Alrighty, lemme just tell you all a lil something about lakshmi kantamneni and hannah simonson. We have a little bit of trouble en la ciudad de barcelona. hehe.
To begin our glorious journey to the city, Lakshmi and I began our day at 4:55 a.m. We had our luggage so the only alternative was to take a taxi to the airport. 24 euros ($37) later, we arrived at the airport. I would classify the expensive taxi as fail numero uno! The next fail began in the security line. Checking in went smoothly, but I had to go through security twice. I left water in my water bottle!!! I got clear through the line, then they made me take my water bottle to the bathroom dump it out then walk through again. Fail Number Dos! We arrived at the gate though in plenty of time, and had a relatively wonderful flight to Barcelona. Aka we passed out for an hour. I dont remember take off...landing woke me up.
Arrival in Barcelona airport was great! It's a little busier, but fun. We went to baggage claim, and then realized we need to figure out how to get to our hotel. The intelligent women that we are, we called! Fail number three comes when I call and say "hello do you speak english or spanish?" The lady hung up on me. Lakshmi calls and says "Hola, hablas ingles or español?" "English." says the receptionist. Apparently, they hate me. So anywho, the lady advises us to take a cab....then proceeds to say it'll be about 30-40 euro!!! NO THANKS! we go with the train option. We are beginning to realize that Victor may have known what he was talking about.
We bus and walk and walk some more, and then we are finally at the renfe station (renfe is like amtrack, not metro, because we are leaving the city for our hotel.) Yup, our fears our true. The lady at the renfe window takes one look at our hotel confirmation and says "you know this isnt actually in barcelona." =FAIL #4!!!!!
Oh well the train out there was only 1.80 euro so we went with it. This next part is my favorite part of the day. To get to Molins de Rei, we had to get off the train at a stop midway and connect to a new train. So Lakshmi and I exhausted and carrying 50 lb suitcases, attempted to navigate a train station. At this point I'm so exhausted and pissed and slap happy that even McDonald's sounded delicious. Anywho, we finally get to the correct platform, and have a seat on the ground (not really sure if that is socially acceptable in spain but i didnt care) So as we are sitting there some lil hoodlums come up. They are all less than 80 lbs, wearing skinny jeans, carrying skateboards (no judgment), and I give them about 12 years old max. They start giving lakshmi and I shit! All I can think is seriously? do we look like we are your age? is this flirting? is this harrassment of foreigners? idk but needless to say, one of them ends up jumping on lakshmi's suitcase! literally he was making baby noises and he just sits on her luggage! it was so funny because lakshmi and I are too exhausted and confused to react, so we just let it happen...good thing a train came quick and the boys got on. But of course they knew some clever hand gestures to make from the train window. I believe they also mooned us, but lakshmi and I were laughing so hard we couldn't even look.
Once our train came we got on, and made it safely to our stop. This story I still can't even tell people without laughing. We were standing at the corner of the road, contemplating how to get to our hotel (imagine that), when an old man walked up and gave us directions. We didn't even have to ask! He advised us to walk...just four blocks. We were on the home stretch, so we went at it, dragging our suitcases behind us. HAHA literally dragging!! I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned for lakshmi's health. She was dying as we were walking. I could hear her struggling the whole time, but I was tired and impatient so I ignored her. I will forever remember lakshmi's face when we finally got to the lobby of our hotel, and she wipes sweat off her forehead, then simply looks down and says, "oh, that was hard. I lost a wheel apparently." hahahaha she maimed her suitcase. FAIL #5
Alright so you can imagine what lakshmi and I did when we hit our hotel room. NAP! Well actually I couldnt sleep, so I went grocery shopping and showered and such. We awoke a few hours later to go get our lovely ally bear from the airport. Oh FAIL #6 about to begin. As we walk up to the train station to go back to barcelona (this time much more successful without our bags), there are a bunch of people outside waiting for a bus. When we get inside, the guy at the ticket window informs us that a lady died on the tracks at a stop close to ours, so the trains are shut down/moving slower! ayayay!!! We still buy our tickets (we dont have any other choice), and head to the platform. There is a train on the way we wanted, and tons of people. But its not moving! We sat on it for awhile, having no idea what we are doing, when another train pulls up. Literally everyone makes a mad dash for it. So when in Spain do what the spanish do right!?!? So we dashed for the other train. Well.....it went the wrong direction. But what do we do? oh just stay on the train until the last stop (approximately 30 min in the wrong direction). So long story, we get off the train, we get back on, we get back off, some lady helps us, and we head to barcelona. 50 min later we make it to the airport and meet ally!
We had our hearts set on the hard rock cafe in downtown barcelona for our first night's meal. After we grabbed ally, we got on a bus and made it there lickety-split! Our first unfail of the day as far as transportation goes. It was super easy to find the Hard Rock, the wait wasn't too long, and although it was overpriced, the food was good. I hope this isn't incriminating, but I am going to admit to something illegal here. We each ordered water with our food. We are getting used to paying for water at restaurants, so we couldnt complain. However this bottled water was a little fishy. A. they gave us each the same bottle with different amounts of water B. they were already opened when we got them C. it tasted like tap water D. they removed our glass bottles from the table before we finished our meal. Dontcha think they refilled the glass bottles with tap water and then charged us for them???? i think so! So when we got our check, we payed, for everything...minus the water. We sent ally (crutches girl) ahead to give her a head start, then lakshmi and I dined, paid, and dashed!! (much classier than dining and dashing because we had a cause to stand up for)
After our criminal mischief, we took a stroll down Las Ramblas, the famous shopping/tourist street in barcelona. We got pulled into a tourist bar for young people early in the night, but it was sorta silly and there were a lot of young people there. Drinks were also very expensive, so we called it an early night and headed home on the 11:30 train. Naturally that was a FAIL #7 idk how we made it home to be honest (that makes it sound like we were drunk but thats not what i mean I just mean that i was so tired and lost idk what happened). Thank goodness we speak spanish and can ask for directions.
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