If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
Waking up on the sidewalk in a small French town isn’t the best way to start a new day. I was just happy daylight was around the corner. Domile and her friends packed up their bags, we all said a round of ‘good mornings,’ and then went into the train station. After looking at the boards, Domile laughed and said, “why did you let us get up so early, our train doesn’t leave for a couple hours!”
So Domile and Kernius played cards, I wrote in my journal, and everyone else crashed. We still weren’t sure how we’d get to Barcelona. We decided to try and catch a train across the border and then give it a shot from the Spanish side. The plan worked. Our four minute ride into Spain pulled in just as a train was departing to Barcelona. In fact we almost missed it because not everyone had cleared customs and I didn’t want to leave unless we all were able to get on. It just didn’t seem right to abandon them. But we all made it and were all on our way, finally. We were a short two hours away from our final destination!
During one of the stops, three people went running out next to our carriage and snapped pictures like crazy of the train. They were really excited. Aubs and I figured they must have been taking pictures of their artwork, the trains were covered in graffiti…and actually, most of it looked pretty cool.
We arrived in Barcelona and we said our goodbyes and went different ways. Well, we’d made it, but now what? We went out into the street and started walking. I saw an informational booth and asked for the nearest Internet Cafe.
It was close. We each bought an hour of time and I got on Expedia and found a Hotel nice and close. We were tired, dirty, stinky (at least I was), and had spent the night on the streets. I didn’t want to have to walk very far even if it meant I paid a bit more.
I’d looked at the Google Satellite image and knew were the hotel was…so we headed out. But on the way I asked the info booth lady and she pointed me in a different direction. A little further away but not by much. 
But then we couldn’t find the Hotel, anywhere. We asked again and a man pointed down the road and said ‘10 or so blocks.” Somewhat grumpy for paying extra when I thought it was close, we dragged our luggage 10 or so blocks to find nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it was hot. And humid. We retraced our steps to the start of the street and I went into a hotel and asked for help. My face was dripping from every pore, I think she felt bad for me because she was ultra nice. She said tons of people come in looking for that Hotel and it’s tricky because there is actually a little patch of street over and up two blocks with the same name. Just about where I was originally headed…argh!
We found our Hotel, checked in, and I took one of the expensive cokes out of the mini-bar. I didn’t care how much it cost, I needed something wet and cold. It was only about noon, lots of day left. Aubs showered first and by the time I cleaned up, she was zonked. I hated to spend our time in Barcelona sleeping, but yesterday was just too draining and it sounded like the perfect plan.
We did get out for a nice evening stroll that ended up being a five mile walk through town. We went the waterfront where there was a flea market. Then up through La Rambla where we watched the street performers and Aubree shopped at the vendor stands for a few more presents. We cut through to the Gothic section where old stone buildings towered over the narrow alleyways. We saw several old cathedrals, including one of Gaudi’s. We moved pretty fast knowing we’d be back tomorrow and then we’d take pictures and take the time to truly appreciate everything. The truth was, I still felt somewhat groggy from the long day yesterday and was just trying to keep myself awake so I could get a good nights sleep. It wasn’t much of a day, but then, after that long day yesterday we needed a day to recover. It got dark and we bee-lined back to the hotel where I don’t even remember hitting the pillow.