Be Aware!, Barcelona

The day we arrived in Barcelona, we took a cab to our hotel. The cab driver had wanted to drop us off four blocks away from our destination. I had to argue with him. Then he stopped in a corner and pointed to where our hotel was supposed to be and that it was only a few steps away. I looked at the meter then, then I looked at what he was pointing at. When I looked at the meter again, it jumped by 8 euros! When I asked him why, he said something about extra charge, yada-yada, and that was what I should pay because that was what was on the meter. And I did. Then as we walked to our hotel, we found out our hotel was at the other end of the block and that he could have easily dropped us off in front!

Legionnaire's disease is caused by the legionella bacterium. Air conditioning systems are breeding grounds for the bacterium (others include moist showers, cooling towers, and humidifiers).

Barcelona has had several outbreaks - lack of official inspection and poor upkeep of air conditioning plants are the main culprits.

On 28/9/2000 NRC Handelsblad, a Dutch newspaper, published a list of European hotels where at least 2 cases of legionella were found during the previous 5 years. The Information was provided by the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sport [Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport.]

It is reckoned that 12,000 European tourists were infected with legionella in the 5 years up to 2000 (most of the cases in Southern Europe), with some 240 tourist deaths a year.

The list below is from an updated (27/8/2001) NRC Handelsblad report (see web site below). Hotels marked in red are in Catalonia. Check current status (local tourist board are unlikely to help).

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San Carlos, Rosas (2001).
Hotel Ramblamar, Rosas (2001).
Fariones Apartments and Hotel, Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote (2000).
Rey Don Jaime, Santa Ponsa, Mallorca (2000).
Aparthotel Jardin del Sol, Santa Ponsa, Mallorca (2000).
Motel Picon del Conde, Monasterio de Rodilla (2000).
Bermudas Apartments, Benidorm (2000).
Hotel Playa Margarita in Salou (2000).
Hotel Pionerp, Santa Ponsa, Mallorca (2000).
La Brujula Hotel, Monasterio de Rodilla, Castille y Leon (2000).
Estrella Del Mar, Alcudia, Mallorca (2000).
Hotel Victoria, Rosas (2000).
Hotel Nautilus, Rosas (1999).
Hotel Fiesta Park, Benidorm (1998).
Presidente Hotel, Benidorm (1998).
Hotel Tropic Parc, Malgrat de Mar (1997).
Hotel Cambrills Princess, Salou (1997).

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The Dutch authorities published these lists. It is a pity that other countries are less willing to protect their nationals travelling abroad.

I live in barcelona for month and heared numerous stories about how tourists have been robbet at the metro or on the ramblas.I tried to be very careful on those places and was so far lucky,however,my wallet recently has been stolen-on passeig zona franca....far from the center.
I still had it on the bus 46 but no more at home-which means it was stolen during that 200meters walk between the stop and my place.While walking home a small kid was playing footbal and kept on kicking the ball in front of me. He was with someone who walked close to me on my left side-where my handbag was.There is no zip on it so it is easy to open. the kid kicked the ball 3-4 times in front of me then they both went into a shop. I was tired,coming from the airport so didnt pay attention...
The conclusion is: no matter where you are-in the center or in the suburbs,they will always try! So keep on eye about any unusal things and get a handbag with a zip! Guys-no wallet in the backpocket of your jeans!!!!

The Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, is one of Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions. Construction on this church will continue at least until 2041, but it has already become Barcelona's most important landmark.

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (official Catalan name; Spanish: Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia; "Expiatory Church of the Holy Family"), often simply called the Sagrada Família, is a massive, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain since 1882 and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026.

The church is to be consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI on November 7, 2010.

Before i went to Barcelona i read many articles warning tourists against the dangers of La Ramblas and I thought that the stories they wrote were either far fetched or built up. Until I arried there with my boyfriend. We had jsut arrived at Passeig de Gracia with our luggage (metro was not working to our destination so we were trying to find our way around). A man dressed in a long shabby black coat was walking by the bus station (ten people waiting for the bus) pickpocketing change from them using the newspaper and internal jacket pockets technique. reminded me of a scene off Oliver Twist!
The following night, towards 2am, we were walking around the Colon coast to Drassanes (south of Ramblas) and an Indian guy kept walkin behind us tryin to sell us drugs. he followed us fro a good 5 mins een though we kept tellin to f*** off!! untill my boyfriend lost his patience and threatened to attack him and the guy went running away. he was working with a black guy who kept a couple of steps behind.
The worst happened on Saturday night at 11pm. we just walked out into La Ramblas from the Drasanes side where our hotel was. We had read on the net tha Drassanes was packed with Trannies, drug dealers and other dodgy characters but I was surprised to see the HIGH ammount of such people walking by through the tourists!! A prostitute kept callin out at my man for business (she didnt seem to care that we were holding hands) and after he told her to f*** off, a group of 3 trannies walked up to us, came in between us and surrounded him, pushin me aside. two of these trannies (on d game) started touchin him and feeling him up. I was sharp enough to recognize this from another review I had read on virtual tourist that this was their trick to distrct him while the thirs picked his pocket for money & mobile. I started screaming at him that they wer pickin his pockets and callin policia. he had to twist the pickockets arm to get hiss money back! a pimp jumped out of nowhere and charged at my boyfriend. but boyfriend scared pimp away (pimp was only a young kid in his early twenties) by punchin him and they all ran off. not a good start for a saturday night.

