Whether or not I Make it There is Will itself

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Whether or not I Make it There is Will itself

Bye Bye Mary!

March 28

After Mary left, I wandered around and found a nice hostel to stay in. It was also called Hostel One but is located in a different part of Barcelona then the other Hostel One that Mary and I had stayed in on arrival. I immediately unpacked and met my one other roommate in our four bedroom dorm. Her name is Silvia and she is from Brazil. After chatting for a bit I took a shower and quick nap. I did some wash by hand and then headed out to eat some lunch. It is horrible, but my favorite thing to eat in Spain other than paella is grilled ham and cheese. They call it a Bikini in this part of Spain. Woohoo!

Later on we added a third person to our dorm room. He is a guy from London named Matt who loves to talk! It was nice having someone to talk with though. We talked for a good while about sterotypes and how weird it is to meet people who are from the same country when traveling abroad. He told me how most English are sterotyped for going somewhere just to vacation and drink and lay in the sun. Of course I told him about my awful experience with the three Americans in the other hostel. He made a really good point about how when you meet someone from the same country you automatically start to sterotype them by categorizing them and comparing them to people that you know.

I went to the park for about an hour and laid down in the grass. I love how there are people everywhere! The grass was competely littered with people sitting and talking, picnicking, playing games, reading, playing music, napping etc. It was the perfect end to my lazy day.



The General Strike

March 29

After eating some breakfast I ventured out into the streets to see what kind of effect the general strike would have on the city. There were stickers and flyers everywhere... covering every single ATM, every pole, graffiti on sides of buildings. Many of the shops were closed, but it appeared that most of the cafes and restaurants stayed open.

I walked around a new part of Barcelona that I had not seen before and thought about how happy I was to have more time here. The longer I spend in Barcelona, the more I start to like it. It is such a diverse city with so many things to do and see. I had yet to see the beaches in Barcelona and with todays nice weather I decided it would be a great idea to have another lazy day spent on the beach.

I started walking towards the beach and stopped to watch a handful of older gentlemen play bocce. Upon close inspection I recognized a couple of the same men playing that I had passed the day before on my way to the park. They stay there and play for hours throwing their metal balls. It was intriguing to watch, mostly because of their interactions with one another when a good or bad throw occured. They take it quite seriously.

When I arrived at the closest beach it was crowded people, probably both because it is such a beautiful day and also partly because of the strike. I did not have my bathing suit because I did not think it would be hot enough to wear today. I was wrong. It was hot enough for bathing suits and there were even people swimming in the sea! Because this is Spain, it obviously was no problem that I did not have a suit on. I once again stripped down to my skibbies and had a wonderful relaxing couple of hours on the beach. I did however, forget to put suntan lotion on and so I am a little burnt.

I headed back towards the hostel and met our fourth roommate from Spain. I took some time to reorganize my pack as I plan on leaving early in the morning to head to the train station. I FaceTimed with Emery, Mom, Bill and Jaki and it made me miss home a bit. I love my crazy family.



It´s never fun crying in public places

March 30

I woke up bright and early and headed outside to hail a taxi to take me to the train station. When I arrived at the train station I was hoping to catch the 0900 train from Barcelona to Pamplona because there is a once a day bus that leaves Parmplona at 1800 to Roncesvalles. I would then stay one night there. From Roncesvalles I planned on hiring a taxi the following morning to take me to St Jean Pied de Port in the south of France where I will start my Camino. It may not sound like it, but it is one of the easiest ways to get to St Jean from Barcelona.

I stood in two different lines before I found the correct one to be in to buy a ticket to Pamplona. I got up to the desk and the man informed me that they were sold out! UGH. I took my second option which would make my day a bit longer and costed quite a bit more. I took the train from Barcelona to Zaragoza and then a train from there to Pamplona. Getting to Zaragoza was no problem. I arrived in Zaragoza and easily bought a ticket onward to Pamplona. They informed me that I would have to switch trains at some point in the journey. This was all done quickly and so I waited in a small cafe until it was time to catch the train.

Long story short, I spend one hour frantically running around trying to figure out where to go. It was one of the most confusing stations I had been in. I asked so many different people where to go and stood in several different lines. By the time I figured it out I was exhausted both physically and mentally.

I made it to the next train station where I had to switch lines and of course got lost! Once I got onto the correct train most of the seats were taken. It was a crazy free for all. Everyone was scrambling to sit down, so when I found a spot I felt relieved. That is until some girl started yelling at me in spanish that her friend was coming and that I couldn't sit there! A nice man had a heated conversation with her and then told me that I could sit because there was one extra seat. This was the last straw. I sat down and my eyes started to burn. I was afraid to blink and so I didn´t, but it didn´t matter because the tears came anyway. So I sat silently on the train with tears streaming down my face. I was over exhausted.

Finally in Pamplona I walked away from the station and walked for about a half mile to the nearest local bus stop. I took the bus to the official bus station and bought a bus ticket to Roncesvalles. I found where my bus would depart from and plopped down!

After a while a nice young Spanish guy came over to ask me a couple of questions in extremely broken English. We laughed and spoke broken English and Spanish to one another. It turned out that my new friend Jaime was also headed towards Roncesvalles and was wondering if I wanted to share the taxi ride to St Jean with him to make the cost cheaper. Unfortunately once I boarded the bus it was full and he went on a later bus.

Once I arrived in Roncesvalles I was too tired to worry about hiring a taxi that night and so I stook with my original plan and headed to the closest Albergue to spend the night and receive my credentials--pilgrim passport. I hope that I am able to find people in the morning to take a taxi with me because that is the only way to get to St Jean Pied de Port. If I go alone it could be very expensive.



Today was my breakdown day

So it turns out that today was my breakdown day; the day that I ask, ¨What am I doing?!¨

And I think I know now... I am proving that I can do anything that I put my mind to, become familiar with the unfamiliar, have some proof that life is valuable.

OR MAYBE...

Prove to myself that I have a wonderful life already; one that is fullfilling... That I do not have to do extraordinary things to have a life worth living.



Accomodation-- I really liked this hostel. I spent two nights here and everything was perfect. It was extremely clean and the kitchen was huge! The staff were welcoming and eager to give directions and advice. I highly recommend it!

http://www.onehostel.com/barcelona-centro/?lang=en

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