Travel blog Barcelona Berlin Paris Madrid

Barcelona is a city with a lot of History, not only of its political movements of resistance, Franco’s dictatorship or its constant quest for independence, but also because of the unique and individual stories of its inhabitants, common people but with a long list of public figures, artists, politicians, musicians and writers. Those stories are still tying and untying the streets of Barcelona. Its players today are also different. In addition to the hordes of tourists who seek a place for relaxation, wildness and adventure in the city as well as the variety of immigrants currently living in this beautiful city, give a rich cultural scene in the Catalan capital.

Barcelona is home to citizens from Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The great migration has occurred for many reasons including the economic boom in construction for several years and the open frontiers of the European Union, among others. With the current economic crisis in Spain, it is very easy to blame it on the immigrant or foreigners, as an automatic reaction of the crisis. On the other hand, the variety and cultural enrichment that the city has got thanks to the immigrants is negated. Xenophobia seems to be daily bread in Spain. Talking about personal stories and experiences, the city grows, and with it the appliances, utensils, objects and clothes that you can also find in Barcelona. These stories create new culture, new movement in the streets, new meanings, new scripts.

Sant Antoni Market can give you a clear mapping of this phenomenon. And if what you like is going in search of trading cards, comics, magazines, cards, postcards, posters, movies, old books, records, etc., Every Sunday you will be able to find that on the side of Sant Antoni Market; a variety of unique gadgets, which will transport you in time. If you look carefully at all these, what some people call “garbage”,  you will see the rich culture that is forming. All these artifacts of collection; from stamps to coins, in languages and backgrounds that were previously unsuspected, and have big fans due to the memories of other times that they bring. An old book condenses all the power of reading, all other meanings given to them.

You can find all this, on Sundays, from 8 am until 3 or 4 pm. We recommend you to come early and find the best things with fewer crowds around. Bargaining outside Sant Antoni Market “is a must”. It is always affordable for everyone and suitable for all ages and interests.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Barcelona and enjoy its cultural diversity. Barcelona is a city with a very rich cultural life coming from all latitudes. Feel at home just one step from the Mediterranean.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

Tags: ancient, bargain, books, Catalan, catalunya, Catalunya uber alles, cheap, comics, Eastern Europe, eixample, europe, flea market, history, hunting, immigration, india, market, movies, pakistan, Poble sec, politics, porn, Pornography, posters, romance, sale, San Antonio, South America, Spain, stamps, trading cards, Vintage, xenophobia

Until the 4th of March, Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona has opened the exhibition Invisible Fields. Geographies of the radio waves. (‘Campos Invisibles. Geografías de las ondas de radio’ in Spanish). The exhibition addresses the outlook of technique and science from conceptual art, and it’s produced by Plataforma Cero, Centro de Investigación, Producción y Recursos de LABoral.

The exhibition is commissioned by Honor Harger and José Luís de Vicente, and it looks to shed light on the imaginable landscape that’s built from radio waves. For that, they’ve designed an interdisciplinary work platform that analyzes through sociologic optics what culture and social change encompasses, scientific communication and artistic practice.

The exhibition includes works by the artists Trevor Plagen, Thomas Ashcraft, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Anthony DeVicenzi, Timo Arnall, Joyce Hinterding, Job Ramos, Semiconductor, Matthew Biederman, Clara Boj y Diego Díaz, Rasa Smite & Raitis Smits (RIXC), Luthiers Drapaires, Irdial Records, Guifi.net, Luthiers Drapaires and Plataforma Cero LABoral.

From the appearance of radio in 1897, when Marconi installed the first radio transmission in the Isle of Wight, up until today, a lot of water has gone under bridge. Radio began as a non-profitable technological scientific crusade and only man’s dreams were involved to change the natural barriers of communication. Shortly after it became a way to transmit more complex messages and bring the events that were taking place to its most immediate environment. Radio, together with the telephone and later the teletype, were inventions that managed to unite continents and turn communications into something instantaneous during the 20th century. Thanks to it, the events of WW2 and the great historical landmarks that shaped mankind were got to be known live.

