Corinne CrawfordLater that evening, Igor and his girlfriend and his friend Ollie, came into town for dinner as promised. However, because they waited until Friday, traffic and parking was a nightmare because the international film festival started that day. But we all met up and went to the cultural and community center that is in an old Tabacco factory building. There was a restaurant bar there and we all enjoyed some beers and food while chatting away. I was leaving for Girona the next day but Alice had an open itinerary for the rest of her trip so she made plans with Igor and the gang to do a big hike in the mountains on Sunday. I love it when the connections you make all intersect!
After saying goodbye to Igor and friends, I went back to my room because my train was leaving pretty early the next morning for Girona. I ordered a taxi because even though it was only a 20 minute walk to the train station, I would have had to leave at 6:30am and it was chilly and I would be dragging my luggage loudly along the sidewalks very early in the morning and I had already figured out that nobody seems to get up early in Spain.
I got on my train the next morning that would eventually take me to Girona after a transfer in Barcelona and it was packed. And it was very hard to figure out what car and seat I was in. The car number of the train is displayed on the outside near the door BUT once you enter you can either go upstairs to the right or go left but it is super unclear if both sections are car 13 or if just the right or just the left is. And the luggage hold was already jammed packed so in addition to finding the proper car and seat, I had to find a place to put my luggage out of the way. Me and a dozen other people trying to move around a small area in the train looking for both our car and seat and figuring out the luggage. Someone finally found another luggage hold up the stairs so many people, myself included brought our luggage up and waited our turn to load it up. An older American gentleman, and I use that term very loosely, was in front of me with a very large suitcase and when he placed that suitcase and went to shimmy back down the stairs around me, he says-hold on-I still have two more cases I need to put there. Meaning he had to go back downstairs to grab them from his wife while there was a line coming up the stairs to the luggage rack. I simply said, well, we all have to share the space meaning, the rest of us all have a right to put our luggage there too and he snaps at me and says- this hardly seems like sharing! After I put my luggage on the rack and was trying to find a way back down past all of the people trying to get up to see if I could figure out where my seat was I was looking for another exit and came across the bar car and the lady there must have seen the confused look on my face and asked to see my ticket so she could help me. She did indeed direct me downstairs and through the downstairs car. I didn’t want to have to fight my way back up again when we arrived in Barcelona so I went back to retrieve my bag before going downstairs. I am sure the angry guy would be happy that I now have left more room on the rack for his luggage. I decided I would just find somewhere to put my case closer to my seat. I basically had to leave it in the hallway where it wasn’t quite blocking the way. I made my transfer in Barcelona and was communicating with the host of the my next accommodations, a room in a private apartment. I had to walk the 15 minutes from the train station to his apartment but he had to leave for a wedding at 5pm. My train arrived at 4:38pm. So I fast walked wheeling my luggage and made it with about 5 minutes to spare before he had to leave. He quickly showed me my room and the internet and keys and then he was gone until the following day.
