Rosa during her internship in Barcelona, Spain

Rosa in Barcelona: “I’m all up in festival moods!”

Here I am, writing from our apartment in the amazing Barcelona. When I look out the window, I see our lovely neighbour La Sagrada Familia! My name is Rosa, I am 20 years old and was born in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. I’m currently in my last year studying International Business.

Internship

It has been a dream of mine for a while now, to escape the cold in the Netherlands. So when school gave me the chance to do an internship abroad, I immediately jumped on the opportunity! I am now interning at an events agency that organizes festivals and parties in Barcelona and Europe. Lots of my colleagues are students and young people.

I am a big fan of festivals so I was immediately excited about this company. On my first day at work, I noticed that the atmosphere was super laidback. People don’t have a regular spot, you can just sit wherever you want – even if this means sitting on the balcony or on the couch.

A few wellknown festivals the company offers a package deal for including ticket, transport, stay, and parties are: Sziget in Budapest, Oktoberfest in Germany, Las Fallas in Valencia, Carnival in Sitges, La Tomatina in Valencia and many more..

Me, I went along to Sitges where we partied and celebrated carnival. Sitges is a town next to the sea, close to Barcelona, where carnival is celebrated extensively! I had to of course help along so I was the guide in one of the tour buses. At an event holding so many people, there’s always something that strays from the original planning, so sometimes it was rather stressful. At check in for example, it was super busy and that lead to some guests feeling a bit impatient. Luckily, I’ve heard positive stories from most of ‘em!

Furthermore, I will be attending Las Fallas and possibly Springfest.

Barcelona

Life in Barcelona is going very well, I’m especially enjoying the food! If you go to the non-touristy places you can eat loads, very cheaply, with the locals! In Gracia for example, a fun area where lots of students live and not many tourists go, you can have deliciously cheap meals there. Plus, sometimes, if you know the right people, you can go out for free. Me and my housemates went to a ‘never tell your boyfriend’ dinner. This dinner was hosted in a club, right before it opened. Here, a select few girls could come and have dinner for free! After the dinner the club opened and more people came to party!

Nightlife here isn’t too shabby at all, last Friday I went to one of the biggest clubs in Europe, lots of fun but expensive too. You pay a lot for entrance and drinks. This is why I love the lesser well known, but truly fun bars in Barcelona. There are so many pubs and little bars where you can drink delicious sangrias and cocktails for a small sum. On Facebook, lots of clubs have special pages where you can apply for a guest list spot to guarantee yourself free entry.

Furthermore, there’s lots of things to do during the day. One specific thing to do, is visiting a beautiful spot where there’s a magnificent view over Barcelona. This spot is at the bunkers del Carmel. We went there with a few people and brought blankets, wine and pic nic food. Super nice place to go and watch the sunset with friends!

As you can see I’m having the time of my life. The fun part is that I still have 3 months to go, that the weather will only get better and that the festival season is upon us! Excited!