I moved to Barcelona, Spain, from the UK. I now work there full time.
I couldn’t bare living in the United Kingdom anymore whatsoever. It’s a dying, failed state that I couldn’t bare to live in any longer.
Feel free to AMA
I moved to Barcelona, Spain, from the UK. I now work there full time.
catalan or español?
Español, Catalan seems good to learn within time but it’s not essential. More people speak Spanish so it seems like the correct move
I find the grid pattern of urban planning in Barcelona to be unbearable. Every street, every block, every area looks the same.
You’re complete right but you do get used to it. You start to understand where you are by the look of the buildings and such.
It’s great though for directions. Like, as long as I know where I’m heading in any direction and I know roughly where it is, I usually just need to walk straight, even if it’s a 2 hour walk.
BCN as a city is fucking horrible.
>all areas and apartments look like banlieus
>none of the architecture really matches the mediterreanan unless you are right on the beach
>no notable sites
>locals are annoying and snobbish
>graffiti everywhere
>most migrants and shitskins in Spain
>hordes of tourists and worst types of people
>culture is inferior to anywhere in Spain
I really dont understand the appeal of this city. Its only good for fucking putas and european sluts
Literally all of this is untrue.
You’ve got huge areas all over the city which are historic and are traditionally Mediterranean. Most of the big/important neighbourhoods actually worth being in are very classically Southern European.
Graffiti everywhere is just fucking untrue. It’s really, really not. I have ever noticed graffiti, there’s none on my street or any of the surrounding streets. I can say one thing for sure, the place is really; really well maintained in terms of public services/hygiene.
No notable sights is obviously bait lmao.
I can’t be bothered to respond to any of your other points because they’re mostly nonsense apart from the shitskin one.
The reality is, if you’re an international worker coming from abroad and you want to work for a major MNC, you’ve either got Madrid or BCN to choose from. I personally prefer BCN for a variety of reasons.
You’re a lying fed or a realtor trying to sell ppl on spain. Everything he said about BCN is true. have a nice day.
Yeah I really can't understand the BCN hype at all. Its the most normie city in Europe with nothing to justify it
>moving from one shitskin infested shithole that rapes you with tax to another
Good job OP
Except in Barcelona I genuinely feel that my tax goes to useful fucking shit.
The streets are really, really well maintained. The public cleaners are like a fucking army every night. I don’t know how many people they employ to clean the place each night but it’s in the thousands. They spray down every street with soap and water and do a really through job. I’ve never seen that once in the UK.
Also things like public transport here is incredible. The metro is really efficient and well maintained.
I see police everywhere here. I see them constantly arresting people on a nightly basis. I’ve never seen anyone arrested in the UK despite seeing plenty of crime.
It's no different. Unless you lived in the moron areas of london or birmingham then it's simply confirmation bias. But in all honesty most countries can be pretty comfy if you're bringing a good job and/or lots of money from abroad. Talk to most young people living in Spain and they're mostly unemployed/working in shit jobs unrelated to their studies and living in their shitty apartment with their parents. The country is a joke for most people trying to build their lives from the ground up.
It’s all relative.
I’m more than open to saying that career and education wise, the UK is far better than Spain, there’s no question. If you’re in a big city, you can find good career paths in basically any field, something that doesn’t exist in Spain.
Everything else though, Spain wins. For the weather, the quality of food, the social atmosphere, the people, the sights, the infrastructure, the cleanliness, the friendliness and everything in between.
I’m back in the UK now which inspired me to make this post and it’s grey and raining all fucking day, I’m right now begging to be back in Spain. It’s stuff like this which makes me realise life isn’t all about money and career
>Spain wins.
>the infrastructure, the cleanliness,
lol now i know you're just having a laugh
Want me to explain?
Are you British?
lol as if i'd be interested in some greasy dago yappng on
I’m white and British, more so than you probably Akhmed. Stay in your paki infested grey shithole will you
I wish you were right about the everything else part. Can we switch places?
Explain Anon?
Life is shite in spain. Simple as
As someone who lived their whole life in Britain and came to Spain, I can assure you a million times over, life in Spain for me is so so much richer.
What job? What age? How did you escape?
I share the same emotions OP. Unfortunately I'm willing to bet the other brits in this thread have never left or experienced actually living abroad. The UK really has a heavy crabs in a bucket mentality that as long as everyone else is in the same shitty position it makes them feel better about the situation.
I spent time living and studying in Asia and since I came back to the UK I've been "grinding" for the sole purpose of trying to leave. Trying to save enough money to have a bit of a safety net to leave.
