Made it!

Photo Cred http://blog.up.co/2014/03/13/barcelona-next-best-place-startups/

Today is my third day in Barcelona. It has been both an exciting and exhausting adventure so far.  As I have mentioned before, I am a horrible packer and I brought way too much stuff with me… My carry on alone was extremely heavy even though I thought I packed it really light. I have marks on my shoulders from carrying it all over the place.

I ended up taking a taxi to the hostel in Barcelona city; I didn’t want to mess with the train because I was already sweating bullets from lugging everything around. I made it to the hostel and as I dragged everything inside I could feel everyone’s eyes on me… I looked like a fool bringing that much stuff into a hostel. Once I got my keys I also had to carry it all upstairs since there was no elevator. When I made it to the room, a woman was trying to sleep in one of the beds. She woke up due to the noise and introduced herself; she was from Austria. I asked if I could turn on the light so that I could get situated but she said no… awkward.  So I tried getting out the stuff I needed in the dark and while also trying to be quiet.

It felt uncomfortable leaving my stuff in the room with a complete stranger but I didn’t really have a choice… I smelled awful due to 24 long hours of travelling and desperately needed a shower. I took all of my valuables with me and headed to the communal shower.  To my dismay, towels were not provided.  But desperate times call for desperate measures.  I decided to air dry afterwards. Once I was dressed, I went downstairs to contact friends and family then started the book “Eat, Pray, Love” and enjoyed a well-deserved cerveza.

Despite my exhaustion, I barely slept that night. Two guys came in right after I had gone back to the room and were sleeping on the top bunks of the bunk beds. Every single movement created a loud noise.  Not only that… all of these people were strangers.  It was very unsettling. I slept with my arm over my purse and a watchful ear toward my luggage.

Next morning I caught a cab to the residence where I was to meet the program.  I was one of the first to arrive which was great because I got a room pretty much right away.  I also met some interesting girls who were also in the program.  One was going to be a French conversation assistant and she was from Canada, and the other was from England.  I had one girl already in my room and we soon became friends.  She was from Ohio, so it was nice to be able to speak with someone else from the States and compare our experiences in coming to Barcelona. We ended up going as a group to a local empanada place as we waited for the rest of the conversation assistants to arrive.

From my experiences so far, I don’t really think that hostels are my thing but I will definitely be trying it again.  I never even lived in the dorms in college so this was definitely an experience I was not used to, especially in a foreign country. Perhaps after this year of travelling around and having a home base I will be more comfortable with the nomadic lifestyle and living out of a backpack. Or at least I hope so… time will tell.