Shopping in Lima

If you take into consideration the safety rules while visiting Lima, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that the shopping in Lima is quite a positive experience.

Lima has to offer to its visitor small and interesting crafts and souvenir shops, hundreds of which are to be found in the Artisan markets of Miraflores and San Miguel. Peru has a rich tradition and diversity of Artisan craftworks and clothes made of alpaca that represent nice souvenirs or interesting acquisitions for you to bring home.

Lima is a modern city tough, so you’ll find shopping malls, commercial galleries and department stores from where you can buy anything at convenient prices, as compared to the North American or European ones.

You can  visit one of the middle sized malls opened in the 80s (extended and modernized) like Higuerta, Arenales, Camino Real in San Isidro, Plaza Camacho, the Molicentro, Caminos del Inca or El Polo. Since 1997, many new and larger ones opened and are now very popular meeting points for the locals (Jockey Plaza, Larcomar, Marina Park, Real Plaza Primavera, Plaza Norte, Lima Plaza Sur or Molina Plaza).

The department stores offer designer clothes from Peru and other countries, toys, electric household, decorations and dispose of their own bank. The first major ones are Oechsle, Ripley and Saga Falabella. In the stores hosted you can either pay with card or cash, soles or dollars, but make sure to have your passport as ID. They are usually open from 11:00 and until 22:00, Monday to Sunday.

Nightlife in Barcelona

You may start your journey for the night in Las Ramblas, with the street performers getting you in the right mood. Have some tapas and some drinks in the restaurants around and then head for the winding streets and alleys of the Gothic quarter.

The Irish pubs and bars like the Milk Bar, Sugar or Nevermind (spread around the neighborhood) are good places for a beer and for meeting new people.

Right in the middle of the district, in Passeig del Born, you’ll find many cafes, bars and clubs, less touristic but very appealing spots to start or spend the night, like El Born, Miramelindo or Cat Bar, to name just a few.

Another urban side of Rambla is Rambla de Raval, where the street fashion (piercings and tattoos) makes the rule. Grab a kebab while clubbing in the cocktail bars Marmalade, 7Sins, Les Enfants (the oldest disco in Barcelona), Moog or Sala Apolo.

Past the Gothic Quarter borders is the rest of the city, L’Eixample. Start close to Plaça Cataluña in Belushi’s Bar, have a beer at The Loch Inn or a cocktail in Slow Barcelona.

A more bohemian and Catalan authentic atmosphere is to be found in Gracia, with artistic crowds gathered at La Cigale and La Fourmi, and older ones going mostly to Belle Epoque and Tournesol.

If you’re looking for more sophisticated places, head for the Port Olimpic. Have a drink at one of the trendy terraces as CDLC or Shoko, before jumping on the dance floors of Opium Mar or Catwalk. Or, if summer and you want to feel the sea breeze while sipping a drink and going wild, get on board of the Barcelona boat party.

Barcelona FC Museum

 If you are a football fanatic, a sports lover or you’re just curious to see one of the most famous and the largest stadiums in Europe, a visit at the Camp Nou in Barcelona is a must. You will be amazed to see the technology used in the new museum and to see how this sport initially played by gentlemen turned into a worldwide hysteria and now into a profitable business. If you succeed to actually watch a game here, then the experience will be complete, but the visit at the stadium and its museum will let you get a glimpse behind the scene.

  The history of Barcelona club starts quite a while ago, in 1899. In the early days, the club switched between different grounds on which to play. But the ones used at the beginning of the 21st century had to grow and try to adjust to the constantly growing number of people that were attending the games. Since the stadium used at that point had to expand from time to time, in 1948the idea of building a completely new one started to develop into real projects. But turning them into reality was more than a challenge because of the money involved and the difficulty to convince the local authorities of this new project’s importance in the urban development of the city.

   The two League titles won by the club in 1947-1948 and in 1948-1949 and the fact that the football legend Ladislau Kubala signed a contract with FC Barcelona created an explosion of the club’s popularity. This eventually led to the first steps of implementing the project. The new president elected on 14th of November 1953, Francesco Miro-Sans, got personally involved. On 28th of March 1954, the first brick was laid at the foundation of the new to be built stadium, in front of a crowd of 60,000 Barça fans. The construction works lasted more than the estimated 18 months and involved a lot more money than the 66,620,000 pesetas initially budgeted, raising the bill up to around 288 million pesetas. That created an important debt for the club for many years to come. But this situation never laid a trace of shadow on the glamorous and spectacular inauguration of the FC Barcelona’s new and impressive stadium, the largest ever built in Europe to this day.

