INTERVIEW
A Barcelona secret most tourists miss?
One essential part of the local culture here
are the Festes Majors (grand festivals),
which are street parties held by different
districts during summer. They are loads of
fun, but tourists never seem to find them.
We wrote a really useful article about
them on my other website Barcelona Life
that might interest your readers.
You love your beer, don’t you? Which is
the finest one you’ve ever had and where?
I remember having a fantasti c bottled
beer in Barcelona, an IPA by The Kernel
Brewery. It tasted great but I remember
being disappointed after finding out that
it was from London, which made it a lot
less exotic for me.
However, if you too are a beer
enthusiast and ever plan to visit Barcelona,
I would recommend you to go on this
beer tour that my friend Oriol runs
(www.tapasandbeers.com). He knows
everything about beer, and in particular
local Catalan beers!
Le Marais, Paris
"I’d be intrigued
to spend a year in
Moscow; it’s a place
that allures and scares
me in equal measure.”
famous for the abundance of gay bars and
trendy boutiques that lend modernity to
its medieval buildings.
Imagine that you are confined to a single
city for an entire year; no exit allowed.
Which city would you pick and why?
Well of course it’s Barcelona, where I
spend most of the year anyhow. In fact, I
don’t travel too much these days because
there’s always so much going here; even if
mass tourism is putting a major strain on
public spaces for a large part of the year.
Otherwise, I’d be intrigued to spend a year
in Moscow; it’s a place that allures and
scares me in equal measure. A year without
leaving though, would be a real test!
Care to share a heart-in-the-mouth
moment from your travels?
My worst journey on our round-theworld trip was in fact one of the shortest,
something like an hour-long ferry trip
between Thai islands. The sea though,
was so choppy that I spent all of it lying
on the deck, dry retching over the side
(luckily I hadn’t had time for breakfast).
Apparently at one point people ran for
their life jackets, but I was so ill I couldn’t
even feel fear.
You spent a night at a poetry brothel. Tell
us more about the concept and experience
The poetry brothel (www.thepoetry
brothel.com) is a great idea, I must say.
The concept is that it works like a usual
brothel, in that you turn up, order a drink
September-October 2015 Travel Secrets 39