School trips of thirty, forty and even fifty children, each coming from the middle of Europe; dozens of guiris pedaling through the city center in duck squadron type formation; boys about to get married dressed up as Mario Bros, from Snow White, a comic book character that’s no doubt half-ass. And they with a lot of pointed whistles in the shape of a headband! goodbye too…

And long queues in front of La Pedrera, Casa Batlló, Casa Vicens, Sagrada Família, La Polleria de la Rambla and their questionable waffles… An elderly American couple photograph a graffiti artist in action in a Born street. Suddenly, in Plaça Catalunya, purple umbrellas spring up everywhere. They are the claims of the tourist guides of the free tours. These days they outnumber commercials with dreadlocks insisting you end world hunger with a bank transaction.

Canners, manters and itinerant sellers of pareos in Barceloneta, the season of sand sculptors begins! – it ends when the bathing session begins, then the municipal police tell them that they cannot settle there, on the beach. And a barbarity of people smiling all the time, eager to have a good time, everywhere. Barcelona is packed these days, much more so than during the previous Easter; so much so that these holidays already portend a summer season like the ones before, like the ones before the pandemic, and you don’t know how to take it…

Manel Casals, director of the Barcelona Hotels Association, points out that the level of hotel occupancy these days will be around 87%, a couple of points more than what was recorded a year ago. “Recovery is a fact. The Barcelona brand is very competitive.” Enrique Alcantara, from Apartur, the entity that groups legal tourist apartments, says that they are also rubbing the floor.

And numerous record boxes are rattling these days with a joy typical of bygone times. These people who visit us these days are spending more money than the people who took advantage of those great last-minute offers so typical of the pandemic. And on the other side of the counters, self-employed people, entrepreneurs and business owners hope to mitigate all the debts acquired to simply survive during the hardest times of the pandemic. And employees also breathe easier. Many residents of Barcelona live from all this noise, so full of contrasts. The thing is that…

Did you know that the tourist watch went analog? Seeing the price movements in supermarkets, paying you a thousand euros to leave your bed for three days is a pornographic temptation. You are going to your parents’ house these days. The keys are that the municipal inspectors do not find clues on the internet, that it is not advertised on any digital platform dedicated to vacation rental and that it is talked about by word of mouth and with contacts that you could ever do.

In the meantime, thieves stand at the door of the colmados, especially those in the Raval, where people from all walks of life go to look for cans of beer and bags of potatoes. Then they take advantage of the crowds and squat down on their victim’s back and… They are able to disconnect the cable from the helmets and beep your phone in one gesture even if you carry it in the front pocket of your pants ! If only we could harness this talent for the benefit of humanity…

“Suddenly you can’t walk down the street, you have to avoid the groups – says Martí Cusó, from the neighborhood association of the Gothic quarter, and on top of that the noise accompanies you, it doesn’t stop growing, day and night. These days you have the feeling that everything is back to how it was before the pandemic, that Barcelona has wasted the opportunity to rethink many things. Didn’t they say that the pandemic gave us the possibility to diversify economic activity and reconsider our city model? Well, the administrations did nothing. We are once again where always. Here, in El Gòtic, we have no problem finding a burrito to take away, but when you’re looking for a hardware store…”.

And at the other end of the city, in the Carmel neighborhood, these last few weeks there have been protests by residents, fed up with the overcrowding of the Turó de la Rovira viewpoint and the illegal parties that a few gangs organize in the bunkers of this place. “This tourist invasion is making our lives bitter – say these neighbors, very fed up-. During the day we suffer from mobility problems. The buses go all the way up. The accesses are not prepared for such an influx. And on the night of incivility, because they shout under our windows, they leave everything disgusting, they pee in the gardens of houses, they insult us if we draw their attention… and all this will add up?”. The thing is that…

Álvaro Llaras, from Onix, with three hotels in the center and a youth hostel in Vila Olímpica, details that these last few days are practically full. “But the most important thing is that the public is changing. Last year many customers came, attracted by the last minute offers. The destination mattered little to them. His motivation was to have a big party. But this year the reservations are being made more in advance, with several weeks. And the prices are higher. In 2021 we closed the youth hostel because the bed cost ten euros per night, and the people who came, well… But now they are paying between 35 and 40, like at Primavera Sound, and they are something else, the truth … And in hotels we have gone from 70, 80, 90 euros last year to 140 this year on weekends. For the first time in a long time we are happy”.

“The speed with which Barcelona is recovering visitors is great news – says Roger Pallarols, director of the Gremi de Restauració -. Barcelona is consolidating itself as the most international city in Spain. Your brand is in very good health. Visitors come very willing to spend with joy. And this jump compared to last year allows us to draw a fundamental turning point. The average bar and restaurant bill does nothing but increase. Businesses are finally starting to pay down the debts they accumulated with the restrictions. But the public administrations must guarantee the cleanliness, order and safety of the city”.