Lo siento

I'm sorry for not keeping you posted and sharing with you at least some details of my current life here in Barcelona.
Since almost 2 months I already live here in Barcelona. Already? Only? I'm confused myself and don't know whether I should be happy about not even recognizing how fast time goes by or rather being sad about it.

A lot has happened in the last couples of weeks.
I guess the latest news comes first: On May 1st. I''m moving out of my old flat and into another shared apartment, 2 blocks away from Sagrada Familia, 3 other girls (France, Peru, Germany) all my age and well, I'm curious how it's gonna work out :)
I'm considering to move out since quite a time, because the actual situation is/was just not what I expected and how I imagine living in Barcelona and I don't want my (not so good) "shared-flat-experience" affecting my time here in Barca. The reasons I move out, actually are not as grave as some might think, but there are many little reasons, acumulated resulting in a state in which I'm not as happy as, I think, I could be. Still, it wasn't an easy decision, with pros and cons on both sides. But in the end I made a decision and I will see how it will turn out.

The next nice fact of april was, that my dad and his girlfriend came to Barcelona to visit me.
Unfortunately, during the week I had to work 'til 6/7pm but we always met for dinner and had a great time.
Friday evening, we went to a classic spanish guitar concert en el Palau de la Musica. What is a excessivelly overloaded concert hall in which the 4 guitarists looked slightly lost. But the music was wonderful and seeing 4 people playing "Bolero" on one guitar was sth. I've never seen bevore.

Saturday we went up all the way to the top of Montjuic, Barcelonas most famous hill.
From there you have a gorgeous view of the harbor and surroundings of Barcelona. ( I even could see the snow covered mountain peaks of the Pyrenees) On your way down you are passing by the Olympic Stadion and last but not least, the impressive Palau Nacional, which houses the National Art Museum.

Estadi Olimpíc

Palau Nacional

Spontaneous as we are, Saturday late afternoon, we decided to take the car (yes they took the car and did a little roadtrip, Germany-France-Barcelona)
and go to Sitges, a "little" town appr. 40km out of Barcelona.
I expected sth like a sleepy fishing village, but it turned out to be as touristic as, I guess, every place at the costa brava.

So we just strolled along the beach, ate ice cream and when it got cold we went back to big Barcelona.

stone coast

 1. mediterranean steps

Pascua en Madrid

Is there a better way to spend the long Easter Weekend but to visit Spains capital: Madrid?
Nope :)
Comparing all the options how to get to Madrid I came to the conclusion that taking the plane (oneway) would be the cheapest and fastest one: ~ 50€
Leaving Barcelona at 11 am, 23° ... arriving in Madrid: shower and 11°. I better should have missed my flight.
Luckily a few days before we left, we found a guy, Carlos, on couchsurfing.com who offered to host us for the entire 3 days.
For the ones who don't know what couchsurfing is:
It's a network for travelers, where you can send "couchrequests" if you go somewhere and need a place to stay. In return you offer your couch for free to other travelers.
And when you are lucky, you get free acommodation and meet cool local people who can show you around.
That's how lucky we were :)

So we spent the next 3 days in Madrid.
Madrid is quite nice and the center can easily be explored walking. The old town's a maze of many tiny crooked streets hidden behind grandiose historical building and cathedrals.
Cafés and tapas bars everywhere.
The challenge of the weekend was to fight the growing lack of sleep and force ourselves to get up and do, at least some sightseeing...which can be hard if you spend all night dancing and clubbing until 7am!

Parque del Rito

Saturday was by far the best and sunniest day and after doing some sightseeing: Puerta del Sol, Plaza España, Palacio Real y Almudena Catedral, we made use of the good weather, bought bread, salmon and guacamole and had picnic in el Parque del Retiro.

Picnic

Linda and our 2 hosts Carlos y Chimo

Strolling around and enjoying the relaxed spanish way of life, this is how we spent the rest of the day.
Coming back to Carlos place, hungry and tired, they were already awaiting us, to go out and celebrate Carlos Birthday, which was Sunday.
Well, that's what we did...it was a fun night, although Linda can't  remember it anymore.
Dinner, the spanish way, at 11:30pm.

Huevos rotos, Tapas

Sunday we slept in til 1pm, but didn't miss a thing. 
It was pouring buckets :(
But nevertheless we managed to pull ourselves together and made it to El Museo de la Reina Sofia, where one of Picassos most famous pictures " Guernica" is exhibited. Picasso painted it in response to the bombing of Guernica, a small village in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes. 3.5 meters tall and 7.8 meters wide, standing in front of it, it's impressive and depressing at the same time. It shows the tragedies of war and the suffering of particularly innocent civilians. 

