One of the things that makes me angriest about Instagram is discovering that my lost paradises are also lost for many other people. That the neighbor on the fifth floor has also set foot on Mykines ---the wildest and most remote island of the Faroe archipelago, which fascinated me so much three summers ago--- or that a coworker has dined in that small restaurant in Chiang Mai where, a few years ago, I ended up by chance. It makes me angry, what do you want me to tell you? I see them portrayed there, with that look of satisfaction, and I feel like they are desecrating places that, for me, are sacred. Places that belong to me and that, naively, I like to think belong to no one else.
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Don't you think that, for a few years now, people travel more and further but that, practically, everyone goes to the same places? Ignoring the transitory stop derived from Covid-19, mass tourism is going strong. It has never been so easy and affordable to travel, and social networks, with their promotion of gregariousness, have contributed to making it practically an obligation. A weekend in London, Paris, Rome or Amsterdam, the Immaculate Conception long weekend in New York, Holy Week in Bali ---with an obligatory photo at the Pura Lempuyang temple--- and, in summer, a safari in Kenya or a motorhome route through Iceland. It's as if everyone has become a traveler although, mainly, they go to be a tourist and are content ---perhaps because they don't have time or desire for more--- with taking the same photographs in the same places that, before leaving home, they have seen a thousand times on Instagram or in guides that tell you the ten wonders you can't miss if you travel to Vietnam or the five essential ones if you go to Egypt.
It has never been so easy to travel and social networks, with their promotion of gregariousness, have contributed to making it practically an obligationI don't criticize it, believe me, I simply state it, although it would depress me to have the feeling that everything I see, when I take a trip ---no matter how beautiful and spectacular it may be---, I have already seen on the Internet, on TV or in a travel guide. I suppose that, for this reason, big destinations make me lazier every day...
Barcelona could perfectly seem a paradigmatic case of this kind of burnt-out tourist destinations, right? Under normal conditions, it receives close to twelve million tourists a year and is one of the most Instagrammed European cities. From the Sagrada Família to the formerly quiet Sant Felip Neri square, passing through the Carmel bunkers, the Laberint d'Horta or Joan Fontcuberta's overused kiss mural. It's as if, in Barcelona, everything susceptible to being exploited touristically has already been discovered, announced with great fanfare, and sold in the great market of mass tourism.
The good news is that it's not true. Barcelona is still full of magical corners that seem taken from Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novels and that, for one reason or another, have remained in the shadows. Buildings, squares, alleys, shops, and restaurants with soul ---I know it's cheesy to say it like that, but I can't think of another way to do it---, that you wouldn't find anywhere else in the world and that, therefore, make Barcelona Barcelona.
Barcelona is still full of magical corners that seem taken from Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novels and that, for one reason or another, have remained in the shadowsThe best way to discover them is by walking with an attentive gaze ---not at the mobile screen, but at the city--- and dedicating time and desire to it. There are true professionals in discovering Barcelona's secrets, like the journalist Marc Piquer who, at the helm of Barcelona Singular, does a very good job. The also journalist Xavi Casinos has been dedicated for years to revealing the best-kept secrets of our city. For example, a few days ago he wrote inLa Vanguardiaon one of the most mysterious buildings in the Dreta del Eixample neighborhood:the old Masriera Workshop, recently acquired by the Barcelona City Council and which we Barcelonans have been able to visit, for the first time, within the framework of the eleventh edition of the 48h Open House Barcelona.Built in 1882 as a workshop for painters and sculptors ---it preserves a theater inside where Federico García Lorca is said to have read one of his works for the first time---, over the years, in addition to a jewelry workshop, it also housed a religious congregation. When I lived next to the Sant Joan promenade, I often passed in front of it and, with my face hidden between the metal gate of the entrance, I wondered what that kind of half-abandoned Roman temple, which the exuberant vegetation of the garden was invading, would be, and what secrets it preserved inside.
Barcelona is full of secrets like the Masriera workshop. I encourage you to discover them and not tell anyone.
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