Sometimes I wonder if it is a case of the grass is greener on the other side but honestly
makes a really good point that life really is fucking dull. Everything closes at 5pm on a weekday and unless you're at a "young" company in London / Manchester, there's no hanging around with coworkers.. everyone just goes back to their new build estate and scrolls tiktok and looks forward to the shitty 2 week holiday in spain. I'm in a relatively well off position compared to most people and I'm fucking miserable so I can't imagine what it must be like for the average earner.
100%, I think the quality of life for the top 1% of earners in London is still below what the above average earner in other countries.
How did you escape? What job? What age?
I’m 24. My new job is literally just a basic customer support telephone, but pays way more than other companies offering the same/similar job. Mostly because I have around 5 years experience working for a global leader in the field in the UK.
I had access to an EU passport, which is really fucking useful. That allowed me to find work abroad etc. Basically my golden ticket.
If I were you and I didn’t have that option, look for a remote position within the EU that’s willing to hire you. It might be hard at first, but eventually something will come up. Then you can cement yourself wherever you want basically with a few limitations.
have you been to vienna? cant decide between moving to vienna or barcelona
It all sounds nice, but as a fellow European I wouldn't consider Spain, because:
- Taxation is absolutely mad. There is nothing the state could offer me to justify 50% tax rate on personal income alone
- It's still cold in the winter
- Spain gave me poor country vibes. Whenever I meet Spaniards on my travels, they always end up spewing some socialist/communist shit, but the underlying reason is they are poor and they don't want to be poor
I thought about it for a long time and I simply do not see a European state that could satisfy me.
why don't you fuck off then?
ITT the grass is always greener
OP here. The grass isn’t always greener, by any means, there are swings and roundabouts to everything and everywhere. There are things that are slightly better in the UK that I miss out on here. Hell, you could move to the best city on earth from a dirty third world shithole and still miss out on some of the basic cultural/social behaviours that you had back home.
Ultimately though, some things are direct improvement on other things. Say the weather; the UK weather is literally intolerable for me. In July this month for example in my home city, it’s rained pretty much every single day. Not even the warm, humid kind of summer showers, it’s been grey, cloudy, cold and wet. It literally feels like February all over again. It’s incredibly, incredibly fucking depressing for me.
you sound like a real whiny cunt
Stay in your grey, paki infested shitbox
you sound like a real whiny cunt
ok your turn
Stay in your grey, paki infested shitbox
Ok your turn
The UK is dour. It's hard to explain to Brits, they just don't see it, but if you come from another happier country it's obvious. The place is just so miserable yet so resigned to do nothing about it. People's social lives are working, pounding drinks and eating the worst food on the planet (at home of course) which the English will deny and insist they actually sometimes have Chinese takeout slop instead, as a treat. It's so sad. The weather doesn't help. It's no surprise British music is always about taking drugs and escapism.
We see it. Believe me, we see it
Exactly this.
A lot of people in the UK fall into two camps.
They either recognise how shitty the UK is and they’ve simply accepted it. They’ll talk all day every day, about how grey, dull and utterly soul wrenching the country is, but they don’t have any other realistic option in terms of leaving, at least not easily or in the short term. One thing to note is, despite the UK being utterly dreary, it’s easy to exist within it and become complacent. You can have a relatively ok paying job in which you can afford to look after yourself, you’ve got your local Wetherspoons and takeaways and can go and watch the footie every other week with friends. There isn’t a desperate necessity to leave, like there is for people in third world countries who barely have a pot to piss in back home.
The other camp are the people who just simply don’t realise/don’t have the intellect to understand how bad they have it. This country is all they know, it’s all they’ve ever known, hell half of them haven’t ever left the country and if they did, they’d be going to some shithole full of other British people like fucking Benidorm.
Ultimately, Britain is a fucking cesspit. Looking back on it now, I have no fucking clue how I lived there so long. It’s kind of like being in a shitty job for years that you hate, leaving for a new job that you actually enjoy, looking back wondering how you even did that job in the first place.
I agree with you if you live somewhere like Manchester or London, but it's absolute cope for rural England. Living in places like Yorkshire and Cornwall/small villages, is very comfy. I agree that our government is shit and I wouldn't step foot into most of the cities here, but this applies to almost everywhere - every country has it's bad and good parts.
Stepping into rural Britain and becoming a resident in a small town isn’t something that you just do. I’ll admit, they’re cosy, but they’re for when you’ve already established yourself with significant wealth, social connections and career obligations.
