My First Party Night in Barcelona

I can now safely say that I'm almost an expert in what not to do when going out to enjoy the nightlife in Barcelona. Before going out, I did quite a bit of research on tripadvisor to figure out where the best place would be to go that wasn't just filled with Americans and wasn't really dirty. So that was nice and everything except for the part where it wasn't as helpful as it appeared. I was only reading reviews from tourists. So long story short, four of us ended up in a part of town that we maybe shouldn't have been in at 1:30 AM. After finally finding the bar, it looked incredibly shady from the outside. We discussed whether or not to go in for a couple minutes and finally decided that we had come too far not to go inside. Once we entered, we discovered that it was no different than any other bar that we could have gone to in any neighborhood. The reviews on tripadvisor were more than just misleading. They were dead wrong. We all got drinks and ended up having a pretty good night overall though.
Here is the moral of the story: If you want to go to a discoteca in Barcelona you are probably fine to go out at 1 AM. If you just want to go to a bar and relax and have a good time, there is no point in going to a bar outside of your own neighborhood. Chances are that there is one within 2-3 blocks. Next time, we will meet up in someone's neighborhood and do just that. Staying out of tourist areas also makes it much less likely of getting robbed too.