Discovering Barcelona

Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya. Catalunya (more later) is an "autonomous community" in northeast Spain. With 1.6 million inhabitants, Barcelona is Spain's second largest city behind Madrid. It is a large city, but it feels small in many ways. As Barcelona grew over time, it absorbed surrounding towns and villages. It still has 10+ very distinct neighborhoods, and each of these has its own interesting character. With the help of a great Metro system, Barcelona and its neighborhoods (Airbnb version) are easy to discover.



Barcelona is a very cosmopolitan city. With roughly eight million tourists per year from all around the world, the streets are full of many types of people speaking many languages. Barcelona's residents are very diverse. About 60% were born in Catalunya with about 20% coming from the rest of Spain. That means that about 20% of Barcelona's residents are from outside the country. Barcelona is a VERY interesting place!

English speakers have no trouble getting around in Barcelona, as almost everyone speaks English. The official languages are Catalan and Castilian (Spanish), and those are the languages seen on signs and heard spoken the most. As a Spanish learner, it was actually quite confusing at times. I was often unsure of whether a word was Catalan or Castilian! One day we met a young woman from the USA who was staying in Barcelona to improve her Spanish but who had decided to move to Madrid to avoid the Catalan-Castilian confusion. As tourists, we had NO problems with language.

Of course, the main attractions in Barcelona are the food, the sights, the Mediterranean, and the climate. We enjoyed discovering all of them.