Wait....I thought I was in Spain?

Last weekend I spent some time in Barcelona. I was trying to figure out something nice to do for myself for my birthday, and thought, hey, why not. Its supposed to be a warm, beautiful city. Well, it was unseasonably freezing!!!! The wind whipped, the cold air blew off the water, and I didn’t bring my gloves, silly me. I thought it would be warm! To my dismay, I spent the entire weekend cold. But that’s ok, I was in Barcelona, right!

I realized in Barcelona that not all hostels are the same. While my hostel was very clean, modern, and nice, it wasn’t the best for meeting people who were also travelling alone. I ran into one Japanese kid, a group of teenagers from Germany there for a Yu-gi-oh card tournament, and two lovely girls ( they really were nice) travelling on holiday from Australia, who made friends with the German boys. A far cry from my experience in Berlin. It was at this point I knew I was on my own for travels. I took the advice from my friend Adrian about a *free* walking tour of the city that he had gone on, was advertised at my hostel, and that I had read about online. I thought it would be a good way to become introduced to the city. Well, they must have had a different tour guide. ( after checking Adrian’s message, I confirmed this) Ive never had such a bad tour guide! This guy hated everything about being a tourist! He kept confirming that he did not like tourists, that tourists made the city dirty and crime ridden because they buy 4 euro coffees at Starbucks and only want to drink Sangria, and eat tapas and paella. Well, yeah~! Its like when someone wants to go to Italy and eat spaghetti or pizza. Come on now. This man just couldn’t redeem himself to me. He kept telling us about a few buildings, but not any real information. It was quite annoying. Now, these *free* tour guides are usually pretty young, funny, and love the city. This guy kept saying how he was an engineer and just doing this because he gets paid to, and how he hates all the tourist spots. And he was leading a group of tourists. Nice. So at the end of the tour, you give tips on what you think the tour was worth. Really, I just wanted to give him a euro and tell him how terrible he was, but the waitress in me couldn’t do it, so I gave him 8 euro. Then he talked to me inside the bar, and thought it was a pleasure to order a beer for 1 euro that he reminded me that I had to pay him for. Enough said.

So needless to say, it put a bad taste in my mouth. HOWEVER I then found Starbucks, on the touristy road he told us to avoid. And it tasted delicious. I grabbed a burger and headed back to the hostel. They showed movies at 9pm every night, so I watched the end of Looper and then one of the Mila Jovovich movies, I cant remember what they are called. But it was fun. The next day, I decided to take one of the fun bus tours around the town. Now, it was cold. I really should have thought about what I was signing up for before I bought my ticket to sit on a bus for four hours in the cold wind. However, quickly the trip took a fun turn. I chatted with a few other people who were on the bus, and suddenly we discovered that we were stuck. Literally. The city hop on hop off bus got stuck under an underpass because it lowered itself and didn’t make it back up. It was on too large an incline. It was hilarious, since the recording kept going, and so it was telling us about things even when we were still in one spot. Actually very funny! We were all escorted off of the bus and asked to wait for the next bus, which was already packed. We were able to get on, and got a good laugh out of it. We looked like crazy people!

I was able to see all the sights- La Sagra Familia, the Olympic Village, beautiful old churches, the FC Barcelona stadium, Las Ramblas and the shopping areas. It was fun to see the architecture that was so unique and how it would be beautiful in the summer time. A return may be necessary!!!

However, getting home was not so smooth. I will spare you the details. But lets just say I was uncharacteristically emotional at the airport, which shopping and hot chocolate did not fix when my flight was delayed, and then my connecting flight was missed. Not one of my finest moments!!