Barcelona : The Beginning of the Journey
I have been in Spain for almost two weeks now. I travelled
to Costa Brava for 2 days. Did scuba diving for the first time in my life. It was
a great experience. Then I went Ibiza for 3 days. Enjoyed the beautiful beach
over there and partied hard. Next was Malaga for 2 days. It was very beautiful
city and a lot more peaceful city than Ibiza.
Then finally I was
in Barcelona to start my month long study abroad. As soon as I entered the city
I loved its architecture. Before coming I thought it would be similar to the
other big cities in United States with tall, monotonous buildings of cement and
glass. But Barcelona is completely different, the building cannot be taller the
!70 meters, the height of Sagrada Famalia. The architecture over here is
inspired by the Modernista views and some gothic architecture from the roman
empire. It makes the city more interesting and beautiful than the same tall
glass buildings in Chicago, Ney York city or any other metropolis in USA. I have
visited many places in Barcelona and loved the city so far the beaches, clubs
and the restaurants.
This is my third visit to a Spanish speaking country
after Colombia and Peru and I am familiar with the spanish culture and also
this time my Spanish is good enough to carry some sort of conversation. It helped
to blend in the very quickly but still there are things that are a lot
different here.
The restaurants usually have only 2-3 servers and the
service is bit slower. People over here take quite a time here to eat so don’t get
frustrated if your order doesn’t come for a long time or think the servers are
not paying attention. Also remember to ask for the bill, on my first visit to a
restaurant I was talking to my friends for 30 minutes after the table was cleared
before realizing that I need to actually ask the server for the bill to be
brought to the table, not like US where they just bring it as fast as they can so they get new customers for their tips, which is not the case here as servers are full time and you don't need to tip them.
The utilities over here are expensive and scarce so
use it judiciously. During the first week of travel when I lived in the
hostels. Everyone had motion sensor lights and it would shut if I took too long
in the shower. And few of the hostels had push tap showers so the water would
stop running after one minutes which was annoying as I had to press it many
times. But it achieved the goal of saving water because my shower time was
drastically cut.
To travel in the city I would suggest to use the metro
and the bus. It’s the cheapest mode of transport. It might be difficult to
navigate at first but would save a lot pf time in the long run. Also make sure
even if you are on the right metro line, make sure that you are taking metro to
the right direction or you might end up very far from where you actually want
to be.
The first 2 weeks have been a great experience and I am
looking forward the upcoming weeks to enjoy more of the culture and beauty of Barcelona.
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