Last week, Julian, Milan, Alexis, and myself decided that we wanted to go visit Girona for the day. After almost a week of putting off buying train tickets, we discovered that the tickets we wanted were all sold out, so we decided to wait for another time to go.
Then, we all signed up for the ERASMUS Barcelona Bike Tour, which we thought was this Saturday (yesterday the last day of February). Turns out we were all mistaken and it’s actually next Saturday. So with no weekend plans, on Friday we spontaneously decided to travel to Girona this weekend. Literally knowing close to nothing about the city, we booked our tickets.
Turns out Girona is a gorgeous little Medieval town in the north of Catalunya. It’s about a half hour train ride towards the mountains and the French border from Barcelona. Little did we know, that this fairytale-like, sleepy town was actually quite important back in its day, and currently has the most extensive and well-preserved Call (Jewish quarter) in Catalunya. It was the main exporter of stone during the Middle Ages. Also, all the small white shells in the limestone used in construction were animals, so the city is one giant fossil!
Since we got up before the crack of dawn, we had the entire day to explore Girona. We saw both of the Cathedrals, the Rio Onyar that divides the city from old and new, the Arab Baths, a park (I don’t know its significance except for that it was a great walk with lots of trees), and walked along the Passeig Arqueologic, the medieval city walls, for a bird’s eye view of Girona. After literally walking 10 miles, we plopped into four chairs at an outdoor cafe table, and recharged with a cup of Spanish coffee.
While the day seems like it was completely relaxing, we did experience a few funny “bumps” along the way. (As it always is when traveling with a member of the Pace family). I have now taken the Renfe trains many a time to Barcelona and have never really had a problem except that the train tends to be 10 minutes late every time. But this time makes up for all those trips put together. Without coffee, I had forgotten my ticket number in order to print out the ticket at the train station; luckily the train was late anyways. Then we missed our connecting train to Girona because we were getting coffee. However, they took pity on our foreign-ness and let us on the next train without having to buy another ticket. Upon our return, I thought we were home free because we already had our “hiccup” for the day, little did I know I would have to be escorted onto the train because I bought the wrong type of ticket, and then commandeer seats with a table on the next train because we all wanted to sit together instead of in our assigned seats. Lesson learned: beware of Renfe and always be early for your train.
I don’t want to leave this on a depressing note,especially since our train troubles didn’t ruin our trip at all. In fact, I personally think it was all the more hilarious and added to the adventure. Planned excursions or not, adventure is always out there and I will find it! 🙂
Saborearlo 