Well, settling into Tarragona did not exactly go as planned, so I am now settling into Salou!! I thought I had everything planned out to the detail, but as always travel loves to throw things my way and see how I deal with them! 🚌 🚕 Part of the reason I had chosen Tarragona is because the train was supposed to go directly there from Barcelona so I figured it would be a nice place to land between cruises!
I was up at 6 AM on the last day of the cruise because they started making announcements that people could depart from the ship and I wanted to get some breakfast (aka coffee!!! ☕️☕️) before they closed at 8:00! I had picked the latest departure time of 9:30 because I figured I didn’t need to rush to get to Tarragona but with multiple delays getting people off the ship, I finally got off around 10:30 (waiting in multiple lines until I finally got to the train station at noon)!!
It was supposed to be a quick and easy hour long train ride to Tarragona, but apparently they are on strike, so I was going to have to take the train to Sitges, then get off the train and take the bus to some other town down the road, then get on the train AGAIN until I arrived in Tarragona. With my recent trauma of train stations in the back of my mind, I decided that was not a good idea! 🥴😳
I seriously considered taking a taxi, but that was going to be over $200!! So I put my travel agent thinking hat on and tried to come up with another option! 🤔 Fortunately, my lovely Airbnb host had messaged that if I was coming from the airport, I should take the BUS to Tarragona. I had ignored that advice because I knew I was going to be taking the train (you know… Judi the travel agent thought she knew better than the local person)!! 🤷♀️😂😂
Sooooo… after much consternation (and a little internal freaking out session with myself sitting in the train station trying not to look crazy!! 🤪), I remembered her message and clicked on the website link. I found a place in Barcelona where the bus was leaving from in three hours, so I got a Taxi to go to Plaza España in Barcelona to wait for the bus!
The sad part is that I could have gone straight to the airport in the Uber I had booked with one of my cruise mates!! Instead, she dropped me off at the train station but if I had just gone to the airport with her, I could’ve caught a bus much sooner and dealt with a lot fewer kerfuffles!! Then again, I didn’t know at that point about the train strikes (and Google maps didn’t know either)!! Oh well, hindsight is often 20/20, right?!? 🤪🤷♀️🤔
Once I got on the bus to Tarragona, I figured all was well and I would just take a taxi from the bus to the AirBnb. Unfortunately, no taxis were to be found for quite awhile!! By this time I was exhausted and feeling a bit “done-in”!! 🥴 Sooo… I popped into the hotel next to the bus station and the nice young woman at the front desk called a taxi for me. Whew!!
I ended up with the nicest, kindest, Taxi driver, who spoke a bit of English, and he even gave me his card for future reference! He dropped me off in a “pedestrian only” area, which could’ve got him into some trouble, but I think he took pity on me!! 🤪 As I said, he was very kind and helpful! 🚕 🥰🥰
I was finally in Tarragona and figured I would be able to settle in and relax soon! But that was not to be the case!! The Airbnb host, Maria, had warned me that the apartment was on the second floor with no elevator. I knew from past experiences that in European/UK lingo the 2nd floor actually means the 3rd floor because they start at zero/ground floor for what we would call the first floor!!
So I was prepared for some stairs! Then again, our Airbnb in Italy was on the third floor and I did OK with the stairs there, even with my bum knee! Granted, Sheryl carried all the groceries up and down the stairs, but I figured I could figure out something! In hindsight, I’m wondering if this is a good lesson for me about always assuming everything will be fine. On the one hand, that’s a good quality because it doesn’t limit me in experiencing a lot of things in life! On the other hand, I sometimes tend to see the world with such rose colored glasses that I am caught off guard sometimes! 😂🤷♀️
That was the case with this AirBnb! I was prepared for stairs, but these stairs were not like normal stairs! The building is probably medieval, and the stairs were in a dark tunnel, unevenly, spaced, and almost spiral in how many twists and turns it took to get to the third floor!
At one point, I was only halfway up the stairs and the automatic light went off!!! It was PITCH DARK and I couldn’t see where to place my feet on the next step!!! I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face (if I had been willing to let go of the railing)!!! 😳 Fortunately, Maria was not too far from the light switch and felt her way down a few stairs and flicked it on again!! That was it! I was done-in and would’ve stopped there, but it wouldn’t have done me any good, so I had to keep going!!
(As a sidenote, this reminds me so much of my trip down the driveway in the dark in Guatemala about 15 years ago!! 😳 Here is the link if anybody wants to read it!)
