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Published: January 15th 2007
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Barcelona Architecture
Here´s a building in barcelona. Boy, have we got a story for you, kick off your shoes, sit back and relax, this could be very long winded...........
Okay, the beginning is as good a place to start as any, so we´ll go with that.
Last tuesday we flew from Malta to the Pisa airport and then had a flight to Barcelona. When checking in at malta the rude baggage lady said she could not check our bags in all the way to barcelona even though we were flying with the same carrier, and that we would have to go through security, collect our baggage, check our bags in then go through security again, all within 15 minutes, as our next flight would then be closed for boarding.....are you following me so far?? (we assumed they would transfer our bags, which is why we booked the flights so close together) so anyway, being regular travellers we realised this was impossible and had resigned ourself to the fact that we were not going to make it to spain, would probably be sleeping the night in the Pisa airport and would then have to book another flight back to London. We were sitting on the plane (on the flight
Barcelona Architecture
The very modern pedestrian bridge on the harbour in Barcelona from malta to pisa) quietly laughing at ourselves, and the fact that we had stuffed up again. We ran through all of the scenarios, and decided the only way we could actually get to spain was if our pilot flew at record speed and somehow got us there early.......low and behold, we arrived at pisa half an hour early, due to a speedy flight....this is an extremely rare occurance, and actually had us baffled, but nonetheless, meant we checked in for our flight to spain with 5 minutes to spare.......strange, but something we put down to our usual good luck.
Anyway, we did arrive in Barcelona and spent our 2 days exploring a very nice city. The harbour is beautiful, very modern and the architecture is pretty good too. The food was pretty ordinary and the whole animal cruelty thing (spearing bulls....and you dont even want to know what we saw in the markets) is very off putting, and the dress sense of these people is as though they´re stuck in an 80's time warp, whats with all the mullets people??? all in all, it was a reasonably nice place.
Thursday came along fast and before we knew it we
poser
Mick posing on the harbour were heading for the airport again to catch our flight to london, before heading off to start our china tour the next day.
We were walking to the bus station with our luggage, when suddenly (suspense music...) some form of liquid was all over my face and hair. I had no idea what it was or where it came from, but a gentleman walking near me at the time, pointed up and said it came from above. I assumed he meant a bird, and started freaking out at the fact that I had bird poo on my face. Mick turned around to see my face absolutely covered in red stuff, from a distance he thought it was blood and freaked out. I was yelling 'urgh, its bird poo, get it off' while Mick was wondering what the hell was going on. Anyway, the guy that had said it came from above, said I will get you some water and bought a bottle from the shop next door. He gave mick some tissues and told him to clean me up. We were slightly protesting saying, no its fine, we have to get to the airport, but he kept fussing over us
food markets
They sell some dodgy stuff in there.... and (hindsight) diverting our attention. Anyway the man then left and a few seconds later we realised he had stolen our bag.....the one with all our money, and worst of all.....our passports. (just for your reference, it was some kind of fruit smoothie that this person had thrown in my face himself)
After the initial 'oh my God...we´re screwed' reaction, we flagged down a taxi driver and with a few strange hand signals managed to explain what had happened and asked if he could drive us to the police station, for free, as we had no cash. He very kindly did so (see not all the spanish are dodgy) the police didnt speak english and didnt seem too bothered, but we wrote out a statement (one that they couldnt actually read) then headed for the consulate.
The consulate lady was also unhelpful, but applied for emergency passports for us, which unfortunately will take until this Tuesday to get. She leant us money for food (yes LEANT it, thanks for nothing Johnny Howard, we´ll be sure to pay it back) and let us use the phone to cancel credit cards. By the time we got around to doing this the man
Fountains on dusk
In the main touristy area of Barcelona who robbed us had managed to drain every single bank account we had, both our aussie and uk banks accounts. We had just 2 euro left and the consulate wouldnt help out with accommodation until our passports arrived.......enter; SuperMum McK. She saved the day with a quick money transfer, to ensure we had a bed for a week. (Thanks Flo, we owe you one xxx) So, here we are, still stuck in spain. We became way too paranoid to hang around in seedy Barcelona, so caught the bus an hour out of town to the 'costa brava' area to relax by the sea while we wait. So the irony is, the country we thought we´d never make it to, has now been the country we´ve spent the most time in, apart from England.
The part that sucks the most, is that we missed our tour of China, and its non refundable. We have insurance, but who knows what those dodgy gits will give us, fingers crossed we get it all back.
So anyway, thats our story from spain....told you it was a ripper.
The costa Brava area is absolutely stunning, and the hotel we´re in now is much nicer than
What the??
Mick running from the muggers!! Actually, this is before the mugging, and I have no idea what he is doing. our Barcelona hostel, but we´d rather be climbing the great wall!!
Oh well, cant complain, it could have been worse, and we still have our health! We´ve got another ticket to fly back to London on Wednesday (hallelujah) and will then be arranging our flight home.
So til then, heres some pics of spain
Take care!
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