Why Barcelona

First time in the city

When I was traveling back to Ljubljana from Madrid, I did a 10-day long trip. I was traveling with all the luggage taking buses and looking for Couchsurfing hosts and Airbnb stayovers, it was quite a crazy trip with a friend with many anecdotes, such as: arriving to a place at 4am in the morning and leaving my suitcase in the street while going to see something else as it was really heavy. We visited several cities, like: Torino, Verona, Nice, Avignon and, of course, 3 days in Barcelona. Being the second largest city in Spain and having so many monuments, such as: Sagrada Familia, works of Gaudi as the most known ones and hoards of tourists in every part of the year, I just had to go and see it for myself if it really has what it is promising to visitors.

When I arrived, I was quite tired and I did not really enjoy the first impression of the city all that much having to drag the suitcase to Airbnb place. But after we left the luggage and rested a bit, we really started enjoying the city. We took a city map at the tourist information office at Plaza Catalunya and took plenty of pictures while walking around and trying to see as much as we could during the short time of our stay. We really enjoyed our stay there including night walks around when we ended up lost going in the wrong direction, a trip to the beach nearby, going to those small bars that are selling tapas or kebabs and so much more.

But despite all the known monuments Barcelona has, I did not return because of that. During the stay there I was able to start feeling the city's atmosphere but still, I was not able to fully experience it in only 3 days. And when we left the city, I decided that I want to come back for a longer period. And being a student and having summer vacations, I was able to do exactly that.

There is an anecdote hidden behind the real reason why I decided to go back. We had a bus departure around 10pm and we were trying to figure out what to do on the last night. We still had 2 unused trips on our card for 10 rides, so I proposed to go to the beach. The closest one was Barceloneta. We went there and we noticed PRBB building just next to the beach. It said that it is used for biomedical research and my friend said to me that I should try to get the summer internship there as pharmacy is kind of connected scientifical field. And, just like that, I had a plan.

Looking for work

Coming back to Ljubljana from Madrid was quite difficult for me. And not knowing whether the Barcelona plan will work or not did not make it any easier. I did a research on PRBB website where I found out that there were 6 different departments. First, I focused myself on one paid internship at the Center of genomic regulation where I would get 600€ per month having been chosen. What I had to do was fill in the form, get at least one refference and write a motivation letter. I really focused on the motivation letter trying to make it as good as possible.

It was difficult to wait for the answer and not very convenient as I was not able to make any other plan during that time. I knew that the amount of people interested was large and that my odds were very small. That was what I was trying to tell to myself so the disappointment would not be too bad in case they would not choose me. My grades were not the best ones and I had that in mind. When I realized that I was not chosen, I felt a bit sad and nervous but as I prepared myself on it beforehand, it was not as bad as I was afraid it could have been.

PRBB building. Source: http://portal.prbb.org/uploads/pages/096-prbb.jpg

So instead of feeling sorry for myself for the next few days, I decided to thoroughly check the other labs and try to get something else. I still had some money from my Erasmus + exchange in Madrid so I was also willing to work voluntarily in a lab. For that, I would get a good reference for the future (something to look good on my CV) and Barcelona for one month. So it was kind of an excuse to stay there for so long and something to keep me busy for a few hours per day.

I found a webpage of one lab that seemed very inviting to me. It was not directly connected to pharmacy, but at the same time it was a little bit similar: Butterfly research. It said that they were working with DNA to see how species are connected and the similarity based on the place where they were located. I did not exactly know what to expect, but as it said that anyone is welcome to join, I sent an e-mail.

After three days I still did not get the answer so I thought that it will not work. I registered on the webpage of workaway - where you can find something you can to volunteerily and I sent a request to work in the hostel in Barcelona for one month. While waiting for the answer that never came, I got a response from the butterfly lab where they said that I can help them by organizing the collection. Being extremely happy, I naturally accepted it. The location of the lab is not exactly in the PRBB building but it is in the one next to it. So my friend's suggestion has actually come to life.

Technicalities

Even though it seemed that Barcelona is already a solid plan, there were still some things that had to be arranged. Being a student and having exams made the dates very unsure for a long time so I was not able to forward it to the lab for quite some time. During the ''happy season'' of studying every single day all day, I hardly found time to arrange things for Barcelona. Besides the written exams I also had oral ones at two subjects and I did not know if I will pass all of them already in June-July period or have to come back in August. Unfortunately, I failed one exam which has changed my plans a bit. Now it was sure that I cannot stay longer than one month. It was not the end of the world to fail, but it brought a little bit of a bitter taste to holidays.

To me, trying to find a room was difficult as I did not really motivate myself. First I was checking Uniplaces but I would have to pay 20% to the webpage and it would cost me a lot. Other options were quite limited as I only came for one month and in the middle of it. So after surfing many webpages, I found one place where they had several appartments and one could enter anytime a bed got loose. I contacted the broker and he told me that it is fine and I can get a bed. A small problem was only that I did not know exactly when a bed will get free so I could be stuck in Barcelona for days not having a place to stay. But still, I decided to take it.

Looking for a room. Source: http://english.pkusz.edu.cn/uploadfile/2013/0419/20130419043917379.jpg

The flight from Venice had a late departure: at 22.15. Because of that I needed an alternative place to stay at least during the first night. Thinking about the option of sleeping on a bench or trying Couchsurfing with unconvenient time of arrival, I chose the second one. I wrote many requests as many people were unavailable, on vacations or could not host me. One guy, however, told me that he will have a free room during the time of my stay and that I can stay there if I have not paid for the other one yet. The price was good and location central, so I took it.

The last but not least was adding another bag to the luggage as it turned out that there were more things I wanted to take than I thought. And because I was waiting for a long time to buy the plane ticket back (I was trying to avoid thinking of it), the price went up but I still needed to go back so I bought it. I also found Blablacar from Ljubljana to Venice and checked the night bus to arrive from Barcelona airport to the city center. By doing that, I was fully ready to finally go to the city and start discovering its true atmosphere and enjoying the summer time in a city as unique and special as only Barcelona can be.

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