Camino Barcelona Blog

For those of you who didn’t know, tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s Day!  You know, that day we all head outside wearing silly hats and horrible bright green clothing, even if we don’t have a drop of Irish blood in our veins!  But it’s fun, isn’t it!!!!  In fact, it’s so much fun that St Paddy’s Day is celebrated in places all over the world…and Barcelona is no exception!

As we all know, Spaniards are good at partying in general - it seems like they invent national holidays for any old excuse and when they celebrate, they really do it with style!  So, when it comes to celebrating another country’s patron saint, they are equally as enthusiastic!  In fact, I think the best St Patrick’s celebrations I have experienced have all been in Spain!  There’s lots of Irish music, singing, dancing and drinking in the bars and the fun carries on in true spanish style till the early hours! (more…)

En cuanto a bebidas, España es muy conocida por sus buenos vinos tintos, su sangría o incluso su cava, pero… ¿eso es todo?

Cada vez que me siento en una de las terrazas en la Plaza Real veo a la mayoría de la gente disfrutar de una cerveza bien fría, ¡como nos gusta aquí! Las estadísticas lo dicen, la cerveza es una de las bebidas más solicitadas, así que vamos a poneros un poco al día…

Una particularidad de España es que las cervezas suelen encontrarse por zonas. En Barcelona la cerveza más famosa es Estrella Damm. La antigua fábrica todavía se encuentra en pleno Barcelona, en la Calle Rosellón, pero es más probable que conozcáis la actual. Cada vez que vas desde el aeropuerto hasta Barcelona, la nueva fábrica con sus grandes tanques llenos de cerveza se cruza en tu camino. (more…)

¡Hola! Hoy os cuento las actividades de la semana que viene.

Hi! Today I’m telling you about the activities programme for next week.

Lunes 19 - 15:00: Copa de bienvenida - Monday 19th - 3pm: Welcome drink

¡Bienvenidos todos los nuevos estudiantes! Ven a tomar algo con nosotros en el jardín - ¡la oportunidad perfecta para conocernos!

A big welcome to all our new students! Join us in the garden for drinks and snacks - the perfect opportunity to get to know everyone!

Martes 20 - 14:10: ¡Vamos a comer! - Tuesday 20th - 2.10pm: Let’s go for lunch!

Comida al mediodía en un restaurante típico catalán - ¡¡¡primer plato, segundo plato, postre y bebida incluidos!!!

Lunch in a typical Catalan restaurant - starter, main course, dessert and drink included!!

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Last Saturday it was very sunny, so some friends and me decided to go to have some tapas in my local bar and enjoy the sun. The “tortilla de patatas” looked good so we decided to have a “pincho” (a triangle) with a cold beer (nothing better in a sunny day) and started talking about how easy it is to cook and how good it tastes.

It is interesting but everybody had some, but no everybody knows exactly how and what it is made of. La tortilla de patatas is the perfect dish to prepare for inviting friends to a party, to enjoy on the beach or to have for lunch or dinner, it tastes also good cold or hot, in a sandwich or with some salad, with ketchup, mayonaise or on its own.

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¡Hola!

Hoy os quiero hablar de la tele, la querida y odiada televisión, la caja tonta, también llamada. Me gustaría recomendaros un poco cómo ver la tele en España y en español. Aunque no lo parezca, la tele es una buena manera de practicar vuestro español, ya que os ayudará a mejorar vuestra capacidad auditiva para entender el español.

Today I’m going to talk about the loved and hated phenominan of the television.  I would like to give you some advice about getting the most out of watching TV in Spanish.  Although it might not seem like it, watching TV is  agreat way to practise your Spanish as it will help improve your listening and comprehension skills.

Probablemente, tal y como me pasó a mí cuando empecé a ver películas en versión original en inglés, al principio me costaba un mundo, sobre todo si los actores hablaban muy deprisa o utilizaban palabras demasiado coloquiales. Pero poco a poco, al igual que cuando se habla un idioma todos los días, parece que el oído se abre y vas entendiendo más y más palabras.

You will probably find, as did I when I started watching films in English, that it is really difficult to start with, especially if the actors speak quickly or use a lot of slang.  But little by little, as when you speak a language every day, you get used to the sounds and start to understand more and more. (more…)

I do not know if you have realised, but here in Spain, if we had to name a horror movie with a man killing people with a white mask and a chain-saw it would not be called Friday the 13th but Tuesday the 13th… why?

It seems that the Spanish tradition is different, in the Anglo countries like Great Britain or United States, Friday is considered a bad luck day because Jesus died on a Friday, however in Spain, although we are considered a catholic country, it is Tuesday the bad day as it is the day related to the god Mars, the god of war and therefore, the god that represents death. 

The number 13 is in any case in many cultures, a bad number; and there are many reasons for this, the most popular are: during the Last Supper the twelve disciples and Jesus made 13 and in the Tarot cards 13 is the number that represents Death.

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Hola chicos,

Bueno, tengo que decir que estoy bastante decepcionada con el resultado del Barça este año en la Champions, ¡pero si la ganaron el año pasado! Todavía recuerdo las Ramblas y Plaza Cataluña repletas de gente celebrándolo y el autobús del Barça recorriendo las calles de la ciudad con sus felices jugadores…Bueno, ¡y lo mismo pasó cuando ganaron la liga nacional!

Hi folks!  Well, i have to say that I’m quite disappointed with Barca’s performance this year in the Champions league…I mean, they won it last year!  I can still remember the Ramblas and Plaza Catalunya being full of people celebrating the victory and the Barça bus going throught the streets with the happy players…And it was the same when we won the national league!

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Bueno, aquí tenéis las actividades para la semana que viene. Espero que tengan tanto éxito como las de esta semana, así me gusta, ¡a participar!

Lunes 12 - 15h45 ¡Vamos a tomar un café!/Monday 12th - 15h45 Let’s go for a coffee!

Tomaremos un café con la profesora Meritxell por el barrio de la Sagrada Familia, el monumento más famoso de Barcelona. ¡Trae un par de euros para tomar algo!

We will have a coffee with our teacher Meritxell in the area surrounding the Sagrada Familia, the most famous monument in Barcelona. Bring a few euros for a drink!

Martes 13 - 15h00 Taller: “Historia de España” / Tuesday 13th - 15h00 Workshop: ‘History of Spain’

Vamos a hablar de una época muy importante de la historia reciente de España: la Guerra Civil Española (1936 - 1939).

We will talk about a very important period of recent Spanish History: the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939).

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Good afternoon all! 

I think we all agree that Spain has some wonderful culinary offerings…those famous cured meats and juicy paellas… mmmmm!  But if you have eaten tapas every night for the past week, maybe it’s time to try something a bit different and introduce your tastebuds to the many wonders of Latin-American cuisine!

I have quite a few Latin-American friends here in Barcelona and so have now become quite familiar with all these wonderful new tastes and smells….boy can they cook!  But if you don’t happen to know any Mexicans and fancy trying some authentic ‘enchiladas’, don’t worry - there are lots of really good Latin-American restaurants in Barcelona!

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This has been a very ‘athletic’ weekend in Barcelona. The nice weather accompanied more than 9000 people on the 2007 Barcelona’s marathon. The marathon crossed the whole city, from side to side, so that everybody could enjoy the race.

This race is very festive, with professionals running next to amateurs, young people next to older ones… but basically enjoying a sunny day, taking the place of cars for a few hours.

That hasn’t been everything! On the European Athletics Indoor Championships, España has finished on 3rd position in number of medals, but 3 of these medals have been special. 3 Spanish athletes have coped the first 3 positions on the 1500 metres!

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