Hyperaware

While we were staying in Tarragona, we didn’t have to be totally on guard all of the time with regards to safety and awareness of our surroundings. It was a pretty safe place for a medium sized European city, and it was unlikely that any of us would run into any issues. A few of the students on my trip were careless and forgot or misplaced valuable items such as wallets or ID cards, and most of them were safely returned. However, Barcelona is another story. This city of 1.6 million inhabitants is known to be rife with pick-pocketers, and we were told many a time to be hyperaware of everyone around us, especially in tourist areas. In fact, when we were unloading our suitcases from our bus that brought us from Tarragona, our bus driver told us all to not take our eyes off of them, because anyone on the street in front of our hostel could easily grab one and take off with it. This was an alarming but realistic introduction to our new city, and we all immediately realized how careful we needed to be while in Barcelona.

The precautions one should take to maximize their level of safety in an unfamiliar city vary from person to person. I carried a crossbody purse when I was there, since that is harder to remove than an over the shoulder bag, and I kept one hand on my bag whenever possible. I also would take a quick look around me whenever I reached into my bag, especially to take cash out, and I closed the bag very quickly. Besides this, I would also recommend that you avoid using your phone while out on the streets, as this labels you as a target worth robbing and makes you more vulnerable. I got a watch for this trip so that I would not need to use my phone to tell the time. Otherwise, you learn to always keep your guard up when exploring the city, and after a few days in a potentially dangerous place you will naturally develop some street smarts.

The best traveler secrets I would say really depend on the location. Any chance we got, we talked to the locals we were connected with through our host university to ask them what their favorite restaurant or thing to do in Tarragona was. You end up exploring your respective city a lot more deeply this way, and you get a little insight from the point of view of a local as opposed to a tourist. We asked a lot of people for restaurant recommendations and ending up eating some amazing (albeit expensive) food. I would also suggest walking somewhere if possible rather than taking some other form of transportation all of the time. You see a city much more intimately when you walk through its streets, and you may even find a treasure somewhere that not many others have found.