[JaredL]

In Spain the two obvious choices are Sevilla and Barcelona. They are my two favorite cities in the world. San Sebastian would be a great place to live as well.

Sevilla is the most Spanish of cities. Every Spanish stereotype is the norm there - they have the huge religious festivals (despite not being very religious), they love bullfighting, they are very passionate about soccer, flamenco music and dancing (specifically Sevillanas) is very popular there and at least all the females know it, they are pretty much always late, super laid back etc. To me the setting is amazing. It's so incredibly laid back there and the people are very warm. Meeting friends is no problem whatsoever.

Barcelona is larger, more metropolitan, and has a distinct culture. While they have a lot of "immigrants" from Southern Spain and Madrid, it still is very Catalan. People are still friendly relative to a similarly sized city in the US, but not as warm and chatty as in Sevilla. They are much more interested in getting to the point than the discussion. It's similarly more laid back in general than San Francisco or whatever, but not as much as other parts of Spain. One drawback, or it would be for me at least, is the language. While most speak Catalan as their native language instead of Spanish, that's not all that important because they also speak Spanish. The problem is that, perhaps due to their distinct language and culture, they would rather talk to you in English than Spanish. Several time in the 10 days or so that I was there, I would ask some local a question in Spanish and they would just answer it in English. This can be good or bad depending on your perspective.

I should have said above that I did a study abroad in Sevilla living there for 5 months. I spent 6 days in Barcelona during that time. I was planning on going for just a couple as I had already been there for a few days in the past, but loved it so I stayed for pretty much all of my vacation. I also went to San Sebastian, but only for a day. It was very nice as well. The food in particular was fantastic. It's also a coastal town right on the Atlantic so you're on the ocean, although it's colder than what I suspect you're used to. It's in the Basque country but unlike Catalonia, most Basques don't know the language and are native Spanish speakers.