Gone4aDay: Barcelona

Well, it was a really good idea, but in actuality it ended up being a lot of stress and work. On the other hand it was a lot of fun and I likely would do it again given the chance. In the end I only had three and a half hours in Barcelona itself, after accounting for trains, waiting, finding a luggage locker...all those mundane little things that end p cutting into your ‘fun time’. So it became somewhat of a marathon.... I am glad I was able to visit, but it wouldn’t be the first place I return to...I found it really big and really busy and really, really crowded –especially after being in sleepy little(ish) towns for the last couple of weeks!

Last night I started to clue in that I needed to be prepared, so I got online and found out the locations of a bunch of ‘places to see’ and plotted them on my map and uploaded to my GPS (which ended up saving the day) then went to bed early so I could get up early. Got woken up a little too early as my new neighbours came home around midnight and had a little get together on the balcony – thankfully didn’t last too long but of course I couldn’t really sleep after that so at 5:30 I finally just got up and had a cup of tea. The taxi arrived at 7:00 and I arrived in Barcelona 13 minutes ahead of schedule.

Finally made it into town at noon and soon realized that there was just way too much stuff to see if I allowed myself to be distracted – there is art or culture or history or something around every corner (not to mention another corner around every corner).and not just little stuff – most of it is really, really big.

I eventually left the crowds behind and ended up in the gardens above the city. Very peaceful and beautiful (and really a long walk). I planned my tour in a kind of circuit with a second exit that cut things short in case time ran out. I had set myself a time limit that I had to start my return run for the train at 3:30 . Well it was all going well until 3:20 when I realized all the gates to the garden I was in had been locked except the one I came in – which was now nearly a kilometre behind me... and then the street I need to be on is closed so now another half kilometre to go around..thankfully I had the second train station programmed into the GPS so I made a bee-line for it...If nothing else, it was exciting! I know I wouldn’t have dared doing what I did without the GPS to navigate by. I see people all the time with street maps trying to figure out where they are and how to get to the next place and I remember being just like them and I smile and say to myself “I hope my batteries don’t run out!”