More than a year ago I had met my partner in Barcelona and scraping the bottom of our wallets we wanted to go on a trip down memory-lane if nothing else to try to patch our crumbling relationship by reducing it to the essence.
Wring idea – wrong outcome. I don’t know if yous have ever been on a short trip with someone with no resilience to stress and high tension between you and your travel partner. It can quickly turn into a torture bringing infinite argument and loads of stress instead of relaxation and energy reload.
Kicking us off was the audacity of the high-quality airline cancelling our return flight just before we left for the airport in Edinburgh. Without giving any reason they had cancelled several flights in the period and so getting an alternative was not easy and only left us with the option the shorten our trip even further if we didn’t want to risk losing our jobs by extending ridiculously. We would now have one day in Barcelona and both flights leaving early in the morning for extra stress.
Another faith full decision on this trip was it not to go to sleep before heading to the airport in Edinburgh. Nowadays it only takes an hour and a half by air travel to go from Scottland to Spain but when one is getting stressed out by travel in general, the one should make sure to at least embark on it rested. Edinburgh has one of the best airport transfers I have ever known, 24/7 there the shuttle leaves every 15 minutes – Barcelona turned out to be a bit more of a mission. But over all the Arrival was fine and the metro into town and getting to the hostel was doable.
We arrived exhausted but I was happy to be in Barcelona, a beautiful city and time after time an exiting feeling to be traveling. My company felt the strain of the travel even more and wated to spend the limited time resting in the hostel. Here the first hell broke loose in him when I suggested I would go for a coffee and little walk while he could sleep I while. His aggressive and highly unsatisfied response to this triggered an argument that did not get resolved and flickered continuously throughout the whole trip and after.
To walk along the beach and observe the waves is one of my most appreciated feelings. The vast ocean gives off magical and meditative state that, in me, being able to sit on the beach and let go, instantly triggers the feeling of Freedom. In Barcelona you can take a 180° turn, turning onto La Rambla by the harbour from the ocean view you get to a mix of high-street-shops, street artists and little market stalls and typical city restaurants serving Spanish dishes such as paella to be enjoyed amid happily chatting people. La Rambla is a bussing, typically Spanish strip.
Another light moment of the trip was a visit in the bar of the W-Hotel in the north corner of the beach. The hotel itself has an impressive glass architecture on huge scale build onto the beach, the structure represents a fully blown sale on the tip of the beach reaching far up into the sky. Near the top they have a public bar which is usually open to public (sometimes you will have to register on the guestlist prior to you visit) the drinks are not great and the prices as high as the bar itself, nevertheless 5€ for a beer in that view might be worth the experience. On one side you can see the city stretching out to the mountains, clearly visible are the structures of the roman gothic city and the entrance is framed by through the huge glass windows, overlooking the long coastline showing the clear cut between terrestrial civilisation and aquatic, mystic vastness.
The area I much prefer to the up-scale W-Hotel is quite the opposite style in the enchanting gothic old town. Tiny, intertwined lanes opening to small and medium size squares in between buildings accommodating cute cafés, small shops and independent art markets capture the essence of the city much better. Though I can be a bit of a hustle looking for a specific place you haven’t been to yet so let yourself get lost and discover the area freely it is a beautiful thing to do.
Now, Barcelona is a stunning city, but the beauty is always influenced by the situation and how can I enjoy it in an energy like the one presented. Recalling the trip there were of course nice moments but in the moment I could hardly see.
Our return flight was leaving in the early morning so we thought it would be best to enjoy the nightlife and get the airport shuttle once we had enough. In an Irish pub we had been told that the bus would be going every 30 min and the website looked like it would be an 24hr service as well. Done from the exhausting travels and tension struck time in Barcelona and since my partner could not handle being sleep deprived, we decided to head to the airport around 12:30 and get some rest there. As it turned out the bus was not leaving until 3 am and so he demanded to sleep on a bench on the Placa de Catalunya me being the pillow and security for our stuff. When we finally got to the airport, we had a few hours to kill and spend them moving form one quiet corner to the next since he desperately wanted to sleep, and the guards passionately wanted to hinder us at that. By this time, I was exhausted and only focusing on getting home and finishing this horribly trip.
The moral of the story would definitely be emphasizing on self-care, and to know your own limits of not sleeping then two sleepless nights can ruin a whole, potentially great trip.
