Barcelona and leaving

After the incredibly stressful time looking for bus tickets and leaving Amanda behind, Setare, Cody, and I took the overnight bus to Barcelona. We slept some and, unfortunately, missed what probably was beautiful scenery.

When they say, keep your hands on every piece of luggage at all times in Barcelona, they knew what they were saying. As we got off at the combined bus, train, and metro station in Barcelona we tried to figure out where our hotel was located. While looking at maps and being distracted by someone asking Setare and I directions, apparently an accomplice picked up my backpack and disappeared. I was, of course, disappointed to lose my computer (with pics downloaded), flash drive, all electrical cords, my nook, new scarf and white shirt from Alicante, and journals detailing my expenses and travels. As I kept remembering the things in the backpack I tried to remind myself that luckily I had my passport, money, and camera in my purse, AND, we were all safe.

However, we were tired -- and it was still only 7 a.m. We found our way to the hotel, dropped our luggage and took off walking. After having a light breakfast, we walked towards a park until deciding to buy tickets for the jump off and on tour bus. Just our luck, there was a marathon going on that day so the route was changed and we still ended up walking around most of the places. We saw some of the women running in the marathon, looked at some interesting buildings used for the Olympics, say the beautiful fountain with gold horseman on top and meandered our way into the cave like area that housed the Picasso Museum and old cathedrals. Thinking that we would get back to these places the next day, we didn't go into anything. Instead, we got checked into our hotel.

What an interesting room! It was the penthouse with two bedrooms, a living room, bath, kitchen and huge balcony overlooking the La Rambla. Cody and I left Setare to rest, shower, and settle in while we went to the airport to pick up the suitcase I had left there prior to leaving for San Sebastian. When we returned we discovered that Amanda would be in later that evening so we got a bit to eat and the three of us rode the bus around town looking at the outside of many of the Gaudi structures throughout Barcelona. Although many of these buildings were unusual and interesting, our tiredness made it difficult to truly enjoy what we were seeing. We finally headed back to grab Amanda and get ready for the evening's festivities. Amanda's trip had been horrendous and she had ended up losing one of her pieces of luggage. The saving grace for the "kids" was the plans to head out to one of the clubs in town -- RazzleDazzle. After a short rest, they headed off to meet Maggie, Ali, and Alex (some of their classmates from San Sebastian), and returned around 6 a.m. I decided not to be a tag-a-long and instead enjoyed some sleep.

Sunday was Setare and my last day so we were busy trying to get packed and ultimately to take our luggage to the train station and storing them in lockers so they would be ready for pick up when we took off on our overnight train that evening. In the meantime, Cody was trying to find internet to book for his time the following week in Italy. This day was truly more about "traveling" then enjoying the travels. As Cody said, sometimes this is the most stressful part -- and certainly the least enjoyable. Everyday brought some sort of difficulty and nothing ever went as you might expect. Including that when Amanda had gone that morning to get a ticket for the jump on and off tour bus she inadvertently bought tickets for the wrong company and, again, was not with us. Things kept getting in the way of our having a relaxing time in Barcelona. Maybe food would help! We found a nice, inexpensive place and treated ourselves to our last Spanish meal -- Paella and Sangria. It was a fun time and lifted our spirits and gave us energy to jump on the metro and find our way to the Parc Guell -- more Gaudi to see. With only a short time, Setare and I observed, left Amanda and Cody at the park, and headed on to the train station to leave from Madrid.

I felt sad leaving Cody -- I felt our last couple of days were a bit disappointing and frustrating. Luckily, he had a few more weeks to travel so maybe things would improve for him. We, in the meantime, got on the 1st class section of the train and headed out. Meeting a few people on the train proved interesting and I continued to see the social side of Setare as she met people easily and used her new found Spanish language. Yet, she was so ready to get home that when we were offered a 5 star hotel and 500 Euro to delay our return trip to the US, she declined. I, too, decided that returning together was a better idea. The trip was truly winding down!