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!