Yo no hablo espanol. Darn.

Yesterday (Thursday) was full of traveling. Jenon, Allie, Erin, and I left Vandon at about 1:30pm to take the extremely busy tube to Heathrow. We arrived at the airport without a problem, checked in with the help of a nice man and then checked our luggage. The man who checked Jenon's luggage told her it was about an hours walk to our terminal so we took off. We got split up as we went through security with Jenon and Allie in one area and Erin and I in another. Erin and I found the other two once past security only to find out that Jenon's favorite Iowa State water bottle had gotten tossed by the mean security man. She was pretty upset about it and apparently the security people were not very kind. When we looked at a sign telling us departures it said our flight was boarding so we took off running. We were half-sprinting to our gate and when we got to the desk where they check our boarding passes, the lady said to Jenon "No rush." Turns out we still had about 30-40 minutes before our flight would board and we had run past people just waiting patiently for our flight. Whoops.

Once one the plane, we saw that a guy had taken pictures with these two younger boys and then went into first class, so we assumed he was famous of some sort. The two younger boys continued to try to go to first class and were carrying paper and pens to get his signiature. Erin stopped one of them and apparently the guy is a football player - Sans Fabia or something similar to that. This was our entertainment as our flight was delayed and we had to sit on the plane for about 50 minutes before take-off. Our flight was normal and we arrived safely in Barcelona, Spain. Once off the plane we headed toward the baggage claim that our luggage was supposed to be at. We waited at one of the information signs for our flight to appear so we would know which baggage claim to go to. This probably went on for about ten minutes or so before someone came up and told us the London flight had been switched to a different baggage claim. So we headed around the airport to where our luggage was only to find out we had to turn around and go back through security to get to our luggage. In the process of turning around to find this area we ran into two girls who were on our same flight, not to be judgemental but I'm guessing they were sort of wealthy and princesses. They continued to complain saying that, this shouldn't be happening because they chose to fly British Airways and British Airways owes us a free flight for this, I'm going to call them and complain....on and on. Anyway, we made it through securtiy once and again and found our luggage just fine after the minor set back.

Now was the misson of finding our apartment. We talked to information who told us to take the train and then the Metro. They gave us a few maps so we figured we'd be good to go. We waited a while for the train, which seemed to go quite slow. After we got off the train, we had a few issues trying to find the Metro. Since we only speak un poco espanol, the fact that all the signs are in spanish is tricky. We asked a couple and they literally pointed us in the right direction. Once we got to the Metro finding platform L4 was a hike. It took us at least a fifteen minute walk up and down stairs and around corners before we finally got to the right platform. This definitely made me appreciate London's underground system. It is just so easy to use and get around and all seems very well put together. Plus one of the first things I noticed about some parts of Barcelona is the odd smell of rotten eggs in some places, London does not smell this way. Anyway we make it to platform L4 at about 9:55pm, note that our plane landed at 7:30pm. Our Metro ride was quick and once we got off we were a bit disoriented and since we don't know our way around Barcelona it was a bit of a struggle, especially in the dark. We looked at our map and then just started walking. It was really cute at night because it was right by the marina.

We finally made it to Whotells, the apartment building we are staying in, and then our next dilema happened. We couldn't get in. You need a key to get into the building and well, we didn't have one. So we stood there for a couple minutes contemplating what to do, we attempted to call the woman who was in charge, but none of our mobile phones would make calls. Now, picture this: four bright blonde girls standing outside a building, looking tired, lost, and with luggage in a dodgy neighborhood in Barcelona, where it is dark and the only little businesses around are closed for the night. I pushed one of the call buttons and then Jenon tried a few and a lady who lives in one of the apartments let us in. Okay so now we were in the building, but there was no one around and we didn't know where to go. We walked up the first flight of stairs and knocked on the woman's door who let us in. She opened the door, dressed in her pink night robe - slippers and all, dyied reddish/pink hair, dog barking, and knowing pretty much no english. We tried to tell her how our phones wouldn't work and that we were staying in the building and that we knew very very little spanish. She yelled up to Juan and all I could understand was 'las chickas.' Juan was not much help, for he wouldn't even come down to help. Erin gave her a couple phone numbers to try to call the head woman, but they didn't work so then we had to explain to her that our mobile phones wouldn't work and we tried one last number. Winner! The woman was on her way. So we finally got in our room, approximately 11:00pm. Our apartment is a little nugget, but very nice. We have two bedrooms, one with two twin beds and one with a queen bed, a bathroom, kitchen, and little eating/living room. We headed out on a search for some snacks and food for breakfast in the morning. We stopped in the first place we could find and bought some biscuits, crackers and cheese, and water. The man working there was from Pakistan and was quite friendly. While we were checking out Jenon just said that these little waffel things with chocolate on them looked good and he said, "gift" and gave each of us one. It was very nice of him! So we headed back to the apartment for the night, ate our crackers and made some popcorn. The waffel with chocolate tasted like a hoho without the cream filling, it was good- but not great. Then bed.