Barcelona - East coast of Spain

Beautiful area with lots of opportunities for diiferent trips and cultural events. Lots of great beaches along the coast, mountains to the north and very easy and cheap transport to another cities (bus/train).

Barcelona

The city of Antoni Gaudí. Tons of beautiful monuments or buildings (Sagrada Familia, Park Guell,....) designed by this architect. It is also city that never sleep cause party must go on no matter what! The streets are never empty and there is always something going on.

Mountains: thousands of different trails in Pyrenees, mountain monastery in Montserrat

Beaches: Famous Costa Brava is the perfect place for snorkeling since there is a lot of fish + the area is awesome! Then tens of different beaches along the all coast with dance clubs, parties or just for chill

Cities: In every bigger city in Spain there is the LC IAESTE and in each one of them an IAESTE weekend was organized. I

BASF Zona franca

HPLC/UPLC method development and validation for product quality control

540 EUR/month

Food in the company was for free and the rent was 380 EUR/month leaving you 240 EUR/month to spend. It is just enough for survival but any other activity you have to pay from your savings.

The job offer required good english. Surprisingly when I came everybody was asking how is it possible that I dont speak spanish. The manager of the laboratory was the only person there who could speak english. He explained what he wanted from me and then I started to learn spanish so I was able to communicate at least a bit with the other people.

380 EUR/month

At the beginning I received an email from IAESTE with about 10 possibilities of available flats in Barcelona with different locations and prices and I just had to pick one.

Pick-up at the airport:
Before my arrival we agreed that the IAESTE people would pick me up at the airport. However then they emailed me the instructions how to get to the city center and we were able to meet there. Then they took me to my apartment and told me all the important info.

Events:
Tons of events basically every weekend and sometimes also during the week. There were a lot of opportunities for festivals, concerts and other cultural events in Barcelona and they took part in almost each one of them. Moreover in other cities (Zaragoza, Valencia, Madrid,...) the IAESTE weekednds were organised by their LC.

I attended in few of IAESTE weekends where I was able to meet interns from all over the world.

Barcelona is perfect for sports although it may not be always cheap. After my arrival I found that there is a group of peope living in the same building who are regularly going to street workout traings and so I was joining them for the rest of my stay. It is possible to do there almost every kind of sport you can imagine. I find very nice the outdoor fields for soccer, basketball, etc. where you can join the game and meet the locas (beneficial to speak spanish to join them :-) ).

Food is quite diferent from the czech cuisine since it has a lot of stuff from the sea. The local specialty would be famous Paella (rice with seafood, vegetable and meat) or Fideua (noodles with garlic sauce and seafood).

Skype, Whatsupp, Facebook,........

Safe a lot of money before you come! There is so many places and things to do and see which are not always cheap but they are deffinitely worth it!

Nothing particular

In the company I have learned skills which now I can use for my diploma thesis. I have also learned basics of spanish language, traveled a lot and met a lot of great people from all the corners of the world.

Little though at the beginning since there was a lot of misunderstanding between the company and IAESTE which caused some problems with the paperwork but once we came over this it was great.