Ola!

Hey all! Thought I´d write a quick update on the difficulties we encountered trying to get to Barcelona... where do I begin?! Well, our initial plan was to catch the train from Nice to Barcelona. We got up early and were at the train station 40 min before our train left, nice and early. We discovered, to our dismay, that a reservation was required in order to get on this train, and all we had were our Eurail passes. The lineup to get a reservation for the train was long but didn´t seem TOO bad, so we figured we could make it. Train was at 10:30.... 10 am rolls around... line hasn´t moved... 10:15... nope, still hasn´t moved. 10:30... okay, we´re screwed. There was no other train to Barcelona that day from Nice. We decided to head out to the airport to see if we could catch a cheap flight out to Barcelona. Hmmmm, guess again. It would have cost Katie 700 euros at least to fly to Barcelona on the cheapest airline!!!! We started panicking, calling the Nice hotel we´d been staying in to see if we could stay another night, but no, they were full. The train to Barcelona stops in Montpellier, France, so we decided to just head to Montpellier instead and catch the train from there the next day. Booked what looked like a decent hotel from the internet and headed to Montpellier. We got there and it was as close to Harlem as you can get in Europe. Scary, scary, scary, and we didn´t want to be outside anymore than was necessary!!!! We arrived at our ´hotel´, found that they hadn´t received our reservation. Had to find an internet cafe to print off our reservation and proof of payment through Expedia. Finally convinced them to give us a room, which turned out to contain a bunk bed with stains everywhere, a floor that make strange cracking noises, and a suspicious looking washroom. We spent as little time in there as possible - only to sleep!- and got up at 6 am and promptly left (although we´d been up since 5 because dad called after hearing where we were and told us to immediately get up, shower, and get out of town!!). Went to the train station to catch our 7:30 am train only to find out it was full. Next train was at 11:40, so we walked around for a bit, ate, then went to sleep on the floor of the train station for a while. We then laughed hysterically for about an hour over our predicament. We finally got on the train, which was to stop in Port Bou, Spain, before heading off to Barcelona. We arrive in Port Bou, thinking, okay, now we´re safe. We´re almost in Barcelona, finally.... or so we thought. The train was supposed to get in at 4:12, and when a train pulled up at 4:05 accompanied by an announcement in Spanish which included the word ¨barcelona¨, we got on. WELL, GUESS WHAT?!?! We got on the wrong train. This one was going back the way we came!!! We arrived back across the French border, realized we were in the middle of nowhere, and started panicking. I managed to ask a train station worker in French to call us a cab, and this actually ended up being an incredible experience. The taxi driver spoke only Spanish and was playing lovely Spanish music in the cab, and it turns out that the 20 minute drive across the French-Spanish border is just... breathtaking. We wound our way up through the mountains and had spectacular views of the ocean and small towns along the way... we actually ended up feelign very lucky that we missed our train as we never would have seen such an incredible sight had we not! Anyway, finally arrived back in Port Bou to find that our train was an hour and a half wait away. Finally, finally, we got on that train and were on our way to Barcelona. I have never felt such relief at finally arriving in a place!!! We had booked in at an apartment for several nights in the centre of the city, and when we finally arrived, we were absolutely blown away. The apartment is beautiful and looks as though it´s a real, modern apartment that someone lives in, complete with great modern art and a waterfall shower. 50 euro a night each.... we have no idea how we got so lucky!!!!! The owners are probably drug dealers, but we don´t care!!!

Anyway, having a great time in Barcelona now. We´re here for 2 more nights and then off to Madrid, then Lisbon, then Lagos and then ´home´to London!!!! The weather here is beautiful and hot and we now look a little less Canadian due to our deepening tans!

Hope everyone is well and that you enjoyed that little story about our crazy adventures trying to get to Barcelona! Will write again soon!

Love,
Emily