The Post-Travelling Blues #2

BARCELONA PT.I

Song of the day: Barcelona - The Plastiscines

How I wish I was far away from the miserable mess that is London. Scratch that, I love London with all my heart and soul I really do. But I've caught the travel bug and I highly doubt I will be cured of it anytime soon.

I know it's been awhile since my last post. I was busy settling into normality. Back to London, back to working life, back to reality.

Debbie and I on the way to Barcelona!

Earlier this year around March/April time, I was constantly working by doing many promo shifts during the day and then working in the cloakroom at night until 3:30am. It got to a point where I was only home to sleep. It even got to a point where I couldn't remember when I last had a day off. I was exhausted. I decided to have a week off. Luckily for me, my work is pretty flexible.

So what did I do? I had money to spare so I booked flights with a good friend of mine called Debbie to Barcelona and Lisbon. Why those places?

1) I've never been to either of those places in my life
2) It was cheap
3) I have friends in both countries

You want to know how much my flights cost me? London - Barcelona - Lisbon - London was £70. Yes you read right. £70. Of course I had to book it for that price. You want to know what was even more perfect? I had a friend I could stay with in Barcelona! All around awesome badass hailing from Dungannon, Northern Ireland who goes by the name Jenny. Also my friend Debbie was from Lisbon, so we stayed at her mum's home. Accommodation was sorted. The only money we needed was to spend while we were away. If that's not travelling on a budget I don't know what is.

Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona where do I begin? I was there for 4 days. It was fucking great. The first thing that happened when we arrived was that we actually landed about 2 hours outside of Barcelona. Literally in the middle of fuck all nowhere. There was the airport, car park for the airport and then poof. Nothing but sand and some buildings. Cheers Ryanair. We wondered why it was so cheap. We didn't see it as a blunder in our journey, we saw it as another adventure. Plus it was warm and sunny while London was cold and raining. That was all that mattered. I mean come on we were in another country! HOW EXCITING? After attempts of poorly spoken spanish on my part before Debbie swoops in with a perfect conversation in spanish, we managed to find our way to the train station and hopped onto the right train that was headed straight for the heart of Barcelona. Spanish trains come at us! We conquered you like a pro. So far...

We stumbled off the train and found our way to an underground tube station. It was like being in London all over again. Except we got lost. This time we were the tourists that people rolled their eyes at because we couldn't fathom their gosh damn train station. You know in London I'm all, "I don't understand how you get lost. Each train has their own damn colour on the tube map, its not hard!" We had to make our way to the Sagrada Familia because my friend Jenny lived next to it. We managed to find our way and we made it to our stop. You think it was that easy? Oh no my dear friends. Just no. Don't get me wrong we got onto the right train line. Everything was smooth sailing. We saw our stop coming up. We got our stuff ready. Bam. The train missed our stop. Debbie and I looked at each other and everyone in the train kinda looked at each other all confused. After ten long seconds the train did an emergency stop. I remember laughing with Debbie, we were all, "The driver forgot to stop!" beautiful. We heard the scratching sound of the train speaker go off and the train driver said, "We are uh....having a technical difficulty."

I was cracking up so much because everyone in our train carriage had that look that they know that the train driver knows that he just messed up and forgot. We all secretly wanted you to admit it! So everyone who was meant to get off at the Sagrada Familia were forced to get off at the next stop and catch the next train going back, which we did with ease. I felt sorry for the train driver. A man in our train carriage as he got out went up to the driver door and started yelling and kicking the door with all consuming rage. Let's just say you didn't have to know spanish to understand what he was saying.

Want to know the first thing we did when we finally got to the Sagrada Familia? Apart from admiring the awesomness and beauty of the building. Our eyes saw the sweet familiar yellow M that represents... McDonalds. Yes we were starving. We realised we hadn't really eaten. Instead of savouring the exquisite and tantalising spanish cuisine Barcelona had to offer, we opted for McDonalds because we were all around tired and lazy. You know how McDonalds in every country is a little bit different? They had a chicken version of a Big Mac. Debbie and I in our hungry states thought it was the greatest creation to mankind. It was like two massive chicken nuggets with the Big Mac sauce like what? London get your shit together and start selling these bad boys. I joke, we have enough fast food chicken shops in London to last a lifetime. We don't need anymore junk food in our lives. BE HEALTHY.

The Sagrada Familia. What a beautiful unfinished building. I didn't know that the reason that it's taking so damn long for this Gaudi masterpiece to be finished was because that it's funded solely on donations from the public. We finally made it to Jenny's flat and her lovely flatmate let us in. Jenny was at uni working on her master's degree, which she has since completed! So proud of her! It was lovely to see this building from the balcony of Jenny's flat at night. All the street lights gave it a warm glow. It was different. I can't really explain why. It was just one of those moments while sipping tea while Debbie rolls a couple of cigarettes, after a long day of travelling when you just sit and think, "Wow I'm here" you know? It was a very serene moment and I soaked up every second of it.

Image by me :) - View from Jenny's balcony :)

That was the adventures of the first day. We got lost and ate McDonalds. We're shit tourists. But it was hilarious. I wouldn't take any of it back. Keep a look out for Barcelona Pt. II, which should be up soon.

Cheers,

xxx