You know it’s a bad bus ride when you’re nostalgic for the buses in Vietnam, and (despite the dirt) even those in India. That being said, I do NOT recommend Eurolines when traveling through Europe. Our bus was nearly two hours late. It was full. The lights stayed on. And it was as if every kind of crazy decided to journey to Spain that night. Right on par with the Greyhound these days back home. Not. my. favorite. Needless to say, we were exhausted when we arrived in Barcelona in the morning.
Visiting Barcelona in the summertime turned out to be just like Prague. We had a really really hard time finding a place to stay. Luckily, at the last minute, a couchsurfer messaged us with a room for 10 euros each per night. Not exactly couchsurfing etiquette, but it was better than a 40 euro per night per bunk in a hostel otherwise. This is when I bemoan the fact that Africa absolutely killed our budget. And then Andrew reminds me the safari was worth it.
We slept. for awhile. So long, that when we woke up and realized we hadn’t eaten anything in over 24 hours, Andrew talked me out of wanting to go back to sleep and talked me into going out to find some food. It was roughly 8 or so at night. Spain 101: no one eats until at least 10. Restaurants weren’t even open! We found a sidewalk cafe and ordered a few tapas with a drink while we waited. Filled up on them and when Andrew was satisfied I had enough food to hold me over until the morning, we made our way back to bed. Some of these overnight bus rides take us a few days to get over. We’re getting better than we were at the start of this trip, but that doesn’t make them any easier. It’s like jet-lag only worse because you feel like you shouldn’t be having such a hard time getting over one night of not sleeping…
I was excited to be in Barcelona, but more excited to sleep our first night. My first impression of the city though, was how beautiful the buildings were. I have to admit, I’m somewhat cheating with this post- so you don’t have to suffer through one minute of us sleeping, I’ve compiled some video of buildings throughout the city I shot on other days instead.
