Catalonia Live Blog Day 1: Let's Talk Long Haul and Tarragona

We look so tired! This is before we even left DFW.

I don't ever want to complain too much about the process of getting somewhere. I mean I like some aspects of it. That first beer at the airport before your flight, the ability to catch up on some reading or movies you have missed and the sense of adventure you get when you are on the outward flight(s). One thing I have found though is that sometimes it goes smoother than others. Sometimes you can sleep on the plane trip, sometimes you can't. Sometimes your body stands up to spending almost two full days getting somewhere and sometimes it doesn't. This, for me at least, was one of those times I felt rough by the end of the process.

The last blog I mentioned $280 round trip from DFW to Barcelona. Well that comes with some catches (as you would expect). First off on the way out it has two connections. Dallas---->Detroit(2.5 hours)------>Amsterdam(7 hours)------>Barcelona(2.5 hours). Luckily on the way back we only have one connection through Atlanta. Secondly it is a "basic economy" fare which means you don't get to pick your seats until after everyone who paid more than you. Which is normally fine if the flights aren't full. Unfortunately in this situation two of the three flights were full. So I spent 7 hours towards the back of the plane in the very middle seat of a 3/3/3 configuration with a seatmate who literally elbowed me every 15 minutes the entire flight. No amount of alcohol or in-flight movies makes that ok. The common plane etiquette is that if you get the middle seat you should at least get the armrests. My seatmate had apparently never heard this before. The last leg we were literally in the last row of a 3/3 configuration next to a screaming baby and a group who even though the flight left very early in the AM spent the entire flight talking (or as Trista put it, loud rude cackling typical idiot Americans that the world always complains about). Needless to say I showed up in Barcelona exhausted.

The next step of the plan involved renting a car and driving about an hour to Tarragona. There is a very nice (but very expensive) turnpike between these two cities. The drive went off without a hitch until we got to our hotel which we learned when we arrived has no parking. We also found out that the parking in central Tarragona is insanely expensive (they literally charge by the minute). Trista feverishly tried to find parking while I drove around in circles for 20-30 minutes and slowly lost my mind. There wasn't really even any place to temporarily park the car so I could help figure it out. We eventually did find parking for a reasonable price though after quite the process.

We couldn't quite check in to our hotel yet so we dropped our bags and headed to the nearest patio cafe/bar and had a beer. The weather here is spectacular. It felt so good just to sit somewhere for a few minutes and start soaking in the town which is quite a neat place I must say.

Exhausted but enjoying that first Spanish beer!

We went back to our hotel and crashed until 8pm.

In the evening we did what we do so often. Wander around and find neat places to have a bite to eat and a few drinks. One thing to note about Tarragona is that very few people speak English. Most speak Catalan first and Spanish second. Luckily Trista and I have been learning Spanish on a free app called Duolingo (she has kicked my butt at this) and so can fairly easily navigate our way through this at this point.

It was also a national holiday here so a lot of places were closed. In between a couple stops at some patio bars we ended up at a tapas restaurant and had a pretty awesome meal. A bottle of Catalonian white wine (which had quite a spice flavor to it, almost cinnamon) was paired with four courses of food. We had some fried queso, a sort of tortilla souffle stuffed with all kinds of stuff, pig snout in lentils and some extremely tender slow cooked beef. It was an excellent meal and we both commented how much better we felt after the long travels. All in all the meal was $44 euro which is quite affordable all considered.

The town itself is quite old and very cool and the next few days exploring should be quite fun.

Looking a bit more refreshed after a shower and a long nap