Valencia y las Fallas

The Fallas are one of the biggest fiestas in this area and are actually held in commemoration of Sant Josep, but nowadays it's a huge party going on from the 15th-19th of march and attracts half of spains population (seems like) and some lonely tourists. Each neighbourhood of the city has an organized group of people, who don't do anything during the year besides working on a enormous construction (up to 5-6m) which is eventually burnt on the last day of las Fallas. My room mate told me about this event and that it's absolutely worth going. 
So I decided, spontenously to buy tickets to go to Valencia. Didn't know with whom or where to sleep (of course all hostel were booked weeks ago^^) but I knew that I'll spend this weekend in Valencia...at least I could check this off my list :)
Only days before I went to Valencia, I got to know a nice girl, from Canada, who just moved to V, to work as an Au Pair and also didn't know anybody. So we decided to meet in V. and spend the weekend together...and we got along perfectly and since her host family went away for the weekend, I could also stay at her house! Sweet :)


I didn't know what exactly to expect, but I didn't expect this mass of people.
First thought that comes to my mind when I step out of the train: how to find a girl in this city who I've never met before!!??...it wouldn't have been as hard as it was, if her phone didn't go off just right before she arrived at our meeting point. I couldn't reach her, waited for nearly an hour and decided then to just explore the city by myself....and trying to ignore this nagging thought of "where am I going to sleep tonight, if I'll not find Linda -.-  
While I was waiting for her, I started asking random girls (who looked remotly like her) if their name is Linda. So I asked: " Eres Linda?" and after a while it dawned on me why all the girls looked at me like I am crazy: lindo/a in spanish means sth like pretty, cute... :D 
2 hours later, Linda called (from a strangers phone) and we finally met!

In every street there are people...EVERYWHERE and we barely can't get through. In every corner of the city, those giant constructions are set up and tons of people standing, staring and taking pics of them. Although I have no idea what's the reason, one essential part of las fallas are fireworks, no matter what kind, as long as it's loud.
Every day during las fallas there are 2 big public fireworks at 2pm and 1am, which explode in a choreography, but actually it's just loud. And since the streets in the center of the city are really narrow, the sound and noise get boosted even more and you can feel the vibrations of the explosions going through your body. (in the beginning I thought, this is how war must sound like...) 

Saturday we spent the entire day walking around the city, admiring all the big figures and awesome dresses and costumes of the fallas groups and trying not to loose each other in this crowd. Fireworks at 1am, party, in bed at 5am. The next day we are back in the streets of Valencia by 11....the party is still going on. Tons of people, music and the smell of deep fried Churros.

seriously - it was crowded

las fallas drum group

But today we want to escape this rush and stroll down to the Valencias famous Science Museum, which looks cool and strange at the same time.

Bienvenido...

...a BARCELONA

Finally I'm here, in one of the most awesome cities Europe has to offer.
Can't wait to explore, get to know new people, places, la cultura y más importante: learn spanish!

1. Fin de Semana (weekend)

To check-in online was no help at all, cause the queue of the germanwings counter at 6am was endless. When it was nearly time for boarding and I was close to freakout, one nice assistante called for passengers flying to Barcelona and we were allowed to skip the queue.

Flying to Barcelona and finding my new home was quite easy. The new neighborhood is clean and quiet.
My room mates are simply awesome:
Katja: german, 30years, lives in Barca since 5 years
Alejandro: peruvian, 30years, lives in Barca since 7 years
They're really helpful, show me around, explain everything to me AND  the best thing: cook for me! :)

The flat is small but neat. Got everything you need (incl. whirlpool) Except that the window of the living room is broken that way its always quite chilliy inside. But I'm positive that it won't last longer than 2-3 more weeks that the temperatures will go up...and I don't need 3 blankets to sleep with anymore^^

Lunch: Tapas
Against the cold: dancing lessons (salsa, merengue and bachata) in the living room for more than 2 hours.
And since Iam almost a pro now in latino-dances Alejandro wants to take me out at the same night, after work...at 2am! (That's when they usually go out) But I need to refuse because I'm just too tired. But I promise to join the next day...

....What I did! Staying awake until 1am is not as easy as I thought, especially if you don't have any entertainment but listening to salsa-latino-music to get into the mood.

So we went out at 2am and ended up in a typical latin-club where only locals go to...and I. :)
And if I have learned something that night than it's the word: la cadera - hip. And that I will never be able to move it like the chicas latinas :(



Lazy - Sunny - Sunday

Sleep in til 3pm! Went downtown to have some coffee with my roommate, went back, dinner, movie

Impresiónes de Barcelona

My internship in Barcelona

I was close to accept the fact that I'll never find an internship in Spain or South-America. But this is what I wanted so badly to improve my spanish speaking skills.
And finally...everything went so quickly. I had a telephone interview with Corinna, my future mentor and after our talk I knew that I will spend the next 6 months in Spain :)

Despite all the exams I had to write in January/February I had to organize everything from finding someone who will move into my room in Karlsruhe for the next 6 month to finding a new room in Barcelona, flight, insurance and much more.
But somehow, everything worked out and pretty soon it was February the 12th and I was ready for take off :)

Adios amigos y Alemanía