Barcelona – Part Dos

After we landed in Barcelona, our first order of business was to get to the nice little beach town where we were spending the first couple of days of our Spain holiday. The town was called Tossa de Mar, or “Tossa of the Mar” for those who don’t espeaka Espanol. It’s a little ways outside the city, and I had tried to find a good public transit route to get there, but the trains didn’t go that far, so, exercising my better judgment, I thought I’d just book us a direct shuttle instead of the “two trains and a bus” alternative. “How did that work out for you Collin?” you say. Well… let’s just say that when Holiday Taxis told us that it would take 1 hr 45 min to get to our hotel from the airport, they were off by about 2 1/2 hours. Aware that I had already freaked out once that day (see Part Uno), I was trying to play it cool, and eventually we got to our hotel.

(Tossa de Mar)

The next two days were a bit of a mixed bag… we had some good food and some not so good food; it was raining on the days we were supposed to lay on the beach, so we saw the castle instead; we had some really nice gelato, and got a little bored by the second night, which was okay because the next day we were going from sleepy beach town to bustling Barcelona!

For the journey to Barcelona we took a nonstop bus. However, there was more than one thing about this bus that was nonstop. In addition to the nonstop trip was the nonstop feeling that I needed to throw up for about 80 mins. I put my head in my hands; I leaned against the seat in front of me; I focused all my energy on one thing and one thing alone, not giving up my breakfast. I didn’t look to the right or the left; I kept my eyes closed and just focused… I started turning pale; then I turned a greenish color; then an even greener color… and finally, we arrived. I made it. At that moment in the bus station in Barcelona, I vowed to myself and to God that I would never again take the bus between Barcelona and ‘Tossa de Breakfast’.

Now what can I say about Barcelona; she’s beautiful. We rode the tourist bus all around the city, the sun was shining, the day was perfect, so we decided to spend a little time at the beach. The man on the bus tried to warn us for what we were about to experience: “People in Spain, they don’t have to… well… it’s, uh, legal… to, uh… not have the clothes, you see?” It was an interesting day.

More pictures :)

(Inside the Sagrada Familia cathedral… a.maz.ing)