Sevilla to Barcelona

Brandon and I drove from Sevilla to Barcelona. The drive is roughly 12 hours, most of which are spent on Spanish highways. Because I have loved ones, you are learning this now. In case you are wondering, yes, I made it to Barcelona safe and sound...

Originally, I was going to take a train to Barcelona, but I am stupid. Let´s leave it at that. Then, I was going to fly. This story doesn't make me look stupid, so I will tell it to you.

I booked a flight through the website Edreams.com, which is basically a directory for flights, similar to Kayak or Priceline. Despite the fact that I was booking my flight only one day in advance, I receive an email from Edreams informing me I have to fax them a copy of my passport and credit card so they can verify the purchase. How RIDICULOUS is that? I say, "Very. Very ridiculous." Regardless, I had no other options and did what I was told. The problem though is that their fax isn't working - not one of the faxes the internet cafe sent went through properly. Frustrated, I email Edreams and inform their customer service of the situation. After more frustration, I decide there is nothing else to do at this point. The only thing is just wait to hear back from them in the morning.

In the meantime, Brandon, who if you don´t already know, is one of the most spontaneous people I know, starts to fantasize about renting a car to Barcelona. I write the idea off as one of his off-the-wall-implausible ideas...at least for the time being.

Apparently, Edreams is owned by Delta. They didn't email me back. And still haven't. How is that possible? How are they still in business? I hate Edreams.

In the meantime, Brandon has convinced me to drive. He reasons that it won´t be too hard to navigate, and that as long as we have Mapquest directions we should be fine. Everyone else we mentioned the idea to has other thoughts: The weathermen are anticipating a snowstorm in the Northern Spain tonight; You might get arrested; If you get lost, you will have no idea that you are lost - and when you finally do realize - you will have no way to know where to go.

Were these REALLY reasons not to make the drive?

Yes, yes they were.

To be perfectly honest, the drive was really smooth. At the last minute, we decided to rent a GPS Navigation system as well (only because it was much cheaper than the amount they originally quoted us). You´re going to have to trust me when I tell you I would probably be in France right now if we hadn't rented the GPS. No, really.



We left Sevilla at 10pm and made the 3 hour drive to Granada. We stayed at a elegant, but cheap place called Hotel Carlos V. In the morning, we hiked up to La Alhambra, the former palace and fortress complex of the Moorish monarchs. The exhibition is full of gorgeous Islamic architecture and overlooks the city. We walked the grounds, but did not pay the entrance simply because we didn't have time.
I could come up with some witty tag line here, like, "Barcelona was calling our names," but the truth is that we had to have the rental car back by 11pm.

The worst part of the drive was that we had no music. Anyone who knows me knows I never go a day without listening to my music. My iPod was virtually attached to me when I was in the US. Now, we were embarking on a 10 hour drive and we had nothing but Spanish radio to accompany us. Well, there were a few stations that played American music, but as I joked to Brandon, they only played "America's Top 5"...and we only heard 3 of those songs...and two of those songs were by Rihanna.

We stopped for gas about two-thirds of the way to Barcelona at a random stop. I went in to use the bathroom, and saw there were a vertical stand full of CDs. Intrigued, I wandered over. All I saw was Spanish music. I was annoyed, but I conceded it was the most logical collection for a gas station in SPAIN. About to give up on the music search, something familiar caught the corner of my eye. I turned the rack to see two (and only two) CDs in English.

U2's greatest hits 1980-1990 and 1990-2000 lay in front of me.

I'm not really sure how much you are appreciating the current situation; U2 is my favorite band of all-time. The only problem was that the CDs were 18 Euro each, which comes out to roughly 86 dollars. I told myself I would splurge by buying one (If not now, then when?), but I just couldn't justify buying both of them. I sat there for literally 5 minutes debating which one to buy. 1980´s is better overall, but I felt like 1990s was more fun for a road trip. Back and forth I went with myself. Given that we still had 4 hours to drive and had NOTHING else to listen to, the decision was made when I realized 1990s CD contained 2 more tracks than 1980s. Done. And done.

When I came back to the car with the surprise purchase, Brandon responded with, THAT'S exciting. We popped in the CD, cranked up the volume and started singing along immediately. I couldn't help but smile. I told Brandon I felt like Andy from Shawshank after he convinced Hadley to allow the inmates to drink beer on the prison roof. As Red said, "we felt like free men."