The Sardana, the traditional Catalan folk dance, is performed by everybody and anybody every Saturday morning in front of the Cathedral.
In Castilian, "pero" has the stress on the first syllable. In Catalan, it's on the second syllable: "però," just like in Italian.
Catalan is similar to Medieval French (Langue d'Oc"
. Texts in Catalan predate texts in Castilian by about a century. Anything directly Latin-related will be similar in Castilian and Catalan unless the Arabic expression is dominant in Castilian. Some words of the old Latin stayed on in use when the rest of the Latin languages moved on (i.e. the Spanish "comer"--to eat--is straight from the Latin "comere," whereas Catalan, French and Italian now use the vernacular mengiar, manger, and mangiare). In Castilian, to say "there aren't any," one just says, "no hay." In Catalan, you say "no en hi ha," more similar to the French "il n'y en a pas." In Castilian, to say that something has nothing to do with something else ("nothing to see" in the Romance languages), you say, "nada que ver con....," where the Catalan "res à veure amb....." is more similar to the French "rien à voir avec......" For "cheese," Spanish even uses the Gothic import word "queso," which is the similarly pronounced Käse in German. Catalan/French/Italian use the vernacular Latin "formatge/fromage,formaggio." Where "to find" in Castillian is either "hallar" or "encontrar," in Catalan/French/Italian, it's "trovar/trouver/trovare." In Catalan the unstressed "o" is pronounced like the English long "u," so the first syllable in Catalan is identical to the French.
The Castilian "es" is pronounced with a soft unvoiced "S" where the Catalan "és" uses a voiced "S," like our "Z." "Casa" is written the same, but in Catalan it is pronounced exactly like in Italian as if it were (in English) "caza."
etc etc........
That should prepare you for your next trip to the western Mediterranean!
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