HAVING spent the last five months working (except weekends, and Christmas, and all those snow days in December, and the day I had off for flu), I am obviously deserving of a holiday!Rewarding myself for such a work-heavy schedule, I am currently typing this latest entry in my blog from a hotel in Barcelona where I have strategically positioned myself away from the snow and sideways rain of England for a few days.
For those of you who I haven't bragged about it to, I do have a week off due to schools being on half term, and have decided to spend three days in Barcelona before traveling onto Athens, Greece on Monday, and then returning back to England on Saturday.
I set off from Mansfield on Friday night and spent the night at my aunt and uncle's house in St Neots. Catching the train from there allowed me to travel for a much more acceptable price than the three figure quote than I found online when planning my latest adventure.
It's 11.21 in Barcelona at the moment, and it genuinely feels like I have been traveling all day to get here.
My train left St Neots this morning bound for Gatwick airport, I travelled via Kings Cross, braved the tube to London Bridge before returning to the overground train to complete the final part of my journey to Gatwick. I was massive early arriving at the airport, but flying with Easyjet, they seem to be not really bothered what time you check-in for your flight so at least I was able to do that before going through to the departure gate and finding some much needed nourishment (it was at least 2pm by then!)
It's been almost a year since I've been on a plane flying back from Korea, and after the dramas of almost not being allowed on the plane, nearly missing my flight thanks to Russian incompetence, and then returning to find a suitcase had disappeared, I was more than delighted to discover that I managed to make it here with few delays/disasters.
Being a cheapskate (it's the Yorkshire in me) I wasn't too delighted to discover that when booking my flight, Easyjet have some form of paint-by-numbers flight booking system in place these days, I presume, primarily to line their pockets with dosh, and basically rip-you off in as subtle a way possible.
As well as the added extras of being able to choose your seat, book a quick check in, and order in-flight food (all for a nominal fee of course) they have gone with the policy of charging you a 'fine' for taking a bag on board. Not only do you have to pay extra for the pleasure of doing so, but you are also now required to ensure that your bag fits into the small space you will be allocated in a carry-on locker once on board the plane.
I did have a few fears about the bag I selected to bring with me to carry onto the plane (I don't really do traveling lightly) and sheepishly as I was queuing to check-in I moved a few things into my suitcase to ensure that my bag was a little squashier. Having showed the woman behind the desk my bag, she didn't seem overly concerned that I would have any problems.
Only when I was about to board the plane and seeing the guy in front of me basically having to stamp on his suitcase to make it fit into the space, did I feel a bit worried.
Luckily with a bit of a shove I managed to avoid any embarrassment, and discover that another of Easyjet's ploys for cheap flying, is basically not to give you a seat number and basically cause people to rush even more to board the plane so that they can sit together.
Being a relaxed type (bordering on not being bothered), I never understand the whole rush people seem to be in when boarding or getting off the plane. I find it funny how as soon as the plane lands, people are taking their seatbelts off and trying to get their carry-on baggage out of the locker without even a thought for anyone else. I understand it even less if you have a 'reserved' seat and you rush to get on the plane, I personally would rather sit in the lounge than in the cramped space of a plane, perhaps I am strange in that way?!
Anyway, the flight over here was only about an hour and forty minutes so no major struggles, I have to admit that I slept the majority of the way, and my new thing when going on a plane seems to be falling asleep during take-off and landing. Almost like a small child (or my friend Rowan) on a car journey I barely manage to stay conscious during either.
Arriving in Barcelona I wasn't too worried about being on my own and finding my way, after all I'm pretty sure that the standard of English here is better than what I faced upon arrival in Korea. There's a pretty good metro system which runs throughout the city and after collecting my bag I headed to the train station to catch an overground train into central Barcelona before getting onto the metro to my destination.
Both of those bits went without a hitch, and instead of trying to navigate my own way to the hotel with the instructions I had got online, I felt it sensible to catch a taxi to my final destination.
It took half an hour before I could find one (they must be sparse on saturday nights) but after some initial skepticism from the driver about the address I had given him, he eventually dropped me off safely outside of the door.
Now that I am here, I must be honest and say that I am delighted to have touched down and not be traveling for another three days. I don't mind the traveling, of course, or I wouldn't do it, but it's nice as the A-Team would say, when a plan comes together, and in this case you eventually get to your hotel room.
When I did arrive, my body was naturally craving some food so I went walking to find a local supermarket to buy myself some snacks. Most of the restaurants around here seemed pretty closed up and I thought that might be the easiest option in curing my hunger. After eating I did go next door to my hotel to a local bar to watch the end of the Real Madrid - Levante game which I had spied being on as I walked past, and I am planning a reasonably early night to head into the city tomorrow.
My initial thoughts of Barcelona are firstly a delight to be out of England for a while. I'm not one to trash the country that I live in, but somewhere in my body perhaps there is gypsy blood which creates the desire to travel and makes me enjoy being in different places doing different things. I don't class being in Korea as a holiday as I was working, so it will go back to Thailand when the last time I was on an actual vacation away from work.
A dream of mine would be to be able to find a career where I can travel and also work in different places on a permanent basis, but for the time being, holidays like this provide me with the ideal opportunity to experience new things and different places whenever I am able to.
Traveling to different places, however, only increases my desire to watch to travel to even more places and I'm pretty sure that after some time in Barcelona and Greece I will have got the fever to go away again.
I've been to Barcelona before (I think Calella counts) but I am genuinely excited about being here and seeing some of the things I have planned to. Sadly the weather isn't brilliant at the moment, but I am hoping that will not dampen my enthusiasm to get out and see the city in my only full day here. So far what I have seen of the city, it seems like quite a lively place, my hotel is in quite a quiet part of Barcelona but it seems like there are good links with the rest of the city so I shouldn't have too many problems finding my way around.
I hope to be able to update this blog regularly in the next few days, especially as I am actually doing something interesting for a change, but that depends on my access to the Internet. If not, then I certainly intend to type up some entries and post them online when I get back.
Thanks for reading,
Ben x x x
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