Lovely Barcelona

      Let me be the first to tell you that Barcelona is gorgeous! it has great food, a rich culture and beautiful architecture. I was there for one month living in an area called Sant vicenc dels Horts. Where I lived no one spoke English so I was able to live the life of a non-tourists.

      I had no idea that there were so many languages ​​in Spain other than Spanish. The primary language spoken in Barcelona is called Catalan. When I first saw the language It looked as if Spanish, French and Italian had a threesome and somehow produced a child and called it Catalan. 

                                                                                                             Expensive

     So I'll just let you know right now that Barcelona is expensive! Well it's less expensive than most places in the US but if you want to compare it to other places in Spain it is one of the most expensive places due to having so many tourists. However, the food is cheap but finding hotel accommodations can be costly. I think even some Airbnbs can be a bit expensive and the closer you get to the city center the more expensive it can be. This is why I lived outside the city center. 

                                                                                                            Language 

   

    There are a lot of political issues happening in Barcelona because many (not all) of the people from Barcelona want independence from Spain and because of this many people will speak to you only in Catalan and not Spanish. This was a bit frustrating because I wanted to practice my Spanish and this made it nearly impossible! luckily for me my friends helped me with this issue. They would only speak to me in Spanish. 

                                                                                                          Architecture 

     The architecture in Barcelona is stunningly beautiful! Each neighborhood has a different look. I felt like I was living in Narnia! One neighborhood can look normal while the next can look like you went back to medieval times! There are castles, ruins and the cathedrals are breathtaking! Here is a photo I took when I was in the Gothic Quarter.

                                                               

                                                                              

                                                                                                          The food

     The food is great! There are a lot of Mediterranean dishes with lots of seafood. I think you shouldn't be afraid to try dishes that you haven't seen before instead of eating the usual Paella and tapas (although these are good too!). They also smear tomatoes on bread and eat them for breakfast or for a snack. 

     If you like sandwiches they have a type of sandwich called a Bocadillo. It looks like a subway sandwich, but it doesn't have many things on it. Usually it has ham, tomato and/or cheese, but you can add more stuff if you like.

    One thing I didn't like were the salads. They don't use salad dressing like we do in the US and they put tuna on everything. If you don't like tuna let them know before they bring you your plate. Tell them "sin atún por favor". They use mostly olive oil and vinegar so don't expect them to have ranch or blue cheese. Also if you are shopping and want to buy salad dressing they call it Yogurt (just like yogurt). Also, if you like hamburgers just know they like to put eggs on them so if you don't like eggs on your burgers say "sin huevos por favor". 

                                                                   

    Well this is all I have to say for now about this lovely city. However, there's a lot more than what I listed. So If you are thinking about going to Barcelona and can fit it in your budget do it! You won't regret it I promise you! 

Until next time

Hasta luego!