These days there is much talk of being a traveler not a tourist, and visiting a destination to meet the people rather than see the sights. With this in mind everyone seems to be searching for the ultimate “local” experience, so what do you do when you turn up in a foreign country and can’t find a local? Will you still get that authentic “local” experience?

With barely a word of Spanish between us and no Catalan at all, we arrived in Barcelona full of anticipation and just the slightest feeling of trepidation. How would we survive 4 days in a city without knowing the local languages and not a friend in sight? We took the easy option and booked day tours to let someone else show us the way around. The Catalan people are known to be very passionate about the region so what better way to discover it than with a full-blooded passionate Catalan… right?

Our first tour, a Half Day Cycling Tour of Barcelona, took us by bicycle through the side streets and the odd main road of the city, seeing all the sites along the way. It was a fantastic afternoon of sightseeing made all the much better by our guide. Imagine our surprise when our guide rolled up in the form of an American from Virginia Beach who has been living in Barcelona for 5 years and not only loves the city and knows the history, but offered a neutral view on the whole Catalan vs Spain situation. He also gave us the hot tip for a tiny bar (”El Copetin” at Pg del Born 19) serving the best Mojitos outside of Cuba! Admittedly, after 48 hours in the city, it was also nice to hear an accent we could understand easily and English spoken the way we know it.

Ok, let’s try again on tour two, Hiking in Montserrat Natural Park. OK, a step closer this time with one half of our husband and wife guide team being a Catalan, the other half an Argentinian who had spent 8 years as a scuba diving instructor in the Caribbean. Nicer people in the world you could not hope to meet and again the knowledge of the region outstanding. Once again the rose-tinted glasses were removed as we were given a view of the region from an outsider who had seen a lot of the world and knew what was up for comparison. Not forgetting that the tour was fantastic and the views outstanding, the highlight of the day was meeting our guides and hearing their stories.

Finally there was a Barcelona Gourmet Tapas Evening Walking Tour. The Spanish are passionate about food and it may be the one thing that unites all the regions. Surely no-one knows Catalan food like a Catalan, would this be the time to meet a Catalan tour guide? Sitting at the bar of the restaurant waiting for our guide, in he walked - a German who had lived in Hawaii for 16 years and somehow ended up in Barcelona. As he led us purposefully to La Boquiera to see the amazing fresh food markets it soon became clear this was a man with an eye for architecture and a love of food. As a photographer he pointed out the smallest of details and had us hanging on his every word as he recalled unusual anecdotes of Barcelona’s history. He knows the best chocolate stores, wine merchants and tapas bars and I would challenge most born and bred Barcelonians to surpass his knowledge.

We may not have had a Catalan tour guide during our stay, but we certainly had 3 locals who know their city and love it. Sometimes an outsider’s view of a place allows others to truly appreciate it. Let’s face it, how often do we take what we have always known for granted - it’s not until we see the world from a different angle that we can look at it with fresh eyes. We may not have been shown Barcelona by full-blooded Catalans, but in our eyes we were shown it by true locals and we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

And for the record, we did get that “local” experience in the end - a night spent in a little bar eating tapas and drinking the best mojitos outside of Cuba!

-Kerrie O’Mahony

This entry was posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Destinations, Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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