see robertson go: Barcelona: Wrapping Up

We spent our last two days in Barcelona doing lots and lots of walking. Finally the weather was nice enough that we could spend the entire day outside without the threat of being caught in the rain. We spent our final days there either reading on the pier overlooking the harbor and sailboats or walking to nearby neighborhoods.

With the ever-changing line-up of roommates in our hostel, we got a few new faces to mix up our routine over the 4 (almost 5) days that we were there, but we happily welcomed a German girl who had decided to come down to Spain as a break from studying economics. She replaced the drunk Australian who during his stay, marked his trip with a youth hostel hook-up and a tattoo (that I'm sure sounded much more deep while he was drunk then when he explained the significance to us later in the day) and also managed to spill liquid soap all over our floor in the middle of the night -- slippery for days.

But our German girl, we found a little bit of a friend in her and spent some time getting to know her, which was great because she was relatively familiar with Barcelona and getting to share bits of her culture made things all the better.

On Sunday, Amy and I killed time before our evening train ride with a long walk to Barcelona's man-made beach, only to turn right around when the only place to sit were beach chairs for 5 euros. So back to the pier we went for reading and sleeping in the sun.

Spain gave me one last kick in the ass though when I woke up to a seagull dropping a giant crap on my arm. Of all the luck, it's not a huge arm, really kind of thin and puny! But the bird managed to miss the deck completely and only make it on me and like a true friend, Amy wiped it off of me. I couldn't look at it without wanting to puke. It was so foul. So green.

So with bird shit on my only unpacked t-shirt, I cleaned up as best as could and we finally headed for the train station. After nearly going to the wrong station on the wrong subway, we boarded a night train for the 12-hour train ride from Barcelona to Paris.

We were booked for a 4-person, all woman couchette and when we got to the room, we were shocked at just how small it was, especially when we saw the size of the suitcases our roommates had. Two girls from Argentina were supposed to bunk with us and when we couldn't fit everything (and us) in the couchette, I think Amy and I were a little nervous. Thankfully, they were traveling with another girl who was in a couchette on her own, so after getting the okay from the conductor, they moved in with her and Amy and I were left with a room all to ourselves. Perfect after 4 nights in that hostel. Maybe it's all my time spent on sailboats with rocking waves, but the train and some cold medicine put me to sleep in no time. Amy on the other hand was not so lucky, I think she had another terrible night of sleep, but I was none the wiser.

None of it mattered though, because we woke up to Paris. Finally. The best way to start a day.

Watching boats for hours come through the retractable pedestrian bridge that enclosed the marina. Total pain for boaters and people, by the way, as I think they only open it once every 30 minutes (by our watches).