Why Barcelona means freedom for tourists

In the last few months I’ve been hit with the most curious sensation:  I’ve started to miss being a tourist in Barcelona.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve only lived in the Ciudad Condal for two years, so I’m hardly a dyed in the wool, sardana dancing Catalan. Nevertheless, Barcelona is where I live, work and pay taxes and it is where my daughter was born. And all this implies certain obligations.

It was not always thus: I first visited Barcelona in the summer of 1995 as a fresh-faced (ish) youth of 17 years old and was immediately hit by the city’s air of freedom. This freedom resounded in any number of inconsequential things: you could buy beer from the bakers and drink in the street; night clubs stayed open until when they fancied; and people on the beach undressed with no regard for the fact that they were at the heart of a major European capital.

Of course, knowing a city better does reveal many of its lesser-known charms, places and experiences you are unlikely to ever experience as a tourist. Nevertheless, I have found myself lately envying the endless tourists sunning themselves on the beach or queuing for the Picasso museum. In them, I see the same feeling of freedom I experienced some 20 years ago.

Why does Barcelona, home to staggering youth unemployment and a shocking number of bank repossessions, represent such freedom? It’s hard to say. On the one hand, for visitors from Britain the laws on things like selling alcohol and opening hours are far more relaxed. You will get told off by the police and possibly fined for cycling on the streets in London. In Barcelona, no one really seems to care.

Then there’s the place itself: cities on the sea and great ports always seem to possess a great freedom, as if the sea and the transitory population it brings cannot stand to be cooped up and enslaved. Barcelona, with both beach and port, gets a double helping.

It is in the politics too: Barcelona’s fierce left-wing history and spirit of independence – much like a sunny Manchester - can be felt in the city’s streets. It seems right, somehow, that Barcelona should be one of the last bastions of the anarchist movement in Western Europe.

Then there’s the football. Like it or not, Barcelona FC is key to how millions of foreign visitors view the city (not for nothing is the Barca Museum the most visited museum in the city). For anyone raised on the English Premier League, Barcelona play with a freedom of expression and love of the beautiful game that is entirely absent when Stoke face off against Fulham.

Many residents of Barcelona hate tourists. It’s easy to see why: they get in way when you’re in a hurry, take ages to order in bars and generally seem to be having a better time that you. What’s more, it is easy to sympathise with the residents of, say, La Barceloneta who feel they are being priced out of the area by the demands of tourism.

Despite this, I think tourists should firmly be embraced. There are the economic arguments, of course, with tourism bringing millions of euros into the city every year. More importantly, though, tourists serve to remind Barcelona of what it is: they come for the freedom of the city, to escape from the drab day-to-day of London or Paris and they come to relax in body and mind.

Tourists hold a mirror up to the city – a cracked and often distorted one but a mirror nonetheless. And in Barcelona it shows freedom.

Comments

[Publicado por: Diana Abend]

There are so many major features of Barcelona city which makes it one of the tourist friendly cities. First of all it is weather friendly city. You can visit Barcelona during any season of the year. Best transportation facility. During my trip I prefer to travel by railway and it was really great experience.
I was in Barcelona in 2010 and I would definitely love to visit there again.

[Publicado por: John Johnson]

I think like Peter Greenwood: your freedom is related with alcohol drinking and cycling but I must to say that Catalan is not a dialect, is considered a language.

[Publicado por: Peter Greenwood]

It is amazing! Freedom is related with alcohol drinking and cycling between children and families walking...
In Barcelona the tourists have another freedom advantage:
they need to learn a dialect If they consider seriously to live there.

[Publicado por: Ben Cardew]

Thanks George, for the kind comments. I'm glad what I wrote made some sense to you. I've never been to Aranjuez but you make it sound very appealing.

[Publicado por: George Mann]

I've heard comments similar to those you have expressed about Barcelona but in reference to Madrid (albeit no sea) as well as many other locations in Spain, so in a way I have the distinct feeling that those attractive charms are more related to Spain in general and not necessarily to the big cities; there are very few places in the world (the US included) were freedom needs not to be advertised but it is intrinsically built in and unashamedly seems like it is there for the taking and for the enjoyment.

I have lived in five different countries, have traveled extensible around the world, currently I live in Aranjuez. And I feel very honored and privileged to live in this truly marvelous country.

Thank you for sharing your viewpoints about beautiful Barcelona.

GM