Things I need to know to survive in Bilbao
Hola! First lets strat with me! My name is Gerda. I'm Estonian. I moved to Finland four years ago. I had a change to come to Bilbao to have new experiences of work, getting know new people, the culture etc. I'm here for almost 3 months and I work in a hotel as an trainee. Okay... Things I need to know to survive in Bilbao.. Sentences in Spanish, yes that's right. I said sentences OR words, because here in Bilbao it's rare when someone speaks English, but no worries, younger people do speak English very well. If someone starts to talk to you and you don't understand anything then do this: Smile, say: Lo siento, pero no hablo español. Meaning: I'm sorry, but i don't speak Spanish. If you hear someone says castellano instead of español it's because in the north of Spain most people call the Spanish castellano instead of español but it's because of habit. First time when i tried to speak español, I took some English word and tried to translate it to español just putting the letter O or S in the end. I know, sounds silly but hey, i bet that you've done the same. I give you an example what i did. I wanted to buy carrots, so i thought if i just change the word, they might understand. So what i did is i changed the word carrots to carrotas... please, don't ask. But the right word for carrots is zanahorias. Close, but still so far.
1. No need for visa. 2. So first thing how to learn Spanish is to download an app named Duolingo. It really helps to learn Spanish. It teaches you words, sentences, numbers etc. There are also other languages you might be interested in. Or you can just make friends here. It's really easy, because people here are very friendly and they like to communicate only if you're open to it. 3. You need an umbrella. I'm not kidding. It's really necessary here, because it rains here. A lot. 4. If you are going to stay here almost three months, like me, or even more, you don't have to take all your clothes with you. You just don't need that much, because you are going to buy new clothes anyways, that's for sure. But as i told you before, that it rains here, you need proper clothes for that kind of weather. 5. Food here are not expensive at all. For example, in Finland those pastas which costs like two euros or even more, here they cost like a bit over one euro. Sometimes you can get it for above one euro. What a life! Sweet sweet student life! 6. Money. Take cash with you. Because some places don't accept payment cards (for example pharmacy or Chinese shops) 7. Don't be worried about the prices of medicines. it's cheap. Like a box of Ibuprofeno and a box of paracetamol all together costs like 3,30€. First when the man said the amount i was like what, what was the sum? And he repeated and i still didn't get it cause i was amazed! :D And no, I didn't put the letter O on purpose in the end of Ibuprofen, hehe :) 8. Some says that tap water is safe to drink but some says it's not. In Spain, at least 99.5% of all public tap water is safe to drink. But I have bought bottle water.. 1L costs like 0,20 cents! 9. Dogs. Many of the dog owners don't use rope. If you're not a dog lover, don't worry! Dogs won't harm you, they'll be walking next to or near to their owner. Be aware of dog poops. Some doesn't clean after when dog have minded their business. 10. If you going to use busses, subways, trains or trams a lot, you need to buy a travel card which costs 3€. It will be more cheaper than to buy every time a single ticket. You can buy it from the Metro Bilbao station barik card ticket machines. 12. In Spain driving with car you have to be careful, if you're used with the calm traffic. Also many Spanish drivers make up their own ‘rules’, which are infinitely variable! The Spanish drive on the right-hand side of the road.
13. If you're not a fan of kisses and hugs and you meet new people here be aware of getting hugged and kissed on the cheeks. If you going to stay here for a while, you have to get used to it! I'm still doing my best.
14. Consulate of Finland is located in Abando, Bilbao.