Tina’s Entrepreneurial Journey, European Trip- Barcelona Fall 2019 [Video]
Join Tina Trevino Day 2 Paris, Latin Biz Today partner, director community relations during her European trip for her fashion line Tocaya.
Editor’s note: This is part 2 in an ongoing series.
Welcome entrepreneurs!
I just touched down this afternoon in Barcelona and after a rough early morning flight with some delays, unexpected hiccups along the way and lack of sleep, lunch at Barcelona’s famous Boqueria is exactly what I need before I get started on another 9 hour shop-a-thon.
From cured meats, local cheeses, freshly caught seafood, fresh fruits, spices, meat markets catering to local delicacies like sheep’s heads and tripe, candies, pastries, eggs…basically everything you can imagine, it is just a visual wonderland of food! My starved travel colleague and myself share the largest mixed grill seafood platter we can order and pretty much desimate it in record time!
Now it’s time to hit the stores.
The mass market and department stores typically open and close the same times as ours do in the US, but the specialty boutiques are the tricky ones. They open later around noon, then close up for a lunch break somewhere between 2 and 5, and then come back and stay open until 9PM at least.
This makes shopping in the Barri Gòtic and El Born areas which are so famous for their unique stores, a bit more challenging.
It’s like a labyrinth of amazing specialty and artisan stores that you will most definitely get lost in firstly because the old narrow streets are so tricky to find even with navigation BUT also, the ones that you passed yesterday may have their metal gates drawn down during their lunch break and you’d never know that they were just there yesterday.
But if you walk down the street again a bit later, they’re open again?? My position on this is if you see something you really like, buy it right then and there so that there is no chance of remorse if you can’t find it again.
While shopping, I also take tons of inspirational photos of the area and the local flavor because these images provide such great content for pulling future design ideas. I always like to go back and see how street art, culture, and window shop photos can bring me great ideas well after the high of the trip has worn off.
We have one more day to go in Barcelona so stay tuned for the next installment!
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