June 17, 1997
The Coca Cola Club and other places to visit in Catalonia
The Cyber Cafes of Spain, part 3
What is a good cafe?
This weekend the national Dutch newspaper "De Volkskrant" (not only of interest to those who can read Dutch: the international design prize they won makes it worthwhile to simply have a look at the lay-out of their site) started a new series of articles on cafes, restaurants and hotels in the Netherlands. The intriguing angle this series has, is that the editors invite innkeepers and hotel managers to visit and comment on a Dutch cafe, restaurant or hotel from the exact opposite category than the one theirs is in. This weekend the owner of a "brown" or traditional Dutch cafe was interviewed on spending an evening in two new, very "trendy" Amsterdam cafes. He left both of them after one drink. His philosophy is that you cannot simply buy a cafe, nor can you create a cafe in a week or so. A good cafe is the result of several decades of "growth", with an atmosphere that feels like "coming home" and a staff that has ages of "on the job training". A good cafe is like "your old mother, wearing her apron and a few wrinkles more every day, a good cafe is like family or home: very warm and very welcome".TangaWorld, Coca-Cola Club
This is what our Cyber Cafe of the Month, TangaWorld is all about too. Joan Bonet and his wife already wait at the third generation of people from Castelldefels and the rest of the world. Joan takes pride in the fact that his customers all tell him they feel TangaWorld is their second home.
 And speaking about growth: what do you think of that enormous collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia, brought together over the years? A collection that would certainly justify calling TangaWorld a museum as well, with over 5,000 differents pieces, from the beginning of the century, the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's 60's, up till today. It's no surprise to learn that TangaWorld is the prime meeting point of Spain's Coca-Cola Collectors Club.
Combining two of his hobbies Joan put "The history of Coca-Cola" on the Net (40 pages with some 300 pictures. The pages are in Spanish, but the pictures alone make a good story already. Then another criterion for a "good cafe": warm, welcome and maybe also what only family or best friends would do for you. How do you like this story Joan told me:
It was back in November 1996.
Opening our mailbox, we found an e-mail message sent by some young guy from France (let's call him Antoine). In his e-mail Antoine wrote that, during his vacations in Castelldefels, he met this local girl Laura and fell in love with her head over heals. Antoine asked us if we would please send his love a bouquet of flowers from a local Castelldefels florist's shop for him. He explained that sending them directly from France would cost him a fortune and that, although his love was enormous, his budget was not. Touched by this story, I contacted a local florist and send Antoine an e-mail back, first telling him that he could count on us and second what the price of a bouquet would be. In his reply, Antoine agreed on the price and asked me to watch my regular mail. After a few days, I received a little envelope with the request to attach it to the flowers. I bought the bouquet and took the flowers with the envelope to his love. Laura came to the door and, all surprise, asked "Joan, why, is this for me??" And I replied "Yes Laura, it is, it's Antoine who sent them". Laura opened the envelope, read the card, and the next thing I saw were tears floating down her cheeks. Starting to feel a bit uncomfortable about being the messenger of this sort of news I asked "Laura, what's wrong???" Through her tears Laura said "Nothing's wrong Joan, read this card " The card read: "Laura, please marry me. Antoine." Isn't this a place to go with a guy like Joan running it: he will even take care of your marriage proposals!
Joan keeps track of his visitor's experience with computers and the Internet. According to his most recent statistics, he did a good job hiring Ricardo. With 70% of the people using TangaWorld's computers without any previous experience, there is obviously a lot of work to do for Ricardo who is especially here to answer all questions on computer and Internet related problems. 70% | Never used a computer, not familiar with Internet | | 20% | Used a computer before and know Windows95 | | 5% | Used Windows95 but unfamiliar with Internet | | 3% | Some experience with Internet | | 2% | No problems with W95 or Internet |
And what do Joan's visitors use the Internet for? Mainly chatting. Have a look at the statistics: | 80% | Chatting | | 15% | Web browsing | | 3% | FTP/Telnet | | 1% | Video/Teleconference | | 1% | Lost track |
Other things to visit in Catalonia
But then you don't want to spend your complete vacations chatting in TangaWorld of course.
Fortunately there are a couple of other things to do while visiting Catalonia. Let me conclude this series on Catalonia by giving you a number of usefull resources.First of all there is TangaWorld's own site with a page full of links to resources on Catalonia. You'll find tourist info here, the weather forecasts, but just go there and dig up the information you need. Meta resources are the two main Catalonian search engines Vilaweb and Lincaweb General information can be found at:
Generalitat de Catalunya. Everything on Catalonia: history, tourist information.
Ajuntament de Barcelona Everything on Barcelona: history, tourist information.
Castelldefels Web Everything on Castelldefels: history, tourist information, time tables for train and bus, usefull telephone numbers. Three interesting cultural sites are:
Fundació Miró A website dedicated to this world famous Catalan painter and sculptor,
Grand Teatre del Liceu The Barcelona Opera House and
"The unofficial page of FC.Barcelona" One of the world's best soccer teams And finally, one of my favorite subject: "dine and wine":
Catalan Food and Drinks Enjoy preparing your trip and visiting Catalonia. And if you wish, you can stay in touch with the people back home by simply going to one of the Catalan Cyber Cafes like TangaWorld. Bert Bulder and Joan Bonet.
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The Cyber Cafes of Europe
The editor's list of European Cyber Cafes
TangaWorld
Cyber Cafe of the Month
Internet Cafe Guide
Nice job Ernst! Lots of Cyber Cafes worldwide with street addresses.
Cyber Cafes in the U.S.
Cyber Cafes in the U.S.
Guide to Cyber Cafes around the
Mark D's list of Cyber Cafes worldwide (slightly out of date)
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Cyber Cafes
