Barcelona

Good Thing I’m Not One of Those People…

/ Gracetopher Kirk / 1 Comment

You know. The people who sit around complaining “Yur in ‘Murica. Speak English” Because I’ve been in Catalunia, the Basque Country, and France without knowing the languages of said countries. I do make the effort whenever possible; at least in Catalunia and the Basque Country I can speak Castellano, but the world is a massive place full of so many languages that I do not speak. I feel as though my world would be so much smaller if I only associated with people who spoke English in countries where English is the primary language. Even if I were to include all the languages where Castellano is spoken, my world would be so much smaller.

Add to that the fact that it is stressful and scary to go somewhere where you don’t speak the language, and far from being angry at people who come to the USA without knowing so much as a word of English, I have developed a great respect for them.

Adventures on the Barcelona Metro

/ Gracetopher Kirk / Leave a comment

As promised, the second part of How Grace Travelled to the Basque Country.

I got out of my hostel early-ish on Saturday… I wasn’t actually supposed to be there, so I thought that best. I ate a few leftovers for breakfast, and then I set off. I considered walking to the train station, but it was several kilometres away and I had a backpack and a suitcase… What if someone tried to steal something? And besides, who wants to walk a good hour dragging a suitcase along? And of course, there was also the fear that the tickets to Zumarraga would be sold out before I got there…. Then I would have the same problem I had had the day before.

So instead I took the Barcelona Metro… The subway. For 2 Euros and 26 minutes of standing I could escape Barcelona. And who knows… The train didn’t leave until 3:30… If I felt like it I could perhaps drag my suitcase to some nearby tourist attractions. I was thinking about something like that when I happened to glance down and see my wallet moving off it’s own accord.

PICKPOCKET!!!!! My brain shouted. I lunged at the woman next to me, but she seemed so startled that I immediately doubted my instinct and apologized. I should have checked right then… but instead I let her get off at the next stop. Then I looked in my wallet and discovered that all of my cash, aside from a 20 Euro bill that had been tucked away in a separate corner was now gone. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, SHIT. HIJO DE PUTA!!!! Luckly I had caught her before she could get my debit card… but that was 100 Euros!!!!

I then made sure to keep a much better eye on all of my things, especially my wallet. And at least I still had the card. I could buy my ticket with that, and then everything would be good.

Except my bank flagged it when I tried to buy the ticket. So I tried the ATM. Where my bank also had a fit. Great. My own bank thinks I’m as bad as that woman on the subway. AWESOME. Although I suppose it’s a bit comforting to know that I’m protected from people like that…. At least a little bit.

So there I was. In the Barcelona Sants train station. With one suitcase, one backpack, one currently useless debit card, and 20 Euros. Tickets were 61.20 Euros… Where the hell was I supposed to find the rest????????

Then it comes to me! I keep a secret stash inside my phone cover. It happened to be exactly 40 Euros. That plus random change I had forgotten to count gave me just enough to buy my ticket, use a payphone to call the farm and let people know what was going on, and still have a little bit of change left over (thank goodness for the 1 and 2 Euro coins!)

I was of course too afraid to do anything but sit in the train station guarding my things like a hen guards her eggs forthe next 3 hours… but after that and a 5 hour train ride, I was finally safely in the Basque Country.

Adventures With BlaBla Car

/ Gracetopher Kirk / Leave a comment

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.

Barcelona

/ Gracetopher Kirk / 3 Comments

Well, I’ve been in Barcelona two and a half days now. Overall… it was a lot less scary than I thought it would be, although I did definitely get ripped off by some cabbies that first day… they saw young American tourist who speaks imperfect Spanish and definitely took advantage of the easy extra money. Since then I’ve learned to use the metro, and now I don’t have troubles with cabbies.

Also, it rained yesterday. A lot. And hard. It’s funny… Barcelona is supposed to be a sunny city to go on holiday… but I come and bring Portland weather! Except it wasn’t really Portland weather. If it were, I wouldn’t have come back to my hostel soaked to the bone. The fun thing is though, there are so many balconies here in Barcelona that I was able to half hide under them…. it kept me a little drier at least!

Speaking of hostels… I really like them. Not only is it cheaper than a hotel (by a lot), but you get to know all sorts of interesting people who are also traveling… Unlike when I drove across the US alone in a Chevy Cavalier (although even then I did make friends in Wyoming).

Tomorrow I’m going to pack in as much sightseeing as I can before leaving in the afternoon for the Basque Country where I will spend the rest of my summer tending to sheep and making cheese out of their milk.

For now, ¡Addios!