Ajuntament de Barcelona

Visca-Barcelona

Barcelona m'enamora
Bruno Sokolowicz
Do you live where you want to live?
Actually, yes. After 5 years renting in Carrer Nāpols (Eixample), near the Estaciķ del Nord, which was very good but a little boring, I have moved to the Carrer de la Cera, in Raval. This is what I needed. Pakistani shops open until midnight, neighbours of all colours, and life all around.
Why and where would you like to move to?
I have just moved to Ciutat Vella, so let me enjoy it for the moment:) I was looking for a rooftop flat in Grācia, Vallcarca, Poble-sec or Poble Nou... and in the end I found what I wanted in Raval. Forty square metres, but with a great little terrace, great. I have mint, strawberries, different aromatic plants... and my own bit of sky.
Do you spend time in your neighbourhood and with your neighbours? Do you have the shops you need nearby (baker's, grocer's, dry cleaner's)?
I do all that my work lets me do in my neighbourhood. That is to say, less than I would like to. However, the truth is that I have everything: from Sant Antoni market, to the Chinese "Todo a euro" (all at one euro) shops, as well as traditional bakeries and a great dairy shop in my street. Ten points for shops.
As well as doing your daily shopping (if you do it) do you have places and services for all your needs?
At the moment there is nothing I don't have, except a little more cleanliness in the streets. As it is a neighbourhood so full of life, varied and dense - why not admit it? There are some great people and some rather dirty.
Do you stroll around your own neighbourhood for pleasure or do you go elsewhere?
Yes, I do stroll around, yes. My objective is to walk around and get to know all the corners of my new home. And it's never ending!
Which are your favourite cinemas, theatres and clubs?
I like the theatre, but I go very little. But, one thing for sure, I never miss one of Victōria Szpunberg. I do go to the cinema more often, now to the Floridablanca, which is near my home, it is comfortable and chooses good films. I am also a "fundamentalist" when it comes to the original version.
Is there any public area where you like to go, to sit and chat?
I like the bar terraces, such as on the Rambla del Raval, or behind the Boqueria, or even, on weekend mornings, that of Els Tres Tombs.
When you have to act as a guide for visitors, where do you take them?
Here I am not very original: the Boqueria market, Plaįa dels Āngels, Passeig de Grācia, the sea from the mountain, Parc Güell... and depending who it is, my house.
Of where, between the sea and Tibidabo, do you have the most memories?
On one hand, Montjuīc, where, when I was little, I spent a lot of time in what was the amusement park, which I am really happy is no longer there (now that I am more ecologically aware). And then there is Carrer Casp where it crosses Passeig de Grācia, where I dreamed of my future on the waves, as an adolescent, when I passed Rādio Barcelona.
What colours or smells, when you see or smell them anywhere in the world, remind you immediately of Barcelona?
Green and grey (trees and cement), but overall the blue of the sea (which sometimes has a mix of green and grey in winter). And the scarlet-blue of some of the magical sunsets that I have only seen in Barcelona, looking towards the west in autumn.
When you have had to leave the city for a while, what have you missed most?
The fantastic equilibrium we have between the culture on offer and the first class services of the city, and the almost village tranquillity. The climate and the food you also quickly miss.
Which of the changes that have been made in the city recently are you happiest with?
I like the good taste and the sense of community. I don't understand how, before, Barcelona turned its back on the sea and the light: maybe somebody can explain how flats and walls were built practically without windows, or with ridiculously small windows.
What don't you like, and what would you do to change it?
I don't like the way the war against the private car is more advanced than the increase in public transport. Between tow trucks, blue and green parking zones, petrol, insurance, traffic jams, traffic controls, the lack of taxis on Friday and Saturday nights, avoiding double parked cars and other nightmares, there is increasingly less reason to have a car, but I still need it. With safe parking for bikes, 24 hour underground and bus services, and then, if you like, a ban on cars, and I will get rid of mine.
Add anything you would like to say, and that we haven't asked.
How is it that having worked for Cadena SER and being a presenter on Canal 33, you dedicate so much time to a radio station such as ScannerFM? Because, as a lover of music, the radio and Barcelona, I cannot understand, or bear, not having a music radio station in Barcelona, open to the new trends, to what's on the street and alternative culture. ScannerFM tries to do this. A radio station which all cities like Barcelona, except Barcelona, have (here we have to resign ourselves to half measures: nights and weekends of Rādio Grācia 107.7... but patience, we are getting bigger)