Tom DöhlerThis Sunday marks our first week here in Barcelona, and boy – what a week it was! Hunting for an apartment, starting a new job, walking miles across the town, finding cute little restaurants … all of this in just one week! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Monday morning started with us getting registered for a social security number. I have to say that I expected this to be a much more involved process, but thanks to Lule (our relocation consultant) we got our appointment on Monday morning and had our social security number by Monday noon!
One thing that I love about Barcelona is that you can walk everywhere. Sure, you an walk everywhere in Amsterdam as well, but there are a number of reasons why we never did. First of all, as a pedestrian you are at the bottom of the food chain, meaning you might get run over by a bike or a tram. Second of all, with 200something days of rain, it is just no fun. So far walking through Barcelona has been fantastic, if you avoid the main tourist areas.
One of the things we were concerned about is – of course – where to keep Bon Bini. Barcelona has three ports: Port Forum, Port Olimpic and Port Vell, going from North to South. Port Forum is pretty industrial and has a massive pedestrian bridge across the entrance, so this was a no. Port Olimpic is definitely the most “yachtie” port in Barcelona, with a ton of boats, cranes, a dry dock and two(!) chandlers. It also has a busy nightlife with restaurants and bars surrounding the port. Port Vell is the posh marina in Barcelona, the place where 36 foot boats like Bon Bini are considered dinghies. We initially wanted to keep her in Port Olimpic, but they have a waiting list that spans a couple of years. We’ve decided to keep Bon Bini in Port Vell, and are happy with our choice so far. The port is clean and well maintained, the only problem is that every now and then you have to wait for a hundred meters super yacht to find its way out of the harbor.
One of the super yachts in Port Vell
We’ve looked at a number of apartments. There are a lot of nice areas in Barcelona, and we thought initially we would end up somewhere in Gracia or in Eixample. We’ve decided against Eixample pretty quickly, as we found it too noisy, too cramped and I don’t know, somewhat too clean. We looked at an appartment in Gracia, and really liked the area. Gracia is a small little village that has been incorporated into Barcelona, and has kept most of its cute charm and character. However house prices are crazy, and space is at an absolute premium. Aaaand above all – it is quite far from the beach. We found a really nice apartment in Poblenou, which is much closer to the beach. Our new place is literally a 10 minutes walk from the beach – amazing! Poblenou used to be an area with a lot of factories and warehouses, and at first we were put off by the grafiti on the walls and the somewhat ugly brick buildings. Over time we found that Poblenou has a very nice vibe to it: not many tourists, a cute little Rambla, quirky buildings and all of that with quiet streets. We love it!
At first we were put off by all the rough edges of Poblenou – now we love it!
So far the relocation experience has been fantastic, which has a lot to do with Lule who was a tremendous help in getting everything sorted. Within two weeks we managed to find an apartment, get registered, open bank accounts and get health insurance. I was quite impressed with how efficient this process was, I would have expected much more running around and waiting in queues. Let’s see what the next couple of weeks have in stock!
Happy in our new hometown
