The government of mayor Jaume Collboni last these days the extension of the decree that will prohibit one more year from setting up drunken routes in the Ciutat Vella district. The Barcelona City Council declared war on these excursions through various bars in 2012. A report from the Urban Police details that the outbreak of the pandemic ended up banishing this activity aimed at young visitors from the center, but that the recovery of tourism can behave its rebound.
The problem is that these soirees create crowds, annoy the neighbors, encourage people to drink more than necessary… The document also states that in 2015 the municipal police denounced 29 drunken routes; in 2016, four; in 2017, one; in 2018, five; and in the, 2019 nine. In the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 he did not perform any intervention.
These days, however, it is enough to type crawl bar Barcelona in the Google search engine to discover a rich offer, in Ciutat Vella and also in the Eixample and Sant Martí districts, in the Gòtic, the Raval, the Dreta de l’Eixample … Everything indicates that the police suspicions are well founded. Yes, the original name of these bar-hopping excursions is crawl, because, they say, people end up crawling, on all fours.
The most seductive website is that of some young Anglo-Saxons who assure that they were the first to set up a crawl in Barcelona, ??in 2007, that they are capable of gathering 500 revelers in one night, that for just 20 euros you will go to a lot of bars and a disco, that they will give you shots everywhere, that you will have the best night of your life and that, on top of that, if you still have it, you will lose your virginity and everything. You only have to worry about pickpockets and using condoms. They also offer you the possibility of becoming a member of a cannabis smoking club.
The reality, then, is more aggressive. Perhaps because it was Tuesday, perhaps because it was very hot… At half past ten at night about fifteen people go to the meeting point, an English pub without air conditioning on Boqueria street, in the Gòtic. The fact that there is only one woman among the participants disappoints most of them. It is the first disappointment. The group is made up of some German friends and several Mexicans, Chileans and Uruguayans.
“Lately on Saturdays we are about 50 –says the hostess, a very nice young Brazilian–. With this bracelet you can come to the crawl every night you are in the city”. The organization invites attendees to a fifth of beer and details that with each drink they pay for, they will be given a shot. The shot of marras is very cloying. And the hostess is very nice, but tonight she doesn’t feel like entertaining the roost.
“Sometimes we play games, but today I don’t know if… Germans and Mexicans together?” Drink beer through a hose and funnel? Take a shot every time a ping-pong ball goes into a glass? “But we will go to more bars, right?” “Yes, of course, to another one, to one with air conditioning!” “Just another one?” “And then to the disco…”. One begins to find it difficult to see the grace in this matter.
Soon, the attendees arrive at a gambling den in Plaza Reial. They are greeted with the same cloying shot. Also, the only beers they serve here are over half a liter, and the waiter tells you that he’s not going to buy you any shots. “I have this bracelet from the crawl…”. The waiter does not give up. The Germans leave in a halo of disappointment. The Mexicans conclude on their side of the bar that they have to become members of a club for cannabis smokers, that if they have to pay 20 euros, they pay it, that for the days they have left in the city it pays off.
The Chileans also vanish on their own. “Then at the disco they will give you another shot,” says the hostess, on a bench in Plaza Reial, scrutinizing her cell phone. Let’s go in five minutes.” “If it’s not even one…” And at this time during the week, a lot of clubs still have more or less free admission. “And with our bracelet we can enter on our own later?” “Better come with me, in case there is any problem…”. The crawl in question already reeks of scam. Here nobody crawls.