However, we don’t know much about what’s behind the radio and how do those waves are transmitted through the atmosphere. We also don’t know how a radio works and what interests it has behind it. We also don’t know how much it has actually influenced us in our behaviour and in the actual form of society but we do admit that nobody can be without it and that it’s part of our everyday customs.

Also, this interesting exhibition has given way to the making of a series of workshops that Arts Santa Mònica has organized with Plataforma Cero de LABoral. David Pello is in charge of an introduction to the world of satellite technology, while Pedro Soler and Joanna Griffin will explore imaginary space and the satellites through its stories, names and origins, as well as how the future is shaping up for these space intruders. The activist and investigator Alejandro Duque will show his critique vision on satellites and will show how to trace them down, hack into them and decode the secrets that they have inside.

For more information: http://www.artssantamonica.cat/EXP/EXPOSICIONS/tabid/128/any/201110/language/es-ES/Default.aspx#exposicio51

Nancy Guzman

Don’t torment yourself with the prophecies for 2012. Rent apartments in Barcelona and forget about all the bad vibes that the futurologists are predicting by enjoying the best days of the year.

Contact Me 

Translated by: aleixgwilliam
Contact Me

Tags: art, Arts Santa Monica, barcelona, Communication, culture, exhibition, Invisible Fields, modernity, Radio, Satellites, sociology, Technology, workshops

Acrobats performing artists and the most important circus performers of the world will gather in Paris from the 26th to the 29th of January at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (World Circus Festival of Tomorrow), one of the most important competitions in the world of circus which reaches its 33 th edition in 2012. A prestigious jury of producers, artists and directors in the world of tents, have the difficult task of qualifying participants, who are eager to be the winners  in the competition, and who will leave their soul on the stage to give everything they have. Renowned artists such as Dima Shine, Vertical Tango, Anatoly Zaliewski and The Taquin Brothers have participated in this famous event that was first held in 1977.

Lively music and a deep and piercing strong voice invades the essence of your body while you dance to the nightingale that happily sings forever. Didn’t you wake up already? You were blinded by the body movements of the artist in front of you, who dares to show himself in  such an intimate way that you have take a step back overwhelmed by the incredible beauty that sweetly is pulsating in your soul, sensual passion that is pure energy that can no longer stand being cooped up in the walls of your being. Another thunderous applause, strangers are awoken but something has changed, now you can feel it!

For more information visit:

http://www.cirquededemain.com

Hans

Get apartments in Paris and discover the best art shows in the world! Get caught by the magic of the circus!

Contact Me 

Translated by: Marc
Contact Me

Tags: acrobatas, artes escenicas., artistas, circo, Cirque du Soleil, Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain, paris, payasos, trapeciastas

Petritxol Street is the perfect meeting place for hardened gourmands and art lovers. The street is only two hundred meters long, but on it lies the Sala Parés, famous for hosting the works of such important people as Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol and Pablo Picasso. This famous gallery opened in 1840 and marked the evolution of the area, becoming an attraction for artists. It ‘led to the opening of numerous exhibitions and shopping centers of articles for Fine Arts, but also to chocolate shops that constituted the perfect meeting place for Bohemians artists. How many world famous works emerged thanks to the smell of hot chocolate?

We will never know the answer to this question, but we are so fortunate that we can still taste the sweets that of our ancestors ate. Two of the farms of yesteryear have survived in time and are still delighting us with the same traditional recipes. The oldest of these, is La Granja Dulcinea, a place whose origins date back to 1789, although it was in 1930 that it passed from being a tavern to become a farm. Through its door illustrious people as Salvador Dali or Angel Guimerà have passed. They were all delighted by the high quality of its products. Neither we can forget the Pallaresa, the farm in the number eleven Petritxol Street, which was founded in 1947 by Mr. Magin Cases, formerly occupied by a dairy shop. It is an ideal place to taste a good Swiss and has nothing to envy to its predecessor.

