My first Barcelona protest march – hanging out with the indignados
Somewhat staggeringly, I have managed to live in Barcelona for precisely one year now without writing about the growing sense of social unrest on the streets of the city. I sometimes wonder if this is...
View Article¡¡¡Hawd yer wheesht!!!
So I am back in Barcelona after a week in Scotland, holding hands with the home country (here’s a gratuitous picture of a peaceful Perth by way of proof). As usual, my swithering between two tierras...
View ArticleTapeando in Poble Sec
If you’re looking for a sociable corner of Barcelona to go on a tapas crawl with locals, take a look at this article I’ve written over on Travelers Digest. “No matter your budget, one of the unbridled...
View ArticleDay tripper options from Barcelona
If you’ve had enough of the city (and in clammy July, who hasn’t?), you might like this guest post I’ve written recently on easy day escapes – Montserrat, Sitges, Tarragona and Girona. Here’s a snippet...
View ArticleBeauty and the Beach
Without seeming to put any effort into it whatsoever, Barcelona is a city of babes. I mean, the people here are basically beautiful. Walk down the street even first thing in the morning and you’ll see...
View ArticleBarcelona’s bomb shelters – Refugio 307
Spend any amount of time in Barcelona and the chances are that beneath the Mediterranean façade of frolics and frippery, you will pick up on a much darker side of its history. This is, quite literally,...
View ArticleDog days in Barcelona
Blog guilt has been plaguing me recently. I am patently not Prolific Enough. This particular form of self-reproach is a new phenomenon, but one that has unassumedly taken its place in the full line-up...
View ArticleSick in Spain (part one)
This wasn’t quite how I’d imagined writing my next blog post – one-fingered, elbow cranked at an angle to work around the two drips easing various magical substances into my (I’m reliably informed)...
View ArticleSick in Spain (part two)
Saturday 5am An inner evacuation process has begun. The pup whines, looks confused, and licks the back of my leg in sympathy. 3pm I cannot stop being sick. The retching is happening every five minutes....
View ArticleMastering the parks of Montjuïc – guest post at The Spain Scoop
It might be the week before Christmas, but in a balmy Barcelona with temperatures in the sun at 19°C, tis apparently the season to pack up a picnic and head for the hills. If that sounds like fun, you...
View ArticleThe Big Flat Flit
‘To flit’ in Scotland means to move house. I like the winsomeness of the word. Its sound, its capriciousness, its way of conveying so many things at once. It invokes a butterfly in full flight mode,...
View ArticleBarcelona and the two faces of January
January in Barcelona has the ability to sidle its way innocuously into your life. There’s none of the wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanies the new year’s investiture in Scotland, largely...
View ArticleCoasting the Costa Brava
Of all the reasons behind my move to Barcelona, being close to the coast was perhaps the most pressing. Having the sea on your doorstep is something I’d grown used to, having spent most of my life on...
View ArticleScunnered in Barcelona
Or, how a peace-loving vegetarian was turned into a screaming banshee googling ‘shooting ranges in Barcelona’. This wasn’t the post I was expecting to write. What I actually wanted to talk about were...
View ArticleTwo years in – how Barcelona has changed me
A colleague of mine took the day off work recently. This wouldn’t have been noteworthy in itself, except that it was a random Wednesday, we were in the middle of a big project, and he was...
View ArticleHorse heaven in the Catalan hinterland
The first thing I should say is, this isn’t a sponsored post. No-one has paid me, given me a reciprocal link – or, sadly, bought me a horse – in exchange for me bumping my gums to the world. (I should...
View Article5 best Barcelona apps
The much-vaunted Mobile World Congress rolled into Barcelona a few months back. All across the self-proclaimed smart city, posters hung from lamp-posts (even the Gaudí-designed ones), radio adverts...
View Article13 things I would change about Spain
If you’re reading this from the UK, I can imagine what you’re thinking right now. Churlish bint. She gets to live a life of sun, sea, sand, sandals and sangría – what has she got to complain about? In...
View ArticleThe magical La Mercè – best bits 2013
Of all Barcelona’s traditional myriad excuses for a knees-up (or ankles-up, in the case of the sedate little steps of the Catalan sardana), late September’s La Mercè festival is somewhat of a legend in...
View ArticleA new view of Barcelona – from the Fabra Observatory
Mount Tibidabo is fast becoming my favourite place in Barcelona. It’s a slow burner, granted. I’d lived here two full years before even setting foot on a single funicular to ferry me up to its...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....