July 6,2008
On the first day of the trip, my family and I woke up very early. A small bus drove us to the airport.
Things went smoothly, and the flight was good. We arrived in Barcelona around 3;30pm.
As we were traveling with a group we had to wait for everybody to arrive. Finally we reached our room at 5pm. Only to discover that one of our luggage had been exchanged at El Prat airport.
Fortunatly, I met a Spanish lady, who was also in charge of organizing the trip. After several calls to the airport, she decided that the only solution to try to find our luggage is to go back to the airport, and search for it, or at least do a claim,
We took the train back to the airport. And after several attempts and explanations to many people in charge, we could get in and only to find that the bag is still going around on the belt, and nobody is taking it!
The trip back to the hotel was ok, we talked a lot. I am glad I made a friend on the first day of the trip. She was very helpful and without her help I am sure I wouldn't have found the bag.
My first impression of Barcelona, is that it's not much different to what I am used to. Many high resedential buildings, the grass is not very green. The sun and the head makes the green less bright.
It was very hot and humid today.
We were staying at Barcelo Sants hotel. This area of the town is not very touristic. The hotel is clean and modern. The best thing about it is that it's literally located right above the train and metro station. This has made transportation easy for us, as we only had to use the elevator of the hotel to go down to the station.
We had dinner in the ARS restaurant, in the station. It was grilled chicken and Paella. (I learned the word and its pronounciation later on).
It was a long and exhausting day. Losing the back and going back to the airport to find it only made the day more stressful and exhausting. We just went up to our room to sleep and get ready for the next day.
Flamenco in Barcelona is one of the biggest tourist traps and it is a pity so many tourists are not aware of where they really are.