Being reckless sucks...

In a bid to be less organised and more reckless, we decided we'd just book our train ticket at the train station (the website was in Spanish anyway). So we arrived at 11am for the 1:10pm train only to discover that Renfe had been having massive issues and our train was now sold out. The next cheap train not being till 8:30pm that night... My dream of escaping the heat and spending the afternoon at the beach was quickly dashed as we rushed to find other transport. Other than an 8hour bus, 1 hour from where we were, we decided to just cop it and by a ticket on the 8:30pm train... We found a locker for our bags, and started walking. Travelling with a backpack and wearing a dress doesn't really mix, so I chose tights, a oversized tshirts and cons whilst getting ready in our 20 degrees room that morning... We walked outside at 1pm and it was 37! Only to then rise to 39 an hour later, I stopped looking after that. 

We walked down to the Real Jardin Botantical gardens and wandered around trying to escape the heat. It's beautiful in there, we found some cold stone seats to lay on and relaxed for half an hour. We continued on and made it back to the centre of the city. We just went in and out of shops trying to make the most of aircon. Alex found a really cool Vans shirt and I finally found my skin product, which is a Spanish brand. It was really well priced so our spirits were lifted. We continued on for a few hours and then headed back to the train station, hoping to find a cold quiet spot with electricity. 

On our way, we saw two undercover cops bust some guys selling fake bags. I was at an ATM at the time and thought we were getting mugged... Alex saw the whole thing. One cop got a whole sheet full of bags... They put all their stolen/fake items on a sheet with strings, so all they have to do to get away is to pull the stings and run. About 5 other guys got away. We jumped back on the metro, pros after going two stops in the wrong direction that morning. 

We got anything but a cold quiet spot when we arrived, the arrival hall has a huge garden through the middle of it with constant sprinklers... Which makes it incredibly humid, especially with zero aircon. I found one power point but was told to go away after about 20mins. So we just sat in the heat for 3hours and killed time. Finally 8pm rolled around so we went to look at the screens to find our platforms... Nothing, 10mins later still nothing, we went through the arrivals lounge and waited till 25mins past before the platform came up, we headed to our boarding gate along with 300 plus people. We finally boarded at 8:50pm, with people pushing to get down the escalators. It was madness, we were in carriage 15, right down the end but we managed to find our seats and somewhere to put our bags for our 3 hour journey. 

Hated to think that if we were on the bus, we'd be there by now...

The hostel was less that impressed by how late we were, we just jumped in a cab (best €20 ever spent) and sped there arriving at 12:30pm instead of 3:30pm. They were nice enough, but we still felt terrible. Having a shower after being in transit for 14 hours is the most incredible feeling in the world... So is crawling into bed!

We woke a bit late, with an email from dad confirming how we wanted to get to Courchevel (the bestest father). I decided the beach 'wasn't far' so we set off for a day by the ocean, 1 hour laterwe finally arrived, hot and a bit bothered. We have both gotten a bit sick, possibly a tummy bug from dodgy food or from being in so many public places. So we just chilled by the water and sunbaked. What bliss. We hadn't been to the beach since Greece and felt amazing to be back in the salt water. Alex was feeling really nauseous so we just lay by the water and relaxed. 

I think we're both just a bit tired, travelling is so amazing and we are loving it, but we need a lazy Sunday, where you laze at home all day eating homemade food and just laying around. We feel guilty doing that here, we don't want to miss anything. I'm sure there will be time for that in Courchevel in less than a week. 

After exploring for a while, we got the metro back to our hotel and had a local dinner (which was horrendous). I stocked up on some delcious fruit and we headed back to relax. 

In the morning, we decided to head into Barcelona for breakfast. Breakfast is an interesting meal in Spain... It doesn't really exist. There is no breakfast culture like at home, they don't really understand that bacon and eggs go together in a delcious fusion of amazingness, that enables you to skip lunch and keep you walking for hours... We have some of the worst breakfasts here, I'm missing the avo and eggs in Ios. 

We walked around for hours and saw the arch de triomphe (Spanish style), the zoo, the marina, and then back into town and to Cassa Bálto. We finally had a lovely meal of tapas and sangria, it was so goooooooood, we were in need of a good Spanish meal. We had crispy prawns with soy mayo, pieces of steak with onion, mustard and cheese, chorizo sausages and potatoes with some amazing sauce.  So delcious! After walking for so long it was exactly what we needed. 

We wanted to hire bikes but it's only for locals. There are 'bike banks' on most corners, just teasing us. We are so over walking and I have legs made for riding bikes. My calves are being wasted on this walking crap. You could hire tandem bikes, segways or electronic scooters but 

1. I'm not a loser, and 

2. I'm not a loser 

I already wear Birkenstocks, I don't need people judging me more while I zoom around on a Segway with a helmet looking like a complete knob... We see while families doing it, those poor children. Actually maybe we should do it and pretend to be American again... They'd totally do that and would probably think they are cool! 

I shouldn't judge, especially as after 7 hours of walking, my blisters have grown blisters. 

Tomorrow is Sunday, so everything will be closed. We are going to sleep in and go to the beach for the day. That can be our relaxing day off... 

Alex is currently walking out the door to deliver me pizza in bed... What an awesome boyfriend! Although he's not sure what he ordered as it was in Spanish and the guy spoke no english...