jam19872016

I am making progress on my weight which is the nice thing about being on land and not having food tempting me almost 24/7. I will no doubt put it back on in a day or two but so far here are the results: Friday: -1.6 Saturday: -1.4 Sunday: -1.4 (preliminary, i've been taking a am weight and a pm weight and taking the lower of the two) I did break down a little yesterday and eat some foods that weren't the greatest for me, but I did maintain my fast and calorie goals. From the hotel restaurant I ordered croquets (€6) and fish and chips (€15) Unlike my first trip here, I found the portions to be generous but then again it could be that I am used to eating smaller portions again. Everything was hot and tasty.

Good morning. One final day in Barcelona. I'm ready. I am definitely more of a cruiser than land traveler. I am going to get out and use this transit pass though and maybe I see something interesting again. I got my arrival time for the return leg yesterday. I was up at about 230 eastern time and the earliest check in was 1-1:30 which according to the roll call the earliest they had was 12:30-1. I am hoping there will be some wiggle room since I will be getting off one Carnival brand going to another. My check in time for tomorrow was assigned to me, you don't choose on Cunard. They gave me 2:45. I really hope there is some wiggle room on that one because surely they don't expect people to hang around their hotel that late. Even if they drop off luggage and go tour, that is an extra stop. Why make people jump through those kinds of hoops. Hotel check out is noon, part of me knows that if you arrive super early, you beat the lines and arriving around 12:30 you are going to have massive lines, but I don't know how well check in times will be enforced and I hate the thought of being made to wait for hours and hours for showing up early.

Me too. I love people watching especially of cultures that are different than my own.

Thanks! So it was both artsy and barbed wire, and it was meant to blend in with the clouds. Interesting.

Today's outing took me to a quieter area of Barcelona. I came across a local dance school performing in the street. There was a carnival taking place with some rides. I also stopped in a grocery store just to take a look around. And use the wifi. Finally I came to a park. I'd been walking for over four hours by this point, so I didn't get to explore it as I was running out of steam and still has a long train ride back to the hotel. I may try to come back here tomorrow. I also want to see the mall. Other than that I will probably just get off at each stop and look around tomorrow. It was certainly not the most exciting day but I enjoyed it. I took in the sights at my leisure and stumbled upon a wonderful performance that I watched for about 20 minutes. I'm learning how to navigate the metro which allows me to wander a little more confidently away from the station since I can find my way back from a different line than I left off on. I am still waiting on a refund. When I try to click on the link I followed before, it says access restricted. In fact, any link on the website I try to click gives me that message. Except when I click "buy pass". Go figure. I have sent an email to them since they are not responding to my form I filled out, and I can no longer even access the form. It is a legitimate service so I am not sure what is going on but I am not happy with the slow response so far.

Fingers crossed for another smooth sailing.

I'm not really sure. I photographed it because it looked interesting. Artsy. But it just sort of blends in with the clouds in the photo so its hard to tell. It very well could be barbed wire but at the time it looks like a design. Not so sure now 🙂

The metro has been wonderful especially as I learn how to navigate it better. I'm a fan of flexibility but that hasn't worked well in Barcelona. Need to make and stick to a rigid schedule if you want to see anything touristy. You're going to see a lot of familiar faces on the Pride. I think there are more doing that back than Freedom. Enjoy your time in Europe and your return crossing on the Pride!

I found the hoho bus but even that had a line to board that went on forever so I moved on. Thankful I did since if I had activated my pass no refund would be given.

So in the end I have decided to request a refund on the go city pass. It comes with a 90 day money back guarantee if you don't use it. I have not heard back from them yet. It was all a little too overwhelming but I am happy with the transit pass I bought. I will use it to explore the city on foot a little more and I also used it to make another supermarket run this evening. I took a few pictures today but not a lot as I was truly overwhelmed by my surroundings and worried about my battery dieing before I could find my way back (which turned out to be fine I had plenty of juice left).

Today was a bust. I purchased the holabarcelona pass which included unlimited rides on public transportation throughout zone 1 in Barcelona. You can purchase passes ranging from 48 hours, to 120 hours. I purchased 72 hours for $25.10. The T10 can be purchased for €7.85 and while its only good for 10 rides I could have bought three passes for the same cost. If I do at least 20 I'll break even I guess. The big reason this is cheaper is because the hola pass comes with a transfer from or to the airport, which I didn't really need. The T10 is not valid from the airport. I think I understand it correctly, I'll admit the fare structure is a little complicated to follow. Adding slightly to the confusion is the website says tickets will be delivered to your email. That is not exactly accurate, instead a code is delivered to your email. You need to use that code at the kiosk to print your ticket. This was not indicated anywhere I could find until I made my purchase and no instructions on where to find a kiosk was included. The hotel desk was able to point me in the right direction. It turned out to be located where my first stop was today anyway, but if I had wanted to use the bus first instead of the Metro, I would have needed to go print a ticket and then come back. Not really as described as far as ticket being delivered to your email. I also purchased the three day unlimited pass from GoCity for €166. This is where things went wrong and it is totally on me. Barcelona is not Bermuda. It is not Ponta Delgada. It is not a turn up without a plan of action kind of city. It was quite clear that the more popular attractions would require a reservation so I intended to just go to the less popular attractions that maybe didn't need a reservation. They were all slammed with tourists and lines to get in that stretched for blocks. If that wasn't bad enough, my offline maps were useless for navigating public transportation. I would have liked to have used it to move around a little better from place to place but my maps were only showing me how to drive to my location. Having not familiarized myself wit the transit system I didn't really know how to get around and I wanted to be careful not to get so far away as not to be able to figure out a way back. I knew where I came out at to plug back into google and used that as a reference to get back on the metro, I knew my way back for the most part from there. I figured out how to read the maps well enough to continue exploring a little more before I started getting too tired to continue exploring and made my way to the nearest metro to make my way back to my home base.

