The Spain trip - what we did, where we stayed and how we commuted (1)

Things that we as a group got done before meeting in Spain :
1. Cancel hotel booking
2. Make real hostel bookings
3. Figure out car rentals and take a call on how we were going to get a car
4. Finalise itinerary

So, around a week before flying out to Spain (obviously I got my visa, else I would not have been writing this post :)), I cancelled my hotel booking. The girls coming from US had made arrangements for stay in Spain - as we were going to be driving across the country.

I booked a hostel for Nandhini and myself for the night of 26th in Barcelona. I purposely booked something close to Camp Nou (hee hee); and also because it was close to the train station (from where we were to catch our train to Seville the next morning).

Our flight from Bangalore was at 3AM, and we landed in Frankfurt around 11AM their time. We had a layover of around 5 hours.. On getting out of the plane, my jaw dropped. The size of the airport, the number of flights, the number of terminals and gates - womygawd ... You can imagine what I wanted to do apart from oggling at the planes - DUTY FREE SHOPPING !!! Oh. My. God. The Duty free stores at Frankfurt Terminal A are mind-blowing. The place is massive! You will find every single brand under the sun at that place. I strongly recommend people travelling to EU via Frankfurt HAVE to shop at duty free at Terminal A. I was like, I'll shop on the way back - but I had to go to Terminal C and the duty free shop there sucked (YES, note the singular).

During out 5.5 hr layover, NanGan decided to beautify herself

Life Pro Tip : Shop now itself as most probably while returning to India, you will go through terminal C (if you are flying Lufthansa).

We landed in BCN around 5PM in the evening and took a bus to the train station. This bus is free. It connects one terminal to the other. Bought tickets to BCN Sants (a 4 euro ticket) and from the station, our hostel was around a kilometre walk. Got to the place, unpacked, showered, locked our stuff in the cute lockers provided in the rooms and then headed out for a walk and for dinner.

I forgot to carry a converter pin plug point and needed to borrow from some random girl in the hostel room in order to be able to charge my phone. Early next morning we took a cab to the station (it ended up costing us 4 bucks only!) and got on the train. I had booked the train tickets in India itself from the Renfe website.

Outside Barcelona Sants Railway Station. It was wet and cold :)

Life Pro Tip : Make sure the hostel booking covers breakfast. Luckily the booking I made covered breakfast; and it is expected of you to wash the vessels you use :)

I was super psyched as I heard that the train reaches speeds of 330kmph and that there is a display that shows the speed we are going at !!! In my excitement, I tore the train ticket !! And I did not have a working internet connection to be able to download the ticket again :(
Praying feverishly, I hoped that the guard would not stop us while we needed to check-in to the train... The guard couldn't control his laughter on seeing the train ticket :D
And about the display - guess what - THERE WAS SUCH A DISPLAY ! WOOHOO :D

The 2 of us got to Seville where we were meeting the girl flying down from USA. And what do you know; we were unable to find a good internet connection in order to be able to reach out to them. Somehow we managed to get a feeble net connection from where we told them to come to the Seville train station. The plan was to meet and then figure out stay. The weather was absolutely wonderful - bright, sunny and had a cool breeze blowing.

Madhuri somehow had free international data roaming on her T-Mobile connection and that is what saved us during our entire trip. We figured out a decently rated hostel called The Oasis Hostel and managed to get beds for the 4 of us. Checked into the place and changed quickly. Come on, we were in Spain - needed to dress up and go paint the town red :)

But guess what, it started raining the minute we got into our room. We changed, put on our jackets (covered ourselves head to toe basically), did NOT wear sports shoes (as they would stink on getting and staying wet) and headed out. Walked a whole lot in the city (the hostel location is kinda in the heart - which is a great thing). Got totally drenched while searching for a place to eat, and we were cold and cranky by the end of the day. We went to some 5-6 places until we found one that was serving food that all of us felt like eating :)

Life Pro Tip : check weather.com or the Weather Channel (there is an app in the iPhone. And trust me, go by what it says. It is messed up in India's forecast, but is quite accurate for Europe).

After this, we got back to the hostel and headed to the terrace lounge where we again got something to eat and drink.

By this time, I realised that I needed to buy some pants and a sweater - the place was freezing and I had packed tiny clothes - given that the plan was to go along the cost of Spain and beach hop :|

The next morning, we sat in the hostel and checked the weather across the places we were to drive to and realised that it was raining EVERYWHERE. So we decided to stay back at Seville and check out the city in detail, and leave the next day instead; when the weather seemed to improve.

We had time to kill and spend in the city. So that night we decided that we wanted to go watch a Flamenco show. Boy, I am so glad we went :) Googled and went to the top rated recommended place, and man ... the guy dancer was SMOKIN' HOT ! and the way he danced... My God. The place was freezing and it was cold and wet outside; and inspite of that by the end of his performance, he was drenched in sweat !

We decided to ensure that we try different cuisines throughout our trip, so that night we ate at a Japanese restaurant.

we got 5 min respite from the rain

The next day we visited Alcazar and a famous cathedral in Seville calle Cathedral De Seville. Alcazar is where Game Of Thrones shooting for Dorne scenes is done. OMG OMG OMG !!! :) We were actually going to see Dorne. The cobble stoned streets were lined with orange trees and that's when I realised that Seville is known for its orange trees.

Life Pro Tip : Buy umbrellas, if like geniuses you do not listen to weather forecasts. 

LPT2 : Take as many pics as you can when the rain stops, albeit for 5 minutes.

LPT3 : Carry chappals with you so that you have something to wear apart from shoes

LPT4 : We had one charger among the 4 of us - Madhuri's. She was the only one with a converter pin which is what saved us. Carry a converter where ever you go. If not, carry a portable charger.

Will continue about the drive and what all we did (prior to heading back to BCN) in the next post :)