Many bars have tried their luck in Petritxol Street, but not all have endured over time. Fortunately, the ill-fated Xocoa left us an enviable legacy. Xocoa is a chocolate store “franchise”, which opened a chocolate shop and a café in this historic street, but succumbed to its competition and closed the doors of the bar. However, its shop still delights us with the best chocolate recipes from the city, so it has become the perfect complement to their former competitors. If you have time, do not hesitate to try a delicious hot chocolate in these places full of history. by the way, you can take home some chocolates. I assure you, you won’t regret the experience. At the end of the day, the Petritxol Street holds the title as first Pedestrian Street in Barcelona, not only because of its three meters width, but also because of the charming stores that makes it a perfect visit.

Enrique Ríos

If you like chocolate you know, Petritxol Street is where you go. Do not forget to rent apartments in Barcelona for you to have a nap after your hot chocolate

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

Tags: chocolate, Pablo Picasso, Parés, Petritxol, Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol

The Auditori in Barcelona has organized concerts of Dvorák (even though he’ll be accompanied by Brahms and Saint-Saëns) on the 27th, 28th and 29th of January at different times (11am, 7pm and 9pm) to adapt to all possible timetables. Under the direction of Jakub Hrusa, the Barcelona and Catalunya National Symphonic Orchestra (OBC) and the piano of Simo Trpcevski will perform the ‘Tragic Overture’ by Brahms, the ‘Concert for piano and orchestra number 2′ by Saint-Saëns and the ‘Number 8 Symphony’ by Dvorák. Both local and tourist music lovers can access the following website http://www.auditori.cat/ct/concert/13-lhimne-a-la-natura-de-dvorak-2122.aspx where they’ll find more practical details and, even, purchase the tickets online for any of the sessions of the event.

The czech musician Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904) composed ‘Symphony number 8′ in his summer villa of Vysoká, close to Prague, in 1880. Although it was eclipsed by the popularity and the fame of the next one, the ‘Ninth’ or ‘New World’, this composition hits all the romantic notes that Dvorák liked so much. And it’s not strange that the organizers accompany this symphonic piece with a composition by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), because both artists maintained a close friendship and a fruitful collaboration. Also from 1880 is the ‘Tragic Overture’, the piece that starts the concert at the Auditori in Barcelona and that has been interpreted in all sorts of ways due to its fiery and even fast character. Despite all of these readings, that are more or less accurate, Brahms imposed to all of his work a purely musical character without entering discourses that could be translated into literature. And, lastly, completing the programme we have the French composer, contemporary of the previous musicians, Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), who progressively moved away from romanticism to fully enter impressionism through his work in the National Music Society.

The well-known ‘Concert for piano and orchestra number 2′ by Saint-Saëns was composed in 1868 and is dedicated to an enigmatic Madame A. de Villers, née de Haber, of which we know little or nothing of today.

The Auditori in Barcelona, open to the public since 1999, programmes season after season of music concerts of all types in its spectacular building designed by Rafael Moneo. We’ve allowed ourselves to point this one out because we’ve especially liked the programme. But the venue has a tight calendar with a varied offer: there are bands, old music, chamber music, choir music and, even, an abundant programme prepared and adapted to the younger ones. It’s, of course, an unavoidable reference in Barcelona’s cultural scene.

Candela Vizcaíno

The traveller who is in the Catalan capital during these dates and doesn’t want to miss these concerts, will also have had to book any of the excellent apartments in Barcelona in advance, where he can recover from the agitated cultural and artistic lifestyle of this beautiful Mediterranean city.

Contact Me 

Translated by: aleixgwilliam
Contact Me

Tags: Antonín Dvorák, Auditori Barcelona, Barcelona and Catalunya National Symphonic Orchestra, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jakub Hrusa, Johannes Brahms, Tragic Overture

Paris always takes the lead in fashion and it is expressed in every aspect of its inhabitants’ lives. They invented haute couture, nouvelle cuisine, and gourmet restaurants, as well as having imposed an appealing lifestyle and entertainment. For you to know what are the best places in this city we will make an overview so you can visit all of them when coming to.

Le Bar á Bulles has a pleasant atmosphere and very good cocktail preparations, as well as international beer brands. Here you can have a drink to the rhythm of good music. If prefer dancing, there are good DJs who enliven the evenings in the Club Lounge.

