WHAT HAPPENED TO BARCELONA?

I just want to say a huge thank you to the sponsor of this video Squarespace they've really helped me during my journey as a content creator [Music] [Music] dear Barcelona it's been a while since I last saw you and even longer since I walked your streets but you're still the place where it all started for me a great chunk of my youth lies between the time I came to live here 10 years ago desperate to live out my student years in a Spanish dream of afternoon siestas and endless tapas and now a decade later I returned to the city that I used to call home you were the Catalyst for my yearning to explore the world but I had to come back and see what's changed I want to retrace my steps live out old memories Savor the Flavors of the past and the present and maybe even revisit my former self [Music] thank you [Music] this is the gothic quarter it's at the heart of Barcelona in the old town like over the last decade or so it's really being kind of ravaged by mass tourism but it's still a really kind of romantic and beautiful place to just walk around the little streets and get lost so much history this is where I lived in Barcelona just makes me really nostalgic being back here these are the streets I used to walk around for a whole year and it still feels like home like I know it like the back of my hand makes me happy to be back here one of the things I really loved about the old town is that you could just be walking here for example loads of tourists everywhere craziness around you and then you just kind of Go off into the little side streets in the old Center and you just get totally lost in them and that's what it was about it was about finding these hidden corners of the city and learning the story behind them this is a great example of one of those places so you can still see the pock marks on the wall of the church from where the bomb was dropped during Franco's fascist era in 1938 killing 42 people most of them children and it's ironic because now you'll see children from exactly the same schools still playing football every day but it's these hidden corners of the city where you learn about these stories [Music] this is another one of my favorite plazas of the old quarter this is Plaza del Rey which is the King's Plaza and the amazing story behind this Square in particular is the stairs in the corner historians say that this is where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand received Christopher Columbus when he first returned from the first voyage that he did and he told them that he'd found a new world so just imagining the scene that would have taken place on this spot right here is what really brings to life these secret corners of the gothic quarter for me this square is Plaza Santa xiaomi and it's where the national government buildings are the general so the Catalan government and I just remember when I was here a lot of the times when I walked through there'd be people protesting for Independence because they've always had to fight for their independence as a nation-state existed like a thousand years ago so they have their own culture their own Heritage their own language and they're really proud of that and that really really comes across in the culture of the Catalan people [Music] you've lived many lives a millennia ago you were a few humble tables set up just outside the city walls your main fair was meat your clientele hungry medieval folk you fed Barcelona ever since while Columbus sailed the ocean blue during the Inquisition the Spanish Civil War the Franco dictatorship you helped shape Catalan Cuisine into one of the most sophisticated Regional cuisines in Europe today you face another challenge Mass tourism raw produce has given way to liquefied fruit slices of moist hamon to pork on a stick and your clientele are now hungry for the most instagramable store can you still hold on to your centuries-old charm [Music] this place does a really amazing breakfast one of the most incredible dishes that they make here which is so that's baby squid with eggs and that's like their best dish I'd say oh my God this takes me back so much I was going to feel honest it was my favorite honestly like big thing babies squared with eggs is delicious and I love the fact that you put chili in it so it's got a bit of a kick to it yeah oh wow foreign all right when I got started with content creation I knew I needed to build a really strong brand for myself one of the things I wanted to do was create an amazing website that people could come to and learn about the channel and about me it was a really daunting task at first because I have absolutely no prior experience with building websites and that's when I came across Squarespace Squarespace has absolutely beautiful mobile compatible website templates and they're really easy to customize so you can pick things like the color of your brand you can upload brand images you can choose the font essentially you can customize it to really represent what you're all about it's really easy to build a stunning website which really shows off your USP there's no third-party branding and it doesn't rely on hosting from social media websites which can be unreliable so I'd really recommend that you check them out and then once you're ready to launch your domain or your website you can go to squarespace.com forward slash Molina Angelica and you'll get 10 off your first domain or website using the code Malini Angelica [Music] this is alborn which is next to the gothic quarter in the old town I always preferred it because it's just a bit more chilled out streets are wider there are less tourists and this is where one of my favorite cathedrals in Barcelona is so the Santa Maria Del Mar here it's absolutely beautiful like I always really loved it because it's the only cathedral which is a true example of pure Catalan Gothic architecture it took half a century to build and with the other cathedrals in Barcelona most of them took more than a century which means the architectural Styles vary and what I love about this one I used to just walk in and it's just amazing because they've got the most incredible stained glass windows which I just find absolutely beautiful [Music] Barcelona was really where my love affair with hamon started all started in this city and the best one is that's the top quality and the thing that's special about this ham is that the pigs are fed on a diet of only acorns for the last four months of their life that makes the hamon very sweet very nutty and very fatty [Music] that is so good [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] I've come back to your most misunderstood neighborhood here the air is thick was a scent of weed and the cheap perfectly and worn by those who work the body of corners the rhythmic Flack of skateboard wheels and the buzz of nighttime bars echoed through the alleyway you're a microcosm of cultural coexistence for the neon lights of Kebab joints are filled with hungry foreign residents and a few creative tacos bars hide in your shadows [Music] foreign has changed Lots since I was here so there are a lot of high-end tapas restaurants that have opened up and the chefs of experimenting a lot so traditional Tapas but with a modern twist ers wow foreign so literally the fat of the pig liquefied and I must say it kind of tastes like gravy [Music] thank you [Music] you are here [Music] this is a fried aubergine yes always thank you [Applause] that is amazing oh my God a little bit of honey [Music] oh my God that is to die for that skin on the top is so crispy they've got it perfect over here [Music] foreign [Music] you find all the luxury and High Street