Before I start, however, a little side note must be added ;). Me and my obsession… so, we have a radio station called Eska Rock, it’s actually the only radio station I listen to. They asked people to make a ranking of a hundred best songs of year 2009 and guess who won? Yes, you are right! MUSE with UPRISING! *throws confetti*

Ok, back on subject~!
This first part of  guide cosists of some tips for those of you who are not really interested in package tour of any kind, just as me and my friends weren’t. We needed some freedom and independence ;).

1. The airport

There are two available airports: one in Barcelona itself, second in Reus – around 120 km away from Barcelona.
Choosing Reus as your destination helps you save some money, but getting to Barcelona from Reus is not that easy. You travel either by bus or by train. In both cases, you must be prepared for few hours of waiting and then another few hours of driving. Fortunately, the buses are very comfortable. As for the tickets, you buy them in a bus and they cost around 24 Euro in both ways.

I will be honest with you, the next time I’m going to Barcelona I will choose Aeroport del Prat-Barcelona instead of Reus. Why? Because if you choose an aeroplane as your way of transport you expect to reach your destination within few hours (if you live in Europe that is ;D). We’ve lost a lot of time just sitting and waiting. When we were coming back, we had a flight early in the morning, around 7 am from what I recall, and the only bus to Reus was on 3:45 am. That was a nightmare. We’ve slept little in the bus and even less at the airport.
Besides, it takes 20 mintes to, by train which costs 2,5 Euro, get to the centre of the city from Barcelona Airport. It stops at Plaza de Catalunya where you can move to Metro and then anywhere you want.
[Side note: only the capital of Poland, Warsaw has a Metro. And it's only one line, I guess. That's why I'm so font of it, it's fast and quite comfortable and reaches every part of the city which you mat consider visitting.]

2. Moving around the city

So let’s say you made it, your are in Barcelona. The first place you visit is Information Centre where you buy a Barcelona Card. It allows you to travel by any kind of city communication, including Metro, for free during chosen period of time. Such card, valid for 5 days, costs 42 Euro. It is quite a lot, but along with the card you get a few free passes to the museums and even more discounts (to museums, restaurants, clubs, and even few shops).

The second thing you must get is a map of Metro. You should always have a small version of it with you.
You can also take one of free maps of the city, sponsored by McDonald, but those are not as detailed as they should be, so you should buy something different as well. The McDonald map is quite useful, though. It has hotels marked, as well as places worth visitting. I wouldn’t try to enter Barri Gotik, which is a labirynth of narrow streets, only with this map, because hardly any streets names are there. Moreover, English isn’t as popular as you probably wish so asking for direction won’t be easy. But if you get hungry, McDonald restaurants are also on the map.

If you wanted to buy a paper guide I’d deffinitely reccomend the one I got: AA Spiral Guide. It is very, very good. It covers everything you may need to know and I wouldn’t survive my trip without it. Every district is described and there’s a list of must-see places (if you have only one day for each district, for exaple) and a few less important yet worth visitting if you have time.

3. The Hotel

Armed with maps and Barcelona Card you may move to a hotel.
The are many of them, in different districts. Which is the best to stay in? Let’s take a look at the map:

The place where I’d like to stay would probably be The Ramblas – marked with red. This district is full of cafes, restaurants and clubs. Staying in any of the hotels around Plaza de Catalunya wouldn’t be affordable for most of us, but finding something nice in Barri Gotik might be a good idea. Though, I wouldn’t recommend it if you’ve never been to Barcelona before.  This part of Old City, like I mentioned before,  is simply a labirynth and it’s hard to find your way even with a map.

My second choice would be L’Eixample – light green. This is the district of La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila and my very favourite Manzana de la Discordia with its magnificent Casa Batllo. Don’t worry if you have no idea what the hell I’m writing about, it will be clear when next parts of this little guide come out :). So anyway, this district is the most fashionable. Shops, cafes and clubs are all over the place. I really enjoyed wandering around it, but still Ramblas has amazing atmosphere.

As for the other districts, Barceloneta, the blue one, would be suitable for those who visit Barcelona for sunbathing. Sants and Pedralbes are… boring. There are few things worth visitting, obviously, but they are away from the city centre so if your hotel doesn’t have facilities where you could spend your free time at, don’t count on the surrounding. It may also be problematic if you wanted to visit a club. Getting back in the middle of the night? Good luck ;).

Of course hotel is just one possibility. If you want to spend more time in Barcelona, or you travel with a group of friends, you can always rent an apartment. I’d reccommend a website called Barcelona for rent, if you’re interested. I’m considering renting one myself this year.

No matter which district you choose, make sure that there’s a metro station nearby.

So now, as we are settled, all you have to do is to explore, but for this part separate entries are needed.

I hope you will find this entry useful if you ever wish to visit Barcelona. Otherwise, not much have been said to encourage you, but I hope the next part will.
One little question: would you like me to start with any particular district? For me, there was something cool in every single one, so maybe you could help me choose ;D.