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In mid-July a family member (FM) and I flew to Barcelona and began our month-long sojourn in Catalonia region of Spain (see circled area in map below). The FM was there for work and I was there to experiment with short-term living in a foreign city.
In this post, I am documenting some of the ordinary things we did and a few tips that I picked up from our sojourn. Since I only know basic Spanish, every day we lived in Spain was an adventure.
Lodgings
We chose to stay in three locations: Barcelona, Sitges and Badalona. Sitges is about 35 km south west of Barcelona. Badalona is about 10 km north east of Barcelona. We spent ten days at each location. This gave us a flavour of three different neighbourhoods.
The first two lodgings were extended stay hotels and the last one was a bed and breakfast. We walked while we were at each location and used public transport to move from one location to another.
TIP #1: Since we knew it would be hot in July in Spain and some hotels in Europe do not have air conditioning, we specifically booked rooms with air conditioning and a mini fridge. The mini fridge was a great cost saver as we stocked up on our choice of beverages.
Using Public Transport
Barcelona has an extensive subway network (Metro) and a regional rail network. For new users, the two networks may seem complicated and intimidating. I have used many public transport systems during my travels and felt comfortable with taking:
- Airport express bus and Metro from Barcelona El Prat airport to our first hotel.
- Metro and regional train from Barcelona to Sitges.
- Regional train and Metro from Sitges to Badalona.
- Metro and Airport express bus from Badalona to Barcelona El Prat airport.
The buses, subway trains and regional trains were clean and air-conditioned. I bought tickets on the day of travel from self-serve ticket machines or staffed ticket counter at the station. Some stations have self-serve machines only.
TIP #2: The self-serve ticket machine provides English language option, however, there are several types of tickets so it takes some navigating to get to the single ride ticket option (hidden behind the Reload button).
TIP #3: Bring a small amount of cash (euro) in the event the credit card option does not work at the ticket machine. This happened to me only once in the entire month but I was glad to have cash on hand to buy our tickets and the ticket machine gave change!
Grocery Shopping and Eating Out
I did light grocery shopping for breakfast items, drinks and fresh fruits at Mercadona (a supermarket chain), Dia and Condi (smaller grocery stores). At our third lodging, breakfasts were included.
In grocery stores, there’s a very small selection of breakfast cereals and a lot more ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk in sterilized containers (tetra pak) than refrigerated fresh milk.
For lunch and dinner, we enjoyed a variety of cuisines, such as Spanish, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai and Mexican, to name a few. I found lunches and dinners were less expensive in Barcelona, Sitges and Badalona than in Toronto.
Menus are in Catalan and Spanish. Some restaurants had menus with pictures or an English menu. About 65% of the servers did not speak English.
TIP #4: It is useful to know some food terminology in Spanish to read menus and place food orders.
Doing Laundry
We travelled light with one carry-on and one backpack each. Therefore laundry is necessary during our month-long sojourn. The first and third lodgings included free use of their laundry machines and clotheslines. The second hotel charged per item so I used a self-serve laundromat. Detergent was provided.
TIP #5: Choose the right washing machine weight-wise and the right drying time for the laundry load as costs vary. Also choose unscented or scented dryer.
Conclusion
I am thankful to have the chance to live abroad for a month. I am glad that we lived in three locations. I like Sitges the most. It is a compact, walkable and attractive coastal town with relaxing vibes. It is also more affordable and less crowded than Barcelona.
I will end this post with photos of a real sunset and a sunset mural for the Public Art photo challenge.
Comments? Questions?
All are welcome to join the Weekend Coffee Share link-up by leaving me a comment with the URL to your coffee share or public art blog post. Have a beautiful weekend!
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