44 signs that you’re a local in Barcelona
Culture and traditions
1. You no longer say goodbye, adiós or hasta luego but <adéu, like a real Catalan.
2. You have replaced Saint Valentine with Sant Jordi.
3. You know off the top of your head the traditions of correfocs and castells.
4. You are no longer surprised every year when the caga tiós and the caganers appear in the Christmas market.
5. You have tried to dance the sardana (successfully or not).
6. Your Barcelona friends have never been inside the Sagrada Familia. (But have you?)
7. You have become an expert in Modernism.
Drinking
8. You have become an expert in mojitos.
9. You have become an expert in vermouth.
10. You have become an expert in gin tonic.
11. You have become an expert in cañas.
12. For you clara is not a girl’s name, but the name of a drink.
13. Your days are sometimes filled with the sound of voices chanting “cerveza beer” with a Pakistani accent.
14. You’ve drunk absinthe at the Marsella.
15. You have tasted all the fresh fruit juice flavours at the Boquería (proving that there is more to life than alcohol)
Eating
16. Your breakfast is a ham sandwich swallowed at a café counter at 11am.
17. You never book a table before 2:30pm or 9:30pm.
18. You always have local ham or Ibérico ham in the fridge.
19. You have replaced your usual toast and butter with pa amb tomàquet which you pronounce “pam tumacat”.
20. You find it totally normal to eat standing up in a restaurant.
21. You can’t imagine drinking hot chocolate that isn’t very thick and served with cream and churros or melindros.
22. You celebrate appropriately the return of the xiringuitos to the beach in April.
Getting around
23. Your points of reference are no longer the points on the compass, but the sea, mountains, Montjuïc and Tibidabo.
24. You have a Bicing card
25. You quickly gave up trying to use your Bicing card in certain situations (such as going up a steep hill, or waiting an hour to return your bike at the beach in Summer).
26. You have long stopped trying to cross the road when the light is red (you don’t want to die).
27. You can find your way even in the little streets of the Gothic, and in the Horta labyrinth.
28. You can move like a ninja through crowds of tourists in the old city.
29. You systematically avoid the Ramblas during peak times.
30. You feel like you’re in an American TV series every time you take a taxi to Eixample (“Corner of Aragó and Villaroel, please!”)
Sports and leisure
31. You’ve taken up sports: cycling, swimming, running… Yes, even you can do it!
32. You find something strange about a weekend without a festival, vintage market or festa major.
33. You’ve given up the idea of swimming at Barceloneta, preferring Nova Mar Bella, the Llevant beach, or even the Costa Brava.
34. You no longer buy Inditex clothes from outside Spain (Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti…)
35. You know the Barça anthem by heart.
Daily life
36. You’ve become a super hero since you got your NIE, your empadronamiento and your change of driving licence.
37. You call it the beginning of the ice age when the thermometre says it’s below 15 degrees.
38. You are afraid of the rain and you stay shivering indoors whenever it starts to fall.
39. You’ve almost forgotten the meaning of the word “stress” (although you are briefly reminded if you find yourself in a car at 8:45am on the Diagonal between Passeig de Gràcia and Francesc Macià square).
40. You no longer hear the calls of the traders walking around banging on their bottles of gas.
41. You know at least one person who works or worked in a call-center.
42. You have witnessed or experienced the theft of a bag, wallet or telephone.
43. You have a pickpocket radar and can detect them within a 3 km radius.
44. And finally, you won’t leave Barcelona for anything!
So are you a local yet? Let us know if we’ve forgotten anything!
