Living in Barcelona and being German

Taking up the theme I started in my last entry, I want to talk a little about the pros and cons of being German and living in Barcelona...here goes :


Pros

- being able to enjoy the meditarrenean climate
- the beaches
- the tasty tapas ( small portions of tortilla, olives, anchovis etc etc which you can get in almost every bar )
- the laid-back attitude of most Spaniards and Catalonians, in contrast to this distressing 'I have to be in control of everything in my life' German way ( but ok, I admit I do get distressed when the bus driver takes ten minutes for his cigarrette break before finally moving his a.. back to his seat and
setting off !!!!)


Cons

-the rent for appartments is absolutely exaggerated, just the smallest ones in
downtown are about 600 Euros
- there is a slight malign tendency towards everything foreign, even though you are better off being German than, let's say, Moroccan or Romanian...
- all the streets downtown are a quite stinking mess covered with litter which reminds you of Calcutta slums or similar
- there are pick-pockets all over the tourist 'hot spots'---one quite famous trick they do is spilling ketchup on tourist's jackets, and offering to help them to clean the jacket. Then there will suddenly appear a second 'partner' who grabs the handbag/ backpack...