To-do list in Barcelona

By now, it’s two weeks that I live in Barcelona. It’s the first time in my life that I temporarily live abroad and, at first, I was scared and excited at the same time just thinking about it. For years I have been thinking that I wasn’t strong enough to leave Italy, that being independent was a distant goal and stuff like that.

Now I know that it’s not true: I’m finding my place in this big city, I’m learning Spanish and I’m having my first intern at the same time. 

Barcelona attracted me from the beginning: it's a beautiful city, it really captures you: it’s multicultural, but with its own traditions (like Catalan), it’s big, but liveable, it’s full of people, but not suffocating.

Of course, there are some things that you have to put on your to-do list:

You have to get used to dine at 10 pm, when in your home country you dine at 8 pm, so you have to find tricks not to starve.

What time do people eat in Barcelona?

You have to understand that Italian and Spanish are not so similar: if you know Italian it does not mean that you know Spanish as well (final -s will definitely not save you).
You have to learn to use the metro, to discover the lines, to take the right direction: at first it will happen you to get lost, get over it.

Metro in Barcelona

You have to forget your beloved car – that’s especially for guys, but also for me, since I love driving: in such a big city, you need to move with public transports.
You have to fight with the language: forget about speaking English, here you have to learn Spanish, period. Actually, if you want to live here for a long time, you should learn Catalan as well, but for a short period Spanish is – luckily – enough.
You have to visit Park Guell, to get on Montjuic, to see Tibidabo, to hang on the Barceloneta and so on: stop saying “I have plenty of time”, up your ass and go.
You have to taste paella, tapas and sangria: Spanish cuisine is really good – even not as Italian one, of course ;)
You have to dance sardana at least one in your life.

Barcelona's typical dance

You have to party as only Spaniards can do.

There are a lot of things to do in this amazing city: I can't wait to do as many things as I can, in order to make my stay really special and fruitful.  

Carlotta