Day 53 - Travelling Tarragona to Figueres

Today my mission is to get to Figueres - sounds easy enough. But I have not made it easy for my self in my planning of this leg of my Spanish journey. So far I’ve only been travelling in Spain on ALSA buses. I can’t quite remember the details - but in the end I’m bussing to Barcelona - then training to Figueres. And this involves complicated transfers. My logistics for the day are crazy.
I started with a sunrise beach walk in Tarragona - my digs were out from the city centre - but right opposite a big lovely sandy beach with rolling waves and warm water. Sunrises are late in Spain - I’m not sure why - but it’s well after 8 before the sun popped up out of the sea. It was a cool morning (coolest I’ve experienced so far). Beach almost deserted. I had my gear - but you know - I didn’t get in - I felt cold and just didn’t have the urge. A bit slack. So I just walked back to my digs and decided after a call to Tess that I’d make tracks for the bus station to catch an earlier bus to Barcelona. Unfortunately ALSA only had two buses to Barcelona and the first had already departed. My bus was scheduled for 4:20. So I a few hours available for sightseeing etc. I found the nearest place to store my pack (not at the bus depot which was disappointing - but only 10min away).
Tarragona turned out to be a lovely port city. It reminded me of Wollongong - big ships sitting out off the coast waiting entry to the busy port.
I chased art and a bit of sightseeing as I quickly walked my way around the harbour and the old city. Stumbled across some lovely old city plaza’s and lanes and markets and all sorts. The day was beautiful - warm but not hot and humid. I had a great time and came away from Tarragona with positive vibes.
Picked up my pack and headed for the bus depot. Bus station pretty busy but ok. Call up board indicated my bus and platform number - all good. Waiting, waiting, waiting checking board. Waiting - now past 4:30. Bus details disappeared from display - nothing. I’m getting anxious - ask a few people until someone seems to understand English - oh there’s been a delay.
Without going into all the details - I had an extremely anxious bus an train travel experience between Tarragona to Barcelona - then train trip between Barcelona and Figueres. My anxiety was due to the situation that my hotel accommodation in Figueres had a last check in time of 9pm. My delayed bus meant my arrival in Barcelona and then transfer from the bus depot to Barcelona’s central train station was also delayed. I was looking at an arrival in Figueres after midnight. That did not go down well with the hotel. I’m on the bus sending messages that I had to translate into Spanish (I learned later that the language used here is actually Catalan). Anyway the answer was “No”. This was even after I said I’d sleep rough on their front door. This was all happening while on my first phase of travel on the bus between Tarragona and Barcelona!
I just kept telling myself to just get my self to Figueres ASAP. Next I had to catch a subway to Barcelona Sants station. That was hard enough but got there by about 9. My next challenge was finding the right platform for Figueres. Finally found someone in an official vest and was told which platforms 13&14. So with a ticket I’d purchased on line while on the bus - I made a dash to the platforms and saw Figueres on the call up screen. That was such a relief! Problem was though that my ticket was for another train (high speed) from another platform and leaving until 11. On the platform I managed to find a young man who spoke pretty good English. He turned out to be my saviour! He explained about my ticket situation and I explained about my predicament. He said get on this train - it will get to Figueres by 10. So I jumped on without the right ticket and asked if I could sit with him. As it turned out there were heaps of spare seats. William or the Spanish equivalent was brilliant - he worked for a management consultancy as a systems analyst (doing his Masters part time in mathematics and computing). So we had a lot in common!! I got him to write a plead text to the hotel explaining my situation and that I’d be at the hotel shortly after 10. This is his message in Catalan.

Buenas trades, he conseguido cambiar el billete de tren y llegaré a la estación de Rodalies a las 21:40 según Renfe. Voy en un Media Distancia de la R11. Veo que son unos 10 minutos andando hasta el hotel, así que llegaría sobre las 21:50 ~ 22h.

Ya he proporcionado los datos para el check-in y pagado a través de esta app.

Si aún así no me pudiera esperar hasta que pueda llegar, ¿habría alguna otra manera de que me diese las llaves? ¿Aunque tenga que desplazarme hasta alguna otra ubicación de Figueres?

¡Muchas gracias de antemano!

It worked! They responded and said they wait. William also drafted a short message to send as soon as the train arrived at the Figueres station. He got off at 3 stops before Figueres. According to Google I had a 15min walk to the hotel. I was there in less than 10. And THANKFULLY they were there waiting. Man what a relief!
I tell you it was the most stressful few hours on my Odyssey. Probably because I know what I could be in having to spend a night roughing it like I did in Alghero.
Turns out my digs are really great. Best ever location - smack in the middle of town. The owners are elderly and don’t speak any English. But after much heart tapping and gestures of gratitude - all seems OK.
I desperately needed food and hydration - so at almost 11pm I went searching for food.Read more