Europe

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.

Since When is Impulsive a Bad Thing?

/ Gracetopher Kirk / Leave a comment

It’s time to admit something: my summer plans are not yet finalized. All I know for sure is that I fly into Barcelona on May 13, and fly back to Portland on August 1. The decision to spend the summer with WWOOF was a tiny bit impulsive, but then again, who would have the courage to do something so crazy if they took the time to think it all the way through?

I’m currently figuring out the application process, and since it is after all WWOOF Spain, the page is in Spanish (there is an English version, but if I’m going to be spending two and a half months in Spain, I’d better work on my Spanish right?). I have been studying the language long enough to understand the webpage, but it’s still a little daunting… I’m going to spend all summer not just reading, but also speaking a language that I am nowhere near fluent in. I’ll be the silly foreigner with an accent who tries to construct sentences as they would in their native language.

I suppose it’s like when I ran cross country in high school. The first couple weeks suck because you’re forming new habits, but then you get into the swing of it and feel yourself improving every day. Lets just hope I, and everyone I meet can live through those first couple of weeks.