Catalonia
What Is Ouigo? And Is This Budget Train Worthwhile for Crossing Spain, Catalonia, and France?
Ouigo, put simply, is a French railway answer to the budget airline. The tickets are cheap, and there are no frills, but you get to where you’re going on lovely high-speed trains while enjoying the beautiful countryside. In terms of comfort, Ouigo is nowhere near as bad as a budget (or any) airline, though the …
The Experience Onboard Renfe AVE Trains
Spain’s national operator Renfe offers high-speed trains named AVE on routes between a number of major cities. They offer an excellent, comfortable, low-carbon alternative to flying. For example, the Barcelona-Madrid trip on AVE is just 2.5 hours, which makes it faster than flying when you figure in the time for getting to the airport and …
Senior Savings on European Train Travel: The Ultimate Guide to the Discounts
Savvy seniors over the age of 60 can get a range of discounts on the European railroads. For frequent travel in a specific country, you can purchase a country-specific senior discount pass. There are also Interrail and Eurail discounts that work out OK for heavy travel in a short period. However, most countries offer no …
The Best Booking Sites for Train Tickets for Spain — Reviewed
In our search for the cheapest tickets and easiest booking, we’ve reviewed all of the options for buying train tickets for Spain. We looked at the official Renfe site and compared it to a number of private portals. While Spanish trains in general are a pleasure to ride, Renfe’s own official website is full of …
The Best & Cheapest Ways to Travel Between Paris and Barcelona: Train, Bus, and — If You Must — Plane
I’ve long lived in the lovely, romantic French capital Paris and the lively, sexy Catalan capital Barcelona — these are absolutely my favorite two cities in the world. But how to travel between them? There are lots of websites that promise to sell you tickets between the two cities. A lot of them are terrible, …
All About How Wi-Fi Works on Renfe AVE Trains
A laptop connected to the Wi-FI on an AVE train Yes there is Wi-Fi on most of the Spanish high-speed trains known as AVE. For now, these are the only trains in Spain’s Renfe train network to have Wi-Fi internet. The Wi-Fi is free on these trains; it is included in the ticket price for …
Solved: The Problems with Renfe’s (God-Awful!!) Website and How to Get Around Them
Oh the problems with Renfe.com! I’m fluent in Spanish and have used the site for years, but I still get plenty of error messages myself. We’ve put together some of the major problems and what to do about them in this article, but basically the solutions boil down to one simple thing: buy your tickets …
Pickup lines to score you hot Catalan girls
The world’s sexiest women are Catalan. They’re gorgeous, laid back, kinda grungy, and infinitely sweet.* So what do you gotta do to bang, smooch, or marry one? Former dictator Francisco Franco has inadvertently given us a leg up, with the collective mindfuck he caused by banning the region’s language. Today’s Catalans get very excited about …
How do Catalans speak to inanimate objects?
Independentista and blogger El Fem Fatal (update: her site is no longer live, how tragic!) speaks Catalan not only to foreigners like me, but also to the inanimate objects in her home. “Li fas plas!” she explained to me, flailing at her lightswitch. “You’ve gotta really slap this fucker!” is how I would translate that. …
Learn All 53 Catalan Expressions Involving Shit
It’s hard to complete a Catalan sentence without merda. Shit is always on the tip of the Catalan tongue, whether used to describe speed, cowardice, disappointment, avarice, explosive mushrooms, etc., etc., literally ad nauseum. In my quest to speak Catalan like a native, I’ve compiled an exhaustive list of shit-based expressions from friends and academic sources. At my …