july 16. for 4 days.

Soon enough for me to say to have a great time then.

Have a great time.

question.... how popular is Catalan? If you know spanish, could you get by okay? Would it be the same as, say...spanish in LA? (ie, useful to know, but not absolutely necessary)

According to wikipedia, 6,043,088 people in Catalonia speak Catalan. Thats pretty popular. Most locals who don't speak it understand it. I've been to Catalonia but luckily most people I encountered spoke English, and when they didn't, my poor spanish sufficed.

si.

i don't think there's any spaniard that doesn't speak castillian, even if they speak their own language at home.

Do you know Catalan? It sounds like French w/your mouth full to me, I don't think I could ever pick it up...

are all road signs/posters, etc. in barcelona in catalan?

i'm a question machine today!

I think the official language is castillian in the whole country (might be wrong though), so the signs should be in castillan.
I've only been to Sevilla, but I've heard that Barcelona is a beautiful city. I'd like to go there some day, so enjoy your trip.

I went to Barcelona on a school art trip about 10 years ago, got arrested trying to buy some weed in the main market square (forget the name), thought the police were gonna bum rape us and leave us in the cell for a year, but they were pretty nice actually!

i don't now it, no-- i've heard it spoken, and i can read most of it, but i don't .

i believe the signs in barcelona are mostly bilingual? but if not, if you read spanish you should be able to make it out.

actually you could PM sergisonic with your questions-- he's catalan & lives in barcelona. he's often around, just not on this little cesspool we call the "non-sonics" forum. if you remember him from the old board, he's one of the nicest people you'll see around here.

I concur.

My girlfriend just came back from Barcelone this morning.
She loved it.

Does she have any recommendations? I fly there on Monday.

Does it matter? Surely everyone will understand me if I speak English loud enough? :D

Well, I'm back, and barcelona lived up to it's reputation.
My feet are covered in blisters from all the walking we did! Our hotel was almost opposite the Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter, and the tourist bus stopped right outside!
I took over 200 photos so I'll post some that you might find interesting when I've finished editing them.
Thanks for all your suggestions - I could have spent another month there and still not seen everything.
And the heat!! 32 degrees just about every day!

It must be nice to be back to a good old English summer, though, eh?

I'm pleased you enjoyed yourself. Can't wait to see the photos.

OK. A few pictures from inside Casa Batllo, Gaudi's architectural masterpiece in the centre of Barcelona.



Entrance.



Fire place



Skylights



Lighting and wall detail.

Gaudis house and the surrounding park are well worth a visit
Gaudi was responsible for designing the whole park
Beware of smog, the pollution can be horrific under certain weather conditions
Near the beach is the old Customs House which is now full of restaurants and offices, with your back to it, look across the road and there is a narrow road opposite, go down there and on the right hand side is a fantastic tapas bar where they brew there own beer, it has a collection of the biggest beer steins I have ever seen too
You will probably be the only non Spanish/Basque person in there
Ask the concierge at your hotel for a good non tourist Catalan restaurant too
Catalan food is amazing!
For a laugh visit a club called "Showgirls"
If I remember correctly the address is Bayen 22
Its somewhere you have to visit!

More from Casa Battllo.