I will be returning to my favourite stomping ground for the amazing 10th visit from November 6-9 to see the indescribable Lady Gaga in concert for the third time. Barcelona is an incredible city with the world’s best fútbol team (Més que un club!) with a ton of history and culture and places to be discovered. To commemorate this remarkable occasion, I’ll be doing a series of blogs this week about my third favourite city in the world.

In the autumn of 2011, I was gung-ho on making Barcelona my home at anyway possible. They say that whatever you’re doing at midnight when the new year rings in will be what you’re doing for the first year. So I went to eat my grapes per the Spanish tradition of eating a grape for the first 12 chimes of the bell in the New Year in Plaça de Catalunya. You can’t get more Catalan than that.

It didn’t work. I was sentenced to another year at a great school in a horrible (for me) city, Madrid. It was one of my best holidays, though, having experienced the beauty that is the province of Girona beforehand.

I tried booking a flight to Italia for my Semana Santa 2012 in Italia, il bel paese, from Barcelona. I had my AVE (High-speed train) booked to and from Madrid to arrive in plenty of time to catch the flight.

Guess what? There was a huge general strike in Spain the day my plane arrived, and by taking the bus after work, I would not be able to arrive in time to catch my flight. I was able to get my money refunded from RENFE, for the most part, but the plane was gone. I went ahead and went to Barcelona, somehow finding a pensión (though not one I’d recommend) with a free room that was at a decent price to spend a few days in Barcelona. I hiked Tibedabo and tried to avoid the massive hordes of tourists everywhere. Massive hordes of people give me panic attacks. It wa this trip when I began to realise that as much as I love Barcelona, perhaps it would not be the place for me.

I went back to the States for the first time in three years, catching a flight from Barcelona-Prat instead of Madrid so I could continue with the Christmas holiday tradition of going to Barcelona. I was sad I couldn’t find any “calendari de bombers” like Bilbao has and Valencia used to have. The trip to the States was uneventful, and I had my first of many last Starbucks EVER when I got back to Barcelona in 2013.

The next trip was to see Lady Gaga in concert in 2012. Lady Gaga is always amazing, even if at this show she was coming down with the flu and unbeknownst to spectators, was vomiting behind the stage.

Trip #9 was in September 2013. I remember finding myself at an event for Catalán literature near the Cathedral in Barri Gotic. They were so impressed with my Catalán abilities. This trip too was filled with too many tourists and not enough Catalans as my pensión was unfortuantely near the Rambles. Les Rambles is an awesome site and there’s a reason for the tourists, but when you’re wanting to practice your Catalán, Les Rambles is NOT the place to be. I was even greeted in ENGLISH when I entered a bar in the Barri Gotic. I then left the bar and found another close by that glared at people who spoke English or Spanish and was pretty damn Catalán-Only. I understand the need for English speakers in touristy places, but there are many tourists who are wanting to learn about YOUR culture and YOUR language.

While there were some good parts of that trip, it was not one of my better trips to Barna. The city is changing quickly and I remember reading somehwere that it is currently the second most visited city in Europe after Paris, I believe. While the tourists provide a steady income to a country in crisis, this is creating quite a controversy amongst the citizens. While the rest of the comunidad autonoma is trying to find a way to make peace with Spain and become more autonomous and/or independent, Barcelona is in its own fight with itself. Should they welcome tourists and try to show their hospitable side, or do they withdraw to protect their strong culture and pride? It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future, especially as they put some finishing touches on the Sagrada Familia. The tourists aren’t going to stop any time soon barring an ebola outbreak (One thing Madrid can boast is that they had ebola before Barcelona. Barcelona still has yet to have their first case of ebola! There should be a sarcasm font there for those who can’t detect it :))

I’m excited to see how Trip Number 10 unfolds. Coming soon, the unfolding of this adventure, 7 Meravelles of Barcelona City and 7 Meravelles of Barcelona Province. Stay tuned!