roses really smell like poo poo poo

monday i get kicked out of the library for having coffee. well. i guess sneaking it in was only half the battle. now for part 2: disguising it. to be continued.

thursday night, diana and i prepare to head to barcelona for the weekend. our bus leaves at 1am. we eat dinner and i start to pack. cruella comes into diana's and then my room and gives us muffins for breakfast the next day... and a piece of chocolate... at first i think, wow.. that's really nice... very un-cruella-like... wait a second. what is this - rewards for leaving? bribery to travel more? i wonder if we will get chocolate every time we travel.... or if it's poisoned...

i head to a chinos a block from our apartment to get snacks for the 7 hour bus ride. i get a pack of doughnut things, some OJ ... something else i can't remember. ...and then precede to eat all of it before we even leave for the bus station. [sister. i was skyping you the whole time. why did you not stop me?] "diana.... i don't feel good...." this is not going to be a good bus ride. the whole metro ride to the bus station, and the wait to get on the bus, i'm laughing at how miserable and stupid i am. oh.....my......God...... this sucks.

it gets worse. finally we get on the bus. i sit down, get out my ipod, and try to find some way to get comfortable enough to sleep. a man sits behind us. and he smells. absolutely. horrible. i can't even explain it. but he was definitely trying to hide it, because whatever the smell was, it was mixed with a strong cologne scent. i open my orange juice bottle (the two sips that are left) and stick my nose inside. this is NOT helping my stomach. as soon as the bus takes off, he uses the restroom, which we are conveniently seated right across from. oh no. why did he wait until now? he continues to use the restroom three more times throughout our journey. and on all of the pit stops the bus pulls over at, he rushes - at the speed of lighting... or a cheetah... - off of the bus. what is wrong with this guy? our first pit stop i get off the bus for some fresh air (since all i've been inhaling is sweat and chemicals.. among other things). it's snowing. again. .....darn it....

we get to barcelona at 9:30. we were supposed to get there at 8am. nothing like a little extra time with roses in the back seat.... as soon as the bus parks, he scurries off. i realize the girl that was sitting next to him was not with him. i am so sorry....

diana and i walk to our hostel. my first hostel experience... i'm a little anxious. within a buliding strip, we see a sign in a window: "hostel". "i bet that's it," i say to diana. we walk over and look at the buzzer options. AAE Hostel. Bingo. we buzz and the door unlocks. we walk into a main corridor with stairs. looks like the only way is up. we start to climb. we come to a door that says hostel on it. we knock. a woman answers and lets us in. she does not speak enligsh. she walks to her desk which is in what looks like a living room. is this right? she puts her glasses on and looks at diana's printed out email confirmation of our booking, says something and directs us back out in the stairwell and up the stairs. we find out later that she runs the hostels in the building.


we go up to the next floor and see a sign on the door: "AAE Hostel". oh. ok. we knock and a girl not much older than us with a dark, pixie hair lets us in. we give her our papers and she gives us a key to the building and apartment, and shows us our room. it's basically just an apartment, turned into a hostel. there is one full bath, a small kicthen, living room, and bedrooms - which are stuffed with bunk beds. she leads us into a room with 2 bunk beds and one twin. there is a guy in there, but she tells us that we are the only ones in the room that night, pointing at him and saying "he is leaving."

diana and i pick our beds - i get top bunk she takes bottom. and make small talk with the guy while he packs up. he reminds me of my physics teacher that was from check republic, but he is from germany. i assume he is in his twenties. later we find out he is 32. um..... why are you in a hostel? he is here for a marathon taking place on sunday and will be running the half marathon. ...you're not cool. before we realize how creepy he is, he asks to tag along with us as we venture to find food. he's been in barcelona a few days now, and we assume he knows where the major sites are and - in general - where he is. he leads us towards the beach, showing us the Arc de Triomf and taking us to see the parliament. ...which.. was basically the only thing he did know in barcelona. and i don't think it's even really considered a tourist sight. he didn't know where segrada familia was. or any of Gaudi's buildings. later i realize many of the things he said were complete bullshiz. i also realize, even though diana and i spent a mere hour and a half with him, that i hate him.

next he takes us to the beach. it's sunny. but it's windy. and cold. i stare out at the water and think of ways to ditch the dude. i see a boardwalk. "diana, you want to walk out there?" i point. "uh... sure?" she says reluctantly. well, i don't want to either. it's freezing. "hey, we are going to walk out there..." i think he gets it, because he says goodbye and we wish him good luck on the run. then we walk towards the boardwalk until he is out of sight, then turn around and head back into town to find food.