Barcelona Escapade

Three brave girls braved Barcelona, Spain amidst reports of the coutry being rampant with pickpockets. This trip is truly an adventure for these girls right from the beginning till the end. Endless mini adventures awaits them and it ended up more like a Amazing Race series than a tour. These girls shall be known as BR1, BR2 and BR3 thereafter.

They are taking a budget airline and so the airport is like 1.5hrs bus ride away which cost 230nok, approx sgd 64 (return). Anyway the exchange rate has hit an all time low so it is 1 sgd to 3.6 nok only. BR1 has 350 nok in her hands and promptly kept 100nok after pointing out to BR2 & BR3 that it cost 230nok. She handed 250nok to the driver and in return receive a 20nok change and the bus ticket. She kept the 20nok and happily napped on bus. After checking-in at the airport and all, these girls decided to buy water from the waiting area and this is where BR1 discovered much to her horror that she lost 100nok. She knew she had kept it but did not exactly remember where she kept it and the hight possibility is that she stuff it in her pockets while boarding the bus and it dropped. After getting over the shock of her loss, she then noticed that her plan is being delayed. And so they waited for 1.5 hrs past their original departure time before they FINALLY arrive. It was not a nice ride for 1 air-stewardess's attitude sucks to the core and spoiled the atmosphere.

They finally arrived at Girona Aiport around 1am. Luckily they had arranged for private airport transfer and their driver was there waiting for them. BR3 quickly gave the hostel a call as they were supposed to have arrived at 1.30am!After much effort in getting them to understand our situation, we took the 1.5 hrs taxi ride to Barcelona. Though they are tired they dare not sleep (except for BR2 who slept like a log) as they are in a foreign environment and who knows if the driver can be trusted. The road out of the airport are WITHOUT any street lights. All vehicles have to rely on their powerful headlights. Apparently Barcelona is so huge that even the driver doesn't know the route and has to rely on the GPRS system to navigate and even with GPRS, the driver drove around in circles for quite awhile. The taxi stopped outside a sign "Sant Jordi Diagonal". Their hostel was Sant Jordi Familia. These girls were wondering if these 2 names are actually the same place. The driver got out and spoke into the intercom in Spanish while BR2 saw a guy approaching that building and she showd him the paper and asked if that the place and he said yes. The girls were so happy to have reached for it was nearly 3am. And so they followed that guy up the stairs.

BR3 walked first and she happily followed the guy all the way in (past the reception). BR1 was puzzled why BR3 did not stop at the reception and called out to her. Guess what, BR3 actually followed the guy all the way to him room!! -_-" Shock number 1. Then came shock number 2. The receptionist told them they were at the wrong hostel!!! *thunder lightning* Both hostels belong to the same owner and hence the similarity in name. BR1 got the receptionist to call the number for the private airport transfer hopping that the driver who had dropped them off can come back to bring them to the correct place but guess what the phone operator said. "I cannot help you." wth. And so the kind receptionist called for a taxi for the 3 girls. It cost them 8 euros. They finally reached the CORRECT hostel at 3.30am! But the next shock came. The door to their room cannot be shut. They were too tired to care and promptly conked out.

The next 3 days were spent walking, walking, walking and MORE WALKING. They took a grand total of 10 metro rides for the 4 days there. Imagine how much walking they had done. Not to mention the extra miles walked coz of wrong naviationg. The hot and dry weather certainly didn't help to ease the irritatble mood. BR1 was even so lucky that she stepped on dog shit! It was a dramatic moment. She was happily taking photos with her purple star ice-cream and the next moment she had shit on her right shoe! faint.

The photographs showing where they visited will be posted at a later date. Ok, now fast forward to the last day, which is Sunday. Their return flight was at 5.25pm. They left their hostel at 1pm and took the metro to the train station. The counter person told them there is a 1.25pm train and asked them to be quick. The watch shows 1.22pm!! 3 of them together with 3 heavy backpacks and aluggage ran all the way only to see the train moving off!! They found a staff wearing a luminous green vest with the letter 'i' which means Information. Through a series of frustrating exchange of English, Spanish and lots of hand language, they discovered there is only 1 train every hour. Oh no! So it means the next train will be at 2.25pm and it will take 1.5 hrs to reach Girona Train station and there is a need to take another 30 min of bus ride to reach the airport. A quick calculation shows that they most prob will reach airport by 4.15pm if they are lucky. Counter closes 40min before departure! Yikkes!

They managed to rush their way through and manged to reached at around 4.30pm. They queued and when it was their turn it was already 5pm! Then another shock came to them. Their check-in luggage is 20kg, 5 kg more than allowed. They wanted to unpack some stuff but the counter guy told them they need to be fast as they are closing and the plane is taking off. So much for calming their nerves. So no choice the girls decided to pay the 40 euros excess baggage. They had to run to another end of the airport to queue (AGAIN) to pay. When it was their turn, they were told that that counter only accept credit-card. *thunder lightning* Its already 5.15pm at this point of time. They had no choice but to queue at the "cash counter". BR1 discovered that the Q wasn't moving after 1-2 minutes and went forward to take a look and discovered a "We're changing shift" sign pasted on the glass. *THUNDER LIGHTNING* It wasn't even a sign to begin with, it was juzt a font size 14 line of word on an A4 white paper. BR3 took out her debit card and shoved it to the "credit-card" counter despite having additional transaction charges. Time-check: 5.20pm. The girls ran and I mean RAN all the way in. Then they have to go through the hassel of taking out their belts, watches, jackets, coins before going through the security check. Then they bundled up their thing and RAN to the plane waiting out there for them, all the while trying to wear their watch, belt while running.

It was a budget flight and so seats were not allocated. The 3 girls sat separately thinking it was the end of adventure BUT no, it wasn't! At least not for BR1. She was so tired from all the walking and running she had done in the past 4 days and was about to fall asleep on the not-so-comfortable seat (the seat cannot be adjusted) when the lady beside her decided to open her bottle of coke. Due to the air pressure the coke splashed everywhere and BR1 literally jumped out of her seats despite being in a semi-conscious state. Talk about great training. The lady instead of quickly covering the bottle of holding it away decided to cupped the mouth of the bottle with her hands resulting in the foaming splashing out somemore! Then she began to laugh, quite hysterically. Her daughter beside her just sat and looked. BR1 was so tired that she doesn't have much feeling. In her half-asleep state she managed to open the overhead cabin and offer tissue to that lady.

Then from the budget airport the girls had to talke a 1.5 hr bus ride back to Oslo and then another 30 min of T-bane (mrt equivalent) to their hostel. They finally reached and had dinner at 12mn and slept at 1.30am. Then they had to get up 5 hours later for they have a 8am class on Monday!

Nevertheless, these girls are back in without much misfortunes except for BR 1 who lost 100nok even before boarding the plane to Spain. These girls are now recuperating and reasearching for their next destination(s) - Italy & Belgium.


/photos coming up in the next couple of days.
btw, is this trip Amazing Race quality!??