Shopping in Barcelona

It's imposible not to be seduced by all the great stores and designers that we can find in Barcelona. One of my favourites is, of course, Custo (which I really can't afford, sometimes a simple T-shirt can cost more than 60 euros. But it's still a nice reference in matter of prints and use of colours and shapes). I've seen lots of his collections on magazines and so, but another brand that amazed me this time was a nice and powerful store named Desigual. They do have a folk and vintage accent and everything is so full of energy and youth... If you want to see some of their clothes, you can visit Desigual's website.

And to know more about where, how and when to shop in Barcelona, there's this interesting online guide with some tips and adresses!

Hope you have enough savings... I didn't! =)

Some ideas to come

From a conversation with some swiss friends I had this strange revelation: It's been exactly a year that I'm living in Switzerland, but I still know very little about it!!! The first 4 months I've spent in Lugano, I went to Zurich for a weekend and since I moved to Geneva I've only had the time to visit Lausanne and Montreux in the nearby. What a shame! (specially if I consider that during this year I went to Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Milan, Florence, Kiel, Lyon, Paris and Brugges, not to mention Berlin...)

Furthermore, during the last days I've assisted to some nice events in Geneva - one of them was the "course de l'escalade", and it is something supposed to have some connexions with Geneva's history - don't ask me, I'll just tell Olivier to write it down for me and then I'll paste the thing here. =) It's such a pitty that I live here, but I don't feel "part of" the city yet - I know it takes time and lots of effort, but I don't want to feel like a tourist forever: I still want to grow roots somewhere!

So, one of my next goals is to buy myself a nice copy of "Swiss History for Dummies", a Switzerland's map, and just explore the country. I have an year and a half before finishing my master, so...

Next stop... Nächste Halt.... Prochain arrêt... =)

Kitsch, luxurious, hedonist...

Jus to put you on the right mood to think about Barcelona... A kitsch, luxurious and hedonist city sang by a kitsch, luxurious and hedonist artist (I love Freddie Mercury)!

Thirsty in Barcelona? Have a Blue Margarita!!!!

Hi everyone,
I've just come back from Barcelona. It was a weekend out (not really, because I had to read tons of paper on the plane to catch up with all the articles I still have to write until the end of the week) due to the fact that a brazilian friend of mine was there visiting his sister. I was amazed about how different Barcelona is from Madrid: instead of a noisy and busy metropole I've found a cosy and chill environment, and it was really fun to have two private guides/catalan dictionaires in the city (thanks, Renata and Guillermo)!
I'll still write some tips about the city, but this first post is dedicated to Renata, her work and the place where she makes some money. =) She's in fact a graphic designer and she has created the Margarita Blue website, which is a nice bar in the city centre where she works as barwoman few times a week. We went there Friday night and it was full of people dining (at Barcelona's dine time, around 11 PM), drinking colourful cocktails or just chilling out with the great lounge music. The place has a kitsch and luxurious déco with mirrors and lights and the website can reproduce it beautifully. Marvelous place, marvelous website to present it!

World Cup on 2014!

Well, FIFA has confirmed that the Soccer World Cup will take place in Brazil on 2014.

In honour to this great new, here it is a TV ad from Guaraná Antarctica (my favourite soft drink EVER) picturing Diego Maradona and a bad dream that he had once...

Have a nice week you all!

One Giant Leap

"When Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman joined forces to create the project 1 Giant Leap, they embarked upon a global journey that included Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, India, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe, equipped solely with a digital video camera, a laptop and a vision - to capture and weave together a unique fusion of sound, image and spoken word from some of the world's most happening musicians, authors, scientists and thinkers and to explore 'The Unity in the Diversity'."

(taken from their website)

Have you ever seen this DVD? I received it as a gift and it was a marvelous discovery of music, sounds, people, thoughts from all over the world. Nice and unexpensive way of travelling to exotic countries through music!!!!

Next destination: USA

Do you know "frevo"?

Having to carry an umbrella these days made me think about an other use of this banal object: it is, actually, a very important accessory used at a folkloric dance from Recife, which is called "frevo". The word "frevo" is said to come from "frever", a working class dialectal way of pronouncing the Portuguese word ferver (to boil). And I assure you, dancing like this in a 30°C environment can make you boil!

So, enjoy the examples (the first video is the "traditional" style and clothing, that we can see during Carnival. The second one is a concept more modern, you can see that the guy uses a regular umbrella instead of the little one and carries less elaborated clothing):






Well, I know how to "frever", do you want to learn it??? =)