    The great inauguration started on the Saturday of September 24, 1957, with Jose Maria de Cossio, a member of the Real Academia Española, who declared the opening of the festivities in a solemn atmosphere. During the same weekend, a series of international football games were played and the city was wearing Barça’s colours. The Archbishop of Barcelona, Gregorio Modrego held a solemn mass to bless the stadium, the Orfeon Graciense choir performed the “Hallelujah” of Handel and the image of the Virgin of Monsterrat was exalted. Many and important figures of politics and sports were present together with more than 90,000 spectators that watched the parade of all the important football clubs in Catalonia and of the other sports teams of the club. The new and specially written anthem of Josep Badia on the music of Adolf Cabanes has been sung in the opening of the first game ever played on the new stadium.

  The team of FC Barcelona competed against Polish side Warsaw and the first goal to be scored on Camp Nou went from the boot of Eulogio Martinez. The team finally won the game 4 to 2, for the total enthusiasm of its fans. At half time, 10,000 doves were freed from the hands of the 1,500 members of Agrupacion Cultural Folclorica de Barcelona who danced a huge sardana on the field. Barçawas present in every edition of the European club competition since the tournaments started back in 1955. The club proudly displays in the museum the three European Cup titles won in Wembley (1992), Paris (2006), Rome (2009) and the FIFA Club world Cup from 2009. The Intercontinental Cup is the only trophy not present there, since the team hasn’t won one. The FC Barcelona museum is the second most visited one in the city (after the Picasso Museum), attracting around 1.2 million visitors each year.

   The museum was first inaugurated on September 24, 1984 and reopened in June 15, 2010 with a totally new figure. Now it features three parts. The first one has an audio visual touchscreen that displays a huge collection of photos, documents and trophies from the history of the club. The second one permanently displays a private art collection with works by Dali, Miro or Tapies. The third section, named the Futbolart Collection, presents different facts from the history of the club and a room dedicated to every trophy (or a copy of it) ever won by the club. In the Football Art Collection we can see the boots of Ronald Koeman, the boots with which he scored the goal in the 1992 European Cup Final. That was the winning goal of the match against Sampdoria, making FC Barcelona the winner of its first European trophy.


   The FC Barcelona slogan is “more than a club”, and nowadays it turned into reality, the club being involved in many educational and charity projects. The museum is open from the 4th of April to the 9th of October from 10:00 to 20:00, from the10th of October to the 3rd of April from 10:00 to 18:30. On Sundays and on holidays, you may visit the museum from 10:00 to 14:30. The purchase of a ticket gives you the chance to live the Camp Nou Experience by taking a tour in the museum and in the Camp Nou. You will get to see the Multimedia zone, pass through the locker room tunnel that will give you shivers down your spine once going out on the field, and you can buy your own souvenir from the FC Botiga, the largest official shop of FC Barcelona.

    The price of a ticket for an adult is €22 and for a child you will have to pay € 16.50, and you will have access to the Museum, the Camp Nou and the Multimedia Area.

  How to get to the Camp Nou

The stadium is situated on Avinguda Aristides Maillol, for which you may take the Metro on Line 3 and get off at Maria Cristina or Les Corts, or the Metro on Line 5 and get off at Collblanc or Badal. In case you wish to take thebus, any of the following will get you there: 7, 15, 43, 67, 68, 74, 75, L12, L50, L60 and L62.

  Restaurants near the Camp Nou

 One of the most appreciated restaurants near the Camp Nou is La Barraca, a rustic yet classy restaurant.
   It serves mainly Mediterranean food with many delicious seafood and shellfish dishes, prepared in the oven and cooker for the best of tastes, making it one of the favourites with the local celebrities. The restaurant is situated on Carrer de Lluca 56-58, in Les Corts area and it’s open from Monday to Sunday from 13:00 to 17:00 and from 20:30 to 24:00. It is closed on Sunday and Monday night. A meal costs around €70. A less pricy but with equally delicious Mediterranean cuisine is the Atenea Restaurant.It is situated in the Aparthotel Atenea, a few streets away from Camp Nou, on 207-211 Carrer de Joan Guell. The restaurant is classy and elegant with an intimate touch given by the private rooms it offers, ideal for small gatherings or banquets. A meal is around €34 and the restaurant is open the whole week from 13:00 to 16:00 and from 20:00 to 22:30. It’s closed only 3 weekends in August, on 25th and 26th of December and on the 1st of January.

  Hotels near the Camp Nou

 The four stars Catalonia Rigoletto is a favourite with the sports fans thanks to its close vicinity to the FC Barcelona stadium, at about 500 meters. The luxurious decorations create elegant, stylish and warm atmosphere and the service is up scale. The breakfast is served in the classy La Traviata restaurant and the bar in the hotel displays interesting art works. Besides the Camp Nou, which is easily reachable by foot, you may take the metro in order to get to Las Ramblas or to the Gaudi’s Casa Batllo.