Next you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how helpful and friendly the people are for a city of it's size. Whatever your preconceptions are of the Catalonians, they'll soon melt away as they do their best to make you welcome in their stunningly beautiful city.

The gay area is called L'Eixample or nick named GayEixample and is north-west of the center of town within walking distance but can also be reached by Metro from either the Universitat or Urgell stations. If you get off at Urgell take the Villarroel exit. The gay scene is lively and there's plenty of variety. Everything you'd expect from a major city's gay scene but with the added bonus of bronzed Spanish boys all over the place. Eixample is pronounced eye-sham-play.

To top it all off, you have Sitges just down the road which you must check out as well. It's an easy 35 minute train ride away from Sants train station, or better yet, from Passeig de Gracia station near the gay village.

The best way to see all of the major sites in Barcelona is to take the Tourist Bus (Bus Turistic) from Plaza Catalunya in the center of Barcelona. It's just 18€ for 1 day or 22€ for 2 consecutive days. There's 44 stops along the route, and you can get off wherever you like, then hop on one of the next buses that come along. There's 3 distinct routes, and your ticket covers you for all of them. The north route, south route and Fórum route. Each stop is announced in English, and you'll find info about each one in the guide they give you. The entire tour of all 3 routes, if you don't stay at any location, lasts 5 hours.