Tochi's Hut

I am sorry to interrupt the regular Barcelona program for a special bulletin.  BlueOrca eloquently summarized at her new Cove (shameless plug) about the misfortunes she had to deal with on her flight to Rome.  Out of courtesy, I will recount my adventures in trying to get to the airport to greet our honoured guest on her arrival.

Due to class schedules, BlueOrca was arriving a few days later than me, so I had to pick her up at the airport.  I was informed of BlueOrca’s flight fiasco in the morning, but knew she got onto her flight to Rome alright.   Her flight wasn’t due in Barcelona until early afternoon and given the events of the previous night, my morning schedule was out of whack.  I had planned on checking out the FC Barcelona stadium, but ended up just taking a leisurely stroll around Barcelona Sants.

Trains run between Barcelona Sants and the airport every 20-30 minutes.  I had time to spare, so I decided to head to the airport early to chill.  Since we were staying at a different hostel over the next few days, I had all my worldly belongings with me.  The airport train was suppose to arrive at Platform 10.  About 5 minutes before the train was due, an announcement came over the PA that the train will be arriving at platform 11.  While you can see platform 11 from platform 10, you had to cross the tracks, so a big mass exodus of people crunched together to get up the escalators to head to platform 11. 

Now things didn’t seem right, since platform 11 and 12 were reserved for international departures and had a security check point.  However, the mob flooded and overwhelmed the checkpoint that people just towed their luggage passed their x-ray machines.  As luck would have it, I was singled out by a security guard to place my backpack on the x-ray machine.  I was thinking the entire time - “You must be kidding!  There’s so many people just walking by and why did you have to pick on me.  The train was arriving any minute now. Grr.”

By the time I got to the platform, the train had already arrived.  Many people were jamming to get onto the train.  However, the train was different than the airport train I took a few days ago; the layout of the airport train was like a subway rather than a long-haul train like this one.  But what do I know about trains?  I got my way onto the train and took the first seat I could find.  I started getting quite puzzled when passengers came into the cabin saying they had certain seats reserved.  I grabbed hold of the first person with a seat reservation and asked “Aeroporto?”  “No.”  “What?!? Not Aeroporto?”  After my shocked reply, a couple heads turned and the commotion began.   Don’t move the train yet, we need to get off!! 

Crap.  The train pulled out a few minutes later.  There were a bunch of confused passengers on the platform.  Three of the passengers in my cabin thanked me profusely for catching our mistake.  I’m pretty sure there were folks on the train still, thinking they were heading to the airport.  The next train to the airport was coming in 25 minutes later, back at platform 10.  Back in the concourse, I could see some very livid passengers complaining to the Sants staff.  Imagine if I was still on that wayward train or if I had a flight to catch.. *shudder*  Good thing I was early and had time to spare. 

I got to the airport and saw from the flight status screens that BlueOrca’s flight had arrived.  I had come prepared with a “GBO” sign, in case she could not spot me.  BlueOrca came out quicker than I expected, since she had no checked luggage.  She did not even take notice of my awesome sign. –.-;

sigh.