This local’s guide to Barcelona introduces you to the Barcelona that locals call home, rather than the more obvious tourist sites. I hope it inspires you when planning your next trip to Barcelona.

Follow the fuzzy, cantaloupe glow of the street lights and the grumbling mopeds. Eventually they’ll guide you to the squares of Gràcia. Martyred saints hang just above a doorway. Relics of another time before an organic food shop was a thing.

If you’re in Barcelona in the spring, keep a lookout for a neighbourhood calçotada. It’s a great way to be less of a guiri (tourist) and to try to get to know some of the locals.

Barcelona in winter is quirky and brilliant, and offers a much more realistic view of the city than the one you get in the summer months. You’ll love it.

I realised that in a way, the view from my balcony that I had admired so much had also been like a view of Catalonia itself. Of the changing political landscape.

The more the world shrinks and everywhere begins to look the same, the more I think we should celebrate quirky, local customs. And Barcelona has plenty of those.

Barcelona was fundamentally changed by the 1992 Olympics. “Para siempre”. The city still feels those changes to this day.

If I block out the other sights and sounds on my balcony, it’s the Catalan flags that I notice. There must be about 30 within view, fluttering in the summer breeze.

In the summer months in Barcelona, a message is sprayed in English onto walls and floors next to metro stations and tourist sites. In recent years it has become harder to miss. “Tourist go home”

Espanyol – the other football team in Barcelona. Yes, there is another team. Not that you’d know it from walking around the city. I normally do a double take when I see an Espanyol shirt.