So what is my next adventure, you might ask?
This sea of a city is Barcelona – the capital of Catalunya, Spain. It’s a place of wonder, good vibes, and straight up cosmic synergy. And it’s where I’ll be moving in June of this year! 😍
Now how did I stumble upon this architectural masterpiece brimming with color, culture, and delicious food (and wine)? That, I chalk up to the universe. So last summer I was perusing Facebook – as one does – and found an ad my friend had shared for an adaptation of the 2009 Broadway musical, Next to Normal. This show being one of my all time favorites, I clicked on it to see where this “European premiere” was taking place, since, I thought to myself, hey, I live in Europe! A quick google search revealed that there were still tickets, they cost a mere 35 euros, and the show was in none other than the beautiful city of Barcelona.
At this point, I had never been to Barcelona but I did have a roommate for a time who was from there and it was all he could ever talk about. So I look up plane tickets and, because it’s Europe, it costs me around 250 bucks. Expensive for a continental flight but no biggie for a last minute flight to see one of my favorite musicals ever starring Alice Ripley of the original cast!!! The next thing on my list is accommodations: how expensive are hotels and Airbnbs in Spain’s second largest city? Quite. BUT! (And here’s where some more of that cosmic synergy kicked in.) But, I quickly remembered seeing on my TEFL program’s Instagram, another alumni do a vlog on her life in – guess where? – Barcelona. On top of which, she mentions that she rents out a room in her flat. A couple DMs later and I have a flight, a place to stay, and tickets to Next to Normal. All within 24 hours. Which was very uncharacteristic of me.
I call my best friend, over the moon excited about it, and with some quick googling on her part, we decide to make a trip of it together – her flying from Scotland, me from Germany, and we meet in Barcelona for three days to run around, splash in the water, see the show, party, and go home.
I think we maybe slept a collective seven hours over the course of those three days.
On our last night we go out to the bars and the clubs and soon enough it’s 2:00am, we’re eating pizza and I’m trying not to fall asleep – like I said, this kind of thing is rather uncharacteristic of me. But we decide we can’t go home because it’s our last day! So we go back to a bar we were at the night before and end up downstairs in a swanky seating area drinking moscow mules. Then this guy comes over to talk to us and I am not exaggerating when I say it was the weirdest encounter of my life. He comes over and we start talking and everything we say about ourselves makes him go, “What?” and everything he says about himself makes us go, “What?” Because how often have you met another American in Barcelona who studies film, languages, has lived in like eight countries, and who frequents the very bar you’re sitting in?
So we mention that it’s our last night to which he responds, “Well then you have to do something crazy!” And something crazy, we did. With a quick assessment that we should embrace the good vibes from the universe, my friend and I decide to go to the beach and we invite our new friend and his friends along. So we go with this group of essentially strangers down to Barceloneta to stick our feet in the water and sit in the sand and we end up talking until four in the morning! Again, very uncharacteristic. But very fun.
The next morning we roll out of bed to catch our flights and I come back raving about the city – everything from the food to the clubs to the 150 year old cathedral still under construction. And the next time I talk to my friend she goes, “Brielle, do you…want to move to Barcelona?”And I go, “Noo…well…yes?”
Now I’m stuck trying to decide if this whirlwind of an experience was just a vacation dream or if I could really see myself in Barcelona. Well, only one way to find out…
I book tickets to return to the city for a full week. I go and stay in a hostel for the first time, meet tons of new people, see my friends from the beach again, and spend hours in the Mediterranean sun.
And under all the vacation vibes, there’s still that magic. I still feel it. I felt at home, my Spanish (however limited at that point) was rolling off my tongue, I’d adapted perfectly to the lifestyle within that one week and I imagined what my life might be like in a city that is everything all at the same time: part beach town, part metropolis, part sleepy, part bustling, part party, part corporate.
Barcelona is eclectic. And so am I. And I could not be more excited about my choice.