Casa Morrow - the adventures of apartment hunting

  Barcelona, Spain
Sunday, June 1, 2008

It has been ages since I've done an entry but that is mostly because we lost the internet connection at the place we were staying in May. It got a bit difficult to share space with other people so we were really excited to find our own apartment at the end of May. Andy searched for weeks and practiced his Spanish a lot by contacting multiple agencies to view their apartments for rent. Finally he went to an agency on May 29 ask about one apartment but it was already rented out so they whisked him over to another and right away he knew we should take it. I saw it the next day and by June 1 we had paid the deposit, met the land lady and moved in. That's the benefit of a furnished apartment - everything is here and we hardly need anything. We have all of our boxes in Canada that we will be shipping over but there should be room for everything.

Living room and dining area

So the cool things about this apartment are: it is in a modern building, the furniture and decor is tasteful and funky, there are two bedrooms so we can have visitors, we get afternoon sun so we can sit at the balcony and drink wine, and best of all - we are a 10 minute walk from the beach!!

We're in the community Poble Nou (new town) which is one of these communities that is transforming from old to new but hopefully they will keep the charming old aspects as they make way for new condos and office blocks. It has this great rambla (wide pedestrian street) about 2 blocks from us where people saunter to the beach, buy ice cream or sit on cafe patios and drink cerveza. It is charming and very Barcelona. There is a lot of construction in and around Poble Nou where they are pulling down old factories and apartment blocks to make way for new buildings. It adds value to the neighbourhood but some people feel it is taking away the character. I love the neighbourhood though because everything is within walking distance. We have three supermarkets within three blocks, two green-grocers with fresh fruit, vegetables and fish, the rambla and beach are close and the metro station is only 2 blocks away as well. We can be in central Barcelona in 15 minutes on the metro.

So this is the start of the next adventure in Spain now that we are officially living here. It was a complicated process but another check mark on the list. If anyone is ever doing the same, a healthy amount of Spanish is essential and a lot of patience. Feel free to contact us if you ever need advice!

Now we can invite all our friends and family to come and visit so we can share all of the wonderful things about Barcelona and surrounding areas with them! But for now I must go to the beach...