Getting in and out of Barcelona

The thoughts we have, the emotions we feel, the persons that we are can be so abitrary. Over the past two weeks, I've had some of the worst moments that I've experienced in a long long time. And yet now that I've been back in Amsterdam, I can barely relate to how down I had been feeling. I'm seeing everyone again in Amsterdam, and just the joy of seeing familiar faces makes me forget what has happened. The last two weeks has been pretty terrible, at the same time its been a time that God was in control and using to refine me. What worries me, is that as I forget the ordeals that I've been through that I'd also forget the lessons I've been learning. Hence, my desire to sit down, reflect and write it all down. Both, so that you(the faithful few... :p) may know whats been happening, and so that I may know what has happened.

I had arrived at Luton Airport at 10am even though the flight was scheduled to depart at 1.20pm. You might wonder why I didn't catch a bus to arrive at the airport at a better time. Well, it was basically because the earlier bus were cheaper than the later buses: £2 cheaper (and people think the Dutch are cheap...). I figured that I could get there early and do some reading, while saving (some...) money. When it got closer to the departure time, I went to check in. The lady gave me an invoice and told me to go to another counter. It turns out that I was supposed to have checked in online the night before, evidently I hadn't done that. The invoice was to charge me for the service of having to use their check in services. How much was it? £40! You can imagine that if I'd endeavoured to save £2, having to cough up £40 was quite a shock to me. For a few moments, I considered not getting on the plane. The only reason why I was going to Barcelona was because peope had returned and were raving about it. I wanted to check it out for myself, and yet I wasn't that eager. Anyways, I ended up paying the £40 and getting on the flight.

I started to get really homesick in the first few days that I was in Barcelona. Only on my second day in, I was walking around and had already started to feel down. I kept thinking about what in the world was I doing in Barcelona? What was the point of travelling? Frankly speaking, I couldn't come up with any good answers. I'd been to Venice, Verona, Antwerp, Bruges, London and what had it all meant? Nothing. I'm not any wiser or any different having gone to these places. It seems like being a tourist amounts to ticking things of a list so that you can say/boast: "I've been there. I've done that." How pathetic. Coupled with the fact that I found Barcelona quite underwhelming made it all seem very pointless indeed.

I was sightseeing on my own, and that made me feel quite isolated and lonely. And being away from Amsterdam for a month was making me want to be back in familiar places and with familiar people. I was starting to feel quite depressed. After a while, I sat myself down on a bench and came to God with my despair. It was then that I realised that all my travelling was simply living for myself. In fact, the only reason why I was feeling down was because I wasn't having a great time in Barcelona. As I came to God, I realised that I needed to get my priorities right. I needed to make God's priorities my priorities.

So...while I had originally planned on travelling down to visit a friend in Granada (southern Spain), I decided to cut short my travels and fly back to Amsterdam where I did have a church and Christian fellowship. I was still a bit unsure about my decision. Once again, my desire to travel and see the world was telling me that I could go to Granada and then fly back to Amsterdam. However, in the end I decided to just stay in Barcelona and then fly out from there. On skyscanner.com the cheapest way to get back to Amsterdam would be to fly from Barcelona to Manchester and then from Manchester to Amsterdam, about £50 each way. Expensive yes, but at least I'd be back in Amsterdam. The flights were on the 14th of August, which gave me, 10 days, a decent amount of time to stay in Barcelona and experience the city.

I still had about 8 days left in Barcelona. The first few days were still pretty bad. I had met some people while out at night, but during the day I was just doing sightseeing on my own. I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit in my last few days in Barcelona. Well actually, it was while I was outside of Barcelona that I enjoyed myself. I went with some guys on a day trip to visit Cadaques, a nice beach town 2.5 hours from Barcelona and also went hiking in Montserrat. I had a great time at both of them. I was still excited to be getting back to Amsterdam. On the 13th, I started to get paranoid. I'd already paid £60 + 40 to get there and now I was paying another £100 pounds to get out. I was worried that something would go wrong and so I tripled checked my flights to make sure that I had done everything for the day after.

I got to the airport 2 hours early. This time it was because I didn't have much choice for which bus I could take there. I had a really nice flight to Manchester. The guy next to me offered me his meal as he'd ate a big breakfast. I had a nice time talking to him about Spain and a bit about football. I thanked God that things were looking pretty good. We arrived in Manchester, I picked up my backpack and had another 3 hours to spare before the flight to Amsterdam.

When the time came, I went to enter the departure hall. The lady took my ticket and scanned it over the gate. The gates wouldn't open. She scanned it again. The gates wouldn't open. She then looked at my ticket and pointed out that the date on my ticket was wrong. The ticket was dated for the 13th of August, not the 14th... It sounds like a pretty funny joke now. But at the time, my heart just sank. I was hoping that because I had checked in online early, that the date might have been mixed up. I went to the ticketing counting and asked the girl to check it out. It turns out that I was really that incredibly stupid and had booked it on the wrong date. At that point of time, I just wanted to cry. There was another £50 gone. How much would it cost me to buy a ticket on the flight I had intended on catching? £140. I almost had a heart attack. I wished I had a heart attack and just died right there. I'd noticed a prayer room in the airport before and decided to go there to come before God. I was at a complete loss of what to do. All I knew was that I didn't want to spend another £140 to get back to Amsterdam. I considered going back to London and then taking the coach back to Amsterdam from there. It would have been more affordable. But getting to London would have been expensive. Maybe I could just get to Manchester stay over night and re-think everything. What would you have done in my shoes?

I ended up procrastinating to the point where I missed the opportunity to get on my intended flight. I pretty much just didn't want to pay get on that flight. Having missed the flight, I still didn't know what to do. If I stayed overnight anywhere, it would have cost me around £20 for one night. It seemed like maybe I should have just bit the bullet and took that £140 flight. I seriously just wanted to crawl into some hole and die.

I ended up asking the ticketing counter again and they mentioned that there was a KLM flight leaving for Amsterdam. They were kind and generous enough to let me use their computer and even checked up the cost of flights for me. Turns out that a two way flight from Manchester to Amsterdam and back would cost me £160. I'd take it! I was already considering flying to Manchester to visit Abby and Jess. I booked the tickets online, bought the ticketing girls coffee and then hurried over to Terminal 2 to catch my flight.

If I had caught the first flight, I was scheduled to arrive in Amsterdam at 7pm and was planning on surprising my bible study group. I arrived at 9.40pm and was trying to catch them just as they were wrapping up. However, when I arrived they had already gone. I went to Suresh and Babu's and surprised them by showing up at their door right after the study. It was great to see them again. I shared about how things had been going for me and we prayed together before heading off to sleep.