BEACHES IN BARCELONA A big attraction of moving to Barcelona is that it has 9 beaches in total that belong directly to the city. Starting from the most southern they are:   Sant Sebastia Beach Sant Miguel Beach Somorrostro Beach La Barceloneta Nova Icaria Bogatell La Mar Bella Llevant Beach   Let´s have a quick look at the most popular ones : La Barceloneta : One of the most central beaches in Barcelona is La Barceloneta, with the closest metro line being La Barceloneta (L4). Barceloneta is the busiest [...]

BARS IN BARCELONA As with any other aspect of nightlife in Barcelona, bars are abundant all over the city, and range from Spanish, to Brazilian, to Irish and American, and basically any other country imaginable! You never have to look too far to find outdoor cafés, wine bars, cocktails bars (referred to as coctelerias), beer halls, xampanyerias (the common Catalan cava/sparkling wine bars), and best of all the beach bars during the hot summer months. Most of the establishments usually open (or at least become busy) from around 10 PM, [...]

LIVING IN BARCELONA “What is it like living in Barcelona?” If you already live here or you are planning to move – you will hear this questions many times form family and friends back home and around the world. We can't speak for everybody, but we can give you our answer to this question and why we once came to Barcelona and decided to stay here. Barcelona is a very unique, colorful, international and lively city. The word “bored” probably shouldn’t exist in the dictionary of the people living here. If you [...]

BARCELONA MAPS Barcelona is a pretty easy city to navigate - especially the central part around the L´Eixample neighborhood famous for its square blocks of buildings, and a network of vertical and horizontal streets. Another very helpful method to orientate yourself, is by using the sea and the mountain (or Tibidabo) and the slight slope of the city. In other words when you walk somewhere and need orientation you should just check where is the mountain and where is the sea (how the slope is orientated). But of course [...]

SPANISH PHONE OPERATORS Telephone and Mobile services in Spain are quite good in comparison to most European countries. The fact that the annual World Mobile Congress is held in Barcelona gives evidence of this, since more and more people from across the globe attend this event every year. Telefonica is the the national provider of landline telephone and mobile services.  Internet services however can be obtained from other providers, but the landline itself will still be installed and maintained by Telefonica. Since it is an ex-state service which claims [...]

SPANISH CUSTOMS Every new-comer to Spain gets some cultural shock – it is inevitable. I guess depending from where you come from it is a different thing that  culture “shocks” you more. For me it was the kisses for hello. I am coming from a country where we shake hands. You kiss only close friends who you haven´t seen for a long time. So the first couple of months I had the awkward situation when I was giving my hand and the person was leaning towards me. The result [...]

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATALUNYA AND SPAIN When I first came to Barcelona in 2006, I had (like so many others) the incorrect idealistic idea of Flamenco, bull-rings, sangria, paella and siestas. In fact, I did not even know about Catalunya, and that it had it´s own culture and language! Fortunately, however, I was very quickly surprised and pleasantly so, since what I experienced was a culture entirely unique and very proud of its history, its heritage and most importantly its language. As anyone who has done a bit of traveling [...]

STAYING SAFE IN BARCELONA Generally speaking, Barcelona is a pretty safe place to live.  Of course, as with any other major city, there are areas that you might want to avoid just to be safe.  It goes without saying that one always needs to stay alert of his/her belongings, and to use some good old common sense when it comes to being out and about in the city. As most people know, Barcelona has become infamous for its pick-pockets and other scam artists who make a living out of [...]

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN BARCELONA One of the biggest considerations for families relocating to Barcelona as expats, is to determine where their children will go to school.  Will they attend public, private, or semi-private schools?  Will they attend secular or Catholic school? Careful consideration has to be given to all the factors, such as the children´s ages, your budget, your preferred teaching language, and obviously you´ll need to consider how long you intend to stay in Barcelona. Of course every family has different circumstances and situations.  Generally speaking, expats who [...]

TRANSPORTATION IN BARCELONA As you may expect from a city such as Barcelona, there is an abundance of ways to get around, and is generally very user-friendly whether you are coming as a tourist, or moving to Barcelona. Let´s start with getting to the city after you´ve just landed : The quickest and easiest way is (as with most other cities) to take a taxi. Taxis in Barcelona can easily be identified by their black-and-yellow color combination, and can be found right outside the terminal building at Barcelona [...]