Dec 23rd, Barceloneta Beach, 16° C

To sum up, my time here in Barcelona has been wonderful, and the decision to go a semester abroad was one of the best in my entire life. First of all, the city was full of other exchange students from all over Europe and beyond (especially South America). Quite soon I made friends from all over the world, including Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, Canada and the US. Although I found it harder to get in contact with local students, I was also welcomed very kindly by my classmates at university, and I’ve had a great time with my Catalan flatmate Cristina. And of course, a not to be underestimated factor was the presence of my girlfriend Nadja. There’s a huge chunk of time we have been spending together, and I don’t regret a single minute.

Universitat Pompeu Fabra proved as an excellent host. The mobility office’s staff was very competent and helpful, thus the processes of finding appropriate courses and enrolling were very easy for me. I had the possibility to follow professional, state-of-the-art lectures (and passed all the exams ) and want to express my gratitude to my professors and the other teaching staff. Altogether, I don’t want to miss this academic experience I gained here in Barcelona, as I’m sure I will benefit from it.

Eventually, I have to confess that I’m looking forward to coming home, at least a little bit. My parents, my sister and my friends are awaiting me, and so am I. Welcome back steep mountains, deep valleys and an magnificent landscape covered with snow. Welcome back astonishing views from atop the endless Alps shaped as if they would stretch towards the sky and flourish amidst the smooth rays of winter sunlight. In the end, Austria is such a beautiful place and I only now realize how glad I am to call Innsbruck my hometown.

Goodbye, Barcelona. But not for the last time, I’m going to come back…

View from Elevador de Santa Justa

We arrived on Sunday morning and headed to our hotel located at the city’s bull ring at Campo Pequeno, which is a multi-event venue and includes an underground shopping center. During our five days in Lisbon (compared with our trip to Paris vitally more time for sightseeing!) we tried to get an impression of the town’s culture and life as good as possible. Thus we started with the historic district of Baixa (“downtown”), which was entirely rebuilt after the great earthquake in 1755. Bairro Alto (“upper quarter”) serves as heart of Lisbon’s youth with many bars and clubs.

Due to the seven hills the city is built upon, funiculars were constructed quite soon to facilitate the climb. Even though they are mainly used by tourists nowadays the ride was worth. We explored the district of Chiado not only with the help of a funicular, but also with a traditional single-car tram line that passes through very narrow streets forcing pedestrians to draw aside and hide in house entrances.

In the end, the most impressive places of interest we saw in Lisbon are the 25 de Abril Bridge (resembling San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge), Castelo de São Jorge (a beautiful fortified citadel), the Rua Augusta Arch and Statue of King José I at Praça do Comércio, the ruins of Carmo Church (the city’s main trace of the great earthquake) and the three famous buildings in the a little outlying district of Belém: the Jerónimos monastery, Padrão dos Descobrimentos (a monument dedicated to the Portuguese Age of Discovery) and the Belém Tower (a riverside fortified tower that played a significant role in the maritime discoveries).

Knowing the following days would be affected by studying, we boarded our plane back to Barcelona on Thursday and hope we can come back some day in the future.

@ Praça do Comércio

Padrão dos Descobrimentos

Palais du Louvre

In front of Eiffel Tower

View from Sacré-Cœur

Let’s start with the beginning: My sister came over on Wednesday for a long weekend visit. I planned to show her around, do some sightseeing with her etc. While we were taking some photos of the stunning arches in Sagrada Família, I got a phone call of my flatmate Cristina. About ten minutes later the lessor, Cristina and both of us gathered in the living room to see what has happened. Distressing outcome: flat’s door frame broken, door itself damaged, my room devastated and Cristina’s wallet with some money, ID and credit cards as well as my sister’s brandnew MacBook Pro stolen. And the laptop is neither covered by the lessor’s nor one of our insurances. Total loss: over 1,000 euro.

And the story continues. In the evening after having some drinks at in the city we headed to Opium Mar, a popular club directly at the beach of Barceloneta. On the way we were bothered by some guy pretending to be a promotor for a bar nearby. While making up some stories about the Brazilian carnival and dancing close to us he somehow managed to grab my cell phone in the jeans’ front pocket. Luckily I realized only seconds afterwards, so all six of us followed the pickpocket and his accomplice, and finally surrounded them. While some of us (including me of course) were talking to the guys and pointing out we weren’t tourists, my sister was quick off the mark, saw some rectangular box in the thief’s pocket and pulled it out quickly as he was distracted. In other words she pickpocketed the pickpocket He realized soon enough, nodded to his accomplice who suddenly pretended my mobile had been lying on the ground all the time and gave it back to me.

In addition, I was denied access to the club afterwards. We were simply too late for the guest list queue, so the evening ceased earlier than we had hoped. At least, I still have all my belongings, including the cell phone. My sister though was less lucky. October 22nd seems like a very good candidate for a discouraging red letter day.

Despite the burglary, we tried to enjoy the city, here at the lookout point at Park Güell.

View from Park Güell

The first few days were spent on the beach of Barceloneta. Apart from my girlfriend Nadja, who is spending an entire year in Spain and came to Barcelona already two weeks prior to my arrival, many other Erasmus students were sunbathing and relaxing there as well. And all of them share a common curiosity about meeting lots of new people from all over the world and getting to know the Spanish and especially Catalan culture and language.

Barceloneta beach

Nadja and Oliver @ beach

It’s easy to stay in contact via Facebook but I’m sure a Spanish phone number pays off soon, so I bought a prepaid SIM card for my cell phone. Rates are really expensive compared to the Austrian ones, but hey, I can now talk to the whole of Latin America for up to 10 cents per minute… [EDIT For all of you who can't read between the lines: this means that it's senseless to call or text me on my Austrian number!]

Linguistically Catalonia is really interesting because Castilian (Spanish) and Catalan are both official languages and are spoken quite equally in everyday use, but Catalan enjoys special status as the “native language of Catalonia”. “Basic public education is given in Catalan except for two hours per week of Spanish medium instruction. Businesses are required to display all information at least in Catalan under penalty of fines; there is no obligation to display this information in Spanish, although there is no restriction on doing so this is often done” [Wikipedia].

Park Güell entrance area

I have not yet managed to get used to the different times of meal. In Spain it’s common to have dinner between 10 and 11 pm, bars and pubs are nearly empty until 11:30, and the clubs get crowded at 2 am at the earliest. A few very recommendable clubs are located directly at the beach; entrance fees range from 7 to 15 euros, but it’s possible to get your name onto the guest list on Facebook and thus gain free entrance.

Erasmus party @ Guru

On left side: Hospital del Mar. Campus del Mar (PRBB building on the right side + low building in between) -> here i'm gonna have classes

Of course, photos, reports and stuff will be published here. I’m gonna try to keep you up to date…