Moving to Barcelona [Spain]

[Comosicus]

Hi everyone,

I'm moving to Barcelona at the end of the month to start my new job and I was curious about any fellow forumists that live there. It would be nice to meet someone in person.

Cheers.

[Shozo Irie]

Hi Comosicus,

One question, are you going to Barcelona, the capital city of Catalonia, spain.
Or are you going to Barcelona, the capital city of Anzoátegui State in Venezuela.

Beacause if it's the first one I live here, but if it's the second one I had to tell you that my teleport powers aren't working properly in these days.

Jokes aside: If you need a guide to find the best places to buy comics, manga, videogames and other basic things to survive in this world like.... water? call me.

[Comosicus]

My bad for not being specific enough. I must confess I did not know there is another Barcelona but the one in Spain. So yes, I am coming to Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

I am arriving there on 2 October and I hope to remain for a long time. My priority at the moment is to find a place to live for the next 6 months, for the duration of my probation period at my new job. I think I would choose first a room in a shared apartment, as they are more affordable and I do not need more space for the moment. After 6 months, when my wife will come too, I plan to find an apartment to rent.

For now I am hunting renting offers over the internet. If you have any suggestions/recommendations, they are welcome. At the very least I promise to buy you a drink (if you're old enough)

Nevertheless, once I get settled, I look forward to meet anyone in person.

[SLAMU]

Note to self; when I finally go back to Europe, make sure to detour to Barcelonia and say "Hi".

What sort of job, by the way?

[Comosicus]

I got a position of (Front End) Web Developer at ISS iMedia. XHTML, CSS, Javascript ... all the goodies that make a website look good.

[serbii]

Good luck with your new job and enjoy Spain!
May I someday crash on your couch :D

[doc.exe]

Good luck with your new job!

[Shozo Irie]

Sorry, I've been searching a little, but I couldn't find anything. Maybe with a little more info.
Is there an specifc zone of the city you want to live?
How much you want to pay?
m2?

Sorry for the limited help, and good luck with the new job.

[Comosicus]

I've booked lodging in the Old City, close to the Museo Maritimo. Here is the website of the apartment. http://www.barcelonaapart.com/. I wanted to have something secured for my arrival. As I do not speak Spanish at all, I did not want to risk looking on my own through the classifieds and nothing the agencies offered appealed to me.

I'll be arriving there on Saturday, 2nd October, in the evening. I don't have plans for Sunday yet.

[Shozo Irie]

Ok, sorry since I work on the weekends I can't help you as a guide, but here are my recomendations: Check the thermometer before going to the street, these days the temperature are in an state of flux... and well I'm a little ashamed to say this about my city, but please be a little aware in the crowded areas, the favorite prey of the pickpockets are the foreigners who doesn't speak spanish or Catalonian.

If you're looking something to do on Sunday these are my two recomendations:

MNAC (National Museum Art of Catalonia). A good museum, and the best part is that the first sunday of each month is free. And next to it you have Montjuic, wich is a good place to walk and to breathe fresh air.

http://www.mnac.cat/visitamuseu/vis_adreca.jsp?lan=003

Also you can visit "el Mercat de San Antoni" (St. Antoni's Market). Only in the sundays (mornings) you can find that the street market is full of comics, manga, videogames, old books,...

http://barcelona.salir.com/mercat_de_sant_antoni

[Comosicus]

Thanks Shozo,

I did read about the pickpocket problem and I know that I need to be on my guard.

I think that the first thing I need to take care of will be to get myself a Spanish mobile number. Most probably I'll start with a pre-paid card and I might need to buy a phone too. Or see if I can unlock my current phone and fix the few faulty keys it has (namely the scroll and action buttons I used to read FF.net stuff on my mobile ).

[Tempest Kitsune]

My personal favorite way of keeping pickpockets out of mine when abroad is fairly simple. Keep your wallet in one of your front pockets, and you hands in them.

[Comosicus]

I finally arrived late last night. First, the plane got delayed for more than an hour. Then, after take-off, we are announced that we'll do a stop in another city "for refueling". It seems they did not have enough fuel at the starting airport. So all-in-all we took off to Barcelona with more than two hours delay.

We landed after 9PM local hour. And damn, but Barcelona is a hell of a look from air at night. For me, in my first long distance flight, it was a sight to remember.

Now I have to unpack, then prepare for a little exploration.

Cheers!

[SLAMU]

An aircraft lifting off without enough fuel would make me rather nervous, you know?

[Aldraia Dragonsong]

I offer sympathy for your plight, Comosicus. Sympathy and cookies.

[Comosicus]

An aircraft lifting off without enough fuel would make me rather nervous, you know?

On the other hand the fireball on crash would be a lot smaller, don't you think?

[SLAMU]

So not only are you getting an aircraft that may roun out of gas before they, you'know, land, if and when you crash, you won't even get a decent pyre!

[Comosicus]

Here are my first impressions since arriving in Spain. I posted this on my Facebook profile, but it's not available for public viewing.

