September 25th - Barcelona - Madrid, Spain

September 25th, 2006
Barcelona – Madrid, Spain

This morning I got up just before 8:00 and packed up my things. After a little prodding, B was able to do the same. We enjoyed another fabulous breakfast at hostel Kabul and then headed for the train station (to catch a 9:30 train to Madrid). NOTE: Meghan decided to join us on our trip to Madrid.

We arrived at the train station at around 9:15 and looked for our train. After asking a security guard for assistance we came to the realization that we were at the wrong train station! This was especially surprising since we had purchased the tickets at this station the day before…(even so, we should have remembered our lesson from Praha).

The correct station lay on the opposite side of town. We ran out of the station as fast as we could and flagged down a taxi. We hopped in and told the driver to step on it. It was a very stressful ride for all of us. When the driver pulled up to the station we jumped out and ran as fast as we could.

Unfortunately, we were not fast enough. We got there just a few minutes late. After spending a lot of time in line at the train station, we were able to reserve a spot on the 18:30 train, which meant we had about 9 more hours in Barcelona.

We tried to take a nap at the train station but were told by the security guards that this was not allowed. Instead, we locked our bags in the train station lockers and headed for the beach.

The beach was even nicer than the day before. Having left our board shorts packed away, B and I were forced to swim in our boxers. As we relaxed on several beach recliners (3 Euro rental) we were offered massages for 5 Euros. After the events of the morning, we treated ourselves to a 15-minute massage on the beach. It was worth every eurocent.

Following the massage I fell asleep for a short time. Once we were all awake we decided to see a few sights. We took the metro to a cathedral designed by Gaudi that is still under construction (since 1909). I was told that it is the longest ongoing construction in the world.

After circling the area we headed for another piece of architecture by the renowned architect. Although the walk was a bit tiring, it was worth it in the end. It was a super cool apartment building. We spent a few minutes in the area and associated gift shop and then decided it was time to make our way back to the train station.

We arrived at the train station at about 16:30 (2 hours before out train was to leave). We passed most of the time in the FC Barcelona shop. We have both been enamored with the team since arriving in the city. B was very nice and got me a super cool beanie (Canadian: took) for our one-month travel anniversary. NOTE: Sometimes I feel like we just left and other times like we have already been gone for an eternity.

The train ride to Madrid took a long time. We did not arrive in the city until 23:15 and did not make it to our hostel until just before midnight. It has been an incredibly long day of traveling and we are all exhausted. The hostel is quite small and not as exciting as some as the others we have stayed at recently. Also, the wireless internet does not work and I am not able to post my blog…sorry!