Spain

Oh Spain, what an adventure you have been. I left off with my last night in France in Montpellier. The next morning we had a reservation for a train at 7:26AM, which we made with time to spare. It was a 4 hour train to Barcelona, then two more non-reservation required trains to take us to Logrono where we would rent another car and start our Rioja to Priorat trip. Our train was a little over a half hour late coming into Barcelona due to border control issues, so we missed our connection train. No big deal, because I had written down the other train times in case we missed that one. So we get to the station and go to the boards to look for our next train and can’t find it. We go to the ticket machines, can’t find it. We find the hard copy schedules of departing trains, finally find a train that stops where we need to go, and it is reservation required! Ok, no big deal, we will just get in the insanely long line and get a reservation (because the automated machines only sell Metro tickets) and we have a couple hours before it leaves. Finally make it to the front of the line, ask for the train to Logrono and get “Sorry, not today, all full”. Ok, so we go to the line for tickets for trains any day other than today. We take a number and realize there are 400+ people in line in front of us, no joke. There were people camped out on the ground sleeping because they had been waiting so long. At this point it was about 1:30PM and Ryan and I had both not had anything to eat since our little croissants on our first train. We weren’t thinking very clearly, which is a given, but we rallied and I decided I needed to find internet and book us a room in Barcelona for the night, and cancel a bunch of reservations in Logrono. After much scavenging and sneaking into a hotel and using their guest’s only computer, I was successful. We grabbed a quick bite to eat in the station (only 300 more people in front of us in line), and I decided to go to the hotel and check in and drop some of our baggage. I was thrilled to see that my budget priced hotel was in a great area and had a rooftop pool! When I made it back to the station to get Ryan, he informed me that the only train he was able to reserve was for the following night at 10:30pm and we would arrive in Logrono at 4am!! We didn’t say much to each other then, because I think we were both just too tired and discouraged. We went straight to the hotel and jumped in the rooftop pool. Almost immediately we decided not to go to Logrono, but to stay in Barcelona and relax. I had already cancelled most of the reservations, so it was an easy decision. We went out and had a Spanish style meal of tapas, and crashed early (midnight is early by Barcelona standards).

Well now the fun part of Spain began… Ryan and I spent the next 2 days seeing all the major sites in Barcelona. We visited the Plaza d’Espanya, the Columbus Monument, the Picasso Museum, the Olympic Stadium, the marina, the Parc de la Cuitadella, and the Castell de Montjuic. We walked so much I thought my legs were going to fall off the second night. We had many little adventures cruising through the city, because for the most part we had no real plan or itinerary. It was great to just roam free and discover lots of different areas of the city and small little corners of town that were really special and unique. I particularly enjoyed the Olympic Studium in the Montjuic Park. It was so large it was like a monument in itself. My imagination was running wild picturing it full of athletes and fans from all around the world. I have learned so much about the Olympics on this trip, which is something I didn’t expect. After the Olympic Museum and headquarters in Switzerland I was really excited about the start of this years games. And I will also be visiting several more cities where the Olympics have been held. I find it fascinating how one of the largest goals of the Olympic committee is to unite people from all around the world for the ultimate competition. And for the most part, it works really well, and nations come together to compete and celebrate. Amazing!

The other place I really enjoyed was the Picasso Museum. I was very fortunate to see a lot of Picasso’s more famous works when I visited New York in June, but this museum was more about Picasso’s life and the history behind his style and art. It gave detailed descriptions on what was going on throughout his life, and the art that corresponded to all of the major changing points in his life. It was amazing to see the evolution of his art, and to see the talent behind what is sometimes seen as just strange and nonsensical.

All of the places were really great here, but my favorite was the Castell de Montjuic. We took a tram from the marina area up the hill towards the castle on the second evening. There was a gondola that went all the way up, but we figured it wouldn’t be too long of a walk, plus we didn’t want to pay for the gondola. Well, it probably would have been worth the 5 Euro to get to the top, because it was quite a long hike. But the view from the top was worth it. It was the highest point in the city by far and it gave a 360 degree view of everything below. There was a big draw bridge over an old moat, and there were huge cannons and guns that had been up there for years! It was a wonderful way to look over everything we had seen over the last 2 days. The walk down was absolutely miserable, and although we were ready to pay for the gondola, we couldn’t take it down because it went the opposite direction of our hotel. Oh well, our walk led us to the Olympic Stadium, so not all was lost.

The following day we decided to rent a car and drive to Priorat, one of the places we had planned to visit on our original itinerary. It was only an hour drive, and it was incredible! Priorat is a very small, special wine growing area that is high up in hill and mountains about 30km inland from the coast. We visited Clos De L’Obac first, which was a great treat. They have a small winemaking facility that we toured with the winemaker, and then we got to taste 4 different wines which were all phenomenal. It was a great treat too because we didn’t know anyone there, but I had sent them an email 2 days earlier requesting a tour, and because we were wine students, they welcomed us like we were friends and didn’t make us pay for anything. Afterwards we drove to Scala Dei which is a small village built around a very old monastery. We were supposed to tour the winery called Scala Dei, but we arrived during siesta and everything was closed. We decided to take advantage of the GPS and go exploring, mainly to find the old monastery. We found it and many other fun things along the way. The car we were in was even tinier than the first one, and even more like a toy too. Nevertheless, we decided to go off on dirt roads up the hillsides behind Scala Dei. Since our GPS dot told us we were still on some form of road, we just kept driving. Nearing the top of the hills, we came across a small vineyard. It was completely isolated which made us feel like we had discovered a special secret place. That’s one of the things that makes Priorat wine so amazing; there are several tiny vineyards all over the hills and in the valleys that are planted in specific areas that have the best terrior that produce great wines. After a few scary turns and rolling backwards down the hill more than once, we found our way back to the main road and to the winery Scala Dei. While this time they were open, they unfortunately did not speak English, and didn’t understand who we were supposed to be meeting or for what tour. And I couldn’t get internet to find out anymore information that would help us. So the cellar worker took us over to the wine shop around the corner and set us up there. The man here also didn’t speak English, but Ryan managed Spanish pretty well and we had a nice tasting of 7 different wines from Scala Dei and one other Priorat producer. It was another great day, although it was also another day without any food between tastings!

