On a roll
Spain travel diary, part 3
August 7, 2003
The Iranian
7pm
"No hay mas tickets hacia Madrid hoy, pero si quieres, puedes
regresar una hora antes de que el tren departe para ver si
hay ticketes que han sido reservadas pero no recojidas. Gracias."
This time, instead of going back into Barcelona, we decided
to stay at the train station and rest. Hopefully by 9pm we'd
know if we could get on the 11pm train or not.
I don't know what it's like where you come
from but I am not used to the amount Europeans smoke in public
areas. Everyone lights up all over the place and Barcelona
Train Station is no exception to this. A thick low lying
haze of exhaled cigarette smoke hung in the air. After being
in there for a few hours, my eyes were itchy and I had lost
any craving to ever smoke again... ever!
9pm
"No hay mas tickets hacia Madrid hoy, pero si quieres,
puedes regresar una hora antes de que el tren departe para
ver si
hay ticketes que han sido reservadas pero no recojidas. Gracias."
10pm
"No hay mas tickets hacia Madrid hoy, pero si quieres,
puedes regresar una hora antes de que el tren departe para
ver si
hay ticketes que han sido reservadas pero no recojidas. Gracias."
"It's an hour before the LAST train leaves."
"Sorry, no seats yet, come back in 15 minutes."
10:15pm
"No seats."
10:30pm
"No seats."
10:45pm
"There are no seats to Madrid tonight. You must come back
tomorrow at 6am and maybe you get seats."
Let me tell you something about Spain. They have weird rules.
For instance, we were unable to buy a ticket for the 7am
train. We had to go an hour before it was departing and buy
it then. No reservations, no bookings, no paying in advance
for a guaranteed seat.
With our backpacks on, we ran (ok
maybe it was more like shuffled Hunch Back of Notre Dame
style through the smoke)
to the bus station, which was in the same complex only to
find that we were too late to get a bus ticket.
"Hay otra
estacion de autobus sobre la calle varias millas mas , si
corres, talvez podas alcanzar el mismo autobus de
ellos." (There's another bus station a few miles
down the road, if you run, you might be able to get on their
buses.
There was no way in this world, Safa and I
were going to run anywhere... let alone a few miles. The
backpacks were
getting heavier by the minute and I felt as though I needed
to lie on the ground to be able to get any air that wasn't
nicotine infested yet scared that if I actually did, I
wouldn't be able to get up since my backpack now weighed
at least
60 kgs (or felt it).
With arms waving around in the air in
an attempt to gesture to this young man that we desperately
needed to get to Madrid
tonight because we had a hostel booked and paid for and
nothing in Barcelona, he just giggled and said "Parate en la
calle, fijate si alguien va para Madrid, y metete al carro
con ellos." With the help of another person
we came to work out that it meant, "Stand on the road
and see if anyone is driving to Madrid, and get in the
car with them."
It was close to midnight in Barcelona. We
had left Tel Aviv 19 hours earlier (and not slept for many
hours before we
actually left) and had not eaten at all in that time. With
red shoulders, well on their way to beautiful purple and
yellow bruises, we sat on a bench in the middle of some random
street and took out our Lonely Planet's guide to Barcelona
(seriously... don't leave home without one).
"No tenemos Vacancias" = We have no vacancies
"Les cuesta 170 Euros Cada uno" = It's a
170 Euros each
"Les cuesta 90 Euros Cada uno" = It's 90
Euros each
"No tenemos Vacancias" = We have no vacancies
"No tenemos Vacancias" = We have no vacancies
"No tenemos Vacancias" = We have no vacancies
"No tenemos Vacancias" = We have no vacancies
"No tenemos Vacancias" = We have no vacancies
"Les cuesta 70 Euros" = It's 70 Euros
Closer to 1:30am, we checked into the 70 Euros place
and showered. The feeling that one has when they take such a
large weight off their shoulders and lies down, is one
that I would sacrifice my left arm for (and in fact nearly did...
the backpack from hell had started cutting off the circulation
to my body parts). And so we come to the end of day one.
(to
be continued)
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