Monday, October 7
"We love Spain, it's just that some things aren't as efficient as they should be," the English couple had said to me that night, as we stood on the platform, in reference to the train we would soon find out was canceled.
So here's me, four days later, standing in a subway, with those words echoing in my head. The train to Vilanova via Sitges was scheduled for 10:08am. A train had rolled in at 10:06, but i swore the marquee had said something else, and indicated it was the 10:05 train. I looked back down at my phone. When the train started moving again, the motion triggered my peripheral vision, and i looked up to see it disappear into the dark tunnel. I checked the time. It was exactly 10:08. I checked the marquee, to confirm that the next train was mine.
It was blank.
Oh shit. 10:08, blank marquee, no sounds of an approaching train...did i just miss it? Did i just zone out on my phone while my transportation to the film festival waited patiently for me to move, and i refused? Shit.
I walked down the platform a bit to get a look at the departures board. It showed the current time as 10:10, and still had the 10:08 to Vilanova listed as next. Okay, so i didn't miss it? I'm still good?
But as time wore on, i became more and more convinced that this was wrong. I missed that train.
Well, fortunately, i'm very punctual nowadays. My younger self could never. If i missed the 10:08, there were still trains at 10:28 and 10:38 that should get me to Sitges on time, although with that last one, i'd probably have to run. And if i did take that last one, and run...i'd probably end up standing outside of the theater, annoyed that the doors were opening ten minutes late, after i'd just stressed out the whole way down.
The 10:08 to Vilanova arrived at the Passeig de Gràcia station at 10:21.
I have to stress again how immeasurably much better my life has become since i've started padding my travel times by thirty minutes. I'm going to be fine.
Dark clouds over all of Catalan today, so it seems like a good day to be in a movie theater. Although, you know what they say, "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain," so it's probably fine.
I packed my jacket sleeves though, just in case.
---
Imagine my surprise when the doors were already open when i got there, five minutes before showtime. I found my seat, and the announcement of the special guests happened right on time.
My first movie today was called Basileia. The director, Isabella Torre, came up to the podium to introduce the film, alongside her translator. Her speech was in Italian, and the translator spoke Spanish, so i didn't catch any of that.
I really liked the film! And i think i can confidently say that Amanda would have absolutely loved it. The opening scene features a wolf pack doing wolf pack things, and the rest of the movie is about nature reclaiming Earth from human civilization. The monsters are dryads! I don't think i've ever seen dryads explored in film before.
Also, the dryad costumes consist of blacked-out eye contacts and nudity, so, uh, don't watch this one with your parents. Or your kids.
This is another film that's in competition for the audience prize, so i got to vote. As i waited in the cluster to cast my ballot, i waffled a bit between a 4 and a 5, but ultimately decided to go ahead and give it the 5. The rest of the audience seemed much more divided on it. I watched many hands reaching for that ballot box, and saw a whole lot of 1s and 2s.
Yall must not have seen Estela the other day.
After the movie, i had a little less than an hour and a half before my next screening. I was at the Melía, which is the closest venue to the food trucks, so i walked over there. I didn't put any directions in my GPS, i just followed the path that brought me closest to the sea, so i could enjoy that view and the peaceful breeze on the way. This did not turn out to be the shortest path, but it was the most enjoyable.
I got a "Beyond Vegan" gyro, which was made with shiitake mushrooms, and was fantastic.
Next up, Love Me.
---
Since i have my laptop with me in Sitges today, i thought i'd be able to keep up with writing about things as they happened. Nope! The space between Basileia and Love Me would end up being my only substantial break for the day, so everything below that last section break will all be from the end of the day. I'm waiting for the train now as i start to type this, hopefully i'll be finishing it from on the train. If something catastrophic happens, like...i don't know, for example, the train gets canceled at the last minute, i'll probably slip that in here, stream-of-consciousness style, but that would never happen, right? Trains don't get canceled while dozens of people are standing on the platform with no other way home for the night.
As i was typing the end of that last section, waiting to go into the theater for Love Me, it did start sprinkling on me, despite not being on the plain. I had to run back and forth between the Melía and the Escorxador for pretty much every showing today, and i was becoming worried i'd get a little wet.
Love Me begins five billion years ago, and in its first few minutes, shows the formation of the earth, the proliferation of plant life, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, the rise of human civilization, and our inevitable extinction from nuclear war, somewhere in the mid-21st century. This was my favorite part of the movie; after that, i just felt kind of frustrated with it.
I said yesterday when i bought the ticket that i got strong 17776 vibes from the description, and you cannot convince me that the filmmakers haven't read it. The core of this movie is very clearly inspired by a mashup of 17776 and Wall-E, two stories very near and dear to my heart, so maybe i just can't be objective about this. I didn't feel that this movie ever came anywhere near reaching their level. The first half or more is like you filtered those stories through a Live Laugh Love poster. It gets more interesting toward the end, but by then it was too late for me.
Taken on its own merits, i'm sure it's fine. I still kind of hope it's successful, if only so that more quirky, offbeat movies like this can be made in the future. If this fails, i don't think there's any hope for a proper 17776 adaptation.
After Love Me, i booked it across town for Grand Theft Hamlet. This is a documentary about the making of a live production of Shakespeare's play within the game Grand Theft Auto Online, staged during the pandemic by out-of-work actors. What's interesting is that it's not just the play, but the entire documentary itself that has been filmed within the game. The only bit of non-GTA footage is at the very end, when we see some clips of the team that brought this production together accepting an award at a London Theatre Guild. The documentary was fun and very funny. I think the actual performance, which was livestreamed on Twitch, is available on YouTube, i'm going to have to track it down later and watch it.
