Tears, Bugs and Barna

29/03/2025 - 3/04/2025

I'll admit I have cried twice on two separate train journeys this trip. This second time was again, music induced. "Sitting on this rock, spinning round this burning ball, worthless with no purpose but somehow worth it all" Tom Scott rapped through my headphones, as the tears rolled down my face. There is nothing quite like Tom's lyrics to remind me of home and hit me right to my core. I often find it hard to overcome the feeling that we are, as Tom says, just sitting on this rock, spinning around a burning ball of gas. I'm trying my best to find the purpose and meaning in my life with this adventure of mine. As I continued to the think about my home, my friends, my family, my whole life I've left behind, tears continued to well in my eyes as Barcelona beckoned. 

Following my stint in Sevilla, I arrived in Cordoba following a night in the seaside town of Cadiz. Admiring the Mosque-Cathedral of the former capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, I had a relatively low key few days to attempt to recover from this cold that had plagued me. Apparently my body didn't want to abide by this. Waking up after my first night in Cordoba, I was very itchy, with several suspicious looking bite-type marks on my skin. A night in a new place and waking up itchy with marks on your skin, well fuck, my money is on bed bugs. Switching hotels that night, I still felt like my skin was on fire. Persevering, I reckoned it must have been an allergic reaction to something, which was confirmed by a negative bed bug test from the original place I was staying at. Oh well, we move. 

Aboard the five-hour train journey from Cordoba to Barcelona, covering a distance about the same as Auckland to Wellington, I cried (as mentioned), ate and slept before arriving in the place they call Barna (not Barca, that's the football team). Pre-warned by a message from the hostel that I was to expect a "party" atmosphere at my next place of accommodation, I was ready to meet some new people and, as I quite enjoy to do from time to time, sample the local alcoholic beverages. Over my three nights in Barna this was certainly fulfilled. Drinking games, clubbing and new people filled my nights in Barcelona, with the days exploring the museums, alleyways and architecture of the city on the Mediterraean. La Sagrada Familia was a particular highlight, Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, a true marvel of architecture, possibly my favourite building I've ever been in. Cavernous, unique and full of nature motifs, I will definitely be returning once it is finished next year. I also visited the worst club in my entire life. It made Bar 101 look like a paradise. Broken glass on the floor, the most exorbitantly priced drinks I've seen in my life combined with quite possibly the worst sounds that have ever pierced my ears. Needless to say I left pretty quickly.  

I met a bunch of great people in the Onefam hostel in Barcelona; MJ, Luca and Blake from Toronto, Izzy from Maryland, Mirim from Morocco and Jo from Munich. A great little crew, with me having them promise to come visit NZ and have me show them around. Overall, a great first taste of Barcelona, a city I will definitely have to return to one day. Four broken, drunken hours of sleep before my 8.20 train to Montpellier was possibly not a great idea, but hey, might as well enjoy sitting on this rock spinning round this burning ball, worth it all. La France, here we come.