Spoiler: show

Two weeks ago I found out I was accepted as a web developer for a position in Barcelona. I was first contacted by Ania, the HR manager, in July, via LinkedIn. I submitted my resume without expecting much from it. Then at the start of September I got a call to schedule an interview. Several discussions later I received the official job offer.


Then came the frantic run to prepare for the relocation. I started looking online for information about moving to Barcelona. This website was a godsent - http://www.movingtobarcelona.com/. The owner, Georgia Davey, pot together everything one needs to know when moving to this large city.


One thing one needs to pay attention to is that in Barcelona rent is the main expense. The prices can be quite steep at times, depending on the location and of how good the flat looks. Also, one needs to be prepared with 4 months rent up-front, because the agency usually takes one month worth as commission and another two are usually required as deposit. There is also the cheaper solution of sharing an apartment with other persons, by renting a single room. There are a lot of places where you can find classifieds for rooms in shared apartments. I've seen the entire range of options, from a small closet of 3 square meters for 200 euro per month, to some very modern looking apartments, with top quality furnishing and facilities. From what I have heard, it is safer to go with an offer from an agency, even if it is more expensive, but you get some extra security, especially if you're trying to reserve the room from abroad. Still, it is worth to research the agency a bit too, look online for impressions people had. Usually the bad deals will have plenty of online warning about them.


Because I could not find anything suitable from the agencies, I decided to go with another option, that was recommended by Georgia on her website (see above). I contacted Ari Chazan, the owner of a nice apartment in the old city of Barcelona, very close both to the touristic harbor and the renown street La Rambla. The selling point that sealed the deal for me was that each room had its own bathroom, with sink, toilet and shower. For more details, you can check his website: http://www.barcelonaapart.com/.


I got room #1 for 420euro/month + 2 months deposit and 50euro/month for utilities. It's small, but nice, with its own mini balcony (actually a door with a rail in front of it and a 15cm ledge, like all the old building around). I can consider that I have my own cabin on a cruise ship.


We settled the details by phone then I did a wire transfer with the money - while praying that I do not fall prey to some elaborate scam. Reality showed me so far that Ari is a trustworthy person, but one can not stop having such thoughts when taking such a large step into the unknown.


Finally the time came to start my voyage. First, there was a 7h long trip by bus from Iasi to Bucharest. Then, at the airport, we got told that the plane will be delayed by 30 minutes. The actual delay time was a bit more than one hour. The second surprise came once on air, when the crew announced us we'll have to make a stop to Sibiu, for refueling. It seems that somehow Blue Air did not secure the proper amount of fuel for their flight on the Baneasa Airport. Another hour wasted with the flight to Sibiu and the refueling. -1000 DKP for Blue Air.


Therefore I arrived pretty late in Barcelona - around 10 PM local time. Ari was nice enough to meet me close to the apartment and presented me the room and the keys. I dropped like a stone, without even unpacking.


Next day I started wandering around: La Rambla, Placa Cataluna, Mercat de St. Antoni. Here on Sunday morning there a huge market for anything collectible: books new and old, vinyl records, video games, coins, trading cards, comics and stuff like that. The down side to it is that 99% of the stuff is in Spanish or Catalan.


A word of advice: on Sunday the only places that are open are restaurants (not all of them), small food stores (also not all), pubs and souvenir shops. The only exception I could find was the mall at Mare Magnum, where I managed to find an Orange shop to by a pre-payed card and phone.


On Monday there was the first day at the office, with introductions, account setup, computer configuring and all the stuff that happens when a new guy comes to a company. Commuting takes about 1 hour each way, no matter the route I choose (metro + bus or metro + train).


Today I had my first touch with Spanish bureaucracy and I came out the looser. After 1 hour of standing in queue, I was told by the clerk at the office that I must go to the Central Police Station, with a different application form. Once I finally got there, I found that the line was full for the day and all the order numbers were given. So I have to start again tomorrow. Hopefully I'll manage to complete all the paperwork and be done with it.


Until next time,


Adrian signing off.

[doc.exe]

That part about the Spanish bureacracy remembered me too much of how things run my country. Then again, I already have the biased impression that bureacracy is the same annoyance everywhere.

And well, outside of some inconveniencies, things seem to be going well for you right now. I wish you the best.

Saludos!

[SLAMU]

Aye, but some are worse than others. My run-ins with German and, more commonly Austrian, bureacrats were actually quite plesant, language barriers nonwithstanding. American bureacrats, on the other hand, run the gamut, most ending oup rather lower on the pecking order. Meh, some sterotypes are rooted in reality, it seems.

Have fun in Spain, keep the rest of us up to date, won't you?

[Comosicus]

After endless queues, hours of waiting, miles of walking and a set of blisters on the soles of my feet I finally managed to finish my mandatory paperwork. I got my NIE(Numero de Identificatión de Extranjero) and Social Security numbers today - I only need now to make my bank account.