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.