What Crisis?!

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The only thing worse than having things go wrong, is having everything go as planned

Right now Spain is in a rough spot. With unemployment in Spain rising consistantly over the past half year, more people then ever are out of work. It is said that one in five people do not have a job, bringing the total figure to nearly 5 million unemployed. The percentage is said to be around 23%!w(MISSING)hich is more than twice the EU average. It is odd because at first glance, they do not seem to be suffering. However, looking hard at the surroundings, it becomes easy to spot.

While there have always been people begging in the streets, the things I have seen in the past week have painted a bigger picture for me. The man begging outside of the grocery store, the constant stream of people coming up to you while eating at an outdoor cafe trying to sell you flowers, tissues, lighters, ribbon, or just plain begging, the man on the train putting a piece of paper at every seat asking for help to feed his four children... this is not the same Spain I remember from five years ago. You almost feel quilty for not helping everyone who asks, but if I did I would for sure be completely out of money right now.



Tarragona

Leaving Valencia heading back towards Barcelona, Mary and I decided to check out a small city called Tarragona which is about an hour train ride from Barcelona. It is a city that truly is full of surprises. Tarragona has thousands of yeas of civilization to share with those wandering its diverse streets. Some of the small narrow alleys seem to have remained untouched since medieval times.

At first glance, walking away from the train station, the city seems dull. As you make your way around the city through the many dissecting streets you start to feel the charm and the story of the city comes to life. The mixture of modern buildings and ancient Roman ruins contrast one another in the most fabulous way. The hilly like streets lead up to the most wonderful view of both the city and the coast.

Tarragona does not have many, if any, hostels and so Mary and I stayed in Urbis hotel which cost us each €25... not too bad for being a hotel. We spent one and a half days and one night. I think I would have stayed another two days had time permitted.

After a long evening of wandering up and down the hilly streets of Tarragona Mary and I settled back into our hotel room. I was so happy to have the chance to FaceTime with my mom, sister and neice. My family always brings a smile to my face. It made me miss them terribly even though I have only been gone a little over a week. I wish so much that I could share this experience with them.

Speaking of missing... I sure do miss my husband! With all of the couples holding hands and making out all over the place it is hard to not think about the lack of a hand to hold. I suppose this is why I cannot stop listening to the song, Home. Home, oh homeeee, home is whenever I´m with you.

The following day we had the hotel hold our luggage for us while we stayed in the city until late in the evening. We went to the Roman Amphitheatre and took a nice long nap on the beach. The Roman Amphitheatre of Tarragona was built in the second century AD and is really neat to walk around in. It sits just by the sea and for less than €2 you can go inside. While we were there, there were hoards of young classes being guided in by their teachers who then had them sit down on the seats to give them a lesson. Before going inside Mary and I were stopped by an elder gentleman walking his dog. He saw that we had our cameras out and wanted to take a picture of us. Then he insisted on getting a picture with just him and Mary and then one of him and I. I think it was all a con just to get two kisses on the cheeks out of the both of us.

The beach is lovely even though it sits directly along the train rails. The sounds of the waves wash out noisey trains passing by and you forget that the rush of the station is just meters behind you. Mary and I spent half of the day on the beach and because the weather was so nice we decided to strip down to our undies and soak up the sun! This is what I missed most about Spain... the feeling of taking your clothes off on the beach and plopping down whenever you feel like it. Let´s face it, I just love to be in my underwear anywhere haha.



Back to Barcelona and the unfortunate mishap


We caught the train that evening back to Barcelona. Once reaching Barcelona Mary went into a shop to buy some last minute gifts for her family since her flight was leaving at 1045 the next morning. She came out with a panicked look on her face. Her passport was gone. She had fallen asleep on the train with her bag open and we think someone just grabbed it right out of her purse. We dumped everything out of her bag searching for it, but it was all to our dismay. It was long gone. We called the train station that we had left from and the train station that was the final destination of the train we were on to see if anyone had turned it in; they had not.

We decided to quickly look for a hostel to stay in for the night and took the metro into the center. We found a hostel called Itaca in Barcelona center and booked in for the night. We then proceeded to ask around for what we should do. We also googled it. Then we made numerous phone calls and Mary almost threw up when the embassy told her she would have to go to Madrid to get a new passport... This would mean that she would miss her flight. She really almost lost it when we looked up how much a new flight would cost, $1,500!! EEEK!

We stayed up most of the night looking for information and finally found that we could go to the consulate in Barcelona and see if they could issue an emergency replacement passport. The problem was that they do not open until 0900 and Mary had to be at the airport by 0800. Through all of this I am sure she wanted to kill me because I could not stop singing Para Bailar la Bamba to her. I thought it would cheer her up, but in reality I am sure it made her want to kill me. At least for a couple of minutes she was thinking about ringing my neck and not about her lost passport.

Long story short, we took a cab first thing in the morning to the consulate in Barcelona and Mary put on the water works to get them feeling sorry for us and to really hurry up! They handed us a new passport within 30minutes and out we went. We parted ways. Mary took a cab to the airport and I took a cab back into the city to look for a place to stay. Mary made her flight and I checked into a hostel alone.


The Crisis

Back to the crisis, Spain´s crisis that is. I have only just learned that tomorrow, March 29th there will be a huge strike all across Spain and most places will be shut down. I believe the metro will be shut down also. The CNT, Spain’s anarchist labor union, issued a statement a couple of weeks ago announcing that they will be convoking a nation-wide general strike for March 29 against the labor reform that was passed by the Parliament earlier this month. According to Spain’s labor law, strikes are only official if called, or convoked, by a union or another official body... should be interesting to see which untions follow suite. I went to the market today to buy some food just incase everything literally does shut down.






Accomodation

Tarragona--Hotel Urbis was a nice little hotel right in the middle of Tarragona. It is not too expensive if splitting the cost between a couple of people, or even just two. The beds are not the best, but are comparative to the beds I have been staying in. I would recommend it.

http://www.hotelius.com/hoteles/hotel-urbis-en-tarragona.htm

Barcelona--Itaca Hostel was a great hostel. Granted we were not there very long. Their rooms are spacious, although the bunkbeds are quite hard to get into the top bunks because of an obnoxiously small ladder. They were very eager to try to help us which was extremely nice. The room we stayed in was a 8 bed dorm, but it was great because it really was like a 4 bed dorm and then another 4 bed dorm attached for a little bit more privacy and noise management. I would recommend.

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Itaca-Hostel/Barcelona/1279?sc_sau=avdc&sc_pos=1

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