domingo, 13 de diciembre de 2015

FIRA DE SANTA LLÚCIA

The fair, located at Avinguda de la Catedral, celebrates his 229 anniversary (1786-2015) and its doors will be opened from 27th November to the 23rd December, from 10.30 to 22.30.

Fira de Santa Llúcia Market is the biggest Christmas market in Barcelona. Located in front of Barcelona’s cathedral in the Gothic quarter, is surrounded by the amazing Christmas spirit that you can’t miss.

Is full of activities for kids and there are around 300 stalls making up the Fira de Santa Llúcia, and they loosely divided up into those that sell items relating specifically to Christmas (decorations, trees, nativity scenes), and those that offer all sorts of gifts, the majority of which are handmade, like scarves, jewellery, puppets, toys, etc.

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 La feria, situada en la Avenida de la Catedral, celebra su 229 aniversario (1786-2015) y abre sus puertas abren desde el 27 de noviembre hasta el 23 de diciembre, de 10:30 a 22:30.

La Fira de Santa Llúcia es el mercado navideño más grande de Barcelona. Situado enfrente de la Catedral de Barcelona en el barrio Gótico, hay en el ambiente un espíritu navideño que no te puedes perder.


Está lleno de actividades para los peques y hay cerca de unos 300 puestecitos, divididos según lo que ofrecen. Unos ofrecen cosas especialmente de Navidad (decoraciones, árboles, pesebres…), y otros que vender todo tipo de regalos, la mayoría hechos a mano, como bufandas, joyas, juguetes, peluches, etc.





jueves, 10 de diciembre de 2015

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!

Hello everyone!

Christmas is coming and we couldn't be happier! Christmas time is one of the most beautiful times of the year, and even more wonderful here in Barcelona.

We want to share with you all the events and tipical things we do. For this reason, you must be paying attention at our blog and social networks, to know more about it!

We will talk about 'Caga tió', the amazing market of Santa Llucia and more awesome stuff.

Folllow us, and you'll get to know more!

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¡Hola a todos!

La Navidad está llegando y nosotras no podríamos estar más contentas. La Navidad es una de las épocas más bonitas y más aún en Barcelona.

Queremos compartir con vosotros todos los eventos y las cosas típicas que hacemos. Por eso, debes estar atento y seguir nuestro blog en las redes sociales.

Hablaremos del 'Caga tió', la increíble feria de 'Santa Llucía' y otras cosas muy guays.

¡Síguenos, y te enterarás de todo!



'LA CASTANYADA'

While in English-speaking countries celebrate Halloween, in Catalonia on the 31st October and 1st November is ‘La Castanyada’ and we eat panellets, which both fall under the celebration of ‘Tots Sants’ or ‘All Saints Day’.

In Catalan, ‘castanya’ is a chestnut, and ‘castanyada’, means ‘eating chestnuts’, really original as you can see… So it consists in cooking and eating chestnuts mainly. Traditionally, the official date of this tradition is on the night of the 31st October, but you can do ‘Castanyades’ all autumn long, until chestnuts' season finishes. 
On ‘Tots Sants’, 1st of November, traditionally was a feast in honour of saints and dead ancestors and the day families visit cemeteries and graves of their loved ones. This last activities is still done but now the day is more a seasonal celebration of autumn. This day- and not only this day- we eat a sweet thing called ‘panellets’. The word might come from ‘pa’ (bread) but ‘panellets’ are sweet and do not bear any relationship with bread: they are in fact marzipan balls coated with pine kernels or smashed almonds. 

HOW TO COOK THE CHESTNUSTS:
You can cook chestnuts in many ways -in the oven, on a pan in the cooker, etc. - but the best way to cook them is in a special pan with holes in it on a fireplace (or barbecue) using a herb called ‘palla de vesc’ which you gather on paths' borders. To properly cook them this way, you have to make a deep cut on the chestnut's peel so they do not explode and place them in a bowl of water for a while. Then, you put the chestnuts on the special pan on the fire with some of the herbs. As the herbs burn, you add more and keep moving the chestnuts. After about 30-45 min they will be all black outside and cooked. Finally, you place them on a piece of cloth for a while and eat them, opening them by the cut. But be careful because they burn!

HOW TO MAKE ‘PANELLETS’:
To make panellets' dough we need the following ingredients: almond flour, sugar and eggs).

Elaborating the dough:
- Separate the eggs' yolk from the white.
- Whisk the eggs' white until they look like foam.
- With the sugar and a little bit of water, prepare some sugar syrup.
 - Keep a little bit of syrup and mix it with the yolks.
- Mix the rest of syrup with the almond flour.
- Add the eggs' whisk to the mixture and mix again.
- Take the yolk-syrup and add it to the mixture, keeping a little bit for later on.
- Mix until the dough is homogenous and leave it rest 60-90 min.

