France and Barcelona

14/10/2011 Day 16 - Flo says bad days make good memories..
While I was in Amsterdam, Katie had mentioned that she was planning to go to Barcelona a day earlier than I had planned; she was going to go on the 14th. I thought about it and decided that I could leave Rome a day earlier too, but instead of going straight to Barcelona, why not stop over in France for a night or two and see Flo? Katie was okay with that, and when I proposed the idea to Flo he said he was 110% okay with it, so I went online and found a flight from Rome to Toulouse for €120. Samhitha booked the flight for me with her card, and I paid her in cash. Needless to say, I'd been counting down the days from that point on until I got to see him.
My flight was scheduled to leave from Rome at 2:40pm. Like a responsible traveler, I arrived at the airport 3 hours early, checked my bag, and grabbed a slice of pizza before sitting at my gate. Boarding time finally arrived, and I lined up to get on the plane, but when the lady scanned my boarding pass, she stopped me and instructed me to wait on the side because "there's a problem with your ticket." After a few calls to (somewhere) they told me that my reservation had been canceled due to suspicion of fraud, and I would need to go retrieve my bag downstairs. I couldn't believe it. I went downstairs to the Vueling desk to see what the problem was, and apparently "Spain saw that the name on the ticket and the name on the card were not the same and canceled your reservation." Thanks for TELLING me!? Vueling didn't have any more flights to Toulouse for the 14th (that I would've had enough time to catch) so they suggested I try AirFrance. I did, and they did - one-way Rome to Toulouse through Nice, with a pretty little price tag:

I cringed as I handed over my credit card, and felt a little piece of me die inside when she swiped it. She handed me my itinerary and receipt, and I thanked her as I walked away to locate my bag. I had to traipse all over this stupid airport trying to find my bag - the lost and found didn't have it, the customer service desk for my air-service didn't know where it was, so I had to assume it stayed on the flight I couldn't board and made it to Toulouse. I trudged upstairs to check in, and went through security again. Found my gate, but it occurred to me that I needed to let Flo know that I would be arriving two hours later than expected. There were internet stations in the airport, but you had to "insert credit card here" to use them. Like hell. So I scoped out the other passengers at my gate and spotted exactly what I needed - a young man traveling alone with a laptop in his lap. I casually walked over and sat down in the empty seat next to him, and ever-so-sweetly asked if he wouldn't mind me sending a quick email on his computer. He was happy to oblige. :D I emailed Flo about my delayed arrival, apologizing for it, and promised to explain everything when I arrived. My flight had one delay after another - first they didn't know what was wrong, then there was a problem with the baggage - and we left an hour late. As if I wasn't stressed out enough about my next credit card bill, my canceled reservation, and my missing bag, now I was worried about not catching my connecting flight which I still didn't have a boarding pass for yet. Luckily our pilot must have heard my thoughts, because he got us to Nice in just under 45min (instead of the hour and 15 minutes it was supposed to take). Props to you, bro.
Got my second boarding pass and caught my connecting flight without any hiccups; the nice girl at the check-in counter even said she'd call and try to find out about my bag for me. I guess there's hope for humanity after all.
When I landed in Toulouse, Flo was right there waiting for me outside my gate, and I've never been so happy to see a familiar face. I gave him a big hug and explained what had happened. We found the help desk for my canceled ticket and talked with the nice guy behind the counter for almost an hour trying to give him as much info as I could, and track down my bag. He said it hadn't arrived in Toulouse, which meant it was likely in Barcelona (or Rome, but that possibility seemed to be exhausted already). He gave me a few numbers to call if they hadn't received it by the next day, and we thanked him and left to drive the hour and a half to Narbonne. When we got to his apt, Flo poured me a much-needed glass of red wine (which my clumsy ass spilled, OF COURSE, consequently banishing me to a plastic cup for the remainder of the evening).

Once I'd recovered from the spill, I opened my bag to see what I still had with me - I had all of my important essentials: my passport, flight confirmation (to Bkk), cash and cards, laptop, camera, phone, and my iPod, but beyond that things were looking pretty grim. Having been only expecting a short flight I had neglected to put anything in my bag, and the contents were as follows: warm jacket, light wrap, zip-up hoodie, extra sunglasses, notebook, a small tube of neosporin, a highlighter, my War & Peace novel, my 4 shotglasses from Italy, and a granola bar. My "Thank-you-Jesus" items included my Eurail pass train schedule booklet, my deodorant (a last minute switch from my big bag at check-in just in case the plane was warm), my keys, my ipod charger cord, an eyeliner pencil, and the European hair straightener I'd bought in Amsterdam. I did not, however, have a hairbrush, a toothbrush(but Flo had an extra), facewash, contact solution, chargers for my camera, laptop, or phone(though my camera had thankfully been charged the night before), or ANY OTHER CLOTHES. No extra socks, no other shirts, no clean underwear, nothing; just the clothes I was wearing. All I could hear was my mother's voice, "Take a change of clothes in your carry-on, JUST IN CASE," ringing in my head. Lesson learned. At least everything I was wearing was fresh and clean, so I had a day or two before I'd need to wash them.

15/10/2011 Day 17 - Vin, Plage, Carcassone et legumes
We slept in on Saturday, enjoyed our coffee and croissants, and after calling about my bag(and finding out nothing), we put it out of our minds and left to enjoy the beautiful day. First stop was la plage de Narbonne (beach). We didn't stay too long, but we walked along the beach for a little bit, enjoyed the ocean view and the parasailers and walked out on the rocks a ways.






