Corkonians Abroad: Barcelona is an adult’s playground

THIS week, I caught up with Louise Godfrey from Cork’s northside. She has been living in Barcelona for the past five years, currently residing in the Eixample neighbourhood.

How did you end up living in Barcelona?

I moved to Barcelona more than five years ago. I never saw myself living in Spain. At the time my company was moving my job to Barcelona and I had the choice to move or take redundancy. Of course I was only 24 at the time so I jumped on the opportunity and took the risk. What was planned for one year has turned to five.

What is life like in your new home?

The lifestyle in Barcelona is so diverse, I would say my lifestyle has definitely changed from when I arrived until now.

Now I am more settled in and my everyday life is working (either from the office or home), heading to my gym where I have my personal trainer, waking up early for a sunrise swim and meeting friends for lunch, dinner, or making dinner at home.

I spend most of my time trying to experience the different activities Barcelona has to offer - there are so many things to do here. It really is an adult’s playground. 

That can be sports, workshops, art activities, and just hanging out with friends on a terrace enjoying the sun, having a few glasses of wine. I love the spontaneity of the city.

What has been the biggest challenge? How have you tackled it?

I would say my biggest challenge was finding my flow. When I first arrived, everything was quite hectic, I was in constant holiday mode. I was working and going out trying to meet new people and friends and it can be exhausting after a while, at least for me, as I can be quite introverted.

With my friends that I made here, we tried to do more activities that didn’t involve just going out to bars.

Most of my friends arrived at a similar time and luckily enough we had a similar ‘holiday burn-out’ so we were quite happy to start living in a more wholesome, healthy, balanced life!

How might you spend your weekends?

There is definitely no one typical answer to this question. In the summer, I would spend my day at the beach with friends, either in the city or we would take a train to some of the towns nearby where it’s not so busy so we can relax, we also love food so trying new restaurants and eating out is a big part of what the typical day looks like.

In the colder months, a weekend is meeting for coffee and taking a walk, or attending some workshop (I recently attended a SUCO session active mediation as an example).

Tell us a bit about the culture of where you live? What are the main differences from Ireland?

It’s very international, you have a lot of expats living in Barcelona, everyone is always outside, they love to eat and drink, sport plays a huge part of the culture here, people live quite healthy lifestyles and I think this is largely due to the weather, you can spend most days outside.

Any culture shock type moments for you over the years?

I don’t think I have experienced any major culture shock, one that comes to mind is eating habits, a three-course meal for lunch at 2pm, (lunch lasts for over an hour!) and having dinner at 9/10pm, I was very out of sorts while adapting to this way of living but now I found the happy medium.

Thinking back, I’d like to think I took everything in my stride, one of the things I did have to get used to was more related to city living, it’s noisy and it can be dangerous. 

People are not as friendly in the streets. I wouldn’t say this is cultural but more related to cities.

BUT I will say having a lazy day was difficult, especially during the summer. The Irish guilt of wanting a duvet day after a busy week at work, but it’s scorching outside, took me a year or two to get over.

Tell us about your line of work and career?

I work for a tech company as a Global Sales Manager, managing around 20 people across the globe. I started working for this company about eight years ago as a sales rep and built my way up into a leadership role.

I was hired in Cork and moved with the company to Barcelona when they decided to open a new office in the city here.

Tell us your thoughts on opportunity - do you see more in different parts of the world than Ireland?

Yes and no. I would say it depends on your line of work and stage of your career. I think, in the tech space, Ireland has lots of opportunity, however most companies are now putting their Inside Sales hubs where they are typically hiring more junior profiles, where they can attract talent, which can be hard for young people to get their foot in the door and their first job.

Barcelona is growing rapidly so the opportunities for young talent are endless!

What has been your most memorable moment in your new location so far?

There have been too many, it’s hard to pick just one. One that comes to mind was for my birthday, which I am never too bothered about, but my friends surprised me, one flew from Paris to celebrate and she arrived with a card that had a very vague note just telling me to wear something nice and to be ready for a certain time, and slowly all my friends started to arrive to my apartment. Then we got in a car and to my surprise we ended up at a beautiful yard where we had a tour, wine tasting.

After, I was given a map and a picnic basket and we had to find our beautiful private location in the vineyard where there was food and wine, we stayed there all afternoon - what an amazing day!

If you were back in Cork for one day, what would the ideal day be for you?

My ideal day in Cork would be spending it with friends and family, I love walking and hiking when I am home so I would start with that, have some lunch and a pint in a pub after.

What are you looking forward to in the coming months?

Right now, I am in a bit of a crossroads with my job, I may move to Milan or possibly back to Cork, so I am excited to see where life takes me in the next few months.

I am also looking forward for the weather to get better and taking weekend trips, making the most of my time.

Is there anything that you especially miss about Cork?

100% my family! I am a home bird so every time I come home I love to spend the time with my family, cousins and aunties.

Also, the people, I think you don’t realise how friendly Irish people are until you leave.