I moved to Berlin after living in BCN for many years.
In Berlin there are beaches but of course they are not comparable to south (actually they have a different taste) But at least now I can afford a couple of times per year going to BCN and enjoy the city more than I used to. Barcelona was like honeymoon for me. In the beginning it was so good but once I was there for a couple of years everything lost its taste.
I was fluent in Catalan and Spanish from day 0 (well Catalan came a bit later) and have never been in expat bubble. I know that expat community enjoys more. But when you are involved in the local community you see that in Spain economical and political issues make people unhappy there. They won't say you that because even they can't recognize how much they are complaining about their life. This sucked my energy. Yes, weather is nice and all those mediterrean stuff looks so interesting but you can't eat sun and sand. I was personally looking for being productive but unfortunately Spain was not somewhere you can build stuff like you can do in the north. When I realized that I was wasting one of my most productive years, I simply moved on. If not I would have regretted 30 years later.
I think until you are 30 you should have lived there, definetely one of the best places to be young but if you want to have a good future, good career etc. you'll need to spend the rest of your life in a more developed economy of Europe, of course then you can come and buy your house in Costa Brava and die there once you are retired,
In Berlin there are beaches but of course they are not comparable to south (actually they have a different taste) But at least now I can afford a couple of times per year going to BCN and enjoy the city more than I used to. Barcelona was like honeymoon for me. In the beginning it was so good but once I was there for a couple of years everything lost its taste.
I was fluent in Catalan and Spanish from day 0 (well Catalan came a bit later) and have never been in expat bubble. I know that expat community enjoys more. But when you are involved in the local community you see that in Spain economical and political issues make people unhappy there. They won't say you that because even they can't recognize how much they are complaining about their life. This sucked my energy. Yes, weather is nice and all those mediterrean stuff looks so interesting but you can't eat sun and sand. I was personally looking for being productive but unfortunately Spain was not somewhere you can build stuff like you can do in the north. When I realized that I was wasting one of my most productive years, I simply moved on. If not I would have regretted 30 years later.
I think until you are 30 you should have lived there, definetely one of the best places to be young but if you want to have a good future, good career etc. you'll need to spend the rest of your life in a more developed economy of Europe, of course then you can come and buy your house in Costa Brava and die there once you are retired,