Today's day was earmarked for Barcelona. According to the original plan, we would have left early morning in our rented, self driven car and spent the whole day in Barcelona, but that was not to be as we didn't have the car as described in the previous blog. It was the day after la Tomatina and again all the transports to Barcelona were full. We reached the train station at 0830 hrs, only to learn that the earliest available train we could get was at 1500 hrs. With no alternative we booked it and putting our luggage in lockers, decided to see Valencia. Good thing about the station was that it right in the city center so as we stepped out of it we were in middle of the hustle and bustle. Valencia is not a big city like Barcelona or Madrid but it is pretty with less traffic and cheaper. We roamed around many squares, fountains, shopping areas, eateries till it was time for departure. The train was to take the same route back to Barcelona as we had come so we weren't even excited about the journey. Excitement came or rather we invited it at the very end of the train journey. All announcements were in Spanish and no one could interpret English, other than tourist. One Spanish speaking woman gestured to us that we were one station away. Thinking we had missed the main station we decided to alight the train. We lost precious minutes, first in deciding whether to alight, with everyone having an opinion and second with the extra luggage we were carrying which was hoisted wherever we had found source. As we finally started to get off the stairs, the pneumatic doors started to close. Unlike the doors of an elevator, these don't open back with some obstacle in between but keep on squeezing into you. Shocked we started to push the door and after some collective effort they went back in place only to attack us immediately again. This time we were ready and knew the trick. So each person exited while the rest battling with doors and pushing them back. We won a resounding victory as all of us got down with our luggage, only to realize it wasn't the right station. What the Spanish woman meant was we had one more station to go and not one left behind. Suddenly we saw a door open on the next coach as ours, we all dashed for it and that's when began train wars II. This time Sid was almost gonna get martyered by the pneumatic doors, as getting in proved more difficult than getting out. But with grit and some help from the human allies on the platform we managed to to win this battle as well.

It was 2000 hrs when we reached Barcelona. The city blows you over the very moment you step out of the station. It is a city of majestic buildings with great craftsmanship on each one of them. We hired taxis to our hostel and enroute were treated to many more delights of Barcelona. Our hostel couldn't have had a better location. It is right on the beach at the very beginning of the promenade. We could feel the energy around the beach but had to check in to the hostel. The hostel was pretty ordinary, the girls hating it since the wash rooms were unclean. We had just this day in Barcelona as next day we were flying to Ibiza and so decided to make the most of whatever was left of the day. It was also bhaiyya's last day with us as he was flying back early next morning. So we decided to have a party whole night long. The warm weather, in contrast to elsewhere, helped in our resolve. We picked up few drinks and snacks as we walked down the beach promenade which is dotted by bars and cafes. We were all happy high as we talked loudly, sang, made jokes and had fun. At the other end of the promenade are disco clubs. By the time we reached there, we were in perfect mental state to let ourselves loose on the dance floor and that's what we did with bhaiyya leading the way with his flips on the dance floors. We danced for an hour or so before bhaiyya decided it was time for him to leave. We all shakily made our way back to the hostel as bhaiyya took his bags and bid us goodbye at 0330 hrs.