It’s for when you don’t need to commute into the cities regularly for business. When you don’t regularly want to meet up with friends and maintain a busy social life. When city amenities like gyms and restaurants no longer become of major importance to you.
My ex gf lived as rural as it gets, her house was super, super, super comfy, but I wouldn’t want to live there quite frankly. Way too isolated and almost depressing, at least for me.
>of the cities here, but this applies to almost everywhere.
This is frankly untrue. British cities are fucking dogshit places to exist in, for a wide variety of reasons.
Honestly, I’m unsure. For some people I’m sure the novelty is being somewhere new and experiencing/integrating themselves with a wider culture. I guarantee all of those Spaniards will eventually move back home when the time calls for it.
I honestly cannot fathom being an adult who concerns himself for more than one second about what the weather is doing. It makes you sound like a brattish child. Who fucking cares whether it is raining or sunny, don't you have adult shit to do?
Let me guess, you’re a braindead American wagie that’s been manipulated by ~~*corporations*~~ that working 50 hours a week is the only important thing and you probably get very few days off a year to even actually enjoy your life.
When you get a bit older and maybe a little wiser, you’ll realise that life is about spending time with the people you love, enjoying blissful summer nights with family and friends sat out taking in the fresh air, laughing and enjoying time with each other in this beautiful existence. Those are the moments you will cherish and remember when all is said and done, not your fucking taxes or sales report at work you laughable oaf.
So to answer your question, yeah. I want to live somewhere where I can enjoy natures basic pleasures, blue skies, warm air and sun on my skin. Not being trapped in all day and having to get drenched every time I leave the house.
No I’m white.
Summers are humid and hot. Not every day is sunny, but still hot. Winter is mild with some sunny days. March/April in Spain often feels like June/July in Northern Europe (when there’s no heatwave that is).
Retard.
>Let me guess, you’re a braindead American wagie that’s been manipulated by ~~*corporations*~~ that working 50 hours a week is the only important thing and you probably get very few days off a year to even actually enjoy your life.
I'm a 35 year old Englishman, which I imagine is approximately what you are. I never said anything about work, or about wages, or about vacation. I said that you should grow the fuck up and have more pressing concerns than feeling the sun kissing your skin. The "natural" concerns of a mature adult male are to support his wife and children, to be able to share life with his friends, to develop a relationship with God, to enjoy fine art and music. Feeling the sun kissing your skin is something you may enjoy occasionally, but to make it the guiding desire of your whole life makes you seem fucked in the head.
>you must live like i choose to otherwise you're fucked
You outed yourself as someone who hides indoors all day. Probably even have a blanket covering your bedroom window...if you even have a window in your smelly little basement apartment. Those of us who spend virtually all of their waking moments in the open air very much prefer to live in a climate where we are neither dripping sweat nor freezing our ass off.
I hate these normie platitudes and copes. Would you say the same to someone living in the Detroit ghetto or in a village with no heating in siberia? go back to pleddit normal scum
How good is your spanish?
> It’s a dying, failed state that I couldn’t bare to live in any longer.
>Moved to Catalonia
nice bro
want to go on a fuck tour in Barcelona, which areas are good for hookers and brothels?
what are the going rates? are there cheap escorts for like 4 hours and shit?
>bare... bare...
Bear with me: your experience might be colored by the fact that you can't write for shite, guvna':
bare minimum
bear living
Shut up nerd
Maybe English not his only language.
He said he's British, but that doesn't mean much these days, could be some Paki wannabe.
Is it easy to hook up with Spanish women?
I'm too ugly for them
>tfw socialists just won the election again
Damn bros, they are the party that wants to ban prostitution too. Sad the centre right was so close to winning
>the left wants to ban prostitution more than the right
Clown world
I work for a startup that's mostly British and Spanish employees.
We're mostly remote, so have a few people working from other countries, but the thing I found interesting is that most of our engineers are Spanish (because their salaries are lower and it was easier to scale the business like that), but now we're a bit more established, most of them have chosen to come and live in London or other parts of the UK.
Most of them still have apartments or homes in Spain that they airbnb and go and stay at in the winter, but they say there's no future in Spain. The ones that do live in Spain tend to live in or around Valencia or Madrid, and they laugh at British employees who chose to go to Barcelona because they see it as an expensive tourist trap like Venice.
Not saying the UK is better, but I find it interesting to see things from their perspective.
I spend a bit of time each year in the UK, but try to use the remote working to the full, even if it means horrible timezones for working.
I'm going to spend a few weeks this summer driving from Southampton to Inverness, most of the time spent in the countryside. Any places that you would recommend I stop to see?