La ramblas is a great street full of street entertainers and performers. lots to see. but be very careful: do NOT act drunk or tipsy after its dark caus these are the people they target. my man was tipsy & they spotted him from a distance. when the police came up to us (called by a street performer who I reckon was friends with these trannies) the police just said: "this is a problem we are facing in barcelona. if u want to file a report, u must go to the police station". Police are big and armed but the only thing they are good at is walking up and down ramblas laughin and joking. they didnt give a damn.

Another tip: ignore the men selling beer in ramblas. this is just a disguise for cocaine selling. they kept walking up to us shouting cervieza and whispering "Cocaine"!!

Also be careful of people acting too friendly, men sellin roses in the street, women begging & people loitering around. ramblas full of prostitutes, pimps, trannies and drug dealers. if ure careful u should be safe and enjoy d trip ;)

This warning has been repeated many times over but it's something well worth being reminded of as you really don't want to have your money and travel documents taken by slippery fingers. My sister and I had a close call when we encountered an old woman holding a bunch of red flowers along Passeig de Gracia (one of the more upscale streets in Barcelona). We were just walking minding our own business when in the blink of an eye, she had stuck a red flower down the front of each of our blouses. And then she opened up her palm asking for a coin. Now, here she gets rather sly. She refused the local coins that I pulled out of my pocket. Instead, she insisted that it had to be a coin of my own currency or any currency other than the euro. When I said that we had none, she pointed to our bags and told us to check in there. My bag was securely zipped up and I firmly refused to open it (knowing at once what she was up to thanks to the reviews here!) but my sister's bag was unfortunately unzipped and the old woman just opened it in broad daylight and started rummaging in it!!! I tried to pull her hand out and saying "NO!" but that woman was very persistent. Luckily, she couldn't find anything in the mess inside my sister's bag and maybe our protests also distracted her. She eventually removed the flowers from our shirts and went off. As we continued walking down the street, I told my sister to check that her passport and money was still in the bag and fortunately, they were. As we stopped at the traffic lights, a local guy who had seen what had happened told us to be wary of such people as they were very slick pickpockets.

So, always keep your wits about you. NEVER leave your bag unzipped even the tiniest bit and definitely say "NO!" when someone tells you to open or check in your bag.

Another good tip is to take out the amount of money you think you require for the day and keep it in a small purse in your pocket so that you don't have to keep taking the purse containing all your money and passport out every time you wish to purchase something. I had a small purse with a fastener clipped to my jeans belt holder and that came in very handy.

I'm sorry, but this is my pet-peeve.... please, please, please... do not call the city "Barca"!!!

Well, you can do it, in case you like to sound like "yet another clueless tourist thinking he/she sounds cool, but making fool of his/herself"

FYI:

Barça = is used ONLY for the football (soccer) team
(Yes, I know many of you do not have the ç on your keyboards). It's pronounced as Bar-ssa

here, as you may imagine, not everybody are supporters of "el Barça" football club, some are supporters of other teams, and there is another major team in town ;o))

... and, to make it even weirder for us locals, "barca" (pronounced as Bar-Ka) in both Spanish or Catalan, does mean "boat". As well, there is a town in Soria's province called Barca.


Barna= this is how most locals (especially the ones originally from neighboring towns) do shorten the city name

(however, for some, "Barna" is too "pijo"... ops, I don't know how to explain "pijo" now!! preppy? posh?)

last years using BCN (like the airport code) is becoming more popular

Reason i have no photos !!!!! partly my own fault for getting lost whilst drunk and alone late at night. A Morrocon man following me until we seen police who searched me but not the Morrocon, im sure they were in on it. then ended up somewhere another accomplice appeared in front of me, i was jumped from behind, taken to the floor and held at knife point whilst one of them obbed my camera, passport, wallet with 70euro's all bank cards and i.d and also my trainers (scum) so please becarefull and dont make my mistake!!!!! (beautiful place still)