First Impressions in Barcelona

February 23, 2017

One week into staying in a new city, all I’ve done is take in the different sights and sounds. Barcelona is a lot different to where I’m from or even Boston and it is interesting to see all the differences. Our first week was entirely relocation and settling in ie. Learning how the city works, public transport, communication with locals, visiting tourist sights, walking tours and more.

Barcelona is so well connected, which makes traveling across the city very convenient! The easier it is, the more motivated we are to go around and see new places! Despite being such a metropolitan city, it has a fine balance of culture, history, nature as well as city life. When I walk around, I truly appreciate the pride people take in their culture and their will to preserve it despite development. People here are very friendly too; you can tell they are very used to tourists coming into cafés and trying to speak Spanish and so it is not uncommon for them to automatically switch to broken English which is likely better than our broken Spanish!

Coming a week before classes started was a great help since it gave us time to settle down, adjust to our new living arrangements, learn how to get around the city and seeing sights within Barcelona to learn more about the city we live in. All of this was part of orientation, which made it a much better alternative to sitting in a classroom watching presentation after presentation. One of my favourite things about orientation was our walking tour around the Gothic quarter where we walked through quaint, pretty streets with small shops and bakeries. Another was our trip to Montjuic, a hill in Barcelona. We visited the castle and then the Olympic stadium which was constructed for the 1992 Olympic games. An aspect of Barcelona that amazes me the most is how different the architecture is within the city and its neighbourhoods; two buildings next to each other in the same neighbourhood could have completely different architectural styles and design. Seeing such diversity in just one city, I’m excited to see what the rest of the country has to offer and how different the design and architecture will be!

Written By

Mitali Mirle

I am originally from India, born and raised in Dubai UAE. I am studying Environmental Science with a minor in psychology and Spanish. I chose to study abroad because I wanted to experience a new culture, travel to new places and in the process, improve my Spanish. While some people speak English here in Barcelona, the preferred language is definitely Spanish, therefore if I want to communicate with others, I am forced to speak the language, which will help me improve my conversational Spanish. While abroad, I hope to use Barcelona as a gateway to rest of Europe, say yes to almost all opportunities, try new things, eat new types of food and witness and be a part of new traditions and customs of Spain. I would like to come back and share my experiences with others like me who also want to travel the world and see the world from different perspectives.