Barcelona - Football & Flamenco

If you're a football fan (for my American friends, I'm talking about soccer), a must do in Barcelona would be to catch FC Barcelona in action. We were lucky that they had a home game when we were there.

I figured the best incentive to get X to go watch a flamenco performance (more about that later) with me would be to accompany him for a soccer match. Truth be told, I do enjoy going to watch a game live. I'm not at all a football fan but there's something about the stadium lights, hearing the fans roar, beer (they serve non-alcoholic version, yuks) & hot dogs - the whole atmosphere that is electrifying.

As you exit the train station, you just have to follow the crowd especially the groups wearing the home team jersey. You know you are near Camp Nou Stadium, when you start seeing these stands.


No I didn't purchase my tickets from there. I don't even know if these are operational. I bought them online like everybody else & collected the tickets from FNAC.

Camp Nou (New Field in Catalan) is very impressive. It can sit close to 100,000 making it the largest stadium in Europe.

The camera action

He who scored the one & only goal of the game

For the football fans who would know who these players are

Not bad for an evening entertainment
Wish they'd served real beer tho

3 nights later, we went for a very different kind of show. Based on tripadvisor reviews, I made a booking at Tablao de Carmen. It sounded a little touristy & most definitely not the cheapest option for a flamenco show (I found much cheaper alternative on the internet) but most of the reviewers gave it a thumbs up & since I didn't have a clue, why not.


Tablao de Carmen is within the grounds of Poble Espanyol, a Spanish village created for tourists (see what I mean). The buildings & architecture represent all the different periods in Spanish history now occupied by restaurants, galleries & artisanal workshops.

If you have tickets for the show, entry to the village is free. Arrive well ahead of the show to give yourselves ample time to walk around the premises.


This was the closet we got to El Bulli - this is where Ferran Adria sources his plates. The restaurant by the way will close next year.

Tablao de Carmen has 2 seatings every night & you have a choice of just watching the show with drinks, having the tapas menu or the full dinner menu. That determines which tables you are assigned to. All diners have tables closest to the stage.


We had the tapas menu @ 45euro which is more than enough - ham, cheeses, potatoes, bread & either a bottle of wine or a jug of sangria.



The dancers & musicians put up a good show. Both X & I really enjoyed it. The highlight was this male dancer which was even better than the male dancers we saw at a flamenco show at the Esplanade recently.