and how do i even begin...?

well well well so last night we went on a night train from nice to barcelona. we were in a nice little 6 person couchette and our other 2 people were a nice older australian couple. sleepless night for me because the train kept stopping, but all in all it wasn´t bad. then this morning on the final train to barcelona (we had to switch trains at 7am) mallory went to randomly look in her wallet for some reason and low and behold she´s missing 300 euro and 120 american dollars. so that´s a great start to the day, then to make things just that much better we get in to barcelona and decide to make our reservations for the night train to paris the following night. first time we asked we were told that there were only double spots for 100 a person. YIKES! then we were told that there were only two seats on the whole train. then we were told the alternative route meant there were no seats at all, then we were told trains into france at all from barcelona were completely booked!!!!!!! they told us to go to seville (look at a map of spain and someone please explain why going from barcelona to spain helps me get into france). then we asked about the following day thinking that maybe it was just a new years´ thing. nope, the 2nd was totally booked too. panic started to set in and we thought we were stuck in barcelona with no place to stay. not a pleasant feeling. then the girl at the desk, in a movement of pure pity i´m sure, said there were some spots open on a night train tonight. tonight?!?!? what the heck... we didn´t really wanna do new years´up right in europe anyway, right? (please note heavy sarcasm) but we didn´t really have a choice, so we booked it. for a rather hefty price per person. then we called our hostel in paris and asked if, by any chance and gift of God, they had an extra four beds a day early. things started to turn the tide for us when the answer was yes. then we got to our barcelona hostel to tell them we were cancelling and he told us that we´ll likely still be charged... and i think it´s on my parent´s credit card cuz i booked it in july. isn´t that just peachy. well... all in all the day seemed like total crap and a half before noon, but once we dropped our luggage off and started touring the city of barcelona turned out to be better than we thought. too many people crowded into tiny areas, but there was a cool parade and some interesting, if talentless, street performers. and gaudi´s cathedral was pretty cool to look at, though too expensive to go in, especially with one memeber of the group out quite a substantial amount of money. more time in barcelona would have been cool, but stuck in barcelona indefinitely with only one night of lodging is definitely NOT cool, and i think the majority of the group is looking forward to paris... some have bad taste. lol pictures up later hopefully. laters!


kels - e-mail isn´t working at this computer, but hope you´re feeling ok from your teeth getting out. lots of soup and mashed potatoes and some ice cream. watch movies like nuts and do nothing is my advice. feel better soon. mom, make sure you get some good chipmunk pictures of her!!! lol see ya in 10 days guys :)