6 ms·

I live in Barcelona. It is a _noisy_ city. It is just normal for young locals to sit outside in plaças or on wide streets on weekend evenings, socialising, havi

I live in Barcelona. It is a _noisy_ city. It is just normal for young locals to sit outside in plaças or on wide streets on weekend evenings, socialising, having a drink, talking loudly, and even sometimes singing. By evenings I mean the Spanish definition of evenings, which last until way after midnight. As a foreigner living here, I try to accept the noise as part of the culture, even though the noise annoys me. So it is great to read of locals actively campaigning to reduce noise levels. On Friday I was in the very plaça (Plaça del Sol) mentioned in the article with a friend, and it was crowded and loud. All the tables were full, people were sitting on the steps, and indeed all over the plaça. My friend said, "it must be bad for the residents". It is good to know at least one plaça in Barcelona is now moving the crowds on after 11:30pm.

oriol16 8y ago
Glad that you emphasize it's Plaça del Sol, not Plaza del Sol or Square of the Sun
- mbroncano 8y ago
  Is that that in the funny dialect they speak? Why do people waste their time with that? After all, they speak the first or second most spoken language in the world, why bother with a dying dialect?
  - overkalix 8y ago
    > Is that in the funny dialect they speak? Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish, if anything it would be a dialect of Occitan. And seeing how condescending are hurtful you are trying to be I suspect you already knew that. > Why do people waste their time with that? It's the native language of ~5 million people. We learn it for the same reason Swedish people learn Swedish, Danish people learn Danish, etc. It's just the language we speak in our country. There is already a de facto international language (which is not Spanish BTW), and we also learn it.
overkalix 8y ago
If there is a particularly noisy group, don't be shy to yell at them "calleu d'una puta vegada".
- namaemuta 8y ago
  You shouldn't recommend people to scream to a group of people "Shut the fuck up" because it's not only unpolite but it can be the source of a lot of problems for that person. Be considerate with your recommendations and aware that you could cause problems to others with them.
  - 6t6t6t6 8y ago
    In Barcelona, "Calleu d'una puta vegada" from a balcony, late at night, is not something that can cause a problem. What would probably happen is that the people being noisy will appologize, try to be more quiet, forget about the incident after about 5 minutes, and go back to the previous amount of noise until some other neighbour complains.
    - namaemuta 8y ago
      First, it was never stated to do that from a balcony so how would have known that the person to whom it was suggested? But leaving that aside, can you grant me for sure that there won't be any problem? for every place in Barcelona? what about if they people making noise aren't Barcelonian? what if they are too drunk and make even more noise? what if they recognize the balcony from where you screamed at them and start to throw you things as retribution? or ringing at your door? The possible developments of that situation are so many that you can't lightly ignore them, specially when it's another person the one who is going to be in that situation.
- sbhn 8y ago
  Well that would be a pretty noisy thing to do, yelling, that is
- enriquto 8y ago
  im my youth in barcelona it was quite common to throw a bucket of cold water towards the noisy drunks. This usually solved the problem quite well (at least, when i was among the noisemakers...)
richjdsmith 8y ago
Yep, same experience. I'm Canadian but living in Barcelona, in El Born district. I had no idea drunk Brits on vacation could make so much noise at nights. I live above a cafe/bar frequented by locals, and I have no issue with their late night (late night for this Canadian anyhow, around 10-midnight) enjoyment of tapas, wine and friends. Sure the Spaniards aren't exactly known for being quiet people, but it's not unreasonable levels of noise and they're quite quite after midnight. Its the bloody tourists that fly down on a 30 quid Ryanair flight with their lads for a weekend of fun in Barcelona and scream bloody marry at 3 am that get under my skin.
- ruairidhwm 8y ago
  Likewise in Barcelona in a touristy area. Crazy noisy. With the summer just starting, I'm anticipating a few sleepless nights!
- dazc 8y ago
  I lived in Spain for 3 years and moved constantly due to noise. Very few people I spoke to seemed to understand what my problem was. The few who did had long since accepted that it was just how things were. I did make the mistake of living in a busy tourist area once, it's not a mistake I ever intend to repeat. I will, however, apologise for the behaviour of my fellow countrymen and, if it's any comfort, please understand that a lot of us hate the 'drunken Brits' as much as everyone else does.
- jdietrich 8y ago
  I can only apologise. You're suffering from one of the lesser-known aspects of Theresa May's "hostile environment" policy. Many of my fellow countrymen are staunchly opposed to immigration, so we engage in a kind of reverse diplomacy. By exporting our loudest, rudest arseholes to destinations across Europe every weekend, we advertise the very worst aspects of British life and create a powerful deterrent against immigration.
  - zerostar07 8y ago
    In greece, said tourists are limited into specific resort towns where they can enjoy their general raucousness and binge drinking from their morning breakfast till almost the next one without generally infesting the streets of working people. I don't know why barcelona does not do that - they can arrange that with tour operators.

