grab it. 

http://www.arancino.es

I'm going to have to limit my intake of the arancinos, as they're probably very calorific (is that actually a real word, by the way?), but I know I'll be back for more. They're too good to resist for ever.


By the way, all the photos above are from Arancino's website as we were starving and couldn't wait to get stuck in, I couldn't be bothered to mess around with the camera. I will take some myself next time (maybe).