Click HERE for a short video I made cruising around Barcelona.
So I quit the job that I went to university for to teach English in Spain. Here I am, almost two months into my trip, and I can say it’s the best decision I could have made. I’m 23 years old and have the rest of my life to build a career. For now, it’s about cafés con leche, traveling, and growing.
I bought my plane ticket to Barcelona to depart on Wednesday, September 7th, just after Labor Day. We had one last “Hoo-rah” at my friend Ian’s house on Labor day, and I was out. The program I will be teaching through (Auxiliares program sponsored by the Spanish government) has a lottery system when it comes to city placement. When I first decided to make this move, I pictured myself in a bigger city like Barcelona, Madrid, or Valencia – places that I had visited before and loved. To my surprise, I received an email in June with my placement in Logroño, La Rioja, population 150,000. At first this was a pretty big letdown. Googling pictures of La Rioja showed tons of open fields, wine vineyards and the same building with pretty cool architecture. What a joke. I wanted to be in a big city, not wine country. Yet the more research I did on Logroño, the more I realized that this placement was a blessing in disguise.
After saying my goodbyes to friends and family, I left for the Washington, Reagan National Airport. I had a two-hour connection in Philadelphia, and boarded the plane headed to Barcelona. It was an hour past our scheduled departure time, and we still hadn’t moved from the tarmac. A two-hour connection slowly turned into an eight-hour delayed flight due to an issue with a smoke detector. Luckily, American Airlines put a new policy in place in early 2016 to provide snacks and beverages for delayed flights that qualify. Those pringles and crackers were all worth missing a whole day in Barcelona… (joking).
I booked an Airbnb in a great location a few blocks from MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona) off la La Rambla. Even with American Airlines having stolen the better part of my first day in the city, I still had a great time in Barcelona. I lived verrrrry slowly for those three days. I did a good amount of people watching while enjoying cafés con leche from the outdoor seating of a few cafés and skated around taking in the sights. I went over to check on the progress of La Sagrada Familia, where the work continues since they broke ground for the cathedral in 1882. The best part of my visit in Barcelona was reminding my pallet of how good the sandwiches from Bo De B are. I was able to sneak a quick sandwich with a view of the marina an hour before my train left from the Sants station for Logroño on Sunday, September 11th. It’s time to make my own opinion on the city I had previously only known from pictures on the internet: Logroño.
Click HERE for a short video I made cruising around Barcelona.
Bert's Big Blog 
Very cool. Keep up the good work Alberto!
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Thanks!
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Everything made me smile, Bert! You’ve made the right decision. But then again, every decision is the right decision. Video music is just right, also.. is that the dude’s dog at the end? Or a stray. I like how he laid in the puddle afterwards.
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Yeah the way they were playing soccer, that had to be his dog. Looks like they’ve been training for years together haha thanks!
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