They’re short, they’re rude, they’re not so attractive and the are forever in my way.

They are also very proud, passionate and…yes, I have known a few nice ones in my time.

Here, is my opinion on the Catalan people.

Don’t take offense by anything you may read here, it’s just the opinion of a rather easily annoyed little Irish girl.

Well, where to start?

My overall feelings for the Catalan people on a whole is that of annoyance. Naturally, you can’t generalize and say they’re all ‘X’ or never ‘Y’ but one can, if one tries hard, form a general opinion on an entire group of people, and thus, go around saying, for example, “Catalan people are intensely short of stature” and well, if this be technically incorrect, so be it. This is my opinion.

I generally get annoyed by them.
I have met many a nice Catalan person, don’t get me wrong. And I have met or have known about many a Catalan person who themselves is annoyed by Catalan people.

Why do they annoy me?
Truth be told, I hold shortness against people. And yes, Catalan people are generally short. I am 5′ 7″ which is tall for a girl, but not immensely so.
Saying that, on the Barcelona metro, in Winter (when there are less tall Europeans around), I feel like a model. I mean, long and tall and elegant. Come Summer and I realize my height is not something that sets me apart from the world as a whole, just from the Catalans.

And yes, shortness annoys me.
More to the point, shortness, when it is walking in front of me, having exited a shop without looking around and having found itself directly in front of me, in blissful unawareness, taking it’s sweet, short time, yes, it annoys me.

Onto point number two; they walk and do most things ridiculously slowly.
The walking is incredible.
Be it the abuelo y abuela walking hand in hand in front of you, which is cute, or a young couple, you will always be in a hurry to overtake them, unless you too have been infected by their snails pace. It is contagious you know, as is shortness.

Getting things done, anything, in this city is also tainted by their slowness.
Getting an internet connection set up in your home, waiting for your bank card to arrive, waiting for the check-out girl to get that price check…it is all intensely slow, and I just can’t be having with it. I really can’t.

Are they an attractive people?

No, not in my opinion.
People often come here and speak of all the beautiful people. Well yes, a lot of them are my friends. My boyfriend is beautiful, he’s Italian. Claire’s pretty, she’s Irish.
Laura is so cute, English.
Malina, Romanian/Canadian.
Get the picture?
It’s not the Catalans that are hotting up Barcelona, it’s the foreigners.

Catalan, as a language, is one of the ugliest languages I have had the joy to listen to. It is intensely harsh on the ears. They say it is a mix between French and Spanish. Wow, so it must be beautiful. No.
To my ears it is more like a mix between German and Spanish, with the beauty of neither.
I have known so few people who have wanted to learn Catalan, not least because the Catalan people don’t make it easy to learn. I am told that they generally don’t even seem to want people to learn Catalan, like they feel it is an elitist group, and they want it to stay that way.
I think if I were to plan to stay in Barcelona, yes, out of respect, I would learn Catalan. But not for my joy for the language.

Is the lack of Catalan as a language a barrier? Not hugely, but yet another point knocked off their score sheet is the ridiculous refusal to translate some things into Spanish, or Castillian. Catalan is their first language, and so, speaking in their tongue, and listening to music/TV/radio in their language is all well and good. But creating a museum based on Catalan history/art/what have you, and offering NO information in Spanish is just plain pig headedness. Museums are tourist driven, I don’t even ask for English translations, though of course, these are also necessary, but just Spanish translations? Please?And this is not a rare occurrence. Not just museums but train stations, universities, government run buildings and so forth.

So, they’re unattractive, short and rude. What else is there to say?
Well, I can say that never have I seen such a ‘nation’ of debilitated elderly people. My mother lives in Norway, and there it is common to see people of 70 still completely mobile and fit. And why not? Should it not be this way? Yes, but not in Catalonia.
And so I forewarn you, don’t believe this crap about the Mediterranean diet.
At least don’t apply it to Catalonia.

I am quite sure the reason for the almost utterly immobile 6o year olds, is the diet.
They have coffee and croissant for breakfast, a white bread roll filled with chorizo and a beer for lunch, and something laden with animal fat, and yet another few beers for dinner.

I stress here the amount of white flour they consume, and the amount of animal fat. It is not happy days in the colons of the Catalans. When in Barcelona, don’t do as the Catalans do, for the love of God, for the sake of your agility.

Am I an intensely negative person?
Possibly, though it’s more likely that I am just very easily annoyed.
But as it happens, a lot of people I meet don’t like Catalans, as a whole, either.
Hurrah! I’m not alone.

Is it all bad?
Not in the least! I enjoy feelings of annoyance, as it happens. I like a good rant, and the Catalans provide me the fuel to go on.

And hey, they’ve been hospitable enough to let me stay in their city for over a year know, so after 1,000 words on the negative aspects of the Catalan people, I’m wrapping it up here.