Tab holidays: Brits in Barcelona

We went to Barcelona for a cultural weekend. Days filled with Gaudi exhibitions and evenings spent fine dining on tapas and sangria.

As is to be expected, it didn’t exactly go to plan. Here are five things we learnt on our city break in Barcelona. Take note.

Who knew you could get so lost in a city designed around square blocks? After hours of wandering around, aimlessly trying to find our hotel we gathered we were pretty shocking at navigating. The next day, to avoid such situations, we cranked up the cringe factor by spending our first day on an open-topped tour bus.

26 euros well spent on a day long bus tour of Barcelona.

This way, we got to see all the things Barcelona has to offer, like fountains.

2. Barcelona may be in the north of Spain, but it’s still SPAIN.

There is no parallel whatsoever between the weather in North Spain and the weather in North England.

And definitely don’t think just because you’re ‘olive’ skinned, you’re instantly immune to sunburn.

3. All the best nights start with a litre of sangria.

Everyone knows the Spanish love sangria. So much so, they literally give you a LITRE of it with your dinner.

Before you know it, you’re funding organised crime by accepting those dodgy one euro beers from random street vendors and lining up three euro mojitos in some back alley bar.

4. Health and Safety doesn’t exist in Spain.

We were fortunate enough to be there for piss up of the year – the Festival of Sant Joan.

On the longest day (which, for some strange reason, is apparently on June 23 in Barcelona), everyone goes to the beach at sun down and gets absolutely rat arsed.

It was a totally surreal experience, topped off by the fireworks randomly going off in all directions (including just exploding on the floor, making the beach sort of resemble a war-torn border) and the random bonfires people enjoyed jumping over. Oh, and the occasional water bomb and lone toddler wandering around.

5. Feminine charm goes further than you think.

Walking along La Rambla at 10pm is an experience in itself.  Once you’ve got to grips with which direction the traffic is coming in, you’ve then got to deal with pissed club promoters telling you they can give you the night of your life for 15 euros… plus drinks.

But why pay for a bar crawl when you can get your flirt on and tag along for free?

Tell them you have no money but humour them for a while, sounding extremely interested.  Bat an eyelid or two, keep them talking and before you know it, they’re telling you the route and you’re socialising with all the suckers that paid 15 euros just to be shown where a cheap bar is.