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Shopping in Barcelona and intensive Spanish courses
With more than thirty five thousand shops to be found inside the city, the shopping is just as intensive as the studying in the many Spanish courses in Barcelona. All participants of Spanish language programs will invariably spend one or two afternoons of their stay in the city visiting the diverse shops and boutiques. The city has a wonderful L shaped shopping route. It starts in the centre of town in Plaza de Cataluña, continues through Paseo de Gracia, and then swings left along the Diagonal Avenue up to Plaza Reina Maria Cristina. Some five kilometres in length, along wide avenues with large sidewalks, the route begins and closes with the Corte Ingles departments stores, under whose roofs the participants of Spanish courses in Barcelona will find just about anything they are looking for. The route is so well trodden and well known amongst visitors to the city that the Metropolitan Transport Authority has a specific bus route along it called the TOMBUS. The route has over thirty different stops, and a bus passes every six minutes from nine in the morning to nine at night, only slowing down slightly to one bus every eight minutes at lunch time. This is an ideal bus to hop on for students of Spanish courses in Barcelona who wish to shop for souvenirs for family back home. Remember that the bus does not run on Sundays when all of the city’s shops must close by law, except on the few special shopping Sundays just before and just after Christmas, and during the summer sales. Barcelona has many different and diverse shopping areas spread across the city. If you are looking for those exclusive international fashion brands then you need to look no further than the Paseo de Gracia and the Diagonal Avenue. For participants of Spanish courses in Barcelona interested in food, then a visit to the Boqueria market is a must. Located just off the Ramblas, this market is famous worldwide for its colours, smells and tastes. Whether you are looking for a special ingredient, or just want to stroll after a hard day studying intensive Spanish in Spain, a visit to this market is always a delight. The best time to visit is in the morning when all the stalls are open, and the range of fresh produce available is simply breathtaking. The tree lined Ramblas is the perfect place to shop for souvenirs. The combination of intense foot traffic, bird and plant stalls, international newsagents, street performers and café terraces make this famous avenue a pleasure to stroll through at any time of the day, and any day of the year. All participants of Spanish courses in Barcelona should stroll down this thoroughfare, starting off at the top of the Ramblas on Plaza de Cataluña, and continuing down to the sea and the statue to Christopher Columbus and the port area. On the left side of the Ramblas as you go down, students of Spanish courses in Barcelona will find the old town, or Gothic area of the city. The narrow streets and alleys are home to some of the oldest shops in town, as well as some of the newest in the form of the boutiques of young fashion designers. It is also a great place to find the authentic Catalan and Spanish ceramics and handicrafts that make for more refined souvenirs. When facing the sea, on the right hand side of the Ramblas there is the area known as El Raval. Here in the second hand shops participants of Spanish courses in Barcelona will find music and clothes. This area has a large resident immigrant population and the shopping experience you will find here reflects this international flavour. With two business schools permanently featuring in the world’s top ten for full time MBA programs, Barcelona is a popular destination for professional people wishing to further their careers. The attraction is not just limited to these schools, as the city boasts several more business schools that regularly feature in the top one hundred classifications compiled by prestigious international business publications. Combine this with the many intensive Spanish courses for business people that the city offers, and you soon see the irresistible attraction of this port city for international executives looking for professional education. ESADE and IESE business schools are amongst the best in the world, and their Barcelona campuses have contributed immensely to the attraction of the city as a location not only for MBA programs but also for intensive Spanish courses for business people. Both schools were founded in the late fifties, and tens of thousands of students have graduated from these institutions. The languages of instruction are Spanish and English. A business school recently placed by the Financial Times in the top one hundred worldwide and top twenty five in Europe is EADA, also based in Barcelona and also founded in the last fifties. EADA stands for Escuela de Alta Dirección y Administración. With participants from fifty countries from around the world, the school offers a full range of MBA programs, both full and part time. The languages of instruction are similar to those of ESADE and IESE, so attending one of the many intensive Spanish courses for business students might be necessary. Spanish courses in Barcelona In recent years, there has been a newcomer on the block in the shape of the Pompeu Fabra University, created in 1990. In conjunction with the non-profit making foundation IDEC (The Continuing Education Institute), it offers MBA programs under the UPF-IDEC badge. In common with its other peers, the languages of instruction are Spanish and English. For people not fully conversant with the language, it will be necessary to consider intensive Spanish courses for business uses. When reading the testimonials of past students of these business schools, you gain an insight into why they chose Barcelona as the city to study for their MBA. Simply put, Barcelona is a very pleasant place to spend a year or two. For people looking at intensive Spanish courses for business people, this recommendation should be kept in mind when deciding whether to study Spanish in Barcelona. Spanish courses in Barcelona Shopping in Barcelona and intensive Spanish courses...... Study spanish in Barcelona Mountains you can easily visit when you study Spanish in Barcelona...... |