Category Archives: Stories

Stories

Barcelona Is A Party

Barcelona is an experience. The entire city seems to be setup to party. Why I think this is the case can be best told with a story.

My night going out in Barcelona was a long one.

I checked in right before the Tapas Tour, a tour of the Barcelona neighborhood of Gracia. That was where I found out about a fun swing dance studio. On that tour, I met three young American ladies and a couple other young men.

On night two, it was one of the girl’s birthday, and she wanted to go to a club. Now, I’ve gone to clubs in Minnesota, or even Los Angeles, so I wasn’t too excited about another nightclub. Going to a nightclub was a great idea. We went to a club called Opium.

This place was incredible! I mean, I’ve never seen a club like this. Once we got in, we proceeded into the club basement. The place was big, and it had one main dance floor. It also had a private area. I was chatting up a gal, and she wondered into the private area, so I hung out there until I got bored. Before we started dancing, we got a table, but instead of having bottle service, naturally, we got some quality, coconut hookah.

This was an awesome club with great dancing. My group was dropping off, one-by-one. Being the most responsible person (read “oldest person”) in the group, I was trying to make sure everyone was accounted for. Eventually, I only knew one other person in the club, and while the party was still going strong, and she and I decided to head back early at 5:30am.

The next day, I was exploring Barceloneta Beach, when I learned that we were not actually in a crazy club basement, but we were actually partying on the beach all night.

Town Trends

Our night was crazy and late, but I can’t even guess what it’d be like on the weekends instead of a Wednesday night.

The whole city stays up incredibly late. Most of the shops don’t open until 10:00. When people do awake, it seems there’s only one place to be. While America has its diners and coffee shops, and Paris has its cafes, Barcelona has its markets. Each morning, those in Barcelona are given a chance to replenish the nutrients they couldn’t imbibe the night before. I had some of the juiciest and sweetest strawberries, peaches, mangos, and pineapples.

To give time for a little lunchtime life and some tapis, the shops close for lunch from 2:00 to 4:00. And then they open again until 6:00 or 8:00.

While their days seem more relaxed than most cities, they still work about 8 hours, just like everyone else. The whole schedule is aligned with the night, and allows for nightlife. That’s why I maintain, Barcelona is a party.

Considerations, Stories

Travel Tips: Time Management

Written on the high speed train from Barcelona to Paris:

Time management is incredibly important when traveling, especially when traveling internationally by yourself, as I do.

Departure Times

This is a gimme. I’ve never missed any big transportation times. I blew past one soft deadline (meet here before dinner), but luckily, there was someone waiting to lead me to the the restaurant. It’s important to verify a specific meeting time to ensure everyone is on the same page.

In general, the best practice is to arrive early. For instance, I’m currently writing on a train, which I boarded ten minutes prior to departure, but I was on the platform 15 minutes before. That’s cutting it a bit close, but the optimal goal is to waste as little sweet holiday time as possible sitting around waiting to sit some more.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m usually pretty precise with my time management, but still, I’ve had some close calls. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable running through the Charles d’Gaulle airport Paris (CDG) to make the one flight per day to MSP. I decided to not cut it that close again, since my ultimate success was partially reliant on the fact that the French are a wonderful, loving people, and I wouldn’t be so lucky anywhere else.

So I try to have a decent cushion of time to work with, because something always comes up. Today I gave myself about 30 minutes more than I needed to get back to my place, get my bags, and catch my train. I’m lucky I did, because an unexpected event in the park captured my attention for a solid 20 minutes. If I hadn’t given myself extra time, I would’ve missed my train.

The allure of music brought me to the tail end of a big swing event in a park. The lesson was ending as I arrived and I joined the social dancing. I ended up teaching American East Coast swing to a few ladies, but I changed my dance style to be less confusing to my partners, did some social dancing, and that’s when I finally ‘got’ Lindy Hop, a dance that completely eluded me in my last swing story.

If I hadn’t allowed myself extra time, I would have missed my train while I was having a blast dancing and learning Lindy Hop. Or maybe I would have caught the train but missed out on some great dancing memories, but I strictly believe that one should always allow extra time to dance.

barcelonaparkswing

Stories, What to See or Do

Swing into Spain

1 Comment

DmbI went to Swing Maniacs Barcelona last night. It was different….

Turns out, Spanish swing is actually Lindy Hop….

I was busy exploring Barcelona until after the beginner lesson, but I caught the advanced lesson. I think I might want to take a LH class. Maybe.

But since I couldn’t lead Lindy, I just taught single step American Swing. Compared to Lindy Hop, it’s incredibly simple. Rock step is “rock step” in Spanish, too, so that helped.

It was really fun! I also showed the class teacher  WCS and Foxtrot. They’re like SDS was, meaning they do the same dance to every song. I didn’t hear a WCS waltz, though….

They also had a really cool line dance from the 20s. Like all dances from the 20s, it was happy, upbeat, and dorky.

Swing Maniacs Barcelona is located at Carrer de l’Església, 4, 08024 Barcelona, Spain, in the GrácIA neighborhood.

(While I discovered this video in 2016 on Barcelona, it wasn’t until after meeting and talking to Kristen in Scotland in 2019 that I found out that it’s a dance called the Shim Sham)