An inspiring view of Barcelona

Hola Amigos! We hear Barcelona described as a crazy hot place with insane party people who never stop; it has fabulous and futuristic architecture from Gaudi and people are super inspired by Gaudi. Those things are so true, they are not wrong at all. This package is given to you when you enter Barcelona and only the relativist would disagree. If you want an inspiring waffle, check out ''the best waffle in Barcelona''. An inspiring view of Barcelona can be found in two other articles too. Chrisa wrote ''Gaudi's Barcelona''. It's a very cool article. Nicolas made ''First time in Barcelona''.

Avoid the thieves

People want your stuff. They take your camera at La Rambla, steal your purse at Macba, and they say they do this to survive and therefore it is a necessary evil thing to do.

One trick the thieves do is to throw dirt from a building or something onto you. After that comes people to ''help'' you to clean it off. They are partly cleaning it off and partly taking your stuff.

Believe in humanity and think that people are good. It's a nice thought. It helps me a lot in life to think that. Just remember that the people who want to take your stuff do not have sympathy for you. If you are vulnerable that is making it easier for them and you are becoming a prey animal.

Taking care of themselves

If you want more than this. If you want to go beyond the expectations and the common things about Barcelona you have the Catalan people who sometimes don't like tourists. It's not that they don't like tourists. They are very welcoming towards others really. They just want to make sure that their own are alright first. After that, they can take care of others.

said Ada Colau, Barcelona's super liked mayor. She doesn't want a city only for tourists. Because of this, you have these two options:

1. A starter pack for not looking like a tourist

No short pants. No sun Hats. Wear reading glasses only and put on a classic hat. Wear dirty clothes. Don't lean back when taking pictures. Don't take pictures really. Only casual pictures, that's pretty local. Learn to speak Catalan, or don't speak at all. Don't have a polite posture in public.

2. Stand for who you are. A tourist.

Be a very polite and nice person and look at yourself as the representation of a good citizen who helps Catalunya to survive. That means you don't buy from street sellers. They are ruining it for the shops. Buy food from Catalan people.

3. Just don't care about anything

Claim yourself as a citizen of the world and everyone deserves to sell to you if you want it. You eat the food you like and social appropriateness is another word for boring and you are a robot if you believe in it.

The truth about the language

People in Catalunya speak Spanish and Catalan. The Catalunian people know Spanish. Spanish is the language most people will understand here. There's a touchy thing about Catalans now after the election. Nowadays Catalunya wants to be independent and there's a lot of events where they stand for the pride of the Catalan nation. Or future Catalan nation. It's a very touchy topic, very interesting. They wear the yellow ribbon to show that they stand with Catalunya. The yellow ribbon means different things in different countries. In Canada, it means that you stand with the soldiers.

The warmth of a country = Happiness of the people?

I was thinking that since Barcelona is so awesome and warm, people talk to each other and don't freeze so much and has so much graffiti stuff, art and skateboarders who wake up the neighborhood from becoming a drug cartel that there might be less sad people here. In a ''normal'' city there's an average amount of sad people. In a city where everywhere has something awesome to it like a cool way of shaping the road, there is less sadness. Because sadness is not only a state of mind but what you are exposed to. Of course, the sad part is super complex and peaceful parenting and food habits play a huge role. So maybe foreigners who come to Barcelona are less sad than foreigners in other places. To make a statistic of this is a very tough. For now, we can keep this as a fancy thought.

The real Barcelona food scene

Food in Barcelona is Catalan food and immigrant food. Barcelona has a lot of Italian restaurants like in the rest of the world. Chicken wings is a big thing outside the center and in the suburbs, they have Spanish KFC-inspired chains here. Tapas is a Spanish food and it's good. My idea for your activity here is to go to a bakery and get snacks and take some Sangria and listen to Lou Reed in the park.

Two national drinks I buy around here

Sherry - A wine mixed with Brandy. Or call it a fortified wine if you like.

Patxaran - It's from the Basque country in Spain and they also sell it here. It's a drink known from the middle ages.

A little bonus observation

I really enjoy the water fountains that are all over town! The water is shitty and always available! Barcelona is a truly inspiring city that will make you view cities in a different way if you keep your eyes open.