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Comment by rosndo | Hacker News Reader

Not just “some areas”, our car got robbed while driving on C/ de Mallorca just 2 blocks from Sagrada Familia, a normally quiet area near the centre.

Guys with knives surrounded the car and stabbed out the tires, pulled out whatever stuff they could get from the backseat.

A couple of days later two guys in hoodies ripped my watch from my wrist after I stepped out to smoke next to a posh Eixample restaurant. Admittedly I’d occasionally heard those stories before, but never had such an issue while wearing the same watch every day for 4 years back when I lived in Barcelona pre-covid.

It might still be quiet and safe in Sarria or Diagonal Mar, but the central areas seem to be worse than even the worst tourist areas were a couple of years ago.

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@rosndo @malux85 not sure if you're just trying to scare away another expat or if it's legit :P but if legit that doesn't sound good at all :( any other places in Spain you would recommend? Valencia and some other cities are pretty non-car centric too, no?

I dont know, I only lived in Barcelona sorry, but I lived there pre-covid for about 6 months, then moved to Germany for 8 months, then back to Barcelona for about 3-4 months ... after I went back the city was a LOT scarier.

Valencia isn’t so bad, but almost nobody speaks English. This is very helpful if you want to learn Spanish :)

The food scene in Valencia isn’t half as good as in Barcelona though, but the beach is infinitely better and life tends to be more relaxed.

Pre-COVID I would have recommended Barcelona to anybody.

Valencia and Málaga also meet your requirements, I think.

Well, to do my part in scaring potential expats away, air pollution and noise pollution (it's LOUD) are pretty bad here and you might find lead pipes and asbestos in your building. If you live in a bajo (ground floor) in the old town, expect cockroaches the size of mice (they are quick). Depending on where you are, the tap water tastes like the water from a children's swimming pool. Depending on where you live, your barrio might smell like a sewer on certain days (even the expensive ones). Population density is very high, so expect to hear a part of your neighbors' lives, walls are often thin.

Never seen shirtless guys with machetes anywhere, day or night. Crime (apart from pickpocketing) never struck me as a huge problem (not above general big-city levels), neither pre- nor post-Covid, and I don't live in the best part of town for sure. But all the stuff above I personally experienced.

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