I Went Camping!

For real, in a tent with a sleeping bag, campfire and all. Most shockingly of all, I actually enjoyed it. There’s just something really cool about waking up to birds and being able to see the trees and everything. But yeah, I’ll explain all of that later first let me explain our time in Barcelona…

Barcelona

Our train from Nice got into Barcelona around 11:45am on Friday. Unlike the train to Nice from Venice, this one was much more comfortable. We sat in normal seats that were slightly larger and reclined pretty far, basically like the ones in airplanes. Once we got to the train station in Barcelona we followed the directions we wrote down to our hostel. Little did we know that our hostel was outside of the city and about a mile walk uphill from the closest metro stop (we booked it based on price, not location).

Once we checked into our hostel, we were exhausted. We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then showered. By the time all of that was said and done it was raining pretty hard, so we decided to hang in for the afternoon organizing things and took naps. Then Friday night we headed out to explore the city. We went into the city center and just walked around, it was still cooler than we were expecting though. We walked all throughout the center and then stopped to try some paella, fried calamari, and sangria.

On Saturday we decided to sleep in (all the way to 10am!), assuming that would give us enough time to get ready and head to the center to catch a free tour of Barcelona. It didn’t though, partly because we were lazy in the morning and partly because we couldn’t find the meeting point. We missed the tour by ten minutes unfortunately. Instead we decided to do what we do best and just wandered around the city a bit. We went to Temple Expiatori Sagrada Família, a church in Barcelona that they have been building since 1882. It is still currently under construction and expected to be complete by 2030, but who really knows. It is a really cool church though, you are able to walk through the entire thing and see the progress they have made over the years as well as different architecture styles. In the end it will have fourteen towers, twelve for the apostles, one for Mary, and one for Jesus. Right now it has six or seven I think.

After the church we went to find the 1992 Olympic Stadium, even though it is a large section of Barcelona it took us a while to find it because it was further away from the train station than we realized. It was cool to walk through it all, we didn’t go into the museums or anything but walked around and looked into all the different stadiums. Plus, from there, there is a great view of the entire city. By then it was getting late and we wanted to head back to the hostel to get our things and go to the train station to figure out our trains to Arenys de Mar and Madrid. David’s Dad lived in Arenys de Mar for three years about 25-30 years ago on a campground and we wanted to go and camp there as well.

Based on our previous experiences with train stations, we assumed it wouldn’t take long for us to book our train to Madrid and hoped to get to Arenys while it was still light out. Again, we were wrong. First we were standing in the wrong line for both tickets. Then we bought our tickets to Arenys and went to stand in line for the tickets to Madrid. For those tickets you had to take a number like in Sweden or at a deli and wait to be called. We got number 334, it was on number 208. We had to wait over two hours to buy our tickets to Madrid from Barcelona, and that took all of two minutes, probably less. Since we had to wait so long our tickets to Arenys had expired (they only last two hours) so then we had to go and explain the situation and ask for new ones. Finally we were on our way at 9pm, we got to the train station at 6pm.

Arenys de Mar

The train ride from Barcelona to Arenys de Mar was supposed to take fifty minutes. Three stops before Arenys though they announced that everyone had to get off the train and onto a bus. Of course this was all explained in Spanish so David and I had no idea what was going on, especially since being abroad we have both developed this unique talent to automatically drain out any language that isn’t English when it isn’t being spoken directly to us. Thankfully, one woman saw that we were still sitting on the train and told us to get off. The bus took us to Arenys de Mar and everyone else who still needed to take the train was able to get on one from there. When we got to Arenys we asked two men working in the train station if they knew where a campground was, that was complicated to ask, especially since David wasn’t sure of the name. Eventually they understood and told us to get back on the train that there weren’t any in Arenys de Mar, which was extremely confusing since David’s Dad had worked there and we had looked it up online. But, confused and nervous because they were freaking out about us missing the train we ran back onto the train and got off on the next stop.

There we again asked people where the closest campground was and they directed us 500 meters down the road, so at 11pm we walked 500 meters down the main road along the beach of some city we didn’t even know hoping to find a campground and instead found a camping supply store. At least they understood what we meant, right? Next to the camping store was a hostel, so we went in to see if they had any beds, they didn’t. But the woman spoke English very well and explained that there were three campsites right outside the village along the main road back in the direction we came from. So, again we walked.