oriol16 8y ago

Glad that you emphasize it's Plaça del Sol, not Plaza del Sol or Square of the Sun

mbroncano 8y ago
Is that that in the funny dialect they speak? Why do people waste their time with that? After all, they speak the first or second most spoken language in the world, why bother with a dying dialect?
- overkalix 8y ago
  > Is that in the funny dialect they speak? Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish, if anything it would be a dialect of Occitan. And seeing how condescending are hurtful you are trying to be I suspect you already knew that. > Why do people waste their time with that? It's the native language of ~5 million people. We learn it for the same reason Swedish people learn Swedish, Danish people learn Danish, etc. It's just the language we speak in our country. There is already a de facto international language (which is not Spanish BTW), and we also learn it.

overkalix 8y ago

If there is a particularly noisy group, don't be shy to yell at them "calleu d'una puta vegada".

namaemuta 8y ago
You shouldn't recommend people to scream to a group of people "Shut the fuck up" because it's not only unpolite but it can be the source of a lot of problems for that person. Be considerate with your recommendations and aware that you could cause problems to others with them.
- 6t6t6t6 8y ago
  In Barcelona, "Calleu d'una puta vegada" from a balcony, late at night, is not something that can cause a problem. What would probably happen is that the people being noisy will appologize, try to be more quiet, forget about the incident after about 5 minutes, and go back to the previous amount of noise until some other neighbour complains.
  - namaemuta 8y ago
    First, it was never stated to do that from a balcony so how would have known that the person to whom it was suggested? But leaving that aside, can you grant me for sure that there won't be any problem? for every place in Barcelona? what about if they people making noise aren't Barcelonian? what if they are too drunk and make even more noise? what if they recognize the balcony from where you screamed at them and start to throw you things as retribution? or ringing at your door? The possible developments of that situation are so many that you can't lightly ignore them, specially when it's another person the one who is going to be in that situation.
sbhn 8y ago
Well that would be a pretty noisy thing to do, yelling, that is
enriquto 8y ago
im my youth in barcelona it was quite common to throw a bucket of cold water towards the noisy drunks. This usually solved the problem quite well (at least, when i was among the noisemakers...)

richjdsmith 8y ago

Yep, same experience. I'm Canadian but living in Barcelona, in El Born district. I had no idea drunk Brits on vacation could make so much noise at nights. I live above a cafe/bar frequented by locals, and I have no issue with their late night (late night for this Canadian anyhow, around 10-midnight) enjoyment of tapas, wine and friends. Sure the Spaniards aren't exactly known for being quiet people, but it's not unreasonable levels of noise and they're quite quite after midnight. Its the bloody tourists that fly down on a 30 quid Ryanair flight with their lads for a weekend of fun in Barcelona and scream bloody marry at 3 am that get under my skin.

ruairidhwm 8y ago
Likewise in Barcelona in a touristy area. Crazy noisy. With the summer just starting, I'm anticipating a few sleepless nights!
dazc 8y ago
I lived in Spain for 3 years and moved constantly due to noise. Very few people I spoke to seemed to understand what my problem was. The few who did had long since accepted that it was just how things were. I did make the mistake of living in a busy tourist area once, it's not a mistake I ever intend to repeat. I will, however, apologise for the behaviour of my fellow countrymen and, if it's any comfort, please understand that a lot of us hate the 'drunken Brits' as much as everyone else does.
jdietrich 8y ago
I can only apologise. You're suffering from one of the lesser-known aspects of Theresa May's "hostile environment" policy. Many of my fellow countrymen are staunchly opposed to immigration, so we engage in a kind of reverse diplomacy. By exporting our loudest, rudest arseholes to destinations across Europe every weekend, we advertise the very worst aspects of British life and create a powerful deterrent against immigration.
- zerostar07 8y ago
  In greece, said tourists are limited into specific resort towns where they can enjoy their general raucousness and binge drinking from their morning breakfast till almost the next one without generally infesting the streets of working people. I don't know why barcelona does not do that - they can arrange that with tour operators.