I got up slightly later than I would have liked to but I don't think it would have mattered too much. Let me get this right, if you're lazy like me and you get a train last minute, it's expensive. €124 for a goddamn motherfucking train from Madrid to Barcelona. Everyone I spoke to said it was €40! I questioned the guy selling the ticket. He spoke no English and I wasn't going to have a bar of it. He turned the screen to show me the times and prices. Seriously how can it be justified that a simple train costs that much? At home it's $7 for a daily ticket to regional Victoria. It's $99 to Adelaide. What ticket costs $160 anywhere I've been? I was so pissed off. I had no option because it was 11am, I had to get to Barcelona somehow and I didn't know how to get to the airport or what flights would cost last minute or any direct coaches. I just bit the bullet.
To be fair it was last minute and the trains were express but when everyone else's ticket that I saw in front I me was €40 and mine was more than triple that, that's not acceptable. This is exactly what I was saying about Spain. They'll rip you off any way they can.
I got into Barcelona after about 3 hours. If the train is more than 10 minutes late, I read they give back a refund on the ticket. WHAT A SHAME! Surely a goat could have walked across the tracks, I know it's happened before. But the metro to my hostel was super super easy. I was so glad to find it was such ease. Luckily I looked it up moments before I left Madrid. But google was wrong, how surprising. I'm actually shocked because google is pretty good with metro systems. But it was just one line and no changes compared to what I searched online with two lines and one change.
As I got out of the metro I was looking around and saw people taking photos of a weird looking building. I figured it was a Gaudi building as it had that style and sure enough I was right. In got into the hostel and the lady in reception was talking about her love life too me, for about 20 minutes. She was saying how she's met an Aussie guy and how much she loves him because he was so nice. They only met for two days, a total of 18 hours and about 10 of them they were in a park talking. Then I asked for a map at th end and asked if its Gaudi who has his buildings here and she said yes. But she gave me a map for free rather than paying €3 for it because of how much we talked.
I got into my room, put on my bed sheet and decided to sleep on it ad not use a blanket and pay extra for it because it was hot enough. I could have used my sleeping bag liner but there was no need really. I just wore my Adidas pants and contiki top and I was good to go really. Seeming as in Madrid I had a sheet on top but didn't need it at all, because it was too hot anyway, it would have also been pointless in Barcelona. Believe me, it worked like a charm.
So once I got into the room and was laying down I met two Korean girls. I later went up for a drink on the roof top bar because I was in need of something. Beer on tap? No. Sangria on tap? HELLZ YEAH BOI! So I had that, looked around and went back. The Koreans were still there in the room. So much for a lay down and such. So I asked if they wanted to visit Sagaria Famalia, one of Gaudi's and Barcelona's most famous buildings. So we left and they weren't sure how to get there as they thought it was far. Screw that, it's only a 20 minute walk up. I said I was happy to just walk it and not use the metro, it's €2 per trip or €9.40 for 10, so that's €0.94 each. I didn't need 10, nor did I need the metro.
I went back to the hostel had a rest then decided to look for dinner. I found nothing for about 30 minutes and it's probably because the area I'm staying in is posh, there's heaps of expensive shops. I found just off the main road a beer cafe which had heaps of different beers. I got a burger and the waiter asked me which beer, with about 200 different types I had no idea. He then said the one at the top of the list is the best, I just got that. The burger was amazing though, the meat was massive and it was pink inside but just great. Potato chips were real as well and not crispy and overly oily. Next to me we're two Americans on what seemed like a date, so naturally I listened in. I heard random shit like "I don't like how people drink so much on holidays and party all the time" then the bitch said stuff about how she did drugs. Seriously? Drugs are okay but alcohol isn't?
I got back to the hostel and met two Austrian girls who came at 9.30 and then at 9.45 we had another girl joint us, a Chinese Canadian who couldn't understand how I'm Australian but Italian background. Oh boy did she ask a billion questions. She was like a three year old asking about everything and anything. I don't remember anymore because my brain shut off and I went to sleep with my eye mask and ear plugs.
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