Barcelona and Traveling Days

Well, I spent my last day in Barcelona alone, unfortunately. I had to check out at 10 AM (which always sucks) and I walked straight to the train station to put my stuff in a locker for the day. First I headed off to the Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral that Gaudi designed. It's still very much a work in progress and is not set to be completed until 2025. It really does make you appreciate the vastness of such a project when it's taken over two centuries with modern equipment. It was packed full of people but it was interesting to see it all under construction.

After that I headed to Park Guell. Park Guell is a park that Gaudi designed for a rich guy named Guell. The park has a lot of eclectic buildings and fountains, and it's all on top of a giant hill overlooking all of Barcelona. It was a really great view.

After that I headed to the Picasso Museum, but when I got there there was a line and I knew that once I got in I was going to have to rush to get through it, so I didn't want to waste the money. I explored a little bit more of the Gothic Quarter and headed back to the train station. And so begins on of the biggest mistakes of my trip so far.

My original plan was, as you know, to go to Barcelona from Bordeaux and then to Naples. Instead I went to Nice, Barcelona and then Naples. Some serious backtracking. In order to get to Naples by my reservation on the 8th, I had to take two overnight trains and travel continously for three days. Never do this. Ever.

First I had to take a train to Cerbere and then from Cerbere I had to take the overnight train to Nice. I met two girls from England on the train to Cerbere and we stuck together until we reached Nice, where they were headed. I got on the train and the conductor warned everyone on the train that someone gets robbed on this route every night and that we should keep all our money and documents on us. Luckily nothing happened to me and I woke up in Nice having slept slightly better than my last train ride to Barcelona. I'm half done with this excursion.

I arrive in Nice and say farewell to Haley and Jenny (I'm sick with jealously that they get to go to a hotel) and find that I must take a train to Ventmille, Italy in order to take the train to Milan. I wanted a reservation but they accidently sold me a ticket for 6 Euro (which I didn't realize until I was on the train) so I spent that train ride pissed at myself (Plus something smelled like poop the entire ride and that just added to my distress).

On the ride to Milan I met some Russian girls who were on a business trip. The trains in Italy are compartmentalized, meaning that there are two rows of three facing eachother in each compartment. This arrangment forces you to be pretty social, so long story short I ended up being asked to play some Beatles songs on my guitar for them as we rode along.

I had only one day to explore Milan because I had another train that left that night to Napoli (Naples). Milan wasn't that great. I got off the Metro right in front of the Duomo so it gave a good first impression, but it was mostly filled with shops and was quite dirty in some parts. I started wandering around and found myself in a nice residential district with some cool houses, but after a while I had no idea where I was. So after a while I asked a guy where the nearest Metro was and he said "not close". Apparently I had walked about 2km from the nearest Metro stop, so after about an hour of walking I finally got on the Metro and headed back to the city center.

I got my first Italian pizza and a coke and enjoyed it while I watched the sun set over the Duomo. The pizza was quite thick and was cut up into several rectangular pieces (I was too hungry to take pictures). The peaceful feeling didn't last though because I knew I had to spend another night on the train. That's right - my second night on the train.

To be continued...