WELCOME BACK TO BARCELONA

We’re back.  We arrived back into port sometime around 5 am-not that I noticed.  I checked to make sure that the monster had been taken, which it had, and I worked my morning around a 9am departure.  As I was heading to breakfast groups of colours were already being called at 7am, but they were people with flights to catch and I was glad I had a few days in town before I had to head off.  Firstly I was able to store bags-I couldn’t imagine having all my gear in the cabin that I had-Linda wouldn’t have seen a mess if I had of done that and I didn’t have the stress of getting to an airport and I just hoped that there were taxis!!!

I had a book to swap at the ‘book swap’ section of The Library on deck 12.  I had left a book during the week, swapped it-read it and returned it this morning with another book that I had finished and wanted to swap.  You always feel like such a thief when you put a book in and take one out.  I feel like I want/need to show someone that I have put one in to take one out.  Ridiculous I know as people probably don’t really care.  There were more foreign language books in the swap library than English ones, but as long as they had one, I would take it.  I am still reading hard copy books while I can.  I much prefer that than the Kindle.  I wonder if books are expensive to get a hold of in Kenya like it was in Ethiopia.  Like Ethiopia, my only things I need on my wish list are internet and a bathroom.  I don’t think that is too hard to ask.  I am assuming that the cost of living will be more expensive in Kenya than Ethiopia and I have no idea on what the cost of a place to rent is-all this I guess I will find out when I arrive. 

Breakfast was a quick one this morning as it was SO cold outside this morning.  I had my delightful pancakes and fresh cream one last time and I was kind of happy that I didn’t see Sahul, the waiter from the other morning-talk about awkward.  I had nearly 1.5 hours till I was to leave the ship.  So I headed back to The Library and read my book in the warmth and comfort of a big cushy arm chair.  There was no-one else in there, I had the whole place to myself and it was a nice way to spend my last hour on the ship.  I headed back to my cabin at 8.30am as this was the time we were supposed to have vacated them by.  I was hoping I could hole up in there for an extra 30 minutes trying to maximise my time and delay my arrival to the hotel as late as I could get.  I got a knock from Linda not long after I got back, but she said to take my time, she had other cabins to do and she could come back to mine.  My stewardess Linda was a breath of fresh air during the week with her smile and saying good morning every day and I would see her on my way out each evening as I headed to the theatre.  She had one more cruise to do and then she was heading home to the Philippines for 7 weeks for a break before coming back.  I decided to leave her a small note on the dresser to say thank you for her smile every day and I also attached a kangaroo hat pin for her to remember me by.  Hopefully that made her smile.  Gee I hope she gets it!!!!  So at 8.50am I decided I better get my butt off the ship and let Linda have my cabin-she was just across the hall so with a hug and a quick chat I said my goodbyes and it was time to leave my home for the last 9 nights.

Deck 7 was the gangway and there was a line-up of staff, the cruise director and the second captain there all to say goodbye as we swiped our ship cards for the last time.  Welcome back to Barcelona and it was a chilly one at that.  The Barcelona port also looks quite new and well laid out.  After walking the access bridges and down the escalators we arrived at the baggage collection point and it was just like an airport, with bag carousels and each one was numbered with the coloured tag that you had on your bag.  It was a great system and the monster arrived only a few minutes of me getting to my belt.  I was able to use the edge of a counter to get the backpack on my back and then I was following people out to the taxi rank.  There was a small queue but it was moving and there was a port policeman moving the taxis into bays and another guy directing people to cabs as they pulled in and not even 10 minutes of waiting I was in a cab whisked away to the city.  There was a weird moment when I had a look behind me and I saw the English couple, Lee and Adele were standing behind me and didn’t say a single word to me.  So I thought ‘flip you’ and didn’t say anything to them.  I think what may have happened was I had a great report with Lee and I reckon Adele said something to him and they kept their distance.  I only saw them one other time in the buffet on like day 4 and they were very off Standish then.  I’m not sure what went down, but we never did catch up for that drink we spoke about on the first day of the cruise which is a shame as they seemed quite cool and we had a few things in common.  Oh well it was their loss.  That reminded me that I didn’t get to say goodbye to my Danish couple.  That makes me sad as they were lovely.  At least I do have their email address so I will be sure to send them an email in the next few days.       

