Back to Barcelona

We weren’t sure that train was ever going to end. Addy seemed to have a periodic alarm set for the entire trip that reminded her to turn around from the seat in front of me and whisper, “I’m. So. Bored,” each time placing the emphasis on a different word. The farther into the trip, the more I understood. When the train finally stopped at literally the end of the line, Addy looked like a pot whose lid was steaming from the water about to boil over. Between her massive amount of unused energy from the day and equal amount of excitement to see who was waiting for her, she was ready to run. And I mean run. While Victoria’s and my own legs felt like Jell-O from the sum amount of 200 steps we’d taken that day, Addy and all 3 of her ridiculously large bags were bee-lining it through the station like a mini-Hulk. Good thing she’s shorter than we are.

TRAINing buddies.

The low point of our evening was the evil taxi driver we had the misfortune of meeting. I know I don’t know a lot of Spanish, but I know what he was saying and how he was saying it, and it’s a good thing Addy and I don’t know how to be sassy in Spanish. Victoria did her best to handle it, even after he pushed the x2 button on the bill when we got out. There are just some people that make you question it all sometimes. But, they also make you remember how lucky you are to find the good ones, too. When we made it to the alley of our apartment, we couldn’t figure out which door it was, and we had just about had all we could take. Well, that was when we saw 3 friendly faces strolling down the alley towards us, and the stress melted away and was replaced with annoyed laughter. Bret (our friend from Coruna), his friend, Sean, and our long-awaited new adventure buddy, Marcello (yay, he’s finally here!), came to the rescue and showed us inside. Our apartment was small but pretty neat and just enough space for us. The only questionable part was the stench that loomed from the bathroom, reminding us of the apartment we stayed in while we were in Madrid. At least they were trying to cover it up here, so it was now a smell of sewage with a breath of Fresh Daisy Breeze. Home sweet 48-hour home.

Bret waiting for Marcello's arrival.

The next day was a cycle of eating, exploring, taking pictures, and repeating. The heat sans an ocean breeze was back, and Vic, Addy, and I didn’t know how to handle it – we’re not in Coruna anymore. We set off early in the morning in different directions – Addy to the airport to pick up her sister, Emily, who’s joining us on our trip as well, Bret and Sean to rock climb, and Vic, Marcello, and I to Camp Nou, the official home of the Barcelona professional sports teams, and thus also the home of Victoria’s hero, Lionel Messi. The sports stadium was huge and had been set up with a full museum and self-guided walking tour of the history of the soccer team and the stadium in general. There were hundreds of trophies beginning in the 1920’s all the way up to their accomplishments this year. They also housed all 5 of Messi’s Ballon d’ Or awards, which is an honor given to the best soccer player of them all. And he’s won it 5 times. Needless to say, I have a new-found appreciation for both professional soccer and Messi, and we are now looking forward to the day we can come back to the soon-to-be renovated stadium and see it all in action.

After the stadium, we met up at the apartment, recharged for a bit, and set off on an impressively large loop around the city. We did our best to stick to the shady side of the road, drink lots of water, and fan each other on occasion, or in Addy’s case splash each other with water. None of us handle heat very well, but it was a mutual understanding of that that got us through. Marcello and Emily were both champs and fought the jet lag valiantly, but by the end I’m afraid we were death marching Marcello a little bit. He never complained though, and if it were any of your regular 3 idiots, we would’ve been whining endlessly. On our loop we saw some really beautiful places, check them out below!

Sagrada Familia

Your favorite traveling sister pair

Park Guell

The view from the top.

Casa Batllo

On our way back to the apartment, I was walking a few steps in front of our pack when three tourists who looked like they were from the States timidly asked me if I spoke English. In my head I said “yes,” but my minimal Spanish ability intervened and converted it to “si,” so when everyone else walked up, they saw three Americans explaining a map to a fourth American with the smallest words and most hand gestures they could. Unfortunately, I was in too deep, and I couldn’t help them with the map, so I just backed up and let Mama Addy do it and made sure I said, “adios!” in the most convincing accent I could as we walked away. Do you speak Spanish? Nope. Do you speak English? Nada. I speak perfect Spanglish though, just at inopportune times.

By the time we returned to our apartment, we had walked 15 miles, we all had super fat fingers, and the only way we knew our feet were still connected was the smell. Exhausting? Yes. Totally worth it? Absolutely.

We are spending today on a train to Nice. This morning we said our goodbyes to Bret and Sean, but we hope to see them in Colorado sometime soon! This afternoon we have a 4-hour layover in Valence, France, where we will hopefully find some lunch before our next train. We won’t get into Nice until late, about 10:30 PM, and we will have 24 hours there before our night train tomorrow. That’s okay, though, we are excited to hang out on the beach for a little while before heading to Italy! It has been so fun to have Emily and Marcello with us to witness our moving disaster in person and add commentary much like Cotton and Pepper. Actually, it’s rather impressive how many Dodgeball lines fit into our daily lives, and equally impressive how many times Addy and I crack them:

“Let’s see how this one works out for ‘em, Cotton.”

“If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball.”

“Pepper needs new shorts!”

That’s all for now, folks. Talk to you soon from the rails of Italy! Bon voyage!

More pictures from yesterday:

We enjoyed some authentic Argentinean empanadas for lunch

Vic found her spirit animal.

When you start experimenting with sling shots. Shake n' bake, bro.

Quote of the Day: “It’s like the pee Olympics in there.” -Marcello, talking about the tricky situation of the toilet seat you had to hold open while you used it. What’s life without a little challenge?

Theme song of the Upcoming Week: 500 Miles, by the Proclaimers.

Lauren’s Country Count: 4, 3 more than just 6 weeks ago!