I'm on holiday in Barcelona at the minute, are there any Saints fans in Barcelona who know where I might be able to watch our game tomorrow? I emailed a few Irish pubs and sports bars in the city centre but not a single one has replied Any advice much appreciated, sorry for the inane thread.
I wonder if Ides can help out. I know he doesn't live in Barca, but I bet he knows where to watch games there.
He will only know Spurs pubs and the ones burning effigies of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Gianfranco Zola as a heat source for cooking Paella.
The Loch Inn, Passeig de Sant Joan, 74, 08009 Barcelona, Spain British bar that shows Premier League games. Whether they will have Saints on is anyone's guess though.
I would hazard a guess that any pub showing PL games in Barcelona probably isn't showing Southampton (unless it is a match being covered by Sky).
Not true as I went into two bars both with Premier League pass and matches on every screen. The first one had every game bar ours on, Burnley v Swansea with nobody watching it and when I asked the girl to turn it over she told me you have to be in before a game starts so as not to start any rows. There was literally nobody watching it. Had to walk for half an hour to the next one and only caught the tail end of the second half But only here a few more days so I'll be home in good time for the United match. Barcelona is a fantastic place but their unwillingness to speak English can be tiresome. No English signposts, barely any English menus, I've asked a policeman, a waiter and numerous barmen for help in English and they could barely utter a word.
I reckon the unwillingness of Brits to try speaking Spanish in Spain is a bit more tiresome than the average Catalan's unwillingness to speak English in Barcelona But you were joking, right?
No I wasn't joking, and I have been making the effort to learn and use a couple of phrases every day but we had a minor emergency and my depth of Catalan quickly dried up. My point is that for a major tourist destination such as this, guidance for English speaking tourists is scarce. Trying to use the Metro was a nightmare due to the lack of English signs but we eventually got the hang of it. I was more surprised by staff in the hospitality, tourism and public service sectors not being able to speak more than a few words of English, however this wasn't a damning indictment of the city or my experience here, it was just something I was surprised by.
Not sure there are many Spanish signs in our Underground either...though admittedly English is a widely understood language in a simple sense such as exit, entrance, trains etc. The thing that is bad in our Underground is the reduction in human beings...I would never have known that you could use a debit card as a ticket if a friend hadn't been previously stuck and unable to get a ticket. She nearly bought a day rover instead of just using her debit card for 2 stops....luckily a passing passenger told her. The thing I was surprised at in Spain was the failure to have multilingual labels in museums....didn't expect the whole shebang but the odd note would have been useful. However, I managed 2 visits to Barcelona without incident because I always do in depth research before I go anywhere....was able to help out some American kids in Washington who had no idea what they were looking at.
I have been to Barcelona a couple of times and I've never had any problems with local people not being able to speak English. Staff at the airport, railway stations, and in cafes and bars etc. were always ready to help. I do admit, though, that it does help having a stepdaughter who lives in Barcelona and who speaks fluent Spanish and has a working knowledge of Catalan!
I can't say about Barcelona, but I know some nurses, in the Murcia region who had to learn English as part of their training, as they would finish their training in an English hospital (with an option of finishing in Scandanavia where the common language would be English). When my late dad was in the General, there were two Spanish nurses on the elderly care wards, where he was, with a very good level of English. I was told, when I spent some time in Spain, of a doctor who had followed the above route, training in England, who chose not to converse in English, with English patients. Why? Because no one spoke to him in Spanish when he was in England.
I never have a problem abroad with the lingo, I just shout louder and put an 'o' or an 'a' at the end of the words and always get understood In fact the only place I have an issue is visiting my daughter in the US. OMG, you would think I am speaking a different language