As I sat in the taxi as it drew away, I couldn’t see a meter.  I thought how much could he rip me off.  I knew I paid 11EUR for the trip down so I had that price in mind for the return journey.  I am glad I had my vouchers as it makes it so much easier to communicate with the drivers when they know where they are going without my pathetic attempts at Spanish-but in saying that I am staying on the Ramblas and you can’t go too wrong saying that word.  As I found out when I arrived and had to walk the sucker, The Ramblas is a long tree lined street/pedestrian mall that stretches for 1.2 kilometres and with this in mind my taxi driver popped out right near my hotel-great work buddy.  So you can imagine my surprise when he told me the fare was 20EUR.  Actually it was 20.15EUR but he was happy to call it 20EUR.  Well how swell of you.  I really didn’t have a leg to stand on as I couldn’t see a meter anywhere so I just paid the 20EUR reluctantly and exited the cab.  I made him help me with the monster to get it on my back-he was going to work for that 20EUR.  I just don’t understand how an 11EUR cab ride down was a 20EUR cab ride back.  We were travelling at similar times-there was no traffic to speak of and we didn’t travel the whole length of the Ramblas.  Any way I wasn’t going to argue and I walked into the hotel to be greeted by the same guy that popped my bags into storage for free when I was last here.  He was also cute and my rip off taxi was immediately forgotten!  I asked if my room happened to be ready and he did look to which it was no.  He told me the room wouldn’t be ready till 1.30pm, maybe earlier which I did expect.  But he said he would check if there was another room that I could have.  He took about 10 minutes checking the computer and the log to no avail telling me that there were no other single rooms free.  I asked then how much extra would it cost to pay for a double room and at that moment another staff member appeared (also easy on the eye) and after a few words he said I could have room 207.  AWESOME!!!  I was SO thankful as I know they don’t have to do it, or they could and ask for money for an early check-in, but they didn’t and it really made my morning.  The first good looking chap remembered I had bags stored without me even mentioning it and I said I would take what I had up and be back for the other 2.  Once I got to my room I could see why he didn’t look at this room as it was a disabled room-which I didn’t mind.  It had a single bed and the bathroom was as big as the actual room itself but there was lots of room for my bags and would give me extra space for my final pack in a few days’ time.  I was happy. 

I retrieved my other 2 bags and then I pretty much locked myself away in my room for the rest of the day.  I had some blogs to finish, I had A LOT of support messages replying back to my down status I had put up on Facebook yesterday and all the messages just made me cry all over again, so I wanted to read them all and hopefully reply back and my BIGGEST job was to finally load all my photos from the last 9 days.  I had done all the hard work of editing them while I was on the ship, so I literally only had to load them.  It was nice to look over them again and it made me think that I should take the time to look over a lot more of my pictures that I have taken in the last 2 years, but it is just a time thing.  Well I will be a bit of a bum in Kenya for a little while so maybe I will have some ‘down’ time to just soak in everything I have accomplished over my time away and re read some blogs.  It would be interesting to ready a blog from the start of the Odyssey and compare it to how I am writing now.  I wonder if there is a difference at all.  I also have a few more things I need to do while I have a good internet connection from internet banking, updating my antivirus software, sending a few emails and of course the never ending blogging.  Yes I had the perfect day ‘at home’ with no constraints at all.  I did go out at 3pm to get some lunch and I just had to have some paella.  Paella is a Valencian cooking metal casing, and a rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain.  There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella, seafood paella and mixed paella but there are many others as well. All contain white rice, green vegetables and meat depending on the option you choose.  I was feeling a little adventurous and ordered the seafood paella and lemonade and after the drink arrived I kicked myself as I should have ordered a glass of sangria.  Never mind.  So I settled on with my book in the warmth of the restaurant until my meal arrived and it looked delicious and I wasn’t disappointed, it tasted as good as it looked. 

As I had eaten such a late lunch I knew that I wouldn’t be too hungry for dinner but I would probably need something to get me through till breakfast in the morning.  So I found a supermarket and bought some Doritos, some crackers, and some ham and when I looked in the cheese section I was hoping to see Brie or Camembert but to avail BUT guess what was there?  Cow Cheese!!!  You know the cream cheese that come in 8 segments in a round cardboard case?  In my books that was just as good as the Brie/Camembert and with that in my basket, a can of coke and 2 passionfruit poppers I think I was set for a bit of a snack later on tonight if I needed.  Perfect. 

So it was a productive day for me.  Maybe not in the sense of being a tourist but I need to have ‘office’ days and I think after next week I am not sure when I will have internet again-so I need to make the most of it while I have it.  In my defence I have been to Barcelona twice before and I have done a lot of the ‘touristy’ things.  The only thing I haven’t really done here is the museums and I am not really a museum go-er so I don’t feel guilty that I am not getting around the city. 

Tick, tick tick-Africa in 4 days…….