Ep.17: My Holiday In Barcelona
This week I will continue my story about my holiday in Barcelona, as with all of my stories, it is a fun one. Enjoy!
Also, you can find the vocabulary and comprehension quiz under the transcription!
(Česky: Najdete seznam slovíček a krátký kvíz porozumění pod přepisem)
Link for the episode:
WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:
Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and I created this podcast for students at intermediate and upper intermediate levels who want to get better in their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode, comprehension quiz, and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast.
Today, we are traveling back to sunny Barcelona because as I promised, I will talk about my holiday there. Honestly, I have to cut it to the bone because so much happened, I would be talking about it for two hours. Also, some of the small stories are not even so entertaining (so funny) if you weren't there or some of them are a bit too personal for me to share here. But here I will tell you about some of the funniest things that happened to us.
After the amazing journey to the airport and not at all delayed flight, we finally got to Barcelona. We landed at exactly 00:00 and after a few confused moments, we found our taxi driver who was supposed to take us from the airport to the hotel. Eliška was absolutely determined to speak with him in Spanish. So even though he started speaking in English, Eliška kept responding to him in Spanish so he eventually (finally) switched to it as well.
I am a French speaker, not a Spanish speaker, so I, of course, understood Adios and Gracias and that was about it. So when the driver started telling stories in quick Spanish and I saw Eliška saying Si, Si, I was extremely impressed that she understood.
But then I caught a look from Eliška that told me everything I needed to know - she understood as much as I did in that moment. And because the driver maybe waited for some reaction to his joyful story and didn't get any, the rest of the ride was in silence.
But finally, we got to the hotel. The night was okay for me because I was tired but when I woke up in the morning I saw that Eliška hadn't slept very well.
The first thing that she asked me was: "Dáji, you don't mind the vibrations of your phone? It keeps on ringing and ringing every five minutes. It was waking me up all the time."
I looked at her and said: "Eli my phone is in sleep mode, I don't receive any messages until 7:00 a.m., it is not my phone." At that moment we looked at each other and suddenly heard a buzzing noise from the next room. The vibrations were so loud, it sounded like the phone was next to us. That's when we realized that our neighbors have their vibrations on. Eliška looked at me with desperation on her face. I told her that we could go to the other room and asked them to turn off their vibrations for the night. But because we are both people pleasers, it is very hard for us to ask for something, especially when it is unpleasant. So we didn't do it.
Before I continue I have to say one small piece of information. When we were waiting on the bus from the airport to the plane, Eliška told me that she not only took her ID card for travel but she also took her passport to be sure that if something happened and someone stole her ID she would have her passport. And then she made fun of me that if I lose my ID, she will fly home without me and I will have to go to the embassy. An embassy is the office where you go when you are in a foreign country and you have to deal with some problems, so there is a Czech embassy in every capital city. On that, I just told her that I will probably leave my ID always in the room so that I don't lose it. Eliška responded to that: "yeah I didn't think of that".
But why I am saying this is that when we went from the room to breakfast, we stopped at the reception to ask some questions. When we came there, the receptionist asked: "Are you Eliška Krásná?" and Eliška responded: "yes I am". After that, he reached under his desk and pulled out her ID. He said: "You forgot this here yesterday."
Because when we were checking in, we had to provide our IDs. But as I had taken mine back and had hidden it back into my wallet, Eliška had just left it there, no questions asked. She didn't even realize that she didn't have her ID. So it was funny that she was prepared with her passport in case someone steals her ID but she forgets it somewhere at the first opportunity she gets.
Anyway, the first day was quite chill (quite relaxing) because we were very tired from the day before. To be honest I was still quite emotionally exhausted from the journey to the airport so I needed some time to rest. We spent the day in the pool and in the afternoon we went to get shisha. Also, we discussed our plans for the next few days.
We were also talking a lot and honestly, it was an amazing day.
On Sunday we planned on going to Parc Guell, which is one of the most famous places that you can visit in Barcelona. And you have to buy tickets in advance to get there. Because we heard that so many people go there during the day and it is best to buy it for the morning, that is exactly what we did. We both are tickets for nine am.
When we looked at a map of where the park is, we were happy to realize that it is only 15 minutes on foot from our hotel. So we knew we can wake up at a normal time, have breakfast, shower, and then peacefully go to the park.
