{"id":9815,"date":"2024-11-15T13:34:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T20:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/?p=9815"},"modified":"2024-11-15T13:36:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T20:36:35","slug":"the-blablabus-to-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/?p=9815","title":{"rendered":"The BlaBlaBus to Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Post by Ella<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our journey started in the dark, frozen air. It was 1\u00b0C which is about 34\u00b0F. I\u2019d made a deal with our talkative Tesla Uber driver, Dominique, to give us a ride to our bus stop. At 5:45am, we were trundling our luggage down cobblestone steps to the dirt path that followed the ramparts around to the castle exit. Some of it was pitch dark. What did we do before phone flashlights?<\/p>\n\n\n

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The drawbridge with moon set<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We met Dominique just outside the castle gates and sank thankfully into his warm car. 10 minutes later, he dropped us on the side of a road where there were marked bus slots. We were way early for our bus. Dominique took off but about 15 minutes later he was back offering us a sit in his nice warm car. I jumped in. Ah\u2026my fingers began to thaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The cold dark wait<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The BlaBlaBus pulled up right on time. In total a 4.5 hour uneventful trip through the Pyrenees. With the 0.5 spent at a rest area where we could use the toilets and buy food and drink. No passport control as we crossed into Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Our route<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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At the rest stop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
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At the rest stop.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Sunrise thru a dirty bus window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We pulled into the Barcelona Nord bus station, called an Uber and got our first experience with crazy Barcelona drivers. Our Uber driver blamed it on the young folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our host, Anna, a young Ukrainian woman, showed us the apartment and how everything worked. Then she was off to visit her grandparents in Ukraine for a few days. I expressed dismay at the whole Ukrainian situation. She said \u201cwe Ukraines are optimistic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apartment is not luxurious but it\u2019s nice. 5th floor (the top) and despite being on a busy street, it is awfully quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Living area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of two bedrooms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Post by Ella Our journey started in the dark, frozen air. It was 1\u00b0C which is about 34\u00b0F. I\u2019d made a deal with our talkative Tesla Uber driver, Dominique, to give us a ride to our bus stop. At 5:45am, we were trundling our luggage down cobblestone steps to the dirt path that followed the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discovering-france"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9815"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9831,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9815\/revisions\/9831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}