If you like live music concerts, La Maroquinerie it’s your place in Paris since it has one of the best music agendas of the city. It also has an amazing restaurant, very good atmosphere and a first class menu. The menu prices range between 6 and 19.50 Euros and it is located at 23 rue Boyer.

Gibus Club is a club which opened in 1967, many important people and rock idols have offered their shows in this club, but time passes and thanks to its musical style transformation, it has managed to remain in the circuits of hot spots in Paris. Today his rap music, hip hop and R & B still and the frequent presentation of famous DJs of the French and international music scene, make it the ideal place to go dancing. The facility has a capacity for 600 people and has rooms for private parties and theme parties. Address: 18 rue du Faubourg du Temple.

La Machine du Moulin Rouge is a complex, which since 2010 provides a space for concerts and performances, a bar and a dance club with very good DJs programs. Its concert agenda is one of the most desired by the Parisian music lovers of rock, punk, indie and other currents of contemporary music. Address is 90 bd de Clichy, 75018.

Carpe Diem is a fashionable place in Paris. Located in des Halles, its cuisine has charmed French people and it has imposed a trend that others try to follow. Described as experimental, with an exotic blend of flavors and textures, this charming place makes it impossible to resist for those who like trying new sensations. It has a capacity for 58 people who have declared as a conceptual fantasy roasted Camembert cider caramel, nuts, salad, or grilled chicken farm ginger with exotic vegetables. Address is 21 rue des Halles. It opens for lunch from 12:00 to 15:00 and dinner from 19:30 to 23:00.

Nancy Guzman

For you to feel the real spirit of the capital of France, rent apartments in Paris and enjoy these places known as the French innovations to catch a rapidly changing world.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

Tags: bars, clubs, Cocktails, concerts, culture, dancing, dating, dining, fashion, Having fun, live music, nightlife, paris, Pubs, style

Among all the groups hurriedly lauded by British critics in the last ten years, the band from Sheffield Arctic Monkeys, who will present their latest album, Suck It and See (name taken from a scene out of  Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange, a name in accordance with the bands known carefree and irreverent side) at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona (http://www.bsmsa.cat/index.php?id=24&L=1) on the 28th of January is probably one of the most genuinely interesting ones.

The rebellious and mocking spirit the Arctic Monkeys reflected in the title of the album has found its true expression in the many moments of their career where they made fun of the pointlessness of the music industry that has been so interested in them from the beginning but never taking them seriously due to outrageous moments as in that famous occasion when they dressed up as Village People to pick up a major prize.

That northern British teenager arrogance  is in as way irresistibly attractive as the the first Beatles were, but has a more nuanced expression in this new CD. Suck It and See is sufficiently representative, because although there are songs like the frantic Library Pictures that seem to remember that teenager arrogance despite its delicious chorus, its most genuine in its  primordial essence, the album reflects primarily an increasingly more sensitive attempt to lower the adrenaline rush for a more classical flavor compositions. This is not to say that the songs have become more domesticated but they show a working approach to the work of the great masters, something that can give us a clue is recent covers by the group, such as the interpretation of  Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds or the particular tribute to Leonard Cohen by Alex Turner (guitarist and lead vocalist of the group) on the soundtrack of the film by Richard Ayoade Submarine-his recognized growing interest in Lee Hazlewood would be another example of the phenomenon.

Parallel to this expansion of their tastes and inclinations, Suck It and See has led them to yet again work with James Ford, the producer of their first two albums, resulting in a full and rich sound of the best British tradition  with more than an echo from bands like the Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen, and this has raised fears among some of their followers due to the unexpected elegance, subtlety and interest in new subject matters such as the passage of time, the evils of love and a sense of sentimentalism and melancholy that somehow was born in Sheffield, creating a different challenging group effect for which they are essentially known for so far.

