Day #18 - ¿Do you believe in miracles?

OK, luckily this will be a short entry, since we spent 80% of today on trains. ;)

Today, we left the paradise of the Riviera for our next and final country - España, and Barcelona! Our train left Nice at 11:17, and around 2 we arrived in Marseilles, after eating our packed sandwiches on the train - have I mentioned that French baguettes are to die for? :) We had a short layover, then hopped on our next train, to Beziers. There, we were supposed to change trains one last time to go to Barcelona, but...

That day, all of the trains running out of Marseilles were running late, including ours. We were a little worried about missing our connection, which happened to be the last train of the night to go to Barcelona. So, the stop before Beziers, we get our stuff ready to get off, and Katie just so happens to decide to ask two of the train employees which track our Barcelona train will be on to save us some time. She asks first if they speak English. Nope, they both say. But, a girl who just so happens to be standing there too pipes up, saying she speaks English and French and can translate! Through her, Katie asks about our train, and to our shock the guy says not to get off at Beziers, that our ticket was a mistake and the train to Barcelona doesn´t go there! In fact, we had to go one stop more to get the right train. Holy cow. So, we do that, and sure enough, there is our Barcelona train, which also just so happens to be running late too, so that we´re able to make it. We get on, still dumbfounded by all our good luck...too many things seemed to line up perfectly to allow us to make it. We´re just lucky I guess. :)

So, we had a nice 4 hour ride there, where we got to see the gorgeous Spanish countryside for the first time. Kind of reminded me of Wyoming or Utah at first - very barren and rocky, with some sagebrush type plants. We ate our second French baguette sandwiches of the day for dinner on the train, and got in at 9:48 to Barcelona! After figuring out yet another new Metro system, we got to our hostel, which is just off Las Ramblas, the main drag of Barcelona that everything is centered around. Night or day, it´s definitely the place to be, so the hostel´s location is awesome. Our hostel is also probably the best backpacker friendly place yet too - free breakfast, free dinner, free internet, bar, and lots and lots of fellow travelers to meet. We hung out in the hostel for awhile and also took a short stroll up Las Ramblas. A bit sketchy at night though...Katie has a good story about that... We actually stayed up late tonight - until 1 am! That´s huge for us, after getting up early and getting to bed by 11 most of the trip thus far. However, we´re going to try to adapt to the Spanish way of life and strange hours while we´re here...so here goes nothing!