To buy or not to buy? To go for the land or continue on with our search?
Prior to seeing this land we’ve arranged to view a few flats in Barcelona with the Sotheby’s. So after a leisurely breakfast, thankfully out on the terrace enjoying the glorious sunshine, we set out to meet Tatiana.

11.30. Plaza Duc de Medinaceli,1.

It is in the Gothic quarter, not that far from our hotel. Got there early, so decided to walk around a bit, discover the surrounding area. Although the building itself was overlooking a square, and in the distance was the sea..the buildings, the street, the noise, the garbage bins, pollution, were all the right reasons why not to live there.

I think we are spoilt. Having the privilege of living in the mountains, where the air is clear, makes us especially sensitive to any pollution. Not a city girl.

The building itself was lovely, the developer kept the facade as it was, just renovated it. The floor of the hall was covered with cement tiles with blue motifs.

Saw 2 apartments, both of them 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ones, the only difference was the height of the ceiling, the top floor apartment had the lower one. Modern, fully equipped kitchen, bathrooms, however the bedrooms were extremely small.

Were told that Spanish people like to spend as much time as possible together as a family in the living room, and they only use the bedrooms for sleep.

Ya, I would say that too. Still I would like to be sure that I won’t die of suffocation due to lack of oxygen in those sleeping chambers.

The best part was the roof top swimming pool with it’s green (full of algae) water.

Honestly thought that we are done, but Tatiana (an Ukraine lady) got us into a taxi and took us to the beach side to a new development.

Met the developer at his office to look at the floorplans. A. stayed behind, decided to have a coffee instead. Considering that he was the one who wanted to look at apartments, found it weird.
The gentleman talked nonstop about the buildings, energy certificate ( was quite proud of his “C” certificate, that is like an “A+” here ), the garage, how there will be a public garden next to it, about the view. The funny thing was that I understood most of it…
Floorplans are floorpans everywhere. Give me a floorplan of a house and I will see it in 3D immediately.

Nice new building, new elevator, fresh paint, laminate floor ( him explaining why a laminate is better then a wooden floor, yeah right, and I was born yesterday )…after a while he realised that I am not listening anymore, chose to discover it myself. Tiny bathtub, smallish rooms, decent size terrace with yes, with the view of the sea and the streets with plenty of traffic.

This 4 bedroom property was over 1.1 million euro, to acquire a parking space in the garage would have been an additional 28000.

I did give it a try. We all tried. But apartments are not for us.
Walked all the way home on the beach only stopping to have lunch at a small restaurant. Don’t even know the name, not worth mentioning anyways, very chewy calamari rings ( you should only use small squids, otherwise you end up with rubber).

Got a call that the owner refused the 450, sticking to 490.
By 5 pm. A. offered the full asking price.
By 6 pm. we got the letter of intent.
By 7 pm. we had it signed and returned.
By 8 pm. we were at the 15nits. Another great place with a hostess like a teacher, telling us off for not waiting patiently enough for our roasted leg of lamb. Loved the place nevertheless.
Their delicious avocado cream , hommos, , grilled goat cheese with quince jelly…, finishing off again with their catalan style dessert.
Were we celebrating? Not quite.
Not quite sure what we are getting ourselves into.