I'm afraid I don't have anything too exciting to report on today. Thanks for reading along 🙂

Heading out now!

Today was a relaxing day. After our morning excursion to the grocery store we relaxed in the room. My "local" snack. We both enjoyed a siesta per local custom. I got my day tomorrow planned out. We'll sorta, I don't have specific plans but I do have a 72 hour transit pass and 3 day gocity pass as well as a basic understanding of the transit system and my local metro station. Going to try and get some sleep now so I can hit the ground running tomorrow.

When it was just me going, I was going to stay in Sitges because the prices were far better than Barcelona. I figured I would move closer to town since I knew my mom could not handle that much travel. Now I'm thinking I should have to save the money since we are still to far for her to sightsee.

I think I've found an option to get me into town without breaking the budget. My mom needs a more central location, her shots she took to help with her pain are not working and she is only good for short trips, so unfortunately she is still going to be stuck at the hotel.

There were 8 in total but they were split. Two days to Bermuda, four days to Azores, and two days to mainland Europe. The weather was warm but not hot until we made the turn north towards the Azores. Then they did cool slightly but only just slightly. The seas were very calm for the crossing however many people I talked to who had done crossings before said this was the smoothest crossing they had ever experienced. Everything I've read on it suggests it can easily go either way. I think the later in the year you go, the more likely you are to experience a rough crossing. I'm 5'11 and at my heaviest I was 306. I got down to 198.8 before the trip but I have put it back on very quickly and was back to 224.4 this morning. I used an app called myfitnesspal to track my calories. You would be amazed how quickly you consume your daily allowed calories. You would also be surprised at items you thought were low in calories that are actually terrible. The logging also helps with accountability so that you don't go over, either on accident or on purpose. Ignore all the other line items. Fat, Sugar, Carbs, none of it matters for weight loss. They are important for other health reasons but for weight loss they mean nothing. Calories, calories, calories, and that's it. I was able to eat anything I wanted by not worrying about those other metrics so long as I kept my calories in check. It makes it easier when you are not depriving yourself of something you want, but rather enjoying it in moderation. I also started doing intermittent fasting. There are different methods but the one that I used is the 16/8 method. This is where you eat during an 8 hour window, and then fast for the next 16. Remember you are sleeping for 8 of those so it is not as difficult as it sounds. Also pickles are zero calories and can be eaten if you have to put something in your stomach during your fast. Water is of course zero calories and some energy drinks are as well. This helped me once counting calories alone was not working. Eventually you reach a point where your metabolism adjusts and whatever you are doing is not as effective. I am at that point and I am not sure where to go from here other than taking it one day at a time and sticking to long term goals without worrying to much about daily challenges. When you are too hard on yourself, the desire to give up kicks in. Keep working at it, it is not easy I wish I could say it was. The reward will be worth it in the end. Good luck.

Barcelona looks like a bust for me. I can't seem to navigate my way by public transit without multiple transfers that I don't feel confident about being able to follow on my own. I may ask at the front desk for some tips in case there is something I am not thinking of. They do offer an airport shuttle, perhaps from the airport I can find a direct route. Of course I could taxi in and out of the city, but I am trying to keep costs down which is of course how I ended up in the middle of nowhere to begin with. The extent of my sightseeing today was a walk to the closest supermarket for some groceries. It took us through a local neighborhood so I did get a little sight of local culture. I'm disappointed but not too upset, the most important paet of this trip is the opportunity to travel with my mom and that piece is achieved. Sightseeing would be a bonus.

Lesson learned. Hotel prices here came with a bit of sticker shock.

My fan is not compatible with the voltage level used. I have the adapter so that I can plug in but the voltage level coming out would fry it. Thanks for the reminder I admit I totally forgot after all this time 😆.

Still not sure what I'm doing tomorrow. I really failed with my location. I need to figure out the logistics of how I can get to a central location from here. Google maps is very handy for that but I will put that off until tomorrow since I still have four days to explore, I am not too pressed for time. Going to try to sleep now with no fan but the temp is nice and I have a fan sound playing on my phone so maybe I can trick my body into thinking everything is normal. Good night.

Good to know. I will make sure I do Euros next time.

Dinner was good but did not check the value box. I was offered a choice of paying in euros or USD so I chose USD. I was charged a service fee for doing so so I may just do Euro next time, I am not sure but I don't think I pay a fee. I'll have to check. I know I don't pay an international fee, but not sure about a conversion fee. I am going to do my intermittent fasting so won't be eating again for 16 hours. I need to try and get some of this weight off before I start up again.

I checked on Google, they don't reopen until morning. Very strange but it's mainly businesses around here so maybe they cater to them and can't do enough business at night to stay open. This is the only hotel I see and see no residential areas, but it is just off the highway.

Cheesecake (€9)