Travel Journal Overview: Barcelona always has mixed feelings for me. A perfect place to call home, or just another city pretending to be?
Well what can I say about the place I really have mixed feelings for. I spent a month in BCN 2.5 years ago, had all my vaccinations there, and had a great time. It should take little explanation to say what it is like living in BCN with Italian girls. To explain the mentality or thought process of my Italian friend is somewhat perplexing, after all she is my very good friend. Life awakens at between 10-12am, breakfast is a m
ere cafe solo, internet for at least 2-3 hours, beach until 6pm, siesta until 9pm, leave for dinner 10pm, somehow go to sleep by 3am minimum. And of course plans changed every 1 hour, so sufficed to say, no car trip this week. Everyday. I struggled, my stomach still bloated from various African bacteria and Field & trek looks brought shame to my conscious. I went out and bought a new t shirt, and jeans. It was now I felt it hard to interact with people, especially since I speak not one word of Italian
. But the people were good to me and I enjoyed.
Our car trip finally happened 2.5 weeks later, and yes it was good. We traveled up the Costa Brava and into France, camping along the way and having a mini adventure.
My next destination was Stuttgart to visit another old friend. To get there was a simple bus trip. So, why oh why do Eurolines Suck???? If I want a flight to anywhere in the world I can log into anything up to 20 websites in most main international languages and pick a route. But with Eurolines, NO. They do not have a central timetable route website, instead you must log onto an individual countries website. Which means to go from BCN to Stuttgart means I have to be able to read Spanish, or from say Germany to Poland you need to read German (though the german website does offer an English translated page. Ok, time out here — I do not think all should be in English, but I do think a “Euro” transport company should offer a translation in at least four of the main travellers language, Spanish, French, German, English, and for sure have a central website!!! — All this and the ticket would cost me 107 Euro while a Germanwings plane ticket would cost only 67Euro?!! What to do? Pay the extra head off on a 24 hour trip, or pay less for a 2 hour flight? It took me days to answer this. And in the end I bought a plane ticket…. and yes I do regret it. . . Anyone with half a brain could book themselves across Europe one way or another, no big deal.
But to fly… somehow it seems to take a little out of my trip for me… it was after all meant to be overland. But I was on a budget … Still as I write this there are still a few hours left and anything can happen to change a plan …
And so it came to pass …
Ok, ye God’s above looked down upon my mere guilt ridden concious; weighted down by a ticket-less Germanwings flight and yes they did act upon this and smitten my friend with an illness forcing a gallant traveller to… Well, ok my friend got sick, I took her to hospital and as luck would have it missed the flight. I stayed the night up with her as she removed the contents of stomach over and over and over again… went through the wonderful process of Spanish hospital hospitality and stayed the next 24 hours with her recovering self. The burden of a budget concious flight removed and a quick trip to Eurolines led to the discovery that they had two 97 Euro tickets left …
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