Barcelona City has more than 40 markets. Each district may have between one and three fix markets, I'm talking about special buildings constructed for this purpose. In the last years the City has made an effort to improve the old facilities and convert them into bright and beautiful buildings, full of light and nice aromas where buying fresh products becomes a pleasure!When I first heard about Gay's second round on To Market, to market... I thought... Yes, I'll take my camera and take a tour through the city's nicest markets and show them to the world! But you know that one thing is the intention and another thing is the practice... The event has only 4 days left and I only could shoot two markets. So, I'm "stealing" some pictures of the city council's web to show you all how Barcelona Markets look like.
First one is LA BOQUERIA. The most famous in the city and now maybe around the world. Here is the place where fantastic cooks, as Ferran Adriá, come to buy best quality products. The location of the market makes it easy to find... in the middle of the Ramblas!
This is how it looks inside. Nowadays you can find anything you think of in this market. They have all world products and it can be really expensive if you stop and buy in the first shops you face. My advise is... before buying anything take a look around and compare prices, you will probably find what you want a lot cheaper in the inner shops :DNext Market is a down town and old one that has been reborn: SANTA CATERINA. I still haven't been there but seen pictures of the final result and starting with the roof... it's a beautiful building!
It's near the Cathedral and the old city streets. If you come to visit, there's segways for rent that will tour you around. I should be a tourist in my own city! I would love to do the segway's visit :DNext Market is SAGRADA FAMILIA, this is my neighborhood market! I was living 50 mts away from the it for 30 years aprox.
I still remember the old building and going there with my mom to buy fish was not one of the most pleasant memories I have: it was dark and the ground was slippery and didn't smell that good. She would always stop for a coffee in a little bar in a corner and I didn't see the time to go back home! Back in those days, there was no hurry for anything and my mom would chat there for a while before deciding to leave the building. Today the Market and the public Library share the same building; the red part is the market and the white is the Library.
The next one is BARCELONETA, very near the sea and the port, an old fisher men's
neighbourhood with narrow streets and hung out clean clothes that go from one side of the street to the opposite; the distance might be really short... 3 to 4 meters. This is also a new building, I've never been to the old one nor the new one. This area is full of nice restaurants and it's a delish to walk and visit the port, or have a good dip in the sea!EL MERCAT DE LA CONCEPCIO is one of my favourites, also a new building with tones of natural light inside and tones of flowers outside... this market is also called "el mercat de les flors" The flower market. It has all these multicolored flowers just by the street outside the market. Also old tradition flower shops surround the building and they are open all day and all night through. Bunch flower's emergencies can be attended any time!
Now take a look at the products we have in our markets that I thought might be a bit different from yours.
I hope you enjoyed the tour! But if you still want to know more, here is a link to the City's Markets, I'm afraid it's in Catalan... but you are such a bunch of smart girls and boys that I'm sure you'll get to see what you want!!!! A funny tradition all markets have is that when is time for Carnival all people working there choose a theme and work the carnival days with their costumes on... really funny to see!
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