Experience with Barcelona

• From Vietnam to Barcelona

I remember the words of a friend before I left Vietnam to study in Tarragona, a small town near Barcelona. He said that to understand the culture, people, the life of a locality is nothing more wonderful than to live in the heart. It's a far cry from surfing through seven days, knowing some famous sites, enjoying a few local specialties.

Regardless of the language barrier, Barcelona is an extremely livable city with a moderate cost of living, a warm year-round climate, unique and refined architecture, great scenery, fun and friendly people, rich food, and much more are about to be announced.

•  When did I know about this beautiful city?

I started to know Barcelona from a tiny time ago about 15 years ago. At that time, the sports news aggregator had a fun and entertaining backdrop of Rivaldo's "backwards bike" under FC Barcelona. Gradually, I learned more about Barcelona through football matches, commentaries on the famous black-and-red football club, the Nou Camp stadium and the famous players.

So I will start the article with a soccer match at Camp Nou. You should remember to read Camp Nou is the Catalan, not the Spanish tone.

What we see on TV is sometimes far from realistic. Camp Nou through the small screen looks great and modern but in fact it is very old and ugly, not even a sign of the stadium. From the outside, it is easy to see columns and rough concrete beams that are not grime-plastered, let alone glossy.

Camp Nou also does not cater for elevators. Fans keep knocking the iron rods slightly rustling along the stairs that climb high.

• Camp Nou - old and bad situation

Sufferers are the least money fans to buy the cheapest ticket as I will be "preferred" to sit at the highest position of the stadium. The seats are day and night exposed to sunlight, so which one looks like silver frog like the seat in the yard of Hang Diem Street in Hanoi.

By the end of 2007, the plan to sell the Mini Estadi training ground for Camp Nou upgrades was approved by the club's board. However, the plan was halted due to the impact of the global economic recession in 2008 and by 2010 was officially stopped. As a result, Camp Nou is still old and bad until today. But the club's management does not mind much considering the economic aspect. Audiences often fill this 100,000-square-foot stadium. Anyway they come here to enjoy football, not to party, so bad or bad football field is not so important.

• Visiting La Rambla

Perhaps no visitor to Barca has missed a stroll on the bustling La Rambla, which, according to a comment I read online, describes "like a river that flows all day and night." I believe this comment is by no means too small.

On my first trip in September, I had to go to Plaza de Catalunya to catch the bus early morning to the airport. So by chance I witnessed the vibrant nightlife on this sleepless street: the players, the singers, the beer drinkers, the many youth groups gathered together  .

La Rambla is a long pedestrian street with a very large pedestrian walkway in the center and two small lanes on either side, one connected to Plaza de Catalunya's central square, with numerous bus and metro lines running through it,

The other end connects to the port of Barcelona, where Colombo statues point to the Mediterranean Sea, solemnly placed on a towering rock. La Rambla is a well-developed tourist destination catering to the needs of all travelers. It is easy to see the souvenir shops selling all kinds of clothes, or the jumbo jersey of 20euro, H & M, Desigual, McDonalds, Burger King or eateries.

Al Fresco style overflowing tables and chairs on the sidewalks is always inviting guests to go to the shops bags, watches, luxury restaurants. The three flower shops along the streets adorn the beauty of life here. Many bouquets of flowers are already wrapped in brown paper that seems to be waiting for the owner of the mercenary Spanish man to bring home his girlfriend or his wife. If you have lived abroad, you must have seen this romantic image at least twice.

•  Mercat de Sant Josep de Boqueria

But the best thing to mention is a right-to-right tourist destination right in the middle of the street, the Mercat de Sant Josep de Boqueria, which is a short market. Any of my friend who came to Barca was brought to visit here. When you first know to be taken to visit the market, who is suddenly like a city of beautiful scenery and then lead each other here? So who's out to be happy too? The trailer on boqueria.info begins with a fascinating sentence: this is a paradise for the senses. If you have not been here before, imagine it.

Mango, coconut, plum, cherry, kiwi, strawberry, even fruits imported from Vietnam and Thailand are also available. There are na, dragon fruit, longan, mangosteen, durian (it seems people have just swallowed). And of course, after rolling your eyes, you have to decide what to taste. Pre-made fruit shakers, cool shakes or fruit creams are ready to go. Continue, eat and stroll into the seafood market in the middle of the market, when the sense of smell will be maximized function.

• Cheap seafood

 The salty sands of the sea will make you stop. Slices of fillet tuna are not exaggerated by the size of A4 paper laid on the ice that looks so delicious, fresh oysters are opened with a shell of fresh lemon, lobster, shrimp, eggs, nails, fish Devil's face, squid, octopus, muscles are fresh seafood that is very affordable (apparently people have just swallowed). Two of my Vietnamese friends from Vietnam came to visit my Barcelona with the full satisfaction of not only a few seafood meals. In Germany occasionally the couple dare to eat seafood because the price is quite expensive, mostly frozen but not as fresh as in Barcelona.

•  Correfoc Fireworks Festival

My most memorable moment in Barca is the Correfoc fireworks festival, a festival in La Mercè.

At 8:30 that night the fireworks show started but I came early and chose a spot close to the stage. The monotony and dull, monotonous start with a series of fierce cannons shot up to a few tens of meters makes me a bit disappointed, as opposed to what is portrayed on the internet. Immediately afterwards I saw a young man standing close to himself wearing a gray long sleeved shirt.

Are you crazy, standing in the middle of a hot crowd and wearing your shirt? But just a few minutes later I found out he was not crazy at all, but also a very connoisseur. From the stage, the demon loomed for a long while, and a young man pretended to be the devil, holding a blindfolded pyrotechnic head towards the crowd. Everyone (of course I have) got out, strong people who hug their heads, so that they fell on each other to avoid the flares fired shots fired at people. Of course, except the connoisseurs wear long sleeves, hats, glasses, goggles and gleeful dancing. The parade was long to the point of miles, the cannons were cracking, the gong drummed loudly.

The consequence of that day's play was that my hair was a bit burnt and the nylon-blazer was so "gun-eaten" that it was punctured a few times.

But fun, fun, always fun. La Mercè is certainly one of the most fun festivals I have ever participated in in this life.