Barcelona is known for three things: beach, culture, and nightlife.
Coincidentally, our first week in Barcelona coincided with Running of the Bulls, and a few of the more adventurous members of our group joined in:
We quickly settled into our new home at Betahaus, Barcelona. It’s a cool space with a good vibe, but the highlight of our trip was the rooftop terrace, which gave breathtaking sunset views of the city. Many nights were spent hanging out up there.
Barcelona is also well-known for its street art. The one rule in street art is: “Don’t paint over someone’s tag with a lesser piece.” As a result, local store owners will pay for prominent street artists to paint their doors and so that they don’t become defaced with low quality tags. This was our favorite piece we came across:
Another great thing about Barcelona is the nightlife! People explored salsa, saw David Guetta live at a local music festival, and ate oh so many tapas:
Partway through the month, we co-hosted an event with one Typeform, a local venture-backed startup with ~40 employees. Members of both the Typeform and Hacker Paradise teams gave informative talks on web-performance, deep-learning, and dealing with impostor syndrome.
People would use the mornings to relax on the beach or to explore the architectural works of Antoni Gaudi, in particular his Park Güell and the famed Sagrada Familia.
On one of the last weekends, we took a cable-car ride up to Monserrat Abbey and hiked along the Sant Jeroni trail. Along the way, we took in breathtaking panoramic views of Catalonia.
Towards the end of the month, we held a group-wide hackathon. One team built an app to help prevent poaching in Africa, the Anti-Poaching Map.
The team was led by Tim Masson, an engineer and entrepreneur from the U.K. who has spent the last 15 years living in Zimbabwe, and 6 other developers, designers, and content creators came on board.
Within a day, the site came together, and the team has continued working on it since, recently launching an IndieGoGo campaign.
Sound like fun? We’ve got a bunch of trips lined up for the next 6 months, including places like Japan, Taiwan, Bali, and Thailand. You can find out more on our home page or apply here.
