between the rocks and a hard place

What a strange few days it has been. Thursday I didn’t really eat anything, foolishly telling myself that I could eat once my train got to Zagreb. I forgot that my train was almost 6 hours, and that everything in Zagreb would be closed before I got there. So when I got to Zagreb, I stood there in the night rain, forlornly staring at all the closed stores and starving to death. Luckily I found an underground mall so I had my fill of junk food before waiting for my midnight train to Venice which turned out to be a 1 a.m. train and the seats didn’t recline. After a pleasant but not very exciting day in Venice I was off to the airport for my 11:00 p.m. plane, which also changed to a 1 a.m. plane.
Sleeping in the airport was interesting. I first tried the floor but it was so cold that I knew I’d be miserable, so I moved to the metal chairs with the obtrusive arm rests. I only got about an hour of sleep at a time before some numb appendage forced me to wake up and change positions, but I managed to make it through the night. But after two nearly sleepless nights in Split, one night sitting upright on a train, and one night sitting upright in an airport, I am SO excited to sleep in a REAL BED!
I noticed as I tried to find my Barcelona hostel (which was no easy feat this time) that I had limited mobility in my ankles. I thought that maybe my skin was just really dry or maybe my shin splints had just stiffened them up somehow. When I arrived and met up with Ariel and had a moment to rest, I looked closer and realized that it was actually elephantitis. OK,OK, it’s probably not really elephantitis, but for the life of me I can’t think of any other reason for both of my ankles to randomly swell up. They got a litttle better after soaking them in the Mediterranean for a while, but they’re swelling up again. They’re not really painful, other than the painful shock of waking up one day with cankles.
As I mentioned, Ariel and I went to the Mediterranean today, as she had never been to it before and we were both in the mood for a lazy day. The map showed the beach to be a simple enough walk, but roads and walkways would randomly just end in fields and trees. Ariel hurt her foot previously and I had my cankles to deal with, and it was rough enough going without the added frustration of being able to see the sea at almost every turn, but never actually being able to get there. We finally did manage to get to the coast and had to walk along it for a way on extremely unstable, golf ball sized rocks with our feet in less than ideal condition and both of us in flip-flops. As we hobbled along on our poor legs, we both laughed at what a fine pair we were. We rejoiced when we finally got to a sandy beach, but alas, our rejoicings were short lived, as we soon discovered it to be a nude beach. I was offended not so much by all the naked people (heaven knows I saw enough of that in Florence!), but by the lack of signs or warnings. This beach was also right next to the train tracks, so any innocent traveler looking out the window might have been scared for life. We were left with a tough decision: retrace our painful steps over the rocks and risk not being able to find another beach, or traverse the nude beach in hopes that the people on the next beach over would be wearing bathing suits, however skimpy they might be. With our eyes conveniently seaward, we chose the latter option, and to our great relief, no one at the next beach was nude. Crisis averted. Now I just hope my first decent night’s sleep this week won’t be marred by nightmares of endless nude beaches!

EPILOGUE
Today my ankles were back to normal and we went around to see all the Gaudi architecture that I’ve dreamed of seeing for so long. Too bad they wanted like a billion euros to actually go inside. Good thing the Parc Guell was free!