Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jarandas 
A thing that shocked me about Barcelona is how quickly you can get into really bad neighbourhoods, just by leaving the main street.
I mean, we were walking down Las Ramblas, the street with all the trees, kiosks and that ends at the harbor, and I wanted to see the Liceo Theater... we took a street on the right, just after two minutes walking down the street, and ended up in a square filled with pushers, prostitutes and thieves...
The same thing happens with the market, very near the main square (the one with the Hard Rock café), during the day is an OK place, but after dark, you can see drug addicts getting their fix, and prostitutes "working".
I just wonder if this is what happens in many other big cities, I´ve been to Paris, London, Rome, Stockholm (well, a few cities) and I didn´t see anything like that, but I may have been lucky.
ya, I inadvertently wandered into the same area...it was pretty dirty. Fat African hookers and the men who love them. I didn't feel safe or threatened in any way there, I just kept walking and the neighborhood ended as promptly as it started (with a large park down the middle of a boulevard if I remember correctly - and quite possible that I dont - as I said in my first post, I spent most of my time there wandering around lost, and loved every minute of it).
But yup, as other people said, aside from witnessing some petty crap, it certainly wasn't a city I felt unsafe in.
One other observation, I found it a really hard city to eat in. I was travelling solo, and since basically everywhere wants to sell you tapas (which is really hard to do solo) I found myself a little more random-sandwich and fast food dependant than I would have liked.
