Right, well, today was...eventful.

What a glorious night's sleep I had! Not. Aided by drunk dorm-mates stumbling in at various points during the early hours trying (and most definitely failing) to be quiet and instead managing to fall over, drop large, heavy objects, turn every light on full glare and bang their heads on overhead bunkbeds. The deathly quiet was further punctuated by a large pack of dogs on the street outside who decided to continually pick fights with each other and host barking and howling competitions to keep themselves entertained in between times.

Anyway, feeling oh-so-refreshed I dragged myself out of bed at 8am to get showered and packed for breakfast and check out before 10am. Breakfast here at Alberg Pere Tarres would be, on the other hand, enough to cheer me up as they provide a massively impressive spread but then I have to go and spoil it by being a vegan. Some people, eh? Luckily, even I found some toast and jam and enough hot water to make myself a cuppa chai tea. Good times.

Once I'd checked out I decided to use the free internet to check my email and what a lovely surprise I had waiting for me there in my inbox: a message from my mother informing me that the ticket machine at the underground station hadn't, in fact, eaten my card (er, sorry guys...) but it had been stolen (less than an hour after arriving in Barcelona no less, impressive no?) by the "helpful" gentleman who decided I looked like I didn't know what I was doing at the ticket machine (which in all fairness was a pretty accurate assumption) and was in need of his "assistance". I clearly didn't speak Spanish, was a long way from home, travelling alone and didn't have a clue what I was doing but the git still took the liberty of emptying my account of every penny I had! I hope he gets a karmic arse-bite the size of...well, something really big.

You gotta laugh or cry, right? I cried. I can see the funny side now, well, no actually I can't. I don't think I can say being robbed will ever truly tickle me but I'm over it now which amounts to the same thing! Thanks to my wonderful mother my card has now been cancelled and the fraud reported so hopefully I will be refunded all me dollar; and thanks to my wonderful father I have some more dollar to keep me alive in the meantime. Ahh, next to God, the parents.

I then decided that I wasn't going to let a cruel thief ruin the rest of my time in Barcelona so I stole a "Seeing Barcelona" itinerary guideline from a website (cheers guys!) and headed off in to the great wide yonder.

I have to say, Barcelona truly is a beautiful city. I've always thought that to be a pretty oxymoronic statement before but I've been converted. The architecture here -including, of course, Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia- is absolutely breathtaking. And there's so much of it! Completely spoiled for choice. I walked for hours. Admittedly, a lot of it was because I kept missing various landmarks and having to retread my steps serveral times before realising it was the building I'd noticed every time I'd walked past but somehow been convinced it was something else for some reason. I swear I must have traversed La Ramblas 10 times or more today (and it's a blooming long street) because I kept missing things. To be fair, it wasn't entirely my fault as the tourist signs are far from comprehensive. There are just signposts pointing in a vague direction, allegedly towards a given attraction but with no indication as to distance, time it might take or any follow up signs or labels on buildings. I'm convinced the Tourist Office employees sit around in a big coffee lounge, smoking cigarettes and killing themselves laughing watching the CCTV cameras trailing bumbling idiots like me dancing circles around ourselves trying to find the elusive Site-Where-Gaudi-Once-Wiped-His-Nose or whatever. A compass would be as useful. They may as well just line us up, point in a random direction, shout "Go!" and place bets on who they think might one day reach their destination.

Aside from the signposts, I really have no gripe with Barcelona. Everything they've done, they've done it right. Even the streets are beautiful; the architecture being incredible goes without saying (well, except that you have to, you just can't help but gush about it) and don't get me started on the park, oh wait I'm sorry, THE Park. Parc de la Ciutadell is unbelievable -I don't think I've ever been so excited about a park before but truly, it is. Not only is it extensive -in the heart of a bustling city- it is sculpted to perfection. There is a huge and wonderfully ornate fountain which will take your breath away, a lake complete with little paddle boats to hire, a huge statue of an elephant (well, why not), ping pong tables, cycle paths, a Zoo, two museums and miles of leafy greenery. It was packed with people winding down in the evening sun doing virtually every leisure activity known to man: cycling, boating,every speed and variation of perambulation (dawdling (my personal favourite), strolling, power-walking, jogging, running), ping pong, poi, diablo, tap dancing (no,really), salsa dancing, cocktail-bottle-trickery (and yes I do believe that is the the official title), painting, reading, writing, practicing yoga, T'ai Chi... And then there were all the couples (sickeningly romantic location), the groups of friends chilling on the grass, the customary be-dreaded rastafarians jamming away, singing and playing their guitars, the children laughing and playing and even the odd tourist here and there, drinking it all in, savouring this little spontaneous slice of Spanish city life.

After the park, I got lost. Spectacularly so. Basically, I tried to find my way home and didn't do it very well at all. I ambled along to the nearest Metro station but fairly crucially neglected to check the map before jumping on to a train I thought might be heading in the right direction and hoping for the best. In my defence I did ask an "Information" woman on the platform but she gabbled away in Spanish so fast I may as well have asked the bench. I was hoping I'd recognize a station and figure out where it was on my map of the city in relation to where I needed to be but when we reached the final stop and this hadn't happened I realised I could potentially be a little further than I'd anticipated from my hostel. I decided to try out my Spanish on a poor unsuspecting woman on the platform who looked at me like I'd just clucked like a chicken a few times and spat on the ground at her feet. Right. "Er, Donde esta Aqui?" I tried a little less adventurously ("Where is here?") and pointed repeatedly at the ground and then waved my map around a bit for good measure. She took the map and said "Barcelona." Well, yes, very helpful. I was, thankfully, aware of that. I tried pointing at the map and the ground alternately so she could point out whereabouts we might be (I genuinely hadn't the foggiest). "We off the map" she said gesturing a significant distance from the map's edge. Ah. "You need Metro, this train". Right. Well. I realised I should probably stop scaring the poor woman at this point who just kept repeating "Lo sciento" ("I'm sorry") and thanked her, and walked purposefully towards the exit. Luckily, right across the road was a real life Metro station so, giddy with relief I marched straight up to the map and worked out a clear route back. I even remembered my way back to the hostel from the metro station and got back before sundown.

What a day.