marksabout

Life in Spain is moving along in Spanish time. I’ve paid my first rent, so now I really live here… The main difficulty has been getting my iPhone to work here. It seems that in Spain, you really need to be Spanish to do… almost anything. I was haemorrhaging money using pre-paid internet so enquired about a contract0. Need an NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero). I don’t think I qualify for one of these yet. And a bank account. For which you need an NIE. So I essentially have a useless iPhone in Spain. It makes calls, but being a telephone is the iPhone’s worst feature.

Bicing is a great way to get around the relatively flat Barcelona. One pays €24 for yearly access to conveniently located racks of bikes around town. To gain access to this service, you require an NIE. Same with a monthly ticket for public transport. And gym membership, though you can get around this by paying everything up front. I’ve only been passively investigating, though. And things may become easier with a bit more Spanish at my disposal.

I definitely feel at home in my new apartment, some cool things from which are pictured below. It’s in a fairly old building and has it’s quirks. It has high ceilings and can be quite cold – this will hopefully become more of a positive as the days get hotter here…

Granted, this post is a bit mundane. But I have had some interesting meetings… And the Metro seems to host some interesting characters for future posts. Strap yourselves in!!