Núria Ferrer

I grew up above a bakery on Carrer de Verdi in Gràcia, and I still live three streets from it. My grandmother ran the bakery until 2004, which is why I know every neighbour who ever bought a barra there and most of their gossip. I studied tourism in Girona, worked two summers at a hotel reception on the Rambla and hated it, then started taking friends of friends around my own barri. That was eight years ago. What I show people is ordinary Barcelona: the squares where kids play football until eleven at night, the vermut bars that fill up at noon on Sundays, the market stall that sells salt cod in six different cuts. I speak Catalan at home, Spanish everywhere else, and English and French on tours. If you come in August, ask me about the Festa Major de Gràcia, when every street builds its own decorations out of plastic bottles and egg cartons. I will probably be on a ladder somewhere helping. I now guide live on video from Barcelona, with my phone as the camera and time for your questions all the way through.