But as we were sitting and eating our breakfast on Sunday morning, Eliška checked it again on a map. And to our horror, we found out that the park there is 15 minutes on foot, is also called Park Guell, but it is not the one that we were supposed to go to.
And the one that we were supposed to go to was 50 minutes on foot and 15 minutes by car. Which was a problem because we didn't count on that extra time. We panicked for like three minutes and then Elisha proposed (she had an idea) that we would get an Uber so that we don't have to rush so much. I don't really take Uber or taxis but as we were in this bad situation, and we wouldn't be able to get there in time, I agreed.
So all was well and we went back to our room. Eliška took her shower and at 8:40 we headed out. Eliška started to look for drivers on her Uber app, but as time was ticking, one driver after the other was refusing our request. So she tried another app. But the same happened again and again. It was already nine am and we could only get into the park maximum of 30 minutes after our reservation time. Which means that we had to be there at 9:30 at the latest.
It was already 9 am. And we got nowhere. We asked the receptionist again and they told us that we could go and try to find some taxi drivers. So we headed out and walked the streets. There were no taxi drivers in sight, and the one or two that we saw, were not available. We started to stress about it because we really wanted to visit the park. So we were running around trying to find someone who would take us there.
Thankfully, trying to find a new driver again and again and again on the app. And add 9:08, and suddenly one of them accepted our request and we were almost saved. It took him around seven minutes to get to us so we were entering the car at 9:15. We were very nervous the whole journey there and we were curious whether we can make it or not. And whether they would let us in after 9:30 (whether means IF - so if we can make and if they would let us in).
Unbelievably, the driver dropped us off at the main gate of the Parc at 9:29. So when we ran to the security that was standing by the entrance, we had one full minute to spare. So we made it!
Park Guell was very beautiful and I loved it. So I definitely recommend it if you want to visit Barcelona.
In the afternoon we headed into the city and checked out some architecture which was also very beautiful. It was just a lot of walking so when we came back in the evening, we were both very tired. The thing is that we were always very very tired, but then we laid down and started talking and laughing about the things that happened to us that day, that I was laughing so hard that I couldn't fall asleep after that. I kept on thinking about the small moments from the day and every time I remembered it again, I started laughing again.
So to sleep was not the best.
On Monday we decided to split our ways. Eliška was quite tired and she decided to stay in our hotel. I wanted to see more of Barcelona so I went to the city, saw Sagrada Familia, the cathedral of Barcelona and other interesting sights, I walked on a beach and cooled down my feet in the sea and overall had a very nice time.
When I came back, Eliška was sitting in our room with a small bag of potatoes, one kilo of salt, and a whole bottle of ketchup in front of her. I was very confused - why would she buy one kilo of salt and ketchup when she could simply go to have lunch in the restaurant? But the story that came out of it was also almost unbelievable. But it would be unfair of me to try to retell the story that happened when I was away so if you want to hear that one you can check out Eliška's podcast about it that she also recorded in English and I will leave it in the notes of the podcast.
In the evening we watched a movie together and went to sleep.
The last day was without any problems, actually. We got to the airport, the plane got off on time and we landed in Prague at 3:30 pm.
Eliška's husband picked us up again and then they continued home, while I still had a three-hour journey from Prague to Brno ahead.
I don't think I have to say that I took a train this time.
It was a very lovely holiday, with a lot of laughs and memories. I am grateful that I can have such a friend and a colleague as Eliška and I wish such a friend to anyone.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode and don't forget that you can find the transcription, vocabulary list, and comprehension quiz in the notes. Please please give this podcast a five stars rating on the platform that you are listening to this, since it's the only way for me to get feedback and making these episodes takes me a lot of time.
That is all and I will see you next time, bye-bye.
VOCABULARY LIST:
cut it to the bone - ostrouhat na dřeň
Entertaining - zabavný
Confused - zmatený
Determined - odhodlaný
Impressed - oslněný
Silence - ticho
Receive - dostat
Desperation - zoufalství
people pleasers - lidé, co pořád chtějí všechny jen potěšit
Embassy - ambasáda
Provide - poskytnout
In advance - s předstihem
On foot - pěšky
Refusing - odmítání
with a full minute to spare - s jednou minutou k dobru
laughing - smání se
Came out of it - co z toho vyšlo / vzniklo
