My first impression of Barcelona

 My first impression of Barcelona

Greetings from Barcelona. A city of great architecture and art.

Hello everyone, this is Panos posting from Barcelona city. 

I arrived here a week before my orientation day as I wanted to give myself the opportunity to settle in before the semester starts. So far, I have enjoyed every moment of my staying and I am thrilled I am going to stay here until the end of January. 

The first few days were a bit difficult for me because of the language barrier but I have managed to get by with a bit of help from a  dictionary. Being Greek, I was amazed with the cultural similarities between Greek and Spanish people. The lifestyle here as well as the shops and the food are similar to the ones I am accustomed to. People just love sitting outside and sipping their coffee for hours and just having a chat and a good time. 

The overall atmosphere is very relaxed and the people seem to be fairly laid-back. So far, I am really liking it. Barcelona is a well-connected and a very tidy city. It is very quiet around lunch time because the locals would eat at home and some of the shops close around that time just to reopen later in the day. Because 

Barcelona is so well-connected, it is very easy and affordable to visit the tourist attractions of the city. So far, I’ve visited Ramblas, Barceloneta and the iconic cathedral of Sagrada Familia. The timetable of the University is very good too. My Mondays and Tuesdays are full but Wednesdays and Thursdays aren’t as busy so it’s not too bad. I’m also off every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and that allows me to explore the city as much as I like. The food here is good and a lot more affordable compared to Ireland. There are also a lot of restaurants with foreign cuisine so the people of Barcelona are spoiled for choice. If time allows, I am going visit other parts of the country too before the weather gets cooler.

  

More on my next post

Panos

My first few days in Belfast!

 

Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland; it is located on the river Lagan. It is home to a population of 659,000 people. I arrived here on the 26^th of September, where I was checked into the Grand Central Hotel. The Grand Central Hotel opened in 2018 at a cost of £54 million, and it is the newest hotel in the Hastings Hotel Group. It boasts three hundred bedrooms, of which ten are suites. The culinary team here is led by Damian Tumility, while Stephen Meldrum leads the hotel as general manager. Through hard work and determination, the team here helped the hotel to achieve its fifth star just over a year ago. I will both work and live here as part of the culinary team for the next three months for my international work placement – in integral part of the BA (hons) in Culinary Arts.

 

 The evening I arrived, after unpacking my bags, I took a stroll around the city which is just a two-minute walk away. I find the weather here to be far colder than that in the sunny south-east. While I was walking around, I stumbled upon Victoria Square, a high-end shopping district in Belfast. While the area itself is outdoor, it is covered by an all-weather roof which makes the location ideal for shopping all year round. The next day I had my induction at the Europa Hotel. This hotel is the sister hotel of the Grand Central Hotel, and it is the most bombed hotel in the world because of incidents during ‘The Troubles.’ After the induction I went with the Human Resources Manager; Rose Nagra back to the Grand Central, where I was introduced to chef Damian. He showed me around the hotel and invited me to dine in the hotel that night, as well as have a drink in the hotel’s observatory lounge. The views from the observatory were incredible.

I started work the next day on September 28^th, at 9am. I worked on pastry, where I will be primarily stationed for my first three weeks of placement. The afternoon tea menu, al a carte menu and other places for which we must make pastries were explained to me by Danielle, one of the junior sous chefs. Throughout the day I made many different things such as scones, meringue, and lemon tartlet filling and I was introduced to many of the chefs working in the hotel, as well as other staff such as the General Manager, Stephen Meldrum. I then went to help plate goats cheese salads for a function that night. After I finished that and cleaned down, I was free to go. I have so far really enjoyed my time here in Belfast.

                    All the best,

                   Ben Roche.