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Welcome to our Barcelona Day Tours blog!
Tuesday, January 18, 2012
Hola Everyone!
Que tal?
(‘Que Tal’ = How are you?)
Welcome to our blog post and our new website. We have launched a new website on January 6th this year and we are excited about it (especially since it gives me the chance to write and update freely on this blog…!). My name is Helene and I am the head-guide at Barcelona Day Tours, and I hope that some of you may find my writings here helpful and useful. If you have any comments I would love to hear from you and if you have any advice or tips then please let me know.
First, I’d like to start by saying how everyone here at the BDT team was shocked to learn about the Concordia’s incident in Italy! I was speechless. I can hardly imagine what people had to go through… Although I myself have never gone on a cruise yet (but I do have lots of cruiser friends), I can only imagine the horror passengers had to go through.. 
Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of those who have lost their lives. May God bless their families.
I sure do hope this was the last fatal incident in the cruise industry and that all lessons were fully learnt so such disasters will not repeat ever again! If you think about it, with today’s technology and advanced ships, this should NOT have happened.
Onto another and more optimistic topic: we have had the most AMAZING weather here in Barcelona for the last 2-3 weeks with chilly morning temperatures of 4-6 degrees Celsius (around 40F) to sunny bright days with temperatures reaching 16 degrees (around 60F).
Personally I am a sun loving person so for me it’s fantastic. I hope folks travelling in Bareclona these days can appreciate what the lord has given us these days 
In fact January is a fantastic month with lots of sunshine. February is the more stormy and grey
As you all must know by now MANY Barcelona residents are looking forward to Wednesday footy game against Real Madrid. This time around the game will be played within the ‘COPA DEL REY’ tournament which is equivalent to the FA English Cup. This game is not as important as the next encounter between the two teams in LA LIGA; however it will be the first out of 2 games to determine which team will advance to the quarter final of the Spanish cup. Even a friendly game between Madrid and BARCA (isn’t it an oxymoron? to call such games between these rival clubs ‘friendly’ ) is very tense indeed.
It is clear without doubt(!) that BARCA is the better team in the last few years (although some of our Madrid-born staff still disagrees – but deep down inside you know its true…). However this year, I will admit that the arrogant Madrid manager (Morinho) has done a better job and their team is looking very good – and even has 5 points advantage in ‘LA LIGA’. But don’t forget we still beat you 3-1 last month so its not over until its over…
‘A VER’ = ‘we will see’ – who the better team is on Wednesday.
The game will take place in Madrid’s stadium BERNABEU at 10:00 pm and all the bars will show it so if you are in Spain on Wednesday – you must go in to to one of the busy places and enjoy the atmosphere. This is what we call a CLASSICO – so watch it and make sure you support the right team
For details on the game see:
What else is happening in Barcelona this month?
Well, there is always something! If you wish to participate in a real local ‘fiesta’:
FIESTA MAJOR DE SANT ANTONI – which will take place from Jan 15 – Jan 22 is the place to be. In Barcelona every ‘BARRIO’ = Neighbourhood, has its own fiesta (celebration). The Barri de Sant Antoni is celebrating during this time so for an off-the-beaten track event and to feel like a local – make sure to take part in the fiesta.
For more information you can try and translate the website below (which is written in Catalan). You can use Google Translate to get the English version:
http://xarxantoni.net/contingut/barri
Also, I’d like to emphasize the date of Jan 18 for the theme of: XOCOLATA! Yes the childrens’ favorite food… If you are with children in Barcelona on this day – they will love you forever… or at least until the next time they crave chocolate…
The event will take place here:
C/Floridablanca, 41 in the Sant Antoni area (and practically the city center).
One more important date: Jan 19 is my birthday You never ask a lady how old she is so I will keep this a secret never to be revealed…
All right friends, this is it for today and I promise to update soon with more news from Barcelona. Enjoy your stay if you are in the city, get excited if you are planning to visit us soon, and thank you for reading my first post. This was fun!
Hasta Pronto – Helene & the BDT team
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