Dealing with the change

Not one week passed yet, but I already miss Barcelona and my friends a lot....it is not like that, that I do not feel welcomed or lonely here...in fact I was really happy to see all my friends again...to eat at the cafeteria of my university again....I missed all that a lot when I was in Barcelona...the great food, the people, a hot shower or even heating...it's curious how these simple things come so important to you if you don't have them...but...I would never have thought that I will miss certain things...for example: It is strange, but I miss people talking Spanish on the streets...I just miss it...the sound of the language which became my favorite one. I mean I even thought in Spanish...I dreamed in Spanisch...and even when I wanted to talk in German, Spanish words came out...that is a really strange feeling...to miss a language...to miss the classes in Spanish..I am not actually missing the classes - well, some of them - but I miss being with my class mates, chatting, laughing....I mean they have spent half a year with me! Sharing many great experiences together, which I haven't shared with my friends in Germany...and nobody is here in my city who came back from Barcelona...they are now all over the world...it is just strange...I also miss the city, although I love my hometown. Barcelona is such a great city, with many sights, amazing architecture and so much more!! I just miss the city itself...and I also miss living together with my Spanish friends...it was so funny to cook together, laugh together...I miss my friends from Portugal, who always were sooooo happy and funny people!! I just hope that I will see all my friends soon...so that we can maybe chat about "the old times" ;-)

Goodbye Barcelona - Time of my life

So now it is offical and I can not avoid to think about it: I will leave on tuesday heading back to Germany! Five months!!!!! Where are they? At first I was so afraid of maybe not liking it, feeling lonely every day...and now I have to leave the city where I had the best time of my life!! It was not only an opportunity to get to know a new country, city and culture...it was about getting to know ME! And I have learned so much here! I learned how to take care of myself, away from my family and God knows that I was really afraid of being away from my family...I managed all the stuff from the university and the language...I have worked and studied hard...and I am proud of that! I am proud, that I found the balance! The balance between being a responsable student and enjoying the life here! Every day a new adventure, new people, new things...and I loved every minute of it!! I have met so many nice people here! Some of them became real friends to me and I know our bondage will stand the distance! Actually I would have thought to meet such great persons here!! I did not only meet people to go out and drink something, I really met people who I can trust and who I would love to see again! I am so grateful that I came here...I am grateful that also the people from and around Barcelona integrated me and were such good friends! I never felt alone, I always had someone who was there for me and showed me the city or gave me good advice....I can hardly describe what feelings I have for that country, city and for the people...I know thats sounds stupid, but I opened my heart for this new thing and for this city and I got back sooooo much....

I just had THE  time of my life...five incredible fantastic months...I enjoyed every minute of it and would do it again and again! I can only recommend to do such a thing...and I loved Barcelona...when I leave on tuesday...it will hurt...because Barcelona is now my second home...and the day I will come back here, it will feel like coming home....

THANKS TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS HERE! YOU WERE AMAZING AND NEVER WILL BE FORGOTTEN!

Special thanks to

•  my country "fellow" I have met here ;-) : Franziska, I have met you so late but the last weeks were soooo amazing! Thank you very much for seeing all that fantastic stuff and being such a good friend :-) 
• my flatmates Anna, Maria and Ariana: Thank you for being there for me and for being such good friends! I really like you all a lot and really gonna miss our life together!!!
• my university companions :-) Claudia, Mariana, Jessica and Luca: You are so nice persons and I loved to hang out with you all! I really hope that we will see each other again soon!!

Guide for Barcelona Part 3: Transportation System

Barcelona has a good developed system of public transportation. The most important means of transportation is the metro. Normally you can use it from 5 a.m. to 24 p.m, until 2 a.m. on fridays and saturdays and on days of public holidays it is working the whole night! It is the fastest option to travel and you can reach nearly every part of Barcelona with the metro. They are different tickets you can use depending on how long you will stay and how much you want to use public transportation. In general you can buy the tickets in every metro station and with your metro ticket you can also use the bus and train lines. But there are some things you have to consider before buying a ticket.

For students, who will stay one semester or more, I can recommend the travel card T-Jove which costs 115,00 € for one zone and is valid for 90 days from the first validation. A monthly ticket T-Mes costs 49,30 € and is also a good choice for students, who do want to risk to loose there tickets and loose more than 100 €. For those who do not want to travel so much with the metro because they are using bike or a vespa, I can recommend the T-50/30 ticket. It means that you can travel 50 times during one month, which was totally sufficient for me the first month. For visitors, who would like to stay not longer than a weekend, you might consider to buy the T-10 ticket, with which you have ten journeys and which is absolutely sufficient to discover the city and costs 7,95 €.

