From Stressful to Relaxing

Today we arrived in Barcelona, but it was no easy feat.  After confusion at the train station this morning, we not only had to buy two tickets after purchasing a wrong one, but then we missed the earlier train we had planned on taking.  Problem 1.  The train arrived at the airport with an hour til take-off, leaving us to run to the Ryanair check-in area, where there are no automatic machines.  After reaching the front of the line, the clerk was able to point to the fine print on our confirmation email that said if we did not check in online, we would be charged a fee.  Problem 2.  This meant we had to go over to the ticket counter and pay and then come back over and get our boarding tickets.  Problem 3. Now we have approximately 30 minutes to go until take off (had we been 2 more minutes later paying, our tickets would've locked at the start of the boarding call and we would've been out of luck).  We ran to security and chose our line, only to be delayed first by a family with small children having some kind of issue, then by two men traveling by instruments that the guards seemed to want to run through the scanning machine 2-3 times minimum.  The only consolation was that there was another man trying the catch the same flight as us and he wasn't getting through much faster.  Luckily, neither of our bags were tagged and we grabbed them, already running towards the gates.  We arrived with 15 minutes to spare at our gate, where a long line was still waiting to board.  Though we missed breakfast, we made the flight somehow, despite everything going against us.  After landing in Barcelona, we grabbed breakfast at the airport and bought a bus ticket to a stop near our hostel.  We then sat at a Starbucks and went shopping before checking in and receiving our room keys.  After that, we wandered around downtown, shopping more and finding a little market and very busy street with people shopping and just walking around.  We also found a food market of sorts, where anything from raw animal meats - and all sorts of kinds - to chocolate candy to fruits and vegies was being sold.  There, we bought empanadas and ate as we shopped.  After exploring a small craft/handmade fair, we sat down and had giant glasses of tasty sangria!  We finished the night with more shopping and snacks/reading and are now back at the hostel waiting as most of our roommates get ready to head out to bars for the night so we can go to bed.  Tomorrow we're planning on taking a free walking tour so we can see some of the popular landmarks and then we are going to hit the beach and relax!  We've agreed these two days are about walking slow, taking breaks, and sleeping off the last few.  This will hopefully prepare us for the very short amount of time we'll be spending exploring Paris!