This should probably be before the Baden-Baden post, but nevermind...
Barcelona was good. I was there for 3 nights - 2 in a god-awful, but nicely located Hostelling International Hostel (INOut Hostel) and for the other night; one close to Placa Catalunya, which was infinitely better (HostelOne Sants).
I wasted most of my first day pretty much, as I developed a bout of hayfever at some point on the journey there. It was something of a miracle that I found my way out of the train station at all, giving that every minute or 2 I was sneezing. I think maybe people thought I had Swine Flu (sorry pig farmers, H1n1 virus?) so they may well have cleared a path for me as I staggered toward them.
At the first hostel, I met the shortish Scottish guy, Nick, after getting off the tram, just I was wondering how the heck I was going to get to the other side of the gate.
He lived inbetween Edinburgh and Glasgow. He was well into his 'fitbah' and I could understand a total of 3 words he said. He was nice enough though, and showed me a decent shortcut upto the hostel, which is bang next to a National Park, cutting out half of the distance of the hill we had to climb.
After a healthy late afternoon kip my hayfever had pretty much cleared up. So after talking to a couple of Australian girls, who were in my dorm, and apologising for the eye-bleeding stench coming from my shoes and socks, I reared my head.
I had some of the food on offer from the restaurant, owned by the hostel. It tasted like microwaved swill, but it filled a hole. I had a pretend Paella followed by some soggy burgers, lacking any kind of flavour for a reasonable-but-not-that-reasonable 6,50.
It was pretty late by the time I'd finished and was pretty dark, so I read a little and went to sleep. That was until the larger of the 2 Australian girls began to shake the room with her snoring.
On my second day I took the plunge and went on one of those double-decker tourist buses (Barcelona Turistica). I got the 2-day pass (hop on and off as many times as you want) for 28Euro, when the 1-day pass was 21. I was up at 8ish, had a designated plate of food from the Hostel kitchen (a dried up croissant, some bread, jam and foul coffee) then headed to Placa Catalunya.
The bus-tour was pretty good, informative and interesting. The English voice sounded like someone familiar, a Keith Floyd-type or one of those famous TV historians. I was glad to have got on the bus once it got going, as the sights in Barcelona are quite sparsely spread out, so I would've done myself an injury if I attempted to walk all of the distance.
On the bus, I was once again beginning to wonder why people would take pictures of every single thing, seemingly without processing what they were seeing. I was happy to let the passing sights sink in on my first run, and paid attention to the history being pumped into my ear.
I was on the buses for most of the day. Even got a little bit of sunburn, as usually I am walking and hopping from shade to shade, but on the bus I was pretty exposed. I can just hear my Mother tutting.
If you have heard anything about the pickpocketing in Barcelona, it is absolutely true. I was fortunate in that I haven't lost anything.. yet, but I certainly noticed some dodginess. There were a couple of potential situtions (that sounds official) or maybe I was just being overly-paranoid.
Both times, I was in the Metro, so be sure to be alert when/if you head there. The first time, it was a group of kids (always kids, as far as i could tell), maybe 5, on bicycles. They started to circle me a bit as I was starting to look a little lost... again, probably nothing, probably just my mind playing tricks. I got out of that one by going down some stairs - imagine that!
The second time, it was more obvious. I was walking down one of those tight tunnels they have in the Metro and a group were walking towards me. Both my hands were full with shopping bags at this point. As I was walking towards them, the guy on my side casually lowers his hand to his side and tried to check my side pocket. I was quite aware of this as it happened, and wanted to smack the guy afterwards, but as I say... I wasn't 100% whether it happened or not!
HostelOne Sants, for my final night's stay in Barcelona was really good. It was also remarkably easy to find from the Metro stop. I wasn't there much on my 3rd day, as I was busy using my last day on the bus tour, but on check-out day I hung around until 3pm-ish.
The guy on reception was cool, as were the other guests floating around. I played a guy's guitar and he gave me ideas for improvising in alternate tunings. I'm also thinking of buying an acoustic guitar for when I head to Australia, come October, as I will be there for so long.
At first, I thought of going to Marseilles, but ended up going towards Cerbere. I arrived there at 8pm, then, looking at the Departures board, I decided to head to Paris d'Austerlitz, just because I couldn't be bothered looking for accommodation.
From Paris I headed to Baden-Baden.
