Barcelona was an unexpected addition to my year. I hadn’t really intended on going to Spain at all, and yet there I was, enjoying sunshine and sangria. Living the life. To be honest I wasn’t really caught up in all the hype of Barcelona, which is a shame because it’s such a pretty city. I think I was just in a bit of a weird headspace after leaving the family, which meant everything was less appealing than it normally would be.
I had a good time anyway. Lots of walking, lots of eating, and lots of sunshine. I was certainly glad the hostel had air conditioning that’s for sure. 23 degree night make sleep pretty difficult. The photos themselves are pretty self explanatory in terms of what I did and saw. A particular highlight was the chip shop down on Barceloneta beach – paper cones of fresh hot chips with all i oli, which is basically garlic aioli without the lemon juice. So, pureed garlic. Thankfully nobody was sharing a bed with me that night because the garlic was intense. They were delicious though. There’s something pretty satisfying about eating chips from a shop that only sells chips. I also stumbled across the botanic gardens in Barcelona, with it’s very own Australia section. It’s funny how much it smelt like home.
After two months of not drinking I made the mistake of joining a couple of fellow backpackers in some drinking games one night, which I seriously regretted when I woke up the next day. It was nice to hang out with some new people though, after feeling pretty isolated in Lyon. The day after was made more bearable by the hostel’s beach day, which meant we all got to go lie in the sun and swim for the day. One of the best cures for a hangover, without a doubt.
From Barcelona I headed to Bordeaux. The first of my three trains was delayed by 20 minutes, which meant I only just managed to make my connecting one, which was thankfully also delayed by 10 minutes. I finally arrived in Bordeaux just two hours after I was supposed to, cheers SNCF. Good to know that trains are unreliable everywhere, not just in Sydney.
I didn’t spend much time exploring Bordeaux. Instead a took a train out to Sainte-Foy-La-Grande to meet a UK family for a potential au pair position. They actually live 30 minutes out of London but have a holiday house in France, which is conveniently not far from Bordeaux. Due to an unfortunate drama with the public transport I missed my first train, and had to wait two hours for the next one. Thankfully the family where really lovely and flexible about it, so no issues. And all going well, I should spend the rest of the year with them, so it was definitely worth the trip. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes with them, but I’m flying to London on Sunday so jumping right back into it!
Since Bordeaux I’ve spent the week in a place called Bouillatou, a great little accommodation place in the South of France, with six self-contained houses, a pool, a tennis court and more pets than you can count. The owners use HelpX to take on backpackers as helpers, who work for a couple of hours each day in exchange for food and board. This has without a doubt been one of the best parts of my trip. Again, I have photos to sort out from this so I’ll give you some more details shortly. I’ll definitely be disappointed when I leave on Sunday. I’d really love another week or two here before I start with the UK family, but sadly it was not meant to be.
Speak soon.