I’m just rereading this blog
before posting and it’s all a bit strange because I wrote it two weeks ago but
had no internet to post it until now. Maybe
I will complement it with a second blog at the same time. Even so, here is the
"latest" as it was many, many days ago:
I’ve spent years cockily going on
about how lucky I am with planes and travel. I think it would be fair to say
that after my journey here and thanks to French air traffic control, the
balance has been well and truly restored. My 14.40 plane was postponed to 19.30
and then moved back to 15.30, meaning a dash to the airport without Gatwick
Expresses because someone had jumped under one. When I arrived, security and
check-in took several decades, there were a few billion people in the airport
and my flight was nowhere to be seen.
At this point I treated myself to
the pleasure of the airport lounge, which I really recommend. You pay £20 and
you’ll eat that back in about 14 seconds with all the free food there is. Several
promises of new information went unfulfilled and I started to wonder if I would
actually get away at all, especially hearing that Ed, who was going to
Barcelona from Manchester, had had his flight cancelled. Anyway, that was
effectively home between 15.00 and 20.00, fully equipped with living room /
cinema, kitchen / buffet, bathroom and sofa-bed (/ it was just a sofa but no
one was stopping me). At 20.00 a gate was finally announced. I don’t know why,
though. There was no plane, no staff and no point at all in being there. There
was just a mass of angry, angry people. So I went back home, where they were
showing Goldfinger.
Enough,
long story short the plane didn’t show up for a long, long time. Eventually we
were told it would leave at 23.00. At 00.00 we were still at Gatwick. At 00.30
we were actually unbelievably in the sky. At 4.30am I was in Barcelona. With
nowhere to stay. I didn’t imagine my first night in Barcelona would involve a
slightly suspect cash-in-hand deal with the night guy for a room in an
edge-of-town Travelodge but there you have it. Four hours later I sneaked out,
without so much as a key to give back. So, after a hugely tiring, aggravating,
hot-and-sticky making, stressful and difficult journey, the Barcelona adventure
was finally underway.
It’s
now 1st July (happy birthday, mum) so I have a few days to report back
on. Until last night, I was living with my friend Kwei, and his friends Ed,
Sarah, Juan, Andres, Jacqueline and Steve. Having that flat as a place to stay
was enjoyable and useful in equal measure. Lots of barbecue food was eaten and
lots of football was watched. We went out a few times and they even offered an
airbed for me to sleep on. I obliged for five days, which is almost certainly
outstaying my welcome. Thanks, guys.
During
this time, three things happened. The first was that I had a chance to explore
Barcelona again after a few years away and I do just love it. It has everything
we tend to appreciate. Every single street is tree-lined and wide and open and
flanked by smart shops and cafes and terraces, every building is perfect and
has impressive balcony-covered façades, there are plenty of parks, it’s sunny,
there’s a laid-back atmosphere, there are incredible monuments, the seaside is
never too far away... I really hardly have a bad word to say about it. It must
be one of the world’s greatest cities.
The
second thing is that I was able to start work. For anyone who doesn’t know but
does care, it’s in a luxury real estate firm and I basically translate all of
their property descriptions, website information, keywords and whatever else
from Spanish into Russian. It’s relatively difficult but I feel I’m already
improving a bit. I just need to improve enough before they realise I’m totally
incapable. The office is a bit hot but otherwise it’s all good - they’re friendly
enough and my four hour days are an absolute treat, meaning I have a lot of
free time which I can only assume I’ll use productively.
The
third thing was the flat search. That’s a big word for contacting some people
from a flat-share website, visiting one and taking it but I guess that says
good things about this flat. The location is good – roughly equidistant between
Kwei’s pad and work – and the flatmates are fine from what I can tell so far. It’s
all newly furnished and kitted out and looking good. I only arrived and
unpacked last night but I’m already delighted with it.
The
settling in process always feels a bit strange but with a flat I’m happy to be
living in, work I’m happy to be doing, a city I’m happy to be spending time in
and friends I’m happy to be spending time with, I really can’t see many better
ways that one could spend 3 summer months.
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