Part 4: Barcelona June 10th to the 17th

Before I get into our trip to Barcelona I just wanted to quickly touch on the fact that Michael Jackson has died. Crazy! I just found out about an hour ago and I still cannot believe that he is dead. Regardless of the type of person is was or was not in his personal life he was still a musical genius. May he rest in peace.

Barcelona! I really enjoyed Barcelona but I feel the best way to understand what all happened in Barcelona is to divide it into 2 parts. Each part was great in its own way but each had its downside.

For the first part of our trip we stayed in the town of Sabadell. It was not only super cheap but a lot quieter than Barcelona. However, the 45 minute commuter train, which should have been no longer than 30 minutes, made us all question was it worth the money saved. Every train ride left us all feeling sick to our stomachs and slightly dizzy. Although, on the Saturday after seeing the night life of Barcelona we returned to Sabadell to a local festival celebrating their heritage. I think seeing a bunch of young Spaniards dance to rock-and-roll covered folk songs was an amazing experience we never would have seen if we had stayed in Barcelona. It was also strange to see so many people, from a variety of ages, up until 2 o'clock in the morning dancing to rock folk music.

In fact, Patrick and I should have lived in Spain. They do everything late there and the friendly energy of the Spanish is contagious. You move quicker in Spain than in France, but you never feel rushed. Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to in my life. They love architecture and do a wonderful job blending the old and new to make a wonderful mosaic of Barcelona's history through their buildings. It was also pretty easy to get away from the tourists, it just took a little walking, which is nice as they were all annoying after some time.

Make the effort to take the metro to the last beach stop and you will find a local beach full of more families and less people yelling: "Beer, cervaza, agua, fanta, hasish." Also little Asian ladies yelling: "Massagie, por 5 euros!" The down side of beaches in Barcelona is they are covered with trash. You would think that all of those Spanish PETA people who spend all their time posing nude for animal rights would spend more time cleaning their beaches might actually make a difference in the environment.

Most of the first part we spent hanging out and walking around the city seeing the Gaudi stuff. Barcelona museums are over-priced especially compared to cities like Paris. The food looked amazing but was a little out of our budget. We did have paella one night but it was not worth the money we spent on it. Next time, Patrick and I decided to go to Barcelona for the food. However, we did get 3 for 2 fresh fruit juice, which was perfect. Nothing beats the heat like a mango y coco juice.

Part two of our trip didn't start off the best, in fact, there wasn't suppose to be a part two. We showed up to the train station on Monday morning to find out that our train home had been canceled by France due to a f@*king strike! GOD DAMN FRANCE! Of course I had just spent the whole commute to the train station telling Patrick how much I love France and how I missed it. I think God likes to make me look like an idiot.

We were told by the train station person that the best thing to do was come back in the evening to see if the strike would continue through the next day. So off we went to enjoy another day in Barcelona. During this day my wallet was stolen and all of my money was taken out of my account. Yeah! I didn't realize until about dinner time where I preceded to flip-shit. Patrick stayed wonderfully calm during the whole thing while I called my bank to cancel my card; he booked an appointment to begin to get my passport re-issued. After taking care of business we went to the local police station to file a report. In the middle of giving my report the lady who worked there handed my wallet back to me with my passport and all of my identification cards. Patrick said that my face was the face a woman make when their newborn is handed to them for the first time. My card was gone as was the 30 euros that was in my wallet but I had my passport and that was all that mattered.

Later that night we found out that the strike would continue until Wednesday. Lucky Brook was there to help us buy bus tickets home as Patrick left all of this credit cards at home since why do we both need to bring cards since I was taking care of this trip. So we spent the next two days living super cheap. I mean we lived on less than 10 euros a day. I think we spent 6 euros the first day on food and maybe 7 euros the next day. Euro meat baby; it isn't completely meat but it works! We did have money left over from the deposit on our rental place in Sabadell that Patrick had in his wallet, which we used to stay in a hostel and eat.

We did enjoy our few extra days in Barcelona and managed to go to the beach again and see some really cool exhibits for free, so all in all it wasn't bad. I am still figuring out my bank situation but we are safe and I have my passport. The most annoying thing is we planned our budget perfectly as to have more than enough money to live on for the last month. We just didn't plan to be victims of theft or a strike, oh life. Now I will set money aside in the event of theft or strike from now on. So that that be a lesson for all of you, save money in the event of a shit storm during a trip.

I would write about the awful bus ride home but this is already long enough so I end this post here. Barcelona was great minus the whole bullshit at the end.

Ta ta for now,
Molly