Being surrounded on all sides by wine country, Flo wanted to take me wine tasting(and I wasn't about to decline). We tasted 4 different wines and decided on the fourth one; bought two bottles (and will be saving them for when I come back for Christmas).



Next stop: Carcassone! Medieval City about an hour out of Narbonne.

Perfectly picturesque. The sun was out but there was a strong breeze that kept it cool. We explored the city, took dozens of amazing pictures, and laughed at every silly-looking dog that we saw.










From there we drove back into Narbonne for dinner (we somehow missed lunch between wine and the castle). Flo insisted that I had to have French food since I was in France, so that's exactly what we did, lol. I couldn't tell you what it was called, but I had chicken with mushrooms in some sort of sauce, and one little cherry tomato, which I made sure Flo saw me eat after his long "you're going to die soon because you don't eat vegetables" speech. Good grief. After dinner we stopped by Flo's friend Thibaut's house to say hi, and he was amused with the chance to hash his way through some English to talk to me. I appreciated the effort and could follow a little bit of what they were saying in French (or at least I knew when they were talking about me).

16/10/2011 Day 18 - Barcelona - "I don't need a map, I have a GPS"
Sunday we planned to got to Barcelona for the day, but we were a bit lazy and got a late start. Nevertheless, we were on our way to Spain by noon, stopping for a few minutes in Perpignan to see Flo's friend Ludo. As much as I wanted Flo all to myself, it was nice to meet his friends; they were all very welcoming to me, and would bust out the occasional English sentence so I didn't feel left out. :)

When we crossed the border into Spain we opted to try to only speak to each other in Spanish, which proved to be quite entertaining. We got to the Sagrada Familia Basilica around 3:30 and walked all the way around it looking for the ticket office, only to find a notice posted on the gate saying that because of "the celebration of the Eucharist with the participation of the Archpriests of Barcelona," they were closing at 2pm on Oct 16. Only that day.


I looked at Flo, who told me it was my fault, that I'm bad luck and when he goes somewhere next time he's not going to take me; I laughed..it was like the Eiffel Tower all over again! So, just like we did when we were in Paris, we decided to go eat instead.


We sat outside at a little restaurant up the street, where I had grilled asparagus with brie cheese and romesco sauce. Mmm..and more vegetables for me to eat in front of Flo haha. After our late lunch, I stopped in a little shop on our way to the car to get a shotglass and a city map. I came outside and handed the map to Flo (because he had told me he didn't know where the next place was), and he scoffed at me and said, "What do we need the map for? I have a GPS."

Fine.

So I put the map in my bag and we got back in the car to go to Park Güell, at the top of a hill overlooking the city. The view was breathtaking, and the angle of the sun shaded everything perfectly.
















We walked all over the grounds for a good hour or so , then decided it was about time to start heading back to France.

Let the fun begin.

We got in the car, Flo turned on his GPS(Kathryn), and we pulled out of the parking garage. The only problem was that for whatever reason, Kathryn couldn't keep up with the car, and we kept missing turns. This went on for a good 20-30min; Flo was frustrated and kept insisting that I just needed to "hold the GPS really still and upright";

I was irritated because I was trying to find where we were on my map, but every time I saw a street name I couldn't find it fast enough on my map before we were somewhere else. Finally we got on a round-a-bout and went around a few times, and I was able to follow it and direct him to the nearest main road. I knew we needed to be going north, so that's the direction I pointed us in on that road.

Where did that main road take us? To the Vallvidrera Tunnels.

Where did those tunnels take us? To A-09. Where did A-09 take us?

To France.

Hm. Thank you, Amelia and your map.

Sigh..men.

We were both starving when we got home, so Flo made crepes. They were delicious. He may be directionally challenged, but at least he knows food.

17/10/2011 Day 19 - Laundry, Serenades and Tenacious D
Having not gotten any news on my missing bag yet, having worn the same clothes for 3 days, and since Katie had decided to bail on Spain for a "meet and greet" in the States, I stayed in France for two more nights to do laundry and spend a bit more time with my dear Florian. He did have to work Monday, though, so I used that time to do laundry, clean the kitchen, water the plants, catch up on my journaling, edit some pictures, and get everything confirmed with my host for Madrid. Flo came home to have lunch with me, then back for the afternoon.
That evening before dinner, Flo came over to join me on the couch, picked up his guitar, and proceeded to sing several songs in English and French. It was adorable. Such a charmer, that boy is.


After dinner we watched Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny (Jack Black and Kyle Gass). It was a hilarious end to a perfect evening.

Fun Facts:
-Flo took excellent care of me all weekend, and was a marvelous tour guide. I am so very lucky to have him in my life.
-He also brought me contact solution from work :)
-I hate typing on French keyboards. All the letters are in the wrong place, and you have to press shift to put a period; what's up with that?
-Don't tell Flo, but I think my Spanish is much better than his.
-A lot (most) of the pictures from that weekend were taken with Flo's fantastic camera, and thank goodness for that, or there'd be much fewer beautiful pictures of me.

-He'll disagree, but he doesn't sing as badly as he thinks he does.
-Flo dice, "Personas de Espana estan muy corto, el mismo de 'hobbits'." XD