Dark.
Janitors inside.
Moving about slowly.
No passengers.
A small group of backpackers and homeless huddled by the doors.
Closed doors.
I approached and asked lamely, "is it closed?"
"Yes," was the obvious and plentiful grumpy reply.
"When does it open again?"
A guy about my age (from here on out to be known as Fruits) muttered a lot of gibberish. He had a very annoying voice that sounded like squeaky gravel.
"Four thirty," replied a mess of dreadlocks to my left.
My bus leaves at four, I thought, this...this is not good. There is not another bus to the airport until after my flight leaves at 6:30...
A bum in the corner burped and rolled over, readjusting his cardboard bed. My near future flashed before my eyes.
A thirty something guy (from here on out to be known as Nuts) with a well concealed European accent offered, "ya man, its f**king closed, f**king, stupid, f**king train station, f******"
I gave Nuts a smile and a thumbs up and set off in search of another entrance.
I was determined to get my bag!
All of the other entrances were the same story. Bodies lay in dejected heaps at the door stoops. At first I knocked politely on the doors and made my best sad and hopeless face. I tried to present myself as an honest non-threatening young man from next door who just needed to borrow a cup of sugar. Inside the station sad faced janitors merely glanced up at my appeals. A flicker of amusement crossed their faces at my plight. My earnest attempts at mercy were dashed when a pair of fists started pounding on the glass doors next to me.
Fruits had followed me! He was speaking in semi-intelligible English mixed with lots of jibber and a little jabber. And that voice! Like a grinding metallic rubber ducky bath toy. He was trying to communicate something to me.
Barely open slights of eyes peered at me. He asked me something completely unintelligible and asinine and I responded with a nod and a smile and turned and walked away, thanking him in my mind for showing his crazy face and completely invalidating my frank efforts. I don't think alcohol was his only companion that night.
I made two complete laps around the station looking for something, anything, anybody, that could help me out. Nothing. Apathetic janitors went about their work just as they were supposed to. I turned away from the set of glass doors that had been my latest futile attempt and shouted the first word that popped into my mind. I shouted it very loudly and held the Uh sound out for a very long time. I felt a bit better.
At 4am I plopped down at the main entrance and watched the bus that I was supposed to be on pull away without me.
I talked to myself silently,
"It is only 4. The station opens at 4:30. My flight doesn't leave until 6:30. It takes a bus an hour and a half to get to the airport. A taxi can do it in an hour. I can take a taxi at 4:30 when I get my bag and still make it on time. It will be expensive, but it will be better than wasting a plane ticket. Can't I just leave my bag? I have my passport and my wallet with me. What is in there that I would really need? Keys. Keys to the Paris apartment. I can't lose those. Um, and socks. Underwear? Everything else? C'mon, you are not going to leave your bag, you have barely started day 5 of 16 and you want to leave your bag behind?"
I passed the half hour chatting with Nuts. He was a roofer from Holland who had been traveling around Europe from job to job. The European Union's open borders allowed him to get work in any EU country. He had been taking advantage of it and living out of a backpack. When I asked Nuts what he was waiting for here he said he wasn't really sure. He had just gotten to Barcelona on a bus and didn't have a map of the city to find his job site. I gave him mine. We chatted. I slowly started to realize that he was a bit odd.
4:30 finally came. Two security guards waddled over and opened the doors with a simple push of a button. I gave Nuts a smile and wished him luck with his job/travels as I darted off towards the luggage lockers. The closed luggage lockers. Closed!?
The entrance to the luggage lockers was blocked with a large locked steel gate. A sign that I had apparently missed the day before warned that the lockers would be closed from 24:00-5:30. 5:30!? Not 4:30? Like the rest of entire train station!?
I spun around to go find those two guards. Nuts was behind me. Great! He expressed consolation like he did best, with a string of English expletives and inquired calmly and with curiosity what my new plan was. This was exactly what I needed, another hurdle, and now with a Dutch shadow.
The two guards were deaf to my pleading. "5:30" was the answer to each one of my attempts. In fact, it was the answer to all of Nut's attempts on my behalf too. At this point I was a little bit more than angry and the fact that I had unwanted annoying company was not helping. I had no idea what to do at this point.
"Even if I caught a taxi right at 5:30, it would still take it an hour to get to the airport. I would get there right as my plane was taking off. If I didn't make it on the plane then I would be stuck at an airport way outside of Barcelona in a city that I don't know the first thing about."
I sat down dejectedly, exhausted, tipped my head back and closed my eyes. Nuts sat down next to me and said with great emotion, "*&%$ etc etc etc" I ignored him. I was tired. It was 4:45 in the morning and I had little hope of making that flight. I calmed myself down a bit and tried to get a little sleep. I succeeded for a short while until Satan's Bride started calling out the train schedule over the intercom at 5am. I blinked into the bright lights.
There was Nuts, wide awake, waiting for my next move. "You should try calling the airport to change your flight," he lucidly suggested. Not a bad idea actually. So we left the train station, found a hotel, got the concierge to look up the number, and headed back outside. I navigated my way through the automated answering system and was finally connected to the English line. It rang and rang and then informed me that all of the operators were busy at the moment. Really? At 5:10 in the morning at a tiny little airport 120km outside Barcelona with only one flight leaving in the next two hours? What is more likely? All the operators are busy? or maybe, We don't actually have any English speaking operators?
Either way it was clear that this was futile. Just to make sure though I tried about twenty more times. Like I thought, futile.
"Is your hostel close to here? Does it have internet? Maybe you can change your flight online." Who was this voice of reason? Oh ya, that would be Nuts, sounding not so nuts now.
The metro was open by now so we hopped on for a few stops and got back to the hostel I had stayed at before. The guy at reception was nice enough to let me use the internet. Nuts got a room and checked in. God Bless You Nuts. I was able to book a new flight for the next day, only flight leaving for Santiago was at the same time!
I approached the desk at about 6:00am picturing my flight filling up with passengers and taking off without me.
"I would like a room for today also."
"For today or for tonight?"
"Well, for tonight I guess."
"Ok, you will have to wait until after noon to check in."
"And if I get the bed for 'today?'"
"You will have to check out at 11am."
"In five hours?"
"Yes."
"Can't I just get a room 'for tonight' and take it right now? I've had a bit of a rough time tonight. I really need a place to sleep and I can't afford to pay for two nights."
"Nope, I can't do that, I'm sorry."
That was the final straw for me. That means that I got very quiet. Gave him a huuuge sarcastic smile. Thanked him from the bottom of my heart with my sweetest syrupy voice and stormed out into the chilly morning.
I didn't feel like falling asleep on the sidewalk so I made my way up Montjuic. The sun was just starting to come up and it was absolutely beautiful to watch from above the entire city. I picked my way along the paths until I came to the very top, I had found the castle that evaded me the day before!
The sun was up, it was starting to get warmer, I found a lonely bench under the castle ramparts, stretched out, and gave him some company. I slept very soundly.
My mattress
Castle Ramparts
Castle Passageway
View over the Cemetery
Praying for me to catch my next flight
Sailboats, Columbus, and Montjuic
I spent the rest of the day exploring Montjuic, the castle, the cemetery, more of the Olympic center. I frequently napped, read my book, and took it easy. I took one final stroll down to the seaside before getting some dinner and heading back to the train to wait for the next 4am bus!
