I want to live like common people

I guess you are living or planning to live in Barcelona. If you don't want to be treated like a tourist or a "guiri" (as we call tourists here), follow these 15 tips that we found in an article and we have translated for you:

1) People from Barcelona like to brag about how cosmopolitan and international we are. But we suffer of an anxiety attack and suffocation with the simple thought of living in another city. Barcelona is the best city in the world for us, if you don't want to start a fight, please don't argue.

2) You always say "Adéu" (if you want to pretend to be a local never pronounce the "a") when leaving a place. It doesn't matter if you are in Tokyo, Madrid or Oslo. It's a requirement to be from Barcelona, any other way to say goodbye betrays you.

3) You never go to Plaça Reial between May and October, it's full of tourists. Neither to the Gothic Quarters. Neither to Raval. Neither to Barceloneta. You know what? Better stay at home, makes it easier.

4) You love complaining about tourists. "You cannot even walk in Les Rambles, it's horrible, and look, they think they are eating Paella and Sangria at diamonds price, poor them,". "Look a tourist, I feel the urge to hug him and apologize!".

5) You got the Bicing card and used it proudly the first 4 days. Then, of course, started the winter and you were not feeling for it. And then the summer arrived and you cannot arrive to the office sweating. Furthermore, Bicing is only useful while going "sea-direction", "mountain-direction" is not an option. Besós or Llobregat it's not that important.

6) Talking about directions, when you are from Barcelona and you meet with some friends in a bar, you will perfectly understand what are they talking about when they tell you "We meet mountain side, corner Llobregat". Okey, we will explain it to you. There are four directions in Barcelona. Mountain is north, Sea is south, Llobregat is West and Besós is East. Easy right?

7) The best about Barcelona is that is a city but inside it you can find little towns: Sants, Sarrià, Sant Andreu... By the way, if you want to start a fight between a person from Sants and another from Gràcia ask them about which are the best district parties (in upcoming posts we will tell you all about them).

8) For sure there is beach in Barcelona, but it's not an option for us. You have to go at least to Maresme or Garraf. Unless you want to get stolen and end up as a Chernobyl victim because of the stuff that you can find in the water.

9) The city is normally friendly, unless it's raining. As soon as it starts drizzling everything becomes a chaos. Traffic jams in the center, two-hundred million people in the metro, buses on fire and trains pulled by donkeys.

10) Humidity is the worst. In Siberia is colder, but with humidity the cold takes to your bones. In the Sahara is hotter, but it is a dry heat, you can solve it by resting in a shadow. And on top of all, in Barcelona is chilly at nights, you can never sleep.

11) We all thought Barcelona was a woman until they built the Agbar tower.

12) They typical Christmas food in Catalonia is "Escudella i Carn d'Olla". It's the first soup ever documented in Europe. It was a plate that we used to eat everyday and now is something really special. Some hours to cook it and a ritual to eat it. Is the stew's gin-tonic.

13)In fact, we are so good blending things that another typical plate is "mar i muntanya" (sea and mountain), where we mix seafood and meat. We want it all. We also eat snails, yes, they are edible. Go to a typical bar, be brave, and ask for "cargols a la llauna", you won't regret it.

14) We made the "vermut" fashionable. Just like black-rimmed glasses, Woody Allen, Bruce Springsteen, bicycles, the fire, the wheel, walking straight, the language... and pretty much everything.

15) Actually, the universe was empty until a person from Barcelona arrived and said: "We could do something here... What about Olimpic Games?

Original article: http://www.traveler.es/viajes/mundo-traveler/articulos/sabes-que-eres-de-barcelona-cuando/4545

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