Coating the panellets:
- After the dough has rested, we can proceed with coating the dough.
- On different dishes, spread pine kernels, almonds and smashed almonds.
- Take small chunks of dough and make little balls with them.
- Coat the balls with the nuts.
Creativity is allowed and panellets can be coated with coconut, or filled with quince jelly or mixed with hot chocolate to create chocolate panellets. You can do panellets of whatever you like (or think you will like)

Cooking the panellets:
- The oven must be heated some minutes before placing the panellets.
- Panellets must be placed on an oven plate, in which we need to spread some butter to avoid panellets from sticking on the plate.
 Once all panellets are placed on the plate(s), and just before cooking them, take the rest of syrup-yolk you left aside and, with a spoon, put some of the mixture on top of every panellet

- Place the plate full of panellets into the oven. Cook them for about 10 min at a temperature of 180ºC - the best thing you can do is keep an eye to them and take them out of the oven when the yolk on top is a bit brown).


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Mientras en países anglosajones celebran Halloween, en Cataluña el 31 de octubre es ‘La Castanyada’ y se comen ‘panellets’y el 1 de noviembre es el día de Todos los Santos.
Aunque la tradición nos dice que cuando tenemos que asar y comer castañas es la noche del 31 de octubre, durante todo el otoño podemos disfrutar de ellas.

El día 1 de noviembre, tradicionalmente era una fiesta en honor a los santos y antepasados en la cual las familias visitaban los cementerios. Esto último, se sigue haciendo, pero ahora se celebra la llegada del otoño. Y durante toda esta estación, en Cataluña se comen los ‘panellets’, que son bolitas dulces las cuales puedes decorar con piñones, almendra o incluso chocolate.

¿CÓMO ASAR CASTAÑAS?
Se pueden asar castañas de muchas maneras, pero la típica aquí es en sartenes especiales con agujeros que se colocan encima del fuego y colocas unas hierbas llamadas ‘palla de vesc’. Para que se cocinen bien, haz un corte en la castaña, añade las hierbas y sigue añadiendo a medida que vas asando las castañas.
Cuando estén bien hechas, haces un cucurucho con papel de periódico, pones las castañas y listo. ¡Pero vigila que queman!

¿CÓMO HACER “PANELLETS”?
Ingredientes: harina de almendra, azúcar y huevos

Para la masa:
-Separa la clara del huevo de la yema.
-Bate los huevos, hasta quedar un color uniforme.
-Con el azúcar y un poco de agua, a parte, preparas una especie de sirope.
-Con un poco de este sirope, mézclalo con las yemas de los huevos.
-Mezcla lo que te ha quedado del sirope con harina de almendra.
-Añade la clara de los huevos y sigue mezclando hasta que queda una pasta homogénea i déjala reposar unos 60-90 minutos.

Decorar los panellets:
-Después de que la masa repose, vamos a decorar los panellets.
-En diferentes recipientes, pon piñones, almendras o lo que tú quieras usar para complementarlos.
-Coge con la mano pequeños trozos de la masa y haz bolitas no muy grandes.

Panellets al horno:
-El horno debe ponerse a calentar un poco antes.
-Los panellets debes ponerlos en una bandeja en la que tienes que poner mantequilla para evitar que se peguen.
-Antes de meterlos en el horno, con un pinzel hecha por encima las yemas de los huevos que han sobrado.
-Pon la bandeja en el horno y dejala unos 10 minutos a una temperatura de 180ºC.
¡Verás que buenos están!









lunes, 30 de noviembre de 2015

Barcelona in taxi

As we said here, we recommend to use the metro to visit the city. Nonetheless, you can also use other ways of transport. We are going to tell you a little about how taxis work in the Catalan capital. 
We are offering you two options we found quite good. Both offer 24 hour services and contact.

In this website you can find information in English about how to book a taxi online. You can choose the vehicle, the journey date, the two address (where do you come from and where do you want to go) and your details.

Here we let you another website which is only in Spanish. You can see the different taxes and the services.

¡Have a nice trip!


jueves, 1 de octubre de 2015

Saló del Manga

‘Saló del Manga’ is an event that takes place in Barcelona every year, in the end of October and beginning of November. It is an amazing event, and a lot of people buy the tickets early because a lot of people who go to this event! It is a unique opportunity for the lovers of this type of comic, the manga. People from all over Spain come to Barcelona to join the event.


