Nov 14

Written by: Maribel Lopez
11/14/2008 11:01 PM

 We almost missed our plane home from Barcelona tonight…here’s what happened. When we got to Barcelona via bus from the Reus airport, we got dropped off at a bus station and it was like 1am. We just grabbed a cab and sneakily entered this 5 star hotel, crashing on the floor of Blosch’s cousins room. When we were leaving today, we allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to the bus station. I asked the lady working the concierge desk at the 5 star hotel if there is only one bus station, she asked, “where are you trying to get to, Reus?” We replied yes and she told us the Nord bus station is the only one that has routes to Reus. We thanked her and grabbed a cab. We would have just looked at our tickets to double check this, but they said nothing on them, no train station, no times, nothing. We knew the bus schedules to Reus are based a lot around the flights from the airport, so if we weren’t mistaken, there’d be a bus leaving close to 5:30. The cab driver drops us off at Nord and we check the board. No busses to Reus. Nothing. So, we go to information and the woman basically laughs in our face and says, “we don’t have any routes to Reus, only the other station does.” Awesome. I could have lit the place on fire with my eyes. At this point, we’re cutting it close, so we take our some more cash and sprint to a cab. We tell him where to go and our situation, but there’s not a whole lot he can do considering it’s rush hour. When we get to the bus station, which also happens to be a train station, we run to the booth for our line, (which is not marked clearly at all) and ask to be put on the next bus to Reus. The lady proceeds to ask us if we are catching a flight, we say yes, she asks what time, we say the 7:50 flight, she says it the bus left 6 minutes ago, we ask when the next bus is, she says not until 9, our only option is to take a cab. My mind was racing, could we run and catch the bus, of course not, not with all our shit in hand and on our backs. “It takes close to an hour fifteen to get there, so if you’re going to take a cab, do it now,” bus lady told us. Blosch walks out of the booth and I just am frantic. A cab ride for an hour…that’s going to cost a million euros, which is like two million USDs. We had no time. Blosch calls her mom. I grab us a cab, he takes us to an ATM and tells us it’s going to cost 150-170 euros. We told him our situation and that we had to get there by 7:15 because Ryan Air closes the gate exactly 40 minutes prior to flight departure. The man tells us he can do it, we just need to leave now. Blosch and I both take out 100 euros, meanwhile crying inside and then get in the car. Rush hour traffic…once we got through it, the man was driving like a maniac, but he wasn’t convincing enough, so we asked him if he thought we would arrive in time, he said, “mas o menos” aka more or less aka not good enough. At this point we had like 20 minutes to get to the gate and about 20 minutes left of traveling. Blosch and I made a plan of action. She had our passports, I had the money, she was going to get out and run inside to check us in, meanwhile, I pay the cab driver with our life savings (I asked if he’d take my soul instead, but he said no). Ashley runs in, I look at the magical little box that says the price of the ride and all of sudden it goes form 145 Euros to 192. Are you f’g joking me?! I said all I had was 170 and he said, not good enough, “I risked my life and job to get you here. 200.” I refused, problem was, all our stuff was in the trunk, so it was either leave our stuff and save 30 Euros or get screwed and our stuff. I threw the money at him and told him to hurry and get our things. I thought about stealing his seat cover, but I thought I’d be the bigger person. When I get in the airport, lugging my backpack, a huge slingover (Blosch’s) and our purses, I look up and see Blosch standing there in a line behind like 11 people. We tried getting a hold of the airport to tell them our situation, but we couldn’t so looks like we rushed for nothing…I could have argued more with the cab driver! The woman checking us in wasn’t friendly either…I just couldn’t wait to get out of here.

 

Aside from our last 5 hours in Barcelona, the day and a half was fantastic. We spent our time jumping on and off those nasty sightseeing busses, catching Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia (obviously), Park Guell aka Gaudi’s crazy-ass park with the longest park bench in the world (amazing) and two of his houses (Batllo and Mila/La Petrera) which were amazing and made me feel like I was in a Willy Wonka movie. We also visited the gothic quarter, the Olympic stadium and the Erotic Museum, which was interesting/creepy. Overall, the trip was great, I would have like a little more time to tour the Chocolate Museum and the soccer stadium which is just massive, but I loved Gaudi’s work. It was just fantastic. I’m glad to be back, but tomorrow we leave for Granada. Alhambra here we come!

 

Maribel

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