There are two languages spoken in Barcelona: Catalan and Spanish. Catalan is a language native to this region of Spain. It is also spoken in Andorra (a small country between Spain and France) and Valencia (a city and region south of Barcelona). About four million people speak the language. Spanish is the official language of Spain. Over 570 million people worldwide speak it. I have been learning Spanish for about seven years, so I can speak with the natives here.
Spanish and Catalan are similar languages. People say Catalan is a mixture of French and Spanish. This makes geographical sense, because Barcelona is right near France. I am not able to speak Catalan, but I can read and understand some because it is similar to Spanish.
The euro is used here, as it is in most European countries. The euro is similar in value to the dollar, but the notes are a lot more colorful— some Americans think that euros look like Monopoly money! One euro (€) is equal to about $1.12 USD.
A bottle of water costs about fifty cents. Water is so cheap because the tap water here does not taste good, and bottled water is very popular. The tap water here has a lot of chlorine in it in order to clean it. I personally do not drink tap water.