I have had the light go off on me before in other AirBnb stairwells, but not with this kind of crazy stairs! I think the whole process of getting upstairs with my bags triggered a little bit of PTSD from Italy last year, so by the time I got there and settled in, I wanted to sit down and cry! (Plus I was SUPER hot and sweaty from the whole ordeal, and that never bodes well for me!!) 🥵🥴
Maria was so kind and worked with me for awhile to try and figure out if there was a way we could get groceries delivered, but it’s a difficult situation because it’s a pedestrian only area and was not included in some of the delivery Apps. After she left, I sat again by myself and tried not to cry about what my next month was going to look like (and I have to admit, I was feeling pretty discouraged and a bit traumatized)!! 😢🥴
I tried to look for the positives, but it was tough!! I liked the fact that I could open my doors, step out onto the small balcony and see the pedestrian walkway underneath me, with the cathedral at one end of the street, toning its bells every hour! But that was it!! Everything else was REALLY uncomfortable (and depressing)!
It was dark and felt a bit claustrophobic, even though it was decorated nicely, and the only source of natural light was the balcony door that looked out onto the pedestrian walkway below! What I hadn’t factored in about being above the walkway (until it happened later) was that all of those cute little cafés below me were open late with lots of music playing loudly and multiple voices ringing out and echoing on the stone walls… enjoying themselves late into the night! When I was awake, of course, I enjoyed hearing it all and feeling part of the joyful voices!! But because I was feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, I was not as appreciative of the ambiance as it contained late into the night!! 🤪😂😂
Also, I knew in advance that the shower was going to be a tiny stand-up shower from the pictures on AirBnb, but I figured I could deal with it! I just had NO idea exactly how super TINY the whole bathroom was! I could barely fit through the door into the bathroom and the toilet was right there, so my feet had to stick out into the hallway when I sat on the toilet! It was crazy, tiny, especially for someone my size! 😳🤪
It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was going to have to bite the bullet and give up what I had prepaid for this Airbnb and try and rent another one! As my sister pointed out, it was not only a “quality of life issue“ for the next month but even more so, it was a safety issue for me with those stairs (and my emotional state of being)!! 🥴
So, to make a long story short (which is never my forte!!), I found an Airbnb in Salou! It is so convenient to everything and so, SO different from Tarragona (which has a lot more character, whereas Salou is your basic European holiday town)! Salou has not only Spanish tourists in the summer, but apparently a lot of French, British and German people like to come here for their Holidays each year. It doesn’t have the same quaint feel as Tarragona did, but oh boy oh boy it’s much more convenient! 👏👏👏☕️🥐
In my past travels, I have always thought how nice it is to rent a place “in the old town” to be close to cafes, etc.!! But these places often come with inconveniences! The sewer system is often bad because it is so old (as it was in this case), the stairs are crazy, and the walls are very thin so everything next door can be heard!! 🥴
So for this trip, I will take advantage of the modern conveniences like an elevator, a grocery store across the street, and the beach a block away! Maybe if I get in the mood, I can take a day trip to some of the more historical places in the area! But we shall see… You know how I feel about “touristing” to places for the day!! 🤷♀️
All-in-all, I would say, my journey thus far on the cruise and what followed in the last couple days has been… “Interesting” (my codeword for not wanting to judge something or someone as bad, but it hasn’t exactly been pleasant)!! 🤪 So far, it hasn’t been what I expected, but it’s been special and informative nonetheless!
There have been a few times when I have pondered on whether this nomadic/travel lifestyle is still in my future like it was in the past? Or maybe it’s just about adapting to a “new normal” with (dare I say it…???) an aging brain and body? Nah… that can’t be it!! 🤪🤷♀️ It could just be that things are a little more challenging these days for many reasons, and I just need to get back on track and in the flow of things to see if this is still a good fit… we shall see!! Maybe I am just out of practice after traveling less following Covid and then “the big fall down the stairs” last year in Italy!! 😳
For now, I will enjoy Salou and the access I have to modern conveniences like a grocery store, café, restaurants, and the Mediterranean Sea within a block of me (and the elevator and nice-size bathroom and shower, of course)!! 😂😂
As you can see, as usual, I have been pondering lots of things in my travels! I’m sure there will be more thoughts and ideas ahead! I’m sending hugs to all of you, and I will post if and when I have anything to share about my journey here! XOXO 💖💖
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