Hola, Barcelona! Estoy aqui

After far too long I have finally returned to Spain!  While my last time here was spent primarily in the south of Spain, it took no time to feel completely at home here in Barcelona.

Leading up to this point was filled with many, many tears and long “see ya laters” but the entire trip here went well.  Having booked my trip coincidently at the same time NYC decided to do construction on the GWB (and NJ on any road leading into the city just to add insult to injury) the trip to the airport seemed like a herculean effort.   Rapidly closing in on the 2 hours before take off it seemed almost certain I was going to miss my flight.  Fortunately, and surprisingly, once in the airport – check in and security lines were so efficient that I actually had time to grab a beer and food!    Thank you Aer Lingus (I recommend this airline, especially internationally, to all) and especially thank you for having a power source right by my feet so that I could charge all my electronics.  Look – it was a big step to do this trip in the first place…. Giving up all technology/electronics cold turkey would be too much of a shock to the system.

Arriving into Dublin 45 minutes early (yes, early) clearing immigration was again surprisingly quick/efficient, but then I think at 4am we were the first plane to land.  I was able to enjoy the free wifi and test out the ol’ skype to alert all that I had arrived safely.  Like every trip I take though, there was no need to tell my Mom that- she tracks me online every time and probably knew we were landing before I did.  : )

A short regional flight later, I arrived in Barcelona.  While all intentions were to take the train to the apartment I’m renting – oddly I was unable to find it.   Signs were in English and Spanish but no matter where the signs pointed, it just led me to outside with no train station in sight, so I hopped in a cab.  To this point, approximately less than 1 hours time had passed since landing and I feel like I spoke more Spanish than I had in the almost 6 months I had studied here (back in 2001).  Thankfully I arrived safely and don’t believe I cursed or said anything about sacrificing goats to the driver or if I did, he let it go.

Upon exiting the cab to enter my apartment building I run into my first “blonde” Spain moment.  I can’t open the front door and no matter how I try, the key is not letting me in.   A man was exiting (and I believe laughing from the inside prior to opening the door) and sputtered something quickly to me (in Spanish?  Maybe Catalan?) as I embarrassingly walked toward the stairs.

Now understand, I am staying in a mid-rise building and notice that there’s a typical (aka creepily small) European elevator for which, you guessed it, I can’t figure out how to work.  Seemingly out of options, I SHLEP my bags up to the apartment.  If anyone had seen me, CPR would have definitely needed to be administered.  But alas, I made it and even got the key to work!

After getting settled and straighten up from 10+hours of travel and x-game style stair climbing, I headed out to see what was around.  Ok that’s a lie – I was searching for Internet.  I found it at a restaurant run by Asian men who spoke (I’ll say Chinese but I don’t really know) and Spanish fluently.  They also knew enough words to speak to me in English though I quickly answered in my most “gringa” Spanish.  Not sure we really accomplished much in either language but Operation Internet was a success. 

Inherent in leaving is returning, thus I would have to once again attempt getting back into the apartment building….. but who would win, me or the keys?  Happy to report I won as I realized I had the keys upside down.   Ah the small victories in life!

So while the remainder of my first day has been filled with aimless wandering lacking excitement to write of, I have successfully found a grocery store, internet AND a great running/bike path.   If I can successfully find the yoga studio this week and maybe even the train station – I think I’ll be set! 

Now back to Law and Order: CSI in…. Spanish?  Catalan?  Guess it doesn’t matter as there’s no way I’d be able to successfully follow this show in any language other than English.   Maybe I should just stick to cartoons…….