Hello everyone
I've been lurking for a while on this great web and now I'd like to ask you experts something. I was wondering how the change to euros has affected prices in Spain, Barcelona to be exact. I lived there (and loved it) from sept 99 to april 2000 and we paid 70,000 pst for a good aptm in Eixample, I earned 200,000 a month teaching in an international school in Sant Cugat. Since then I've lived in London, Mexico City and the US, and am now back to my native Iceland. However, I long for Spain a lot, but was wondering if Barcelona had become a whole lot more expensive than it used to be. Some people I know that spend their holidays every year on the coast find that there is indeed a marked difference. What do those of you living in the cities say? Should I expect the same standard of living? Thanks for your help and all the great info - I feel that the side keeps me in touch with my inner Spaniard!!

In general everything has gone up. The biggest culprits are the bars. I estimate a 40% increase on prices there. Newspapers are up from 125 pesetas to 1 Euro which is 166 pesetas or thereabouts. Food has gone up but to a lesser extent I think. Expensive consumer goods like cars, for example, have barely changed. As for appartments, the Euro probably isn't to blame here for once. Remember, if you're living in a rented apartment, the landlord can only put up the rent in accordance with inflation. Of course, once you leave the flat he can fix the rent at what he wants, and rents in Madrid at least have gone up quite a lot in the last two years. The poor landlords need the extra money to go to bars where the prices have gone up, you see.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply - Either I'll have to limit my bar visits (hard!) or convince a future employer to round my salary up!!But if the prices in "Dia" haven't changed too drastically, I'm still OK...
:o ) all the best from a cold and rainy Iceland