Paul Oilzum

A concert is naturally the best idea to get rid of any doubts and judging by the quality of the new songs, they are playing on the current tour we know something really good is going to happen. Make up your own opinion if you rent apartments in Barcelona

Contact Me 

Translated by: Marc
Contact Me

Tags: Arctic Mondays, barcelona, Echo, Smiths, village people

Spain is one of those countries where, apparently, the outside is more important than the inside. You just have to walk around the streets of Barcelona to see that image is everything. It’s not important how much money you have or your social condition, if you have a job or if you are, like so many others in these times of crisis, jobless and looking for solutions, trying to stop yourself from robbing a bank; in Barcelona, image is queen and it’s the focal point of social life. So, don’t be surprised if the words ‘guapa’ or ‘guapo’ (beautiful) and its derivatives ‘bonito’ and ‘bonita’ (pretty) are everyday’s talk. Whether frivolity is part of Spanish culture is still up for debate, but it probably does have a style which is a tad hedonistic and relaxed, which finally settles in beauty as the refuge of general wellbeing. So, cheers to that and long may the party continue!

Therefore, the care for the physical aspect, as well as the fashion looks, are very much in Barcelona’s character. If you live in Barcelona you’ll see that, every day, people go out jogging down its lit up avenues. Diagonal Avenue, Passeig de Gràcia, as well as the promenade that runs along the Mediterranean seafront in Barcelona are all full of enthusiastic joggers who don’t miss the chance to burn some fat and oxygenate the body. The seasons are quite obvious in Barcelona but, despite that, you can go for a run at any time of the year and make the most of its streets and routes. In an equal way, together with these joggers, cyclists go from one side of the city to the other at high speeds. It has to be said that going on a bicycle is one of the favourite ways of transport in the city, as well as being healthy and environment-friendly.

If you love football, you’ll have plenty of places to share your passion for this sport, both in bars and cafés, where they show Barça matches, as well as in different mini football pitches in different areas of the city, where neighbours and friends practice the beautiful game. In equal measure, around most districts of the city, you can find all types of gyms with prices that adjust to your pocket: bodybulding, aerobics classes, yoga classes, tai chi and warm swimming pools to swim in during winter. It has to highlighted that the proximity of the Mediterranean allows that during the hotter months of the year, you can practice water sports, such as sailing and even surfing.

Certainly, Barcelona offers you a great range of possibilities if you like sport. You just have to check out the city’s website to find the sport that you like the most and the people who are interested in it like you. Also, the Barcelona Council’s website presents relevant information on the different sporting activities in the city on this website: http://w3.bcn.es/V25/Home/V25HomeLinkPl/0,2976,5004038_5184167_2,00.html

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Barcelona and discover the different options that this fabulous city offers you to keep healthy and fit by practicing your favourite sport.

Contact Me 

Translated by: aleixgwilliam
Contact Me

Tags: aerobics, ball, Barça, beach, bicycles, bodybuilding, Catalan, catalunya, Catalunya uber alles, Cycling, democracia real ya, footballers, goal, jogging, mini football, outraged, politics, pools, real madrid, sand, sea, skates, Sport, sports, sportsmen, surfing, swimming, volley

The contemporary, audiovisual cross-cultural festival Transmediale, which this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary in Berlin, between the 31^st of January and the 5^th of February http://www.transmediale.de/ was founded in 1988 with the name of VideoFilmFest under the artistic direction of Kwell Micky.

Based on the fundamental objective of offering promotion of all electronic media productions that did not fit into traditional film festivals like the Berlinale, the event has experienced a sustained and rapid evolution as illustrated by the adoption of the current name in the edition 1997/98, because the last five years of the twentieth century, its programming covered a broad spectrum of multimedia art forms, including music and nightclub culture.

In fact, in 1999, with a curator and an independent economic funding, Transmediale gained a new appendix devoted specifically to the sonic art world of electronic music, digital and experimental contemporary, as well as to the wide range of artistic and social activities that are connected or developed within the audio culture. Originally called Club Transmediale and, since 2011, CTM-Festival of innovative music and related arts, this parallel festival essentially interested in exploring the intersections between cutting-edge contemporary sound creation, properly embedded in the culture of the society and its social and technological transformations, as well as other art forms and fields. In 2012 it will revolve around the notion of the spectral (http://www.ctm-festival.de/ctm-festival/ctm12.html).

