Ok...we planned our honeymoon pretty much last minute -- I didn't get my FLR back until mid-Sept (wedding was in mid-Aug), so we were waiting on that. Then DH wanted to go the first two weeks of Oct -- so we put the whole thing together pretty quickly. The plan: fly into Barcelona, take the train the next day to Madrid, about 5 days in Madrid/surrounds, then back to Barcelona for the following week.
There were some minor adventures upon arrival in Barcelona -- our hotel wasn't in the best part of town exactly, but it was ok... We didn't know we should have pre-booked the train from Barcelona to Madrid (for a Sunday), so when we got 'round to the train station -- we learned all the trains were booked up that day. But we had hotel reservations in Madrid for that evening. Hmmmm...the train would have been a 5-hour journey. On to the coach station -- we were in luck, we could get seats on a bus that left at 4 pm that afternoon (it was still late morning then) and it would only take 8-9 hours to get there. Hee hee... Ok, it was a bit of an inconvenience waiting around until then (vs what we had planned to do), but we spent some time in a nice park. Now, I have to kind of tell this part in its lesser glory...
I don't really speak Spanish, and my husband has been taking classes for 3 years. Most of the things at the coach station were in Spanish only (vs the airport, trains, etc)...anyway, due to a minor misunderstanding involving our coach's departure platform (and the coach that was leaving just prior to our bus at the same platform)--my suitcase (with all of my clothes & most of the stuff I took for the honeymoon) was placed into the luggage compartment of the bus that left immediately prior to ours at the same platform. Unfortunately, due to a strange comedy of errors, the bus (with my suitcase on it) was pulling away before we realised that - A) my suitcase was on it; and B) we weren't on it because it didn't turn out to be our coach after all. Bye - bye suitcase! As the bus pulled away, my husband was waving frantically for it to stop so we could take my suitcase back off...however, everyone else's friends and relatives were also waving at the bus & shouting -- goodbye! goodbye! to their traveling friends & loved ones. And so off my honeymoon luggage went on an adventure all its own!
My husband explained as best he could to a customer service person in the train station -- telling what had happened and what our problem was. The customer service person replied by saying how stupid it was on our part to put the suitcase on the wrong bus! Um...yeah, I think we already understood that one.
They told us the other bus was heading to Zaragoza & gave us the phone numbers for 'lost property' in Zaragoza & Madrid -- beyond that, they could be of no assistance, they said. I think we had hoped they could radio ahead to the bus driver or maybe the station to look for and set aside my suitcase.
We checked and called around at the stops. Never got my suitcase back. It had all of my most favorite ever clothes in it -- plus lots of other special things I'd taken for the honeymoon. All I had left were a few items in my handbag and in a small daypack. Needless to say, I was terribly crabby by the time we reached Madrid, PLUS I was coming down with a bad cold. We spent the first 2-3 days going all over Madrid & trying to replace some of the clothing & items I had lost (so I would have a change of clothes or two) -- which was challenging -- between the language and finding a plus size women's clothing store. Between my crabbiness over losing the bag, my head cold, and PMT -- my poor husband!
I wanted to try some of the more exotic foods -- tapas, etc...but with not feeling good, everything was making me nauseous.
We still had a good time -- in spite of all that. I was finally starting to feel a little better towards the end of our Madrid stay. We spent the last night in that area, in Toledo, so the next day were waiting on a bus back to Madrid, where we would catch the train for Barcelona. My husband left me sitting in the bus station to go look for something...as my cold was drying out & the Madrid area air is quite arid -- I got a terrible bloody nose as I sat there waiting! Husband comes back to find me & my white shirt covered in blood -- I don't know what he thought?! Maybe that I fell or got punched in the nose or something?! So I was sat like that on the bus on the bus back to Madrid, trying to get my nose to stop bleeding.
There were other more minor things too...but that was the worst of it! We stayed in a pretty funky guest house in Barcelona for that week -- funky both in good & bad ways. We were in Barcelona for the Fiesta de la Merced (sp?) so we got to see the human castellers -- plus a free outdoor concert with a fun band from Toulouse, France.
