Barcelona

[belamy]

1) I've been in many of the bigger cities in Europe including Madrid, and apart from Amsterdam in the nineties, I have never experienced so much crime in one place. They tried to rob me twenty times in fourteen days.

2). Actually I don't.

3). Madrid is pretty large too.

4). I met only one Spanjard during my stay there in three months time. He was a receptionist working for an Iranian family.

Well, I´m not contesting personal experiences, and I don´t have any particular interest in defending Barcelona, but I have been given personal accounts from several foreigners having the same bad experiences in Madrid: the authorities of that city even provide personal escorting to Japanese because experience has proved they actually need it, go figure...
I suppose we should address the competent authorities for the actual account and rates of crime in both cities, but I don´t really care: I´m more concerned about being legally robbed daily by financial or educational institutions.

 

[belamy]

I spent a lot of time in Madrid and it does not even compare to Barcelona's pick pocketing. Barcelona is famous because of it. Madrid has a higher rate of prostitution, but I highly doubt u will find anywhere in the world where pick pocketing is soo bad. I in fact have never met anyone who has been in barcelona as a tourist and not been stolen from. This should not deter people though, as long as u know before hand u can take the precautionary measures in order to ensure it does not happen.

Well, even today Barcelona is far more popular destination among foreign tourists than Madrid, but I´ll have to believe your word on that because I´m too used to keep aside from masses and "life".
Besides, it´s true that Barcelona has always been, since the early XXth century, a more "rascal" and exciting city... and that´s precisely what attracts many foreigners and even other Spaniards.

 

[belamy]

It's very irritating. I also saw many scams on the Ramblas.
Barcelona is a beautiful city, but there are too many crap people there.
(...)

That´s why I hardly ever step that trouble, too "colourful" place. The Rambla Catalunya, its northern extension into the newer, more bourgeois part of the city, is more beautiful and enjoyable.
And you are absolutely right about the political incompetence about crime: that´s because they count on integration instead of segregation, and they actually help people to do so; to use an example in which you can see the difference between the character of Madrid and Barcelona, the Latin Kings gang, which are a source of trouble in Madrid, in Barcelona are officially just another cultural group recording their own music (I´m not entering into considering whether they are "real" LK for being a part of society instead of a marginal gang). The leftist goody-two-shoes authorities of Barcelona count too much on people behaving well by nature, so they are incapable of dealing of real trouble when it appears... and REAL trouble is still to come. That´s what irritates me most of this place.

Madrid is the city of old hidalgos handling the biggest political and economical power in the nation, and then there is the festive, rather careless people as long as they can afford their bread, fun and share of ridiculous pride of all human.
Barcelona is a city or enterprising bourgeois and people having a very developed sense of civility and respect for people´s rights because they have a separate national self-conscience which you can not find in other Spaniards, except the Basque. When some politicians try to mimic that national conscience they are resisted by their own people: an Andalusian feels he/she is a Spaniard Andalusian, a Catalan feels like a Catalan under Spaniard ruling, and with a different frame of mind from the rest of the country.
Imagine in the USA the "yankees" had the spirit of the South and the "losers" of the Civil War had been the more progressive people.

 

[belamy]

(...)
The lax immigration policies and/or their feeble enactment are going to bring Spain into serious trouble if it isn't already. Most of the people who tried to rob me where not actually born in Europe. There was one exception, the other Spaniard who I met there. (Sorry, I was wrong, I met two Spanjards in Barcelona).

That´s right, so if someone really wants to screw my life, don´t let me ever get out of this country.
I know I could have worse personal experiences by emigrating, but that would be just personal bad luck and would not change the fact that something has been very wrong in Spain for a long time.
People in other countries may be dazzled by a brilliant, livable, modern appearance, but that happy social condition is all built on political and economical, even social to a certain degree, quicksands.

 

[belamy]

... and that is exactly why I kept my apartment there, I think barcelona is truly one of the greatest cities on earth! It is truly majical.

Well, enjoy it as long as it lasts. It´s a perfect "resort" under the appearance of a real city.

 

[belamy]

In Madrid I was hanging around with a 'gang' of Latinos and that's what got me a job in Andalucia. Now my BF is a guy from Ecuador.
What I liked about it is that the groups of North-Africans, who were bullying everybody else in other parts of Europe, lost out every time the Latinos showed up, and most of the Latinos had just arrived. However, since standards of public morality are so much lower in most parts of South and Meso America than in Europe, I see the problem.

Even if Spain was the wealthiest, best run, most un-corrupt country in Europe, the problem would be too big to solve alone. Eventually all of the EU will come around to stricter immigration laws. I just hope that some good measures will be passed before the situation runs more out of hand, than it has already.

"Good"... even having used such a vague, meaningless word..: dream on.

 

[kce24]

I have visited Barcelona on 5 different occasions and have never had any trouble with crime, always found the local people to be pleasant and accommodating have walked the streets on my way back to the hotel at all hours of the night and felt safe i love Barcelona in the early spring and Autumn .

Like any City it pays to be aware of your surroundings but i find this city safer at night than Paris, New York, Atlanta and many other cities i have visited.

 

[belamy]

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[belamy]

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[belamy]

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[bedbugy]

i had my first fuck with a girl on the ramblers in a whore house 1972

 

[belamy]

^ You were 10, 11..?

 

[belamy]

 

[teddy14]

thanks for posting, I lived in spain for a year and miss it something rotten. the pics took me back.x

 

[teddy14]

I spent a lot of time in Madrid and it does not even compare to Barcelona's pick pocketing. Barcelona is famous because of it. Madrid has a higher rate of prostitution, but I highly doubt u will find anywhere in the world where pick pocketing is soo bad. I in fact have never met anyone who has been in barcelona as a tourist and not been stolen from. This should not deter people though, as long as u know before hand u can take the precautionary measures in order to ensure it does not happen.

ive never been robbed in barcelona, or any foreign country for that matter, only once in england. I do think some tourists are just asking for it though.

 

[belamy]

*bump*........

 

[belamy]

Are those blacks fucking your women for money still in Plaza Catalunya?

They were supposed to be harder on them with new regulations and sham insertion programs , but I guess they just swept them away to different places... as always... in any other city.

 

[belamy]

I was going to ask you to say ´hello´ from me.

I never go out at night... which doesn't equal to "I've never gone out at night"

 

[belamy]

Why don't you?

I'm a creature of light






Don't you hate it when a thread turns into a chat betwen two individuals

 

[flyingfree]

I love port cities. I love Spain. I love Barcelona/me encanta Barca. In my four visits I have walked all around Barcelona and there is still so much more I wish to see (Montserrat).

I offer one tip to first-time visitors; the farther away from La Rambla the more you will enjoy the city. This photo was taken from Funfair on the top of Tibidado, the mountain peak behind the city. Discover the neighborhoods south of the amusement park; Pedralbes, Sarria, and Sant Gervasi. The Gracia district is the best of them all.



belamy, Qué debo hacer para escribir la verdad?