Barcelona

We left our cozy little bed and breakfast in Porto and took the longest train ride of my life. It was hard to leave Porto, even though we really didnt explore it as much as we could have...we had a really nice time relaxing. But on we went! The first train was for about five hours which wasn't so bad. We ended up having to a 6 hour layover in this town Vigo. It is the same town we changed trains in to get from Santiago to Porto, so I can say for certain, it is a pretty nice train station with a good candy store. I took a very uncomfortable nap on a bench so they could improve their seating options to be more accommodating to my napping.

After the wait, we got to board the night train to Barcelona. There were six people in each little cabin but to start, it was just Kirstin and I. We thought it was going to be very nice. The cabins have six bunk bed style beds, so three on each side, stacked to the top. The top beds were already set up but the bottom two fold into to make a bench for everyone to sit on during the day. As the train made its way through its stops, we gained a few people in our cabin, two older couples to be exact. They did not speak any English but they had a very lively discussion in Spanish about who got to sleep on the bottom bunks. The conductor (we named him Evan because he looked remarkably similar to our friend Devin) came in at some point and told us it was time for bed so we all shuffled out and he made the other two beds. Then we shuffled back in, Kirstin and I climbed up to our very high beds and I slept pretty well.

When we got into Barcelona, we met up with Hannah and Jess. It was so nice to see them again! The first day, we just wandered around a bit, did some shopping and then stayed in and hung out at the hostel that night. There was a bar in the hostel so we met some nice people.

The next day, we met up with our friend Cecilla from the Camino. She lives in Barcelona so she was our own little tour guide. She walked us around, pointing out things and then took us to the most amazing lunch place. It was this really crowded hallway of a place with no tables or chairs, just standing room and all they served was sandwiches and champagne. It was really cheap and simple but so much fun. So everyone is crowded together, holding champagne glasses and sandwiches in a tiny little room. It was one of those places we wouldnt have been able to find on our own.

Cecilla took us out that night as well. We met for dinner at a tapas place and shared about 6 different kinds of tapas (small little dishes that are about the quarter of a size of a regular meal). Then she took us out to a few other bars. All in all, it was just a really fun night.

The next day, we went and toured around a bit more, seeing a lot of the Gaudi buildings. I was in Barcelona about a year and a half ago and so it was neat to see everything again as well as some new stuff. That night, we met back up with Cecilla when she took us to this little bar for mojitos.

In the morning, Hannah, Jess and Kirstin and I went out for an early breakfast and to say goodbye. It was really hard to leave them, they were our last Camino goodbye. It seemed a little strange at first for it to be back to just Kirstin and I. We have been traveling in a big group for so many weeks now. Its been amazing though how tired we all have been. The four of us had such little energy to go out and do things. After all that walking, I feel like I am crashing a bit. It will be nice to get home and relax a little bit.