The Velvet Underground

Though Barcelona isn't a very spread out city, if you aren't living in one of the main districts- Ciutat Vella (the "Old City) or L'Eixample ("The Expansion", pronounced "la ee-schamp-lay") -using public transport is more or less a necessity, and everybody seems to be taking full advantage of Barcelona's efficient-as-hell mass transit system. At this point, I'm pretty much in love with it. I suppose the system can be best described as a medium between DC's Metro rail/bus system and the NYC Subway, though on a smaller, more-condensed scale. It's clean, safe (aside from the occasional pick-pocket), and often-times entertaining (drunk-watching is a hobby of mine).

Thankfully, the fee for my study abroad program included metro passes (a 30-day T-Mes pass, plus a 90 day Trimestre pass), so I've been able to take full advantage of the TMBs offerings. Basically, for a couple hundred Euro, you can get unlimited access to all trains/metros/buses in Barcelona proper.

In addition to the metro exists an extensive bus system. Though I've yet to use one of the regular day-time buses, I make regular use of the city's NitBus system. Since the metro stops running at midnight on most days (with the exceptions being Fridays and Saturdays, when it runs until 2am and 24-hrs, respectively), this becomes a very practical resource. The NitBus runs virtually everywhere the metro does, and then some; covering pretty much every street in town. This is great because you can catch one just about anywhere-- although they don't run nearly as often (a 20-minute wait between busses means that many a night are spent literally chasing down random busses in random neighborhoods), and its hard to tell where it will end up taking you. Thankfully, most pass through Plaça Catalunya, so from there you can catch one that will take you home.

As much as I miss driving, with a metro stop within a two-minute walk from my place, it hardly even crosses my mind that such a possibility even exists (I've only been in a car twice since being here, both times in my first week). I can't think of more than two days since I've been here that I haven't hopped on a the metro at least once to go somewhere. I can get used to this.