After Priorat we drove to Reus where we were staying for the night. Reus is a very interesting little down. It is very small, but quite busy with tourists and shoppers around every corner. There was lots of traffic on the little streets, and we even got rear-ended by a little old Spanish man. We just parallel parked on the street and he came up behind us and tapped the bumper. When Ryan got out to look at the car (which luckily had no damage) the old man shook his finger at us like it was our fault! We pulled forward when the car in front of us moved and the man pulled behind us in the spot we had been in, parked his car and walked away. We were a little stunned by this. A few minutes later when we had our bearings and started driving through town to the hotel, we stopped at a crosswalk to let pedestrians pass, and the old man was walking right in front of us. Ryan was really tempted to give him a little tap with the bumper, but he decided honking at the guy was better (which the old man didn’t even seem to hear).

After settling into the hotel a bit later, we headed back into town for dinner. We found a great place for tapas and shared some wine. I think Ryan and I had finally relaxed because this was one of the first nights we had a real conversation that didn’t revolve around school or our trip or anything specific. We were able to just chat about family, friends, future personal goals and other things we never get to talk about. It was really nice and refreshing.

The next morning we headed back to Barcelona to meet Leilani and Marium, the girl from Bolivia we had meet the week before in the Rhone Valley. We returned the car and found ourselves in a part of town we had not yet explored on our previous 2 day journey. And when we made it to the hostel, we felt like we were in an entirely different city because it was so different than the Barcelona we had experienced before. The hostel was near Plaza de Catalunya which leads to the street Ramblas. This street is the biggest tourist trap I have ever seen! It is full of street performers, souvenir stands and all the major fast food restaurants you could want. It was really weird to be so close to where we had spent 2 days, but feel like it was so drastically different. We walked through Ramblas and then through the La Boqueria which is a traditional Catalan market place that sells delicious fresh fruit juices, and the scariest animal parts you’ve ever seen. It was definitely an experience walking through here; at first I was thrilled about the fruit and nuts and other treats, but when I started seeing huge tongues, brain and whole heads of animals I couldn’t even identify, I could barely maneuver my way out of the market maze. Yikes, creepy!

Later that night we wandered through a courtyard where we heard 3 Spanish guitar players. Their music was wonderful, and we even got to see two very, very old men getting giggy to the music. One was so happy he wasn’t even using his cane while he danced! For some reason that scene made me smile a lot, and kept me smiling most of the night. We stopped for Sangria before dinner which was fantastic, but then somehow got roped into one of the big tourist restaurants and paid way too much for our not so tasty dinner. Oh well, it ended up being a great night for the 4 of us and we got to catch up on travel stories since we had been apart since France.

The next day Leilani had to catch her plane to Milan so we had a quick lunch and sent her off on her way. Ryan and I decided to book the same hostel for one more night since our flight was early the following morning. We headed down to a coffee shop to use the internet and confirm all of our flight details, and that’s where things started to go wrong again. We had booked our flight from Barcelona to Rome months ago through RyanAirlines. What we didn’t realize was that because RyanAir offers such cheap flights, this means they don’t fly out of Barcelona’s main airport. No that would be too simple if they did, too boring to write about. Instead, they fly out of Girona-Barcelona which is an hour and a half away by train. Ok, so our flight is at 8:20AM the next morning and we have to arrive at the airport by 6:20AM to check-in for an international flight. That’s all good except there are no trains or buses going to Girona before 6AM, and that would make us miss our flight. Now what? After a little yelling and scrabbling, we book a hotel in Girona and rush back to the hostel to get our things and get on the train to Girona. We had already paid for a night at the hostel and it was close to 5PM, so we begged for any kind of partial refund. They were nice enough to give us 50% back (probably because Leilani had made the initial reservation and they loved her). We headed to the train station and somehow managed to get on a train (I hate Barcelona train station!!!)

When we got to Girona it took us a little while to figure out how to get to our hotel. We had picked one that sounded closest to the airport, which meant far from the train station. We also found out that in the time it took us to figure this out, we missed the last bus of the day that went to the village where we were staying. Ok, plan B, or C or D by now, I don’t even know… A taxi will cost us 35-40 Euro, which is more than we paid for the room itself. So we decided to take a bus to the airport and then see if we can call the hotel for a shuttle or something. We wanted to call from the train station, but we could never figure out how to make the phone work. We got the bus there, not too expensive, but had no luck with a shuttle. So we hoped in a cab that we assumed would be much cheaper because we were so much closer to the hotel now. Nope. The cab driver attempted to rip us off like we were stupid Americans, but I was onto his scheme way ahead of time, and I argued the price from 30 down to 25 Euro. He grumbled at me in Spanish but eventually drove away.

Finally, our hotel in Figueres, 20 minutes outside of Girona in case anyone ever needs that info. (Anyone picking up by slightly bitter, sarcastic tone?) Our hotel was a wonderful 3 star resort with a restaurant. We started gulping a bottle of wine as soon as we checked into the room, and when we went down to dinner they let us bring the rest of the bottle to drink with our meal. The hotel and dinner made up for an awful day, and although we didn’t know it then, it helped prepare us for what would be an even worse day starting at 5AM the next morning. I’ll save that for the next blog entry…