Well, I have now been in Spain for a week… Goodness.. So much has happened! There’s quite a bit to tell about my time on the farm, but first I suppose I should talk about my adventures getting here….

When I last wrote I assumed I’d be leaving the very next day. I was trying to travel via blabla car (an online ridesharing program). I communicated with someone who was going about 10 minutes away from Bergara: I could leave in Bergara and meet someone from the farm at the bus stop there, and in the meantime only spend about 24 Euros for a 6 hour car ride instead of 60 Euros for a train ride. It sounded like an amazing idea, and I was excited to finally get to the Basque Country. 

Everything seemed perfect. I spent time with my new friends at the hostel for one last night, and then woke up early to pack and check out. In the meantime I was watching my e-mail for details about where to meet for a trip that was supposed to start at 4 in the afternoon. I sent some more e-mails to my ride… trying not to be annoying…. and I sent a message on the blabla car website… Then before you know it it was 3:30. I was nervous by then, so I decided to walk a kilometer to the nearest shopping mall. There were payphones there, and I used one to call the driver I was supposed to ride with. I spent 4 Euros on that stupid phone call, just to struggle through language barriers and learn that my ride had already left. Without so much as an e-mail to let me know that they had decided not to give me a ride. In other circumstances I would shrug and say “their loss”…. but there was not a bed for me at the hostel that night. It was a Friday, and we were crowded by people on weekend trips. I didn’t know what to do… I had no place to stay in a city I barely knew on a Friday night….. There were of course other hostels, but how was I to know whether they would have space or not? I went back to my hostel temporarily, there was at least wifi there and I could use the internet to help me make my decisions. 

I sat on the terrace stressing while around me newcomers and a couple of the people I had spent the week with started drinking. I tried the couchsurfing website, but the only replies I got were from sketchy people. I knew I couldn’t spend a night safely on the streets with the amount of stuff I had. If only I could have fit everything just into that backpack…. I considered trying to hitch-hike… but that is of course a bit dangerous. I didn’t even have my knife because it’s apparently illegal in Spain. I’m also not really that confident in my knowledge of Spanish geography. I could go buy pepper spray and a map and ride the metro as far as it would take me… But I would have to leave soon so I could find a safe(ish) place to sleep once it got dark.

I did eventually decide against hitch-hiking, and instead looked for other hostels on the internet. I found some farther from the city center that weren’t full and was going to book, when another American showed up. She had been teaching kindergarten in an international school in Germany, and her friends had apparently booked too many beds for the night. It wasn’t entirely kosher, but I paid her 7 Euros and slept in someone else’s bed after one last night of salad, wine, and simple food on the terrace.

Stay tuned for my adventures of the next day: Adventures on the Barcelona Metro. Spoiler alert: it’s even more stressful than the Blabla car fiasco.