The first campsite was closed. The second one only allowed RVs and trailer homes, and the third was filled. But the owner of the third one directed us to a fourth one we didn’t realize existed, Carlitos Campos. There is where we stayed. The man at the front desk was a bit taken aback by us, especially since we had a tent. Apparently we were the first people all season to bring a tent, and from the looks on everyone’s faces and the tent area, the first people in long time to bring a tent there. By the time we figured out where we were supposed to set up the tent it was almost midnight. David set up the tent, I attempted to help by putting together the poles, but it was pointless because all you need to do is open them and they automatically snap together. Then David made a fire, again I was kind of useless, but whenever he went to find more wood I did make sure it stayed semi-lit. When we were all settled we melted chocolate to dip bananas in because we couldn’t find marshmallows for smores anywhere in Barcelona. Then we sat and watched the fire, and eventually we got to watch lightning over the ocean as well. There was a small thunderstorm, but nothing bad. It only rain for probably a half an hour total off and on but the lightning was pretty amazing.

We spent all day Sunday on the beach since we didn’t have to head back to the Barcelona train station until late (our train to Madrid departed at 10:22pm). It was nice and relaxing, and unlike Nice it had sand. Well, it had grainy sand, almost tiny rocks really, but it was nice. More comfortable than river rocks. And it was far less touristy than Nice.

On the way back to Barcelona we made a pit stop in Arenys de Mar to take pictures for David’s Dad. From the way he had described it to David, it has changed quite a lot. It is still an extremely small town, only one main road, but there are a bunch of restaurants and little cafes. It is definitely becoming touristy I’m sure. Anyway, so we stopped at this little museum that had an information center sign outside of it, although it wasn’t tourist information, that office opens in July. There we got a map of the city and guess what the first thing we noticed was, an advertisement for a campground – Carlitos Campos. The entire time we were in the right place!

For an hour or so we walked around Arenys, stopping at the beach to sit and watch the locals. Most of them of course were watching us. Everyone seemed really confused to see two Americans walking around with luggage, just walking up and down the main road and sitting on it on the beach. Especially since tourist season apparently doesn’t begin until July. Around 7pm or so we headed back to the Barcelona train station to catch our train to Madrid. We were all excited because we were told we would be in first class and were hoping it would be one of those high-speed trains with comfortable seats. But it wasn’t, it was like the train we took to Nice. However, it was nicer because the seats were bigger and there was only one other person in our car so we all got to spread out a tad bit more comfortably.

Madrid

We arrived in Madrid at about 7:30am and then realized we forgot to write down the name and directions to our hostel. We tried to connect to WiFi in the train station but had no luck, and the woman at the information desk didn’t speak English. So we decided to go to the center of the city and figure out what to do from there. We ended up going into a random hostel to use their Internet. They didn’t seem all too pleased about the fact that we didn’t need a room, but they were still helpful. After we figured out where to go we went to our hostel and checked in. then we had an hour to wander before the start of the free tour through Sandeman’s (the company we went on tours with in Berlin and Paris as well).

At 11am we went to the meeting point for the tour, only to find out that it has been suspended until further notice because it is being boycotted by other tour companies in Madrid or something. I didn’t really understand. The other companies are arguing that it is illegal or something for them to give free tours basically. Anyway, the guy who was supposed to give us the tour was nice enough to map out the route we should take and gave us a brief history of the sites we would be seeing. Then we joined the other people who were hoping to take the tour (another boy from Florida and two girls from Quebec) and followed the route as best we could. The tour should have taken three and a half hours if the guide had come with us and explained everything, but since we didn’t have any explanations of things it took us about an hour and a half, maybe two tops. After we finished our “tour” of Madrid we all went and got lunch together at a little café. Around 4pm we all spilt up to go to our hostels, the boy from Florida was leaving for Paris soon and David and I had a lot to do since we are leaving at 6:30am for London. Plus, it was cold and raining by the time we left.

And that pretty much sums up my brief time in Spain. I’ll definitely have to come back someday, I didn’t have enough time here at all and feel like I missed a lot. But then again it is hard when you are on a tight budget and time restrictions. Someday though, someday. Now though it is time to get ready for London. Then back to Örebro for a night, then Latvia, and then home. Wow. I know I have probably said this a billion times, and will probably say it a billion more, but these past five months have gone by faster than I ever imagined. It’s really depressing. I’m really going to miss everything about it.

Love and miss you!
Home: 10 days

 

Reminder: Pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/sineadorade

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