First blog entry!

This is my first blog entry. I would like to use this blog to show you all the cool things a young student can enjoy in the city of Barcelona. So get ready! :)

What can I say about Barcelona that you don't know yet? Leaving apart the most typical and well-known facts, I will summarize some of the features of this wonderful city I have seen so far.

Barcelona is a marvelous place to live in. It is big, colourful, friendly and charming. This city held the Olympic Games of 1992, showing the world that BCN was a global city ready to host one of these massive events. Barcelona is the second biggest city in Spain, after Madrid and ahead of the third one, Valencia. With a population of 1.6 million people (just in the city!) we are talking about one of the major cities in Southern Europe.

Without any doubt, one of the most prettiest sights in the capital of Catalonia is the port. You can see here some nice pictures:

Barcelona, as well as the whole region of Catalonia, has its own language named Catalan, which is co-oficial with Castillian (or Spanish). Other regions of Spain, like the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands also share this language. It is a remainder of an old kingdom that once ruled a big part of the Iberian Peninsula: the Kingdom of Aragon.

The major of Barcelona decided to boost the percentage of technology and science in the overall economy of the city, that is the reason why there are so many chemical companies (like Almirall, Esteve and more), research centers (like IRB, CRG, Barcelona Supercomputing center and more) and innovative groups around the city (mainly aerospatial groups). Therefore, if you want to carry out scientific research, where else can you have top scientific groups, good weather, international environment and beaches all in one? Come soon! :)

Fortunately, I was lucky enought to see this week the end of La Mercè, which is an annual festival in Barcelona. This religious celebration has a medieval origin, when the city of Barcelona was saved from a plague of locusts thanks to their prays to the Virgin of Grace. After fours days, the festival ended up with an awesome performance of fireworks and water movements following the rythm of the music (Piromusical). Here you have both a picture and a video of that night! Enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FpVPBpt-V0

Note: Most of the pictures used are not of my property, therefore I don't take any credit from them.