Some late nights in Seville, a couple of very hot days in Lyon, and four nights in a big house with my friends from high school, added up to a desperate lack of sleep. I was starting to feel like Argentina all over again….

The fact that I had just survived a train from Montbard, close to our house in Burgundy, a 4 hour wait for my bus to Lyon (where I finally discovered a blissfully air conditioned waiting room), a 3 hour bus to Lyon, followed by a 5 hour layover in Lyon in which there was no luggage storage, nothing open on a Sunday night, and virtually no air conditioning (apparently the bus station is under construction and the train station did not have a/c), all culminating in an 8 hour night bus to Barcelona, did not exactly help my cause. Needless to say, I arrived in Barcelona thinking only about one thing: sleep.

Luckily, I had booked a very highly rated hostel for 4 nights, and it had a/c! It was only about 30 in Barcelona, which was a relief after the heat wave in France, but the a/c was still needed. I arrived at my hostel at 9:30am, ready to leave my bags and walk around like a zombie until 1pm check in, but was informed that in fact my bed was ready as no one had stayed in it last night. I gratefully crawled straight into bed for the next 4 hours. I woke up feeling human, if still tired. I managed to wander around the city, grab lunch and sit in a park, but not much else. I did however, meet some people on the lovely hostel terrace.

One of my roommates had ambitions to get up in the morning early to go into Park Guell for free, but I knew I just couldn’t do it. Instead, I slept for 10 hours. Finally, I felt like I could function. I ended up exploring the eastern mountain area of Barcelona with a fellow Canadian, Marie, from Quebec. We checked out the 1992 Olympic sites, took a cable car, climbed up the bullring turned shopping mall, and walked all over the city. 

That night the hostel was hosting a flamenco night, but I had tickets to the Sagrada Familiar right before, and had seen enough flamenco in Seville. I had been meaning to buy tickets online for the Sagrada, but hadn’t gotten around to it, so got the last slot available for the 4 days I was there. It was also the last slot of the night, so I only had an hour, but it did mean that the sun was streaming through the cathedral. Plus, half of the Sagrada is about the facade, so I spent some time wandering around each side, listening to the app I had downloaded.

The next day I wandered around to more Gaudi sights in the morning, peeking in windows and staring at the exterior architecture. It costs about 22 euros to go into one building, and as I already paid 17 for the Sagrada, I just couldn’t justify it. I’m not that into architecture. Although, I have to say, I’ve never seen anything like the modernism architecture in Barcelona. It’s fascinating, to say the least.

In the afternoon I went with my roommate who never did get up early, to check out Park Guell, another Gaudi creation, before grabbing some beer to check out sunset from the bunkers from wwII. There wasn’t much of a sunset due to the smog, but the lights of the city were pretty great.

My final day in Barcelona I debated training to Montserrat, but decided I should not overdo it, as I had tickets with others from the hostel to see the Picasso museum at 8pm for free. Instead, I joined a free walking tour with the girl from Quebec. After the Picasso museum kicked us out at 9pm, we headed with the others to the magic fountains, a vegas type fountain show with lights and music, but with a real backdrop of centuries old architecture. Finally, we walked to a recommended pinchos street for food and wine. Somehow, it got to be 1:30am before I went to bed and about 7 hours before I had to be up for my bus to Valencia.