Girona: A City Of Love

Arrival

It was a rainy night in September when I arrived in Girona. It was my first trip, my first real big departure. My first real big experience. After checking out of the airport, I called for a taxi. Seeing as though I had a lack of experience regarding trips, I didn't think that buses would also wait for the last flight of the day. It set me back 23 euros. the taxi brought me directly to the guesthouse that I had booked, thanks to the advice of my friend, at Career Sant'Ignassi. A little further from the centre than I had thought back then. It was a Saturday night. I didn't call Filippo, my friend who was living in Girona, as I didn't want to disturb him. I spent the night crying, in the room of a poor guesthouse, with an incredibly bad headache and a lot of nostalgia of the people that I love and were not there with me.

The morning after it was beautiful, sunny Sunday in Girona. Without knowing where to eat, what to do or where to go, I set out from my guesthouse to explore the city. From the outskirts, almost instinctively, I continued towards the centre... walking along a big tree-lined avenue and found myself in Plaza Independencia. Still not knowing that I would have to cross this square everyday of my stay in Girona, that I would see it from numerous bars and locals that there are, that I would walk there with my friends, my loves and that I would leave my book there...

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I chose this square as my bench of the city: In every city that I visit, I love locating "my" places. The first bar that I entered, on the street where, I preferred to walk, the most beautiful bridge. In this case it was the first bench that I sat down in Girona. The last one in front of the bridge... that was my bench.

The first few days were devastating. Nostalgia gripped my limbs and my stomach, and everything was completely different, almost weird. There was a lot of loneliness the first few days. But also a lot of desire to not give up.

Thanks to Filippo, my "support" in Girona, I found my apartment. After 4 days I had already found an apartment. Usually for Erasmus and home student sin Girona, they find their apartments on the notice boards of their department of the University. I didn't make it in time. I was more fortunate.

When I moved into Gran Via de Jaume I 5/b, my Erasmus experience took another turn.

Stability

The apartment was very nice, very central and really no that expensive. I got very lucky. And, to top it off, I had the best housemates in the world. Alina was a Romanian girl, who came in Girona on Erasmus and decided to stay in the city, because, thanks to Erasmus, she met the love of her life. Yes, Erasmus can also do this; Jordi, however, was the love of Alina's life, but didn't live with us. He worked for the university of Girona in Romania, as a teacher of Spanish and Catalan. Then there was Filippo, who was a Sardinian boy studying in Girona: he had a scholarship for research PhD. Filippo helped me a lot, in every sense of the word. He showed me the whole city in the first few days of my stay. He showed me the key places, the cheapest shops and also the more expensive ones, he took me to the weekly market on Saturdays, at Parc de la Devesa and to the daily ones that there are a Plaça del LLeò. He was like my tour guide, telling me anecdotes and legends of the city. You need to know that Girona is packed full of amazing history and legends.

The cohabitation with my housemates was "normal": you lived as you would in every Italian apartment. the only difference is that the hours of eating were a bit random: You ate lunch and dinner a bit later than in Italy. But you get used to these schedules.

The problem however was the language! . At first it was easy to express yourself and understand, even if I took notice that I was Understanding almost everything... even in Catalan! The people in the faculty were so surprised that I was speaking Catalan. An Italian Erasmus student, choosing not to speak in English or worse still looking to understand in Italian, speaking and expressing herself in Catalan, huh, it was their joy. They could not believe their eyes when I told them that I was studying Catalan there. It was hilarious to see their smiles.

In the faculty all of the classes were in Catalan and in the written exams I could choose the language that I wanted to use: either Catalan or Spanish.

After roughly a month I already started to express myself and understand without problems, both at home and in school. Additionally, I was reading the exam notes and was looking to read books in Catalan to help my learning. But there is nothing better than Television for learning a language: I watched a lot of films and listened to the radio. In full immersion, learning the language is not a very difficult task to undertake.

I also learnt Spanish, which I had never studied.

The City

Girona is full, bursting with interesting things. Events, that you can take part in, concerts, exhibitions, museums, cultural places, gardens where you can take a walk or catch the sun, many bars and pubs, where you can stop and get a coffee, restaurants where you can taste the local cuisine... Girona I love you, is the slogan on the tram that takes you around the city. And it's true. If you live in Girona, You couldn't not fall in love with such a sunny, rich, fragrant and sweet city that is Girona.

There are flowers in every flowerbed, flowers during every season of the year, not to mention Girona during the the two weeks of Temps de Flors: the city is an open monument surrounded by works of flower art, that will leave you speechless.

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And the churches? Beautiful displays of architecture, where mass is conducted in Catalan. Also an amazing experience.

The nightlife is however, not as immense as it maybe is in Ibiza in August, but it is still always enjoyable and fun, with many pubs/bars, where you can go and dance, do karaoke, or simply go and spend the evening in front of a beer or to be more clear, a typical sweet beer. 'Clara' is sweet because the beer is iced with lemon! A real treat especially for us girls, who don't like the real taste of beer.

Yet, the most beautiful moments of the city take lace during the celebrations of saint Narcis: there are a lot of concerts, floats with everything above, including the best speciality of Catalonian food, yum! Not to mention the walk of Giants, enormous puppets balanced on the shoulders of the 'Geganters;, that represent the city and march together to Cap Grossos, through all of the city's streets.

An entire book would not be enough to describe or simply quote every beautiful part about living in Girona.

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The Farewell

It was not easy to leave Girona and finish my period of Erasmus. It was not easy to leave my friends, the affections that I had found, the bonds that I had successfully built and that were bound to those moments, to this city, to the university, to the apartment in the Gran Via.

Unfortunately and fortunately, Erasmus has to finish. And want to allow students to understand the experience, that if you could isolate it from start to finish, you wish you could relive it every time you think about it.

In Girona, as is the sea win the rest of Spain, They used to do a farewell party when someone leaves and will never return. The Erasmus students always do it, mainly involving sangria and other drinks, not to mention the savoury cakes or the potato tortillas of typical Catalonian cuisine.

They are parties which are celebrated by those that are leaving and are remembered by every happy moment that they experienced while living there.

At the farewell parties, you laugh and you cry, because the bonds that you make during Erasmus are truly unbreakable.

To such an extent, the after years, you still receive a invitation to the wedding of your flatmates that you had on Erasmus.