Barcelona: Nightlife

When somebody mentions Barcelona, the average college student does not think about the famous architects, artists, or landmarks the city is home of, but rather the nightlife the city is home of.  Besides Ibiza, an Spanish island in the Mediterranean known as "the party capital of the world," Barcelona arguably places in a close second.  This city is full of beautiful culture, beautiful people, and beautiful clubs.  Though despised by a good majority of locals, famous clubs on Port Olimpico such as Opium, Shoko, and CDLC give Barcelona its reputation for great nightlife.  They are huge, spectacular looking clubs with great music and a great location: right on the beach.  It can't get much better than that.  The only problem is drinks are ridiculously over priced.  If you are to arrive at one of these clubs before 2am, you're early.  These places don't get going until usually 2:30am and can go well into sunrise.  The unique thing about Barcelona night life is that any night of the week there will be a club promoting drink specials or famous DJ's playing at that club on that particular night.

I have never experienced a night scene such as the one that I have in Barcelona.  There are not many, if any, clubs such as Razzmatazz, Opium, Otto Zutz, Shoko, or CDLC in my hometown back in the United States.  For this reason, I tried to take advantage of going to these places while studying in Barcelona... then my wallet got very thin very fast.  It was then that I discovered that the night life does not have to only consist of these posh clubs.  I discovered many different local bars in my neighborhood and around the city that are filled with locals looking to have just as good of a time as the tourists are in the major clubs.  Drinks are a lot more reasonably priced at these places, and the bouncers do not have a sense of entitlement thinking they are some sort of invincible god.  Overall, I have had a great experience of Barcelona nightlife and am confident that I will not be able to find anything like it anywhere back in America.