A visit from Mum and Rory and a weekend in Barcelona

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Last Monday feels like a very, very long time ago, because so much has happened in-betweeen. On Monday I seemed to be racing around preparing for my Mum and little brother Rory to visit, on Tuesday morning, Fiona and I managed to completely miss a lecture by standing outside the wrong classroom (this is why lectures at 8 a.m. are a bad idea!) and then on Tuesday evening, said family arrived on the Frogbus, a bus which takes you directly from Girona airport (just across the border) straight to Perpignan train station. It was wonderful to see them, and we spent a fantastic but freezing day together on Wednesday. Unprepared for the cold that had suddenly hit Perpignan (it had been 21 degrees on Monday, and on Wednesday it was in single figures), we wrapped up as warmly as we could and took the train to Collioure.

Once we had taken a few snaps of one another in the harbour area, we dashed into a nice-looking brasserie to warm up, but we were rudely told to move tables by the man there, and no-one came to take our order, so we left, and dived into the next place, a little cafe where we were immediately served with steaming hot chocolates. We debated the best way to spend our time in Collioure, and decided to brave it on the little tourist train. So surrounded by British families on half-term holidays, we set off, chugging up the hills. In fact, we weren't too cold, especially as my Mum and I had a seemingly centrally-heated nine-year-old between us to keep us warm, and we had quite a giggle at the foreign English commentary which accompanied our tour, and at the extended English family in front of us who kept winding each other up.

After a quick coffee to warm up again, we got the train back to Perpignan and watched Homeward Bound together, snuggled up on my bed. It wasn't the most exciting thing to do, but it was so lovely and the perfect thing considering the weather, and I didn't really want that time to ever end. I was thoroughly spoiled with books in English and gluten-free pasta from home, and a little heater for my room and a hot-water bottle which we got from the supermarket when we couldn't make the radiators work!

It was a lucky thing I had a weekend in Barcelona to look forward to, because I got the most homesick I have been here when they left! We left for Barcelona on Saturday morning, and arrived at the four-star hotel, which was wonderful. After oohs and aahs at the rooms, we found the metro station and headed into the centre of Barcelona for some lunch and sight-seeing. Two of us stayed to explore the city centre whilst the others headed out on the tour bus, and we all met up back at the hotel and went out for dinner at a great little place where we were ushered ahead of the queue waiting to go in, probably because we were all too happy to have a table under the arches outside. The food was wonderful and cheap so we felt very pleased with ourselves as we made our way to the olympic village to explore the bars. This bit of the night wasn't so great, with a man at the door of every bar and club grabbing your arm and trying to drag you in with the offer of a free drink, which was invariably something sickly and horrible. Rosy and I left the others to it at about 2 and I was in bed and asleep before I knew it.

As we checked out the next morning, we looked at the weather with dismay - it was tipping it down. Nevertheless, we queued for the tour bus and alighted at the Parc Guell. Thankfully it had stopped raining when we got there, and felt like a rainforest with its dripping palm trees. We were happy tourists, snapping away at the gingerbread house-like buildings and the views across the city. All too soon, we were heading back to the station. We just didn't have enough time there. Barcelona is jammed full of tourists, but there is a reason for that, and we weren't there for long enough to really appreciate it. There is so much I stiill want to see there!

We might have been forgiven for thinking that the journey home from Barcelona to Perpignan would be a relatively easy one, such as the three-hour one on the way there, with one change of train halfway. It wasn't. It turned out to be a seven-and-a-half hour journey, involving a variety of transportation, due to the fact that we had to stop for two hours at a small station somewhere between Barcelona and Girona. Apparently there were electrical problems in Girona, so we were stuck there until they were solved. When we finally started moving again at 8:30 p.m. we had already missed our connection, and were going to be too late to even catch the last train out of Cerbere. So we jumped off at Girona and hopped in a taxi to the airport, where we hoped we could get the Frogbus at 10:30. We had a desperate moment when we saw it was a minibus, and the driver looked unsure when we asked if there were six free places. Thankfully, after some quick seat-counting, he decided there were so we climbed gratefully on, safe in the knowledge that the rest of the journey should be painless and we should be back in Perpignan at mifnight.

We weren't. 6 kilometres from the border, the traffic came to a standstill, and we were surrounded by lorries. Apparently lorries aren't allowed to cross the border at the weekend, so midnight on a Sunday is one of the busiest times, and also when, inexplicably, they have the fewest checkpoints open. It must have taken an hour to crawl those six kilometres, but finally, we crossed over into France, and at last, at 1 a.m., we were home.

It's getting late now, so I'd better get to bed so that I can make it to my 8 a.m. lecture this week, and hopefully go to the right classroom. And at the weekend, I'll be back in the UK for a few days, so it's another busy weekend of travelling - let's hope it goes more smoothly!

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Photos

Mum and Rory
on the little train in Collioure

Comments

[margarita]

barcelona travel tips
Some tips to travel to Barcelona: Hire a car only if you are going to spend several days there, so you can visit also the surroundings and places like Montserrat, Port Aventura, Costa Brava, etc. Be careful with pickpockets in metro and city center. If you are going to travel with your family rent a centric apartment (here they have holiday apartments in barcelona city center and they give out a free pocket guide, which is always useful). If you are going with friends it's a good idea too, but then you may want to look for something cheaper (here they have cheap accommodation in barcelona, from 19 € per night or so). And enjoy!