The organisation of the salon is perfect. Lately, it is hold in ‘Plaça Espanya’ and the installations are huge. There are several rooms for the event and each of them has an aim:

  • The main room: is where shops sell their products. Here you can find manga, merchandising from TV series, movies, comics, and more products. If you are a lover of cinema or comics you are going to love it.

  • The event is dedicated to Japanese culture, and for this there is a room where they offer Japanese food, such as ramen or teriyaki (what we see in films)!

  • The auditoriums are provided with huge TVs and seats for everybody to see videos related to manga and anime. Every year the event dedicates these days to something. Last year it was dedicated to Pokemon because it was an important anniversary. This year it is going to be about Mario Bros due to the 30th anniversary.
  • There are more rooms and facilities such as the audiovisual rooms, the game place, cosplay exhibition…






All in all, it is an event you don’t want to lose. Thousands of people attend the ‘Saló del Manga’ every year, as me (Núria). I love it! Moreover there are manga sales – you can have products at less price. It is an event I wait for every year. This year is the 21th time the event is being hold in Barcelona – and it is the most important event of this kind in Spain.


If you want to buy the tickets (you can still have tickets!) click HERE. You aren’t going to regret it.



EXTRA INFO ABOUT THIS YEAR'S EDITION:

-As this year is the celebration of the Super Mario Bros, there's going to be a cosplay competition and an exposition about the game.

-In the musical sector, there are going to be J-Pop groups such as Tancobuchin, W.League, L.Tamburin and Y.Tabby

-And in the gastronomy sector there is going to be an exposition dedicated to sake!

-Confirmed: the XXI #SalonMangaBCN is going to welcome famous mangakas such as I. Sakisaka, I. Asano, T. Tashiro, T. Sanda or S. Kasaoka

-This year the event is going to be the biggest ever held!


jueves, 24 de septiembre de 2015

Barcelona in metro


 Barcelona’s underground runs mostly in central Barcelona and into the city’s suburbs. It is part of the larger public transport system of Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, with unified fares under the ‘Autoritat del Transport Metropolità’ (ATM) sheme.

As of 2014, the network is operated by two separate companies:Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) andFerrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC). It is made up of 11 lines, combining the lines owned by the two companies.

In addition to the one-way ticket there are a number of other tickets and cards. All of the ‘Autoritat del Transport Metropolità’ (ATM) transport cards are valid and can be used in the Barcelona Metro. You can also use the bus and other transports with this cards:

  • T10, which includes ten rides at a discounted price 
  • T50/30–50 journeys made in 30 consecutive days from the first use 
  • T Familiar (70/30) 
  • T Mes 
  • T Trimestre 
  • T Dia, which includes unlimited trips within a day 
  • T Jove 
All of the metro stations are within fare zone 1. Fares can be found on this page.

In the following picture you can see the lines and the different stations:



We recommend the metro to travel Barcelona because the installations are very good and it is the fastest way to travel around Barcelona. Furthermore, there is a member of staff in several stations to help you, even though everything is written in English. You can also buy the tickets in the city, just in the metro stations.

martes, 22 de septiembre de 2015

Montmeló


Montmeló is de circuit of Catalonia, where a lot of events take part in, as the Formula 1 and MotoGP. If you like motor sports you are going to love this place – and you have seen it on television for sure.


The Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya was laid on 24th February 1989. Five days after the official inauguration, on 10th September 1991, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosted the first official race, the Spanish Touring Car Championship, with the victory of former F1 Spanish driver Lluís Pérez-Sala. During all of these years of activity, the Circuit has witnessed the best international motor sports events, alternating with national championships or outstanding events such as endurance races.

But the Circuit is not only passion for speed; it also offers the chance to organise all kinds of events and activities for companies and individuals thanks to the multi-purpose facilities fitted to offer all kinds of services, including a restaurant, a media centre with a capacity of 450 people, several VIP spaces and even a heliport.
If you aim to go, you can go to see an event of the month. Click HERE to see the official website, where you can see the actual calendar.

You can also visit the place thanks to the guided tours. You can get inside the installations, and discover how a race is organized and controlled, where the mechanics work, and access to all confined spaces, like the briefing room, the prepodium-podium, the press room…

You can also visit the circuit in group.

Here you have the program:

Video Circuit and Guided Visit: Duration 1h - 1h 15m.
Adults: 10 €
Children under 5: Free
From 5 to 14: 5 €
Hours: 10:00, 12:00 (limited availability)
Tickets: on-line or calling to the phone number +34 93 5719777


If you want to buy tickets online click HERE.