September 29: First Stage – Barcelona

I’ve arrived in Barcelona. Well, actually I’m in Sant Andreu de la Barca, a town (I was going to say little town…) just a few kilometers away. I got here at eleven at night. I left Ávila at nine thirty in the morning with 4 ºC. Before leaving, I took a photo of it:

Goodbye Ávila

Then, without looking back again, I took a photo of the odometer (we’ll see how many kilometers I end up driving…) and started the trip.

It was a calm journey, with a bit of traffic in Madrid and no surprises. So far the car is holding up well. Around lunchtime I arrived in Zaragoza, and it took me a while to get to Héctor’s place because the whole city is turned upside down with the AVE and Expo construction works. We had a kebab at a new Turkish restaurant that has opened under his building and then he showed me around the city center:

With Goya

Walking around the city (on Predicadores Street) we ran into Ángela, one of the girls who was on Erasmus in Dresden and who lives in Alicante (it’s a small world), who was guiding a group of retired tourists. What a surprise!

With Ángela and Héctor

After that we went to buy some books and then I waited for my cousin Cristina, who called to say she was coming from Tarragona. It was already night when I left for Barcelona. I took the AP-2 motorway, which is a rip-off (€19), and arrived in about two and a half hours. I parked the car in the garage of my cousin Isabel’s house because she says that if they see my Ávila license plate, they’ll slash my tires (I’m not sure if she was serious). Tomorrow the whole road to Switzerland awaits me. I won’t keep writing—homesickness is getting the better of me…