With all those mentioned tickets you can also use the bus and train lines in the first zone. For those who like to use the bus instead the metro: there is an overview about all the buslines and timetables on every busstation! But be careful! Buses are often very crowded and moreover they are not always arriving on the expected time! So consider this, when you want to use the bus! Moreover, during the day they need much more time to get to the next station because of all the traffic and the traffic lights! But during the night, the Nit-buses are often the only way to get home after you drank or eat something in a bar or visited a friend! The number of the night bus and it's stations is marked on every busstation with the colour blue. Nearly all the night buses come together at the Plaza Catalunya from where you can change the night bus to get to your home.

But whatever way of public transportation you prefer, take care of your stuff! The public transportation system is one of the most dangerous locations to loose your belongings, although there is the police controlling the services. So watch your bags!

For more information you should visit the website of the TMB of Barcelona: http://www.tmb.cat/ which includes all the information about tickets, timetables, lines and also alterations.

Guide for Barcelona Part 2: Where to live in Barcelona??

I started very soon searching for rooms in Barcelona and I can definitely recommend the following pages to search for rooms: http://www.loquo.com/ and http://www.idealista.com/! But you should also look on facebook because there are also great advertisements of student who search for roommates. (alquilo habitación /busco piso – pisos compartidos en Barcelona → I found my room on this site on facebook). Although they say that you could come to Barcelona without having any place to stay...it is NOT that easy! I have a lot of friends, who did it like this but they were only changing their hostels and searching for rooms and not having a place to stay! So I would recommend it to search before you get here!

Barcelona is an expensive city. But not so expensive that you are not able to find a room for less than 300 € per month! My two rooms that I had in Barcelona cost 270/280 € per month, located in Gracia. The first was a 9m² room with a big bed and closet and was located right next to the Park Güell.The second one was a very big room (16m²) close to the metro station Fontana. So you see that it is possible to find rooms at an acceptable price! If you are searching on the internet, you should definitely search for rooms with pictures, because the Spanish habitants have another way of define „big“ and „sunny“ than we do! There are three different types of rooms: without window, window to a patio (interior) and window to a street (exterior). I would not rent a room without windows, because it is just strange and you will need more electricity and will not feel comfortable. A room „interior“ has the advantage to be quiet, but my experience is, that it also could mean that you have a small window to a very small patio in the middle of a house where they put their clothes. I would definitely prefer a room „exterior“!

There are different parts of Barcelona where it is good to live and not recommendable to live! My favorite parts are Gracia and Eixample! Gracia has a very beautiful neighbourhood with lots of alternative people and great bars and cafes! I lived there and I really loved it! It has everything you need, is very well communicated and the people are very nice and friendly! Eixample is right next to Gracia in the south and is more expensive but also more elegant. It is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Barcelona and lots of the sightseeing spots are located in this part of Barcelona. Les Corts are good for those, who will study at the UB (Universitat de Barcelona) and do not want to live far away from the university. For women I recommend not to live in Raval o Barri Gotic. Of course, there are always advantages and disadvantages of every part of Barcelona!

Guide for Barcelona Part 1: How to get to Barcelona :-D

As my stay here in Barcelona is going to end, I now want to give a few hints to those, who would like to study or live or visit Barcelona! :-) I hope it will be useful for you!

I can recommend you to start as soon as you can to plan your trip/semester/year in Barcelona because it is an expensive city, but you can avoid extra cost through good organization! To get to Barcelona you should use the airport close to Barcelona – Barcelona, El Prat. It is 30 minutes outside of Barcelona and the best way to get to the city. You can also use the airport of Girona, a city which is around two hours away from Barcelona.

I booked my flight on the internet page http://www.fluege.com/ which I can recommend to all the German speaking students, but the website http://www.fly.com/ also offers very cheap flights! It is all about searching a little and you should definitely do it! I can recommend this both sides, but there are still special offers and prices on other websites! So search for it! And do not book your flights separately! Normally it is cheaper to book the combination for getting there and return, than to book only one flight and then – later – the other. And how longer you stay, the cheaper you get the flights! Some of the companies offering a service which is called „Ticket Flex“ or something like this. It costs around 8,00 Euro and when you use this service, you can change your flight for free. I can strongly recommend it, because especially when you do not know when you exams are or if you do not know, how long excactly you want to stay, you can change the date of your flight for free.

Since you get to Barcelona, there is a cheap and very easy way to get to the center of Barcelona: the áerobus. It is a shuttle which transfers the people from the two terminals to the Plaza Catalunya and one tour costs around 5 Euros. After 30 minutes you arrive there (there are other stations like Plaza Espana) and then you can take a cab to your hostel or room (which I recommend to you if you are new to Barcelona and have a heavy suitcase!), they are right in front of the station of the bus. Of course you can also take the metro (Line 1, 3, 6, 7 and connection to the train Renfe).