Spaniarda are (generally) the most pretentious but retarded gays I've met while traveling. Like the worst Euro stereotypes. Have you had the same experience with them in their home country?
Yeah but only in BCN, not anywhere else in the country. They keep picking fights with me and losing abroad, then they run to the cops. It’s awful and I hate them. It’s like ants on your foot.
Are you brown?
I have a job offer in vitiria gasteiz .. red pill me on basque country
how bad is the weather really? I live in the american pacific north west and we just get drizzle and complete cloud cover for 9 months a year, then three months of absolutely no clouds or rain
This is my question because europe USED to have that type of weather, dry summer. Now aparently it’s humid southeast USA style. Dunno how that happened exactly
Hotter days = higher sea temperatures = higher dewpoints.
For example, Southern California saw very humid weather in late summer last year due to tropical storms bringing warm water and high dewpoints to the region.
Worst weather in Spain by far. Humid summers and colder winters than the rest of the country
I was able to walk around in a t-shirt and no jacket in the middle of January.
Barcelona has a climate similar to Monterrey, California. London has a similar climate to Seattle. Northern Spain has a similar climate to Portland. Southern Spain has a similar climate to the California central valley.
Which country would you move to if you were a US citizen looking for the same sort of escape?
Canada
Which country in the UK did you leave and what's your social life in Spain compared to the UK?
How’s the rent? What are you renting?
You're not wrong but how is Spain any better. it failed 400 years before Britain did.
Warmer climate, more sunshine, healthier food, and prettier women are all reasons why Spain is superior to the UK.
Why are people so obsessed with hot weather?
Warmer climates are better for a leisure lifestyle, while cooler climates are more comfortable for an active/working lifestyle.
Girls in summer clothes are much more alluring than girls in winter clothes.
Sunshine boosts the general mood of people more than gray skies.
Hot afternoons mean balmy evenings perfect for a night out on the town. Cool afternoons mean chilly evenings uncomfortable for outdoor dining, concerts, etc.
Daytime temps have to reach at least 23 C for an open-air house to be comfortable without closing the windows and turning the heat on.
This
And
this
For me, a warmer climate is preferable. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures for me, and if it’s something I can access then I will. Why is that such a hard concept to understand for you? Why can’t I have all of that you mentioned, plus added perks like year round open air dining, beach culture in the summer and actually being able to enjoy nights out in the evening, sipping a beautiful glass of wine looking up at the stars without shivering or wearing a winter coat?
>looking up at the stars whilst shivering and wearing a winter coat
Sounds comfy
Warmer weather usually means more sunlight.
Having little to no sunlight is literally unhealthy for you. I would rather spend money on sunscreen than antidepressants.
>nooo if i don't get le sunerino i get all depressed
are you a fucking woman
I am a physically functioning human.
>muh climate
Jesus fuck are you all 70 years old or just extremely emasculated?
>It’s a dying, failed state
States come and go in history. But thankfully NDEs are real and prove that there is an afterlife. So in that afterlife the glory days of the UK will eternally be there in exact replicas.
And NDEs are more real than this world, in every way. For instance, NDErs report expanded intelligence. One NDEr said that the greatest supergenius who ever lived, with the help of the greatest supercomputer of all time, would be immeasurably dwarfed by the intelligence she had access to while in the light, so much so that it would be closer and fairer to compare the intelligence of Einstein to that of an ant. Literally and seriously. And as another NDEr described their cognition during their life review:
>"I looked up, and saw four translucent screens begin to appear - and form a kind of gigantic, cubed box all around me. It was through this method that I was shown my life review. Without ever having to turn my head, I panoramically saw my past, present, future - and there was even a screen behind me that displayed a tremendous amount of scientific data, numbers, symbols and universal codes. I was in complete amazement because (as all of this was occurring) I realized I understood absolutely everything I was seeing - even in the most microscopic detail! There seemed to be no limit to the thoughts I was able to think or the ideas I was able to absorb. In this space, what we tend to think of as a limited comprehension or single-mindedness here on Earth, becomes truly infinite and limitless here! I kept thinking over and over how true it is what they say: that when we go back home - we all really are of one mind!"
From here: https://youtu.be/U00ibBGZp7o
Another way NDEs are more real is how one NDEr said that he saw more than 80 new primary colors in the NDE world, compared to the 3 primary colors we have here.
From here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mysteries-consciousness/202204/does-afterlife-obviously-exist
Same but I moved to Tokyo.
What do you do? How is rent there? How much to you net a month after tax?
Not travel related.