Through the spectral, the festival consist of a series of aesthetic of the past with their particular unfulfilled utopias or dystopias, the sinister character of the hallucinatory effects of audiovisual media, and the demand for experiences of transcendence through elements such as mysticism, as psychotropic, occultism, overlapping layers of different temporal, mundane forms of alchemy or euphoric rejection of physical presence as a way of constructing a reality in which submit or exorcise the ghosts that are necessarily present in every case.

The agenda of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Transmediale, under the artistic direction of Kristoffer Gansing simultaneously tries to look back and redefine the lines of growth for the future. It has been decided at this time to eliminate the competition and prizes (including the theoretical section, which takes the form of a residency program for artistic research) clearly opting for a thematic approach to equip the festival with greater coherence between its different sections, making it more akin to the criteria of an art curator and closer relationship with the transmediale community.

The topic that will revolve around this year edition is the incompatibility, understood as an essential condition of cultural production in times of crisis.

Paul Oilzum

If you are interested in the culture associated with electronic music and contemporary visual media you can’t miss this event. Rent apartments in Berlin during these days, and enjoy Transmediale.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

Tags: Audiovisual, berlin, clubs, CTM spectral, digital, Electronic, image, incompatibility, mysticism, transcendence, Transmediale

Today we give value to those objects loaded with history that may be new or used, but which reflect the feel of an era long past. That is why that, that may be nostalgia, has seized upon urban tastes and all large cities have their corners of fashion vintage or antique with style. Barcelona is not at all behind when it comes to vintage, being recognized for having shops that are very sophisticated in this trend. For you to enjoy the vintage world, we are going to share some secrets to delight youon your next trip  when it comes to buying clothing and accessories with history.

A dreamed space for the lovers of vintage is Patrimonio. Located in Carrer de les Banys Nous 14, it has become a reference in clothing and accessories vintage. There you can find all kinds of hats, clothing of wool, lace, jewelry to accompany and handbags of important brands that will be the envy of your friends. The styles are so varied that you can find clothes and objects in a perfect state from the 19th century, or beautiful garments from different eras of the 20th century. Prices are in accordance with the quality and it is never too much to give yourself a small caprice

The Lentejuela is a vintage store that hides the best treasures of Barcelona. Men and boys, women and girls, you can find everything from an old toy to the finest jewelry. It is located in the limit of the Gothic quarter with the Born and has won the preferences of the lovers of “old with class”. There are all kinds of sunglasses and handbags that are a irresistible temptation. The fun thing is that you don’t have to search and dig to find the treasures, because it is like grandmother’s attic. In prices has no comparison, you can find many offers that will make you addicted to this shop.

If you want a broad assortment of fashion from the 40, 50, 60 or 70, Retro City is the place you must visit, I assure you you will find some sort of suit that will transport you in time. There is clothing for men and women at very affordable prices. Located in Tallers street, one of the old and main streets of the Raval.

Gallery Vintage is a large store clothes where you can find handbags, shoes and accessories of very good quality. There is a wide variety of fashion from various eras and top brand handbags. You have a entertaining Web page where you can search for hours clothes items and objects that you want to buy without leaving your home, you can just click on your paypal account to make it yours and without delivery charge. But if you want to see and try out what you are going to buy, you have to go to Torrent de l’Olla, 117.

A stroll through Paris Vintage is a good closure for a shopping tour of flavored with the glamorous past. It has the best brands of clothes from the 1950s to the 1990s: Yvest Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Roberto Cavalli, among others. Their address is calle Rossello 237.

Nancy Guzman

Nothing better than enjoying the beginning of the year in apartments in Barcelona and to complete the pleasure of having the best, take a stroll around these vintage clothes shops. We assure you that you will not resist the charm to buy some missing garments in your wardrobe.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Marc
Contact Me

Tags: barcelona, Bisutería, Complementos, Compras, cultura, diseño, Estilo, moda, Mujeres, Pasear, Ropa, Ropa Vintage, Salir, Vida Urbana, Vintage