Off to Italy... or not

Entry 5:

So today´s entry will be short because I am exhausted and it was a VERY trying day.

Last night we partied in Barcelona and went out dancing to celebrate our last night all together. It was an absolute blast! It should be said that people here don´t go out before 1 or 2 am. So, even though I was one of the first to leave the club, i only got back to the hostel around 4 am. It was pouring out when we left the club so when we arrived after the 10 min walk in the rain, it looked like i had been taking a shower in my clothes. WET! Being still a little drunky, I thought no problem, it´ll all dry by tomorrow when i need to fly. By tomorrow i ment 4 hours later- ya not so much! So hung over, naseous Lisa packed her wet clothes into her bag at about 9 am and headed to the metro to catch a bus to the airport. by 12:30 i was at the Reus airport and given the news that all Ryan Air flights were cancelled due to ash cloud. YUCK! and so began my 8 hours of standing in lines in both Reus and Barcelona.

So after many lines, lots of wrong information, over booked trains, running into an american named Jeff who, get this, I had seen in the Gatwick airport 3 days earlier when his flight to Dublin was cancelled. We´d exchanged a few words back in London so when I saw him i was like, hey! We´ve ended up being travel buddies for the day and we´ve booked a 20 hour ferry to Livorno which is a couple hours outside of Florence. He´s been in florence for the past 5 months on exchange for school. We´ve become each other´s allies for this mess.

All this does give me some concern for the few flights I have booked already. We shall see how things unfold. Tonight we´re in a really cheap hostel right on the main street of La Rambla which is great fun. We have to be at the ferry very early in the morning tomorrow. Then if the weather is nice hopefully we´ll spend much of the day suntanning and reading a book. This reroute does however mean I´ve had to cut out one planned venture and sadly that means Cinque Terra. I know I know, for those of you who told me to go, it will have to happen on another trip. Oh to taste the origins of Pesto...

Also, You would think the extra day in Barcelona would have enabled me to hit the few stops i hadn´t fit in. No such luck... Spent all day in the airport, bus and ferry port.

Off to have some Tapas dinner with my new american friend and call the hostel i had booked tonight to try and cancel.

Check the news for ash cloud disturbances for me and leave me comments if you can.

Enjoy the sunshine.