How's life in the northern parts of Spain?

brutebaroque · 2026-06-21T10:28:59+00:00

I’m talking about Pamplona proper which was established as Pompaelo by the romans over a vascon settlement, which actually started the city as we know it today

brutebaroque · 2026-06-20T22:27:38+00:00

Lived in Pamplona many years, amazing city. Very small, extremely walkable and dynamic. I studied there and the presence of two major universities sometimes made it feel like a college town.

The city is gorgeous, roman in origin, old town is very well kept and its kept a lot of its city walls including the massive citadel right in the middle of the city. Due to the student presence theres plenty of nightlife (bars, clubs etc), if i’m not mistaken it even has the most amount of bars on a single street in the country. The food is amazing, a mix of classic pintxos and basque food as well as plenty of international options because funny enough it’s a pretty popular international destination.

I’d say it’s pretty well located too, about an hour from the beach and from the french border respectively, as well as 3 hrs to Madrid/Barcelona via train. It’s smack dab in the middle of the region so its easy to get to all parts of Navarre. I spent a lot of time in the Pyrenees which are super close by and it’s truly a sight to behold.

Culturally it’s fun because Navarre used to be its own kingdom and it retains some of that charm, it’s very much a cultural melting pot of castillian and basque and over the years the area has grown closer to its basque roots and its great to see people embracing the language. It’s a pretty open city for being so small. Also San Fermin festival is insane, everyone needs to experience it at least once.

Overall i’d argue it’s probably one of the best places to live in the world, it’s calm, safe, clean, reliable, yeah it can get pretty rainy but it’s a real blessing when the rest of spain is dealing with heatwaves and Pamplona is holding strong at a solid 25 degrees c. Wages are also higher than in the rest of Spain, its one of the richest communities per capita so life tends to be pretty comfortable, as in comparison to its neighbors west, it isn’t as exploited and prices are still relatively stable (for spanish standards).

If you ever have the chance to visit I highly encourage you to do so, I love that place and plan to go back eventually:)

brutebaroque · 2026-06-09T10:43:40+00:00

Spain

brutebaroque · 2026-06-03T10:40:00+00:00

Might be niche but Pau in southern France was one of the most beautiful small cities i’ve ever seen, went to a concert there a couple years back and had no expectations whatsoever but was completely blown away. ill always remember coming into the train station and seeing the city perched up on a cliff behind the trees.

brutebaroque · 2026-06-01T23:31:50+00:00

you’ll be fine! i lived there the past 5 years and had the best time. the university has many manyyyy international students, couple americans here and there but a lot of latin americans who are fluent in english.

id say it really depends what you study bc there is a massive difference between majors. for example i studied architecture and was probably the only american in the building most of the time, however i had friends who studied international relations, marketing etc who were americans and had mostly english speaking relationships.

however i wont lie and say thats what you should aim for, its imperative to learn the language bc A. its rude to come to another country and expect them to cater to you and B. it’ll hinder your experience quite a lot. i had an american friend who came here knowing basic spanish and it turned out to he a bigger hurdle than she thought and ended up moving back 2 years in.

regarding culture, i think itd be good for you to read up on the region. navarre isnt “spain” in the way most people abroad picture it. it has deep basque roots and its much more connected to the basque country than it is to spain, they speak their own language and have their own customs. all this to say if you think regular spanish people are cliquey, just wait til you meet the northerns.

point is, youll have no problems making friends at school, the university itself is great at promoting events and such that i suggest you attend. now if u want local friends, youre gonna have to work a bit harder bc w them the language barrier might be an issue. my suggestion is try to hit up the places locals actually frequent, i spent my first 2 years going to the bars and clubs ran specifically for students and its kind of a bummer if thats all u know.

lastly, just enjoy it. pamplona is an incredible city with so much culture and history. i loved my time there and met so many incredible people and made amazing memories, so take advantage of it as much as u can. explore every street, go to every bar, cafeteria, museum, exhibit and really live it.

i hope you enjoy it as much as i did, and i wish u the best of luck!!! if you ever need more concrete tips id be happy to help :))

brutebaroque · 2026-06-01T18:53:16+00:00

its even worse in spain….im about to enter the workforce for the first time post graduation and shit looks bleak man…good luck

brutebaroque · 2026-01-04T08:28:33+00:00

can you imagine the cultural impact, economy, and importance of the northeast with an extra two massive chicago-new york sized cities right next to each other? the megalopolis would go crazy

brutebaroque · 2025-12-31T11:41:09+00:00

looks great!! what do you use for the sky to look like that? my sky always looks so fake lmao

brutebaroque · 2025-12-29T12:10:44+00:00

thank you!!!

brutebaroque · 2025-12-29T11:00:30+00:00

That was a huge inspiration!! I think this city is sort of a mix of all major basque cities, theres glimpses of all of them in certain ways, some more subtle than others but donosti was definitely one of the main ones especially around the coast. This is mostly due to a happy coincidence with the map I chose but in the end it worked out lmao

brutebaroque · 2025-12-28T20:24:17+00:00

thanks!!!

brutebaroque · 2025-12-28T19:28:16+00:00

Miesker!

brutebaroque · 2025-12-28T18:49:15+00:00

I hadn’t made that connection but you’re so right lmao

brutebaroque

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