shops here but what I love about it it's just the buildings they've got some incredible architecture Gothic Styles Catalan modernism one of the reasons I fell in love with Barcelona is because of Anthony Gowdy he was a famous Catalan architect and he was the one that really pioneered the Catalan modernist type of architecture he is responsible for Designing some of the most iconic buildings on this road so this one is Casa battle which he designed and it's just crazy because it looks like a building from like a fairy tale or something he was very inspired by Nature so when he designed buildings he always used those color palettes so this one kind of reminds you of the sea and you've got these beautiful blues that he used absolutely beautiful so this is my favorite Gowdy home it's called la pederera which means the stone quarry and the facade is made all of stone and what I loved about it is that it's just a very unique shape so his typical style was never too used very straight lines but more kind of curved so you'll see it's almost like Ripples and waves and then these really intricate wrought iron Terra SIV which they just look fantastic against the white of the stone but the best thing about it by far has to be the top the rooftop it's just an amazing view of a city there's some just really funky Gowdy type shape [Music] the rooftop is what I love about this building there's an amazing view of Barcelona and you can see the Sagrada Familia which was Gowdy's last Masterpiece it's kind of like a fairy tale up here so he's really continued the style of the facade with all these cool structures but for me like this is what really makes Barcelona such a special City because you don't find this fairy tale like architecture anywhere else in Spain and I just think Gowdy in Barcelona they're so inextricably linked it's something really really special about this city [Music] thank you [Music] okay [Music] something else I love about living in Barcelona was the type of culture they have this term in Spanish which is called daviard and the idea is go out we order several Tapas have a drink set with a glass of wine with your friends and it's just really amazing and all around the city there are so many great Tapas bars and I love that here you know you sit at the bars they're like and it's just really cool because it's like you get to see the making the Tapas you're sitting next to everybody and it's just you know such a unique thing about this city in particular this is the best place to come and get Seafood Tapas for me in Barcelona everything is Super Fresh and it was always my favorite place so I've ordered gambasa prawns grilled corns anchovies in a vinegar sauce oh my gosh [Music] [Music] [Music] this is the best Castle under the I used to order it all the time it's called Crema catalana and a lot of people think it's exactly like a creme brulee and to be honest they're very very similar but they flavor it with orange and cinnamon so it's got kind of that citrusy flavor to it which the creme brulee doesn't have okay oh my God it's so good gotta love it both Lanetta you were born a sleepy fishing Village the Mediterranean Sea in the beating Sun were your only friends life in your body or consisted of cervezas by the bar in one of your tiny bodegas followed by an almuerto a fresh seafood paella Catalan women gossiped while the old men took their siestas in one of your open air plazas but things have changed five-star hotels moved in Castle hamburgerboard gave way to laminated menus and flip-flops and sunburns are the new kids in town foreign Etta that will find the best authentic spots to eat paella especially the black paella that's the local Catalina dish the reason why black is because of the squid ink and that really gives it its color add alioli make this pie dish amazing I add loads because I absolutely love alioli I prefer it to the normal the yellow higher that everyone knows foreign so good I used to come to the beach all the time when I lived here but it took me a while to start exploring the back streets of barceloneta and it's pretty amazing because this barrier is still very authentic and very local and the residents are fiercely proud and they want to protect their local life and they don't want it to become as over commercialized touristic place like a lot of other places in Barcelona have become and so come here and it's thrown back to the old times because it really in a lot of ways hasn't changed when it was just an 18th century fishing Village okay Barcelona [Music] this is where I used to come every day during the summer when I lived here during my year abroad and I was doing an internship and this is just a really cool place because it's full of young people very much like a party theme Barcelona is a young Party City but more than anything it was just about The Vibes of the beach being here with my friends chilling out all day just feels so free like you can just do what you want to do be who you want to be a lot of the friends that I had when I was living here were also here temporarily like as a student or doing an internship so they're not here anymore that's the thing about the city of Barcelona if you're an expat and you're going to find a lot of people that are in a similar situation to you that's one of the things I love about it it's very very Cosmopolitan Multicultural [Music] um on Sunday mornings the local barriers are slow to wake here the Catalan form of brunch of sweet vermouth and salty Tapas rain Supreme but the old school bodegas have been replaced with hips to bars where the Next Generation discusses today's pressing topics Catalan Independence and the Revival of vermouth was the aperitiva of choice [Music] foreign this neighborhood San Antonio is very local and authentic it literally borders the historic quarter but you don't have that crazy nurse and you don't have all hordes of tourists wow so this is a mercante San Antonio and when I was living here it was under refurbishment so it's finally finished and it's absolutely beautiful it's a really good example of the modernist Catalan architecture at the time it's also pretty cool because when they were Excavating underneath they found part of the old city wall that's what's so cool about the city like every single corner has amazing ancient history [Music] San Antonio has really changed a lot since I used to live here one of the things that have really taken off is the vermouth scene vermouth has always been something that's typically been associated with you know the older generation I mean they're the ones that used to enjoy it but now it seems that hipsters have brought it back into fashion foreign [Applause] with the garlic sauce the whole vibe of this neighborhood has become a lot more cool and hip so you have a lot of gentrification going on I mean the only thing is it's nice now because it's very local but obviously I think more cool places open up the more that tourists inevitably are going to be hearing about it are probably going to be checking out this area but it's really cool because it's very very different to when I lived here there was nothing really like this in this neighborhood [Music] thank you Barcelona for letting me walk your ancient streets again taste the riches of your varied Landscapes and admire the architectural creations of your most gifted citizens I promise I won't leave it so long next time foreign [Music]

Channel: Malini Angelica

Views: 214,260

Keywords: #Barcelona, #Spain, #Catalunya, #barcelonatravelvlog, #barcelonatravelguide, #travelvlog, #travelguide

Id: s4bbqUseSr4

Length: 25min 40sec (1540 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023