It's 11:18, i don't think the 10:58 train is coming. There were some announcements in Spanish a bit ago, but no one else on the platform reacted, so i had assumed everything was fine. This sucks. Guess i'm waiting until 1:30am.
No sooner did i type that than i noticed the sign over the platform indicating that a train is arriving, and a whole lot of people standing up and getting to the platform. I still see no train though? It's been four minutes. It must be coming.
I don't know what's going on. I'm gonna keep typing.
I had 40 minutes between Grand Theft Hamlet and Bodegón con Fantasmas, and i was very concerned about my water intake for the day. I'd forgotten to fill my bottles before leaving, which sucks, and there didn't seem to be anywhere on the festival grounds to do that. Before Love Me, i had even asked a security guy, who asked two other security guys, the first two didn't know and the third confirmed that there is not. Motherfuckers.
I was heading back to the Melía from Escorxador, so i thought i'd just stop at the food trucks, order a snack, perhaps another Nutella crêpe, and get a bottle of water. I'd need to find a better solution than buying single bottles of water from the food truck to hit my goal today, because that was going to add up fast, but it would be a start. It would be one less pint i would need to chug before bed back at the hostel, worst case.
Confirmed, the 10:58 train has been canceled again. Everyone is waiting for the 1:30am run. This fucking sucks. Tomorrow, i'm just going to plan as if the 10:58 does not exist.
I ended up getting a burger that looked really good. I know it was called "The Madame," but i cannot remember what looked so special about it. I remember caramelized onions.
The bottle of water i was given from that food truck was only 300ml (about 10oz), tiny. This definitely will not do. It was also frozen solid?? The clerk had asked me if i wanted it, or if i'd take a room temperature one, but she only spoke Spanish so i didn't quite understand what i was getting into. I put it in my vest pocket to thaw. And get my shirt wet.
I chowed that burger, and looked up nearby grocery stores. Luckily, there was one an 8-minute walk away. I still had 20 minutes until showtime, so i thought i could make it.
It was tucked away in a residential neighborhood, so i had assumed it would be a small, mom-and-pop type market, but it turned out to be a substantially-sized supermarket. I should be able to find what i need pretty easily in here!
The soda aisle was like the second one from the door. I assumed bottled water would be in there. There didn't seem to be many options; at the end of the aisle, i found two types in 1.5 liter bottles. I checked them carefully to see if they were flat, but determined that they were actually both sparkling water. Translating one of the labels gave me the message, "If there is no omelet with onion, we're leaving." Um. Okay then.
I walked past a few more aisles before i came to another that might have what i was looking for. And it did! Many options for water, and the cheapest i've seen it anywhere in Europe. One brand had 1.5 liter bottles on sale for 25 cents. They were sold out, so i grabbed the 37 cent option. There were also five liter jugs for just one euro, but i didn't want to carry that around in addition to my laptop, that seemed like it would hamper my mobility too much on these tight time schedules. Especially when i inevitably had to run for the train later. Which i've already spoiled, would be fruitless anyway. Maybe i should've just bought the big jug.
I didn't want to charge 37 cents, so i went back to the soda aisle and grabbed a bottle of Coke. At the front of the store, i found myself a Mars bar. I went to check out and...
The line is 14 topped-off shopping carts deep, and only two registers are open.
I checked my watch. Ten minutes to showtime. Still an eight-minute walk.
No way in hell.
Dejected and parched, i decided to cut my losses. I went back to the soda aisle and committed the cardinal sin of putting things on the wrong shelves in grocery stores. I never do this, i am the type of person who walks unwanted items back to their proper slots, even if it's across the store. I just didn't have the time. I put the Coke on the Coke shelf at least, although i didn't rack it up with its friends, it sat alone a foot away. I gave it the Mars bar for company. I dropped my big bottle of flat water off with its carbonated counterparts, and departed, empty handed, for the theater.
Bodegón con Fantasmas was billed as a "black comedy," but i found it to be mostly pretty lighthearted. It's five short stories set in a town where humans and ghosts more or less coexist, and help each other solve problems. The first story is about a man coming back to visit his very right-wing, conspiracy nut daughter, to tell her that he has always felt like a woman, and now that the world has become more accepting of transgender issues, she wants her name changed on her tombstone so that everyone will know who she really was. The audience laughed at a lot of things that made it feel like this was a joke to them, and i was a little upset that they seemed to feel that way, but once the characters got to the heart of the matter, the audience erupted in enthusiastic cheers, so i think it was alright. I'm sure the queer community will still be split on whether the movie handled this respectfully or not, but by the end, i really enjoyed it.
The second story, not as much, it has real Boomer "I hate my spouse" type humor to it, and especially as it deals with the death of one of said spouses, this one was not going to hit for me. It ends kind of ambiguously, which i was grateful for.
The other three stories are hits for sure though. Good stuff! I voted on this one too, i gave it a 4. This one was also divisive among the audiences; from what i saw, older viewers were giving it 5s, and younger, Gen Z-looking people were rating it around a 2.
Okay, all four movies have started on time today, in contrast to the first day of the festival. They must've just been still working out technological kinks that day. My last film is back at the Escorxador, which is much closer to the train station, and a little closer to that grocery store. I've got thirty minutes. I'm going for it.
I checked the line first when i went in. Much shorter, this might work out. I went straight for the soda aisle.
My Coke and Mars bar were still exactly where i left them two hours ago. My bottle of flat water was there too. Remarkable.
I got in line. Only three people ahead of me, and they all had pretty minimal baskets, no carts. Still just the two open registers, though.
Back to me currently sitting at the train station: oh it is raining-raining now. This is a downpour. I'm glad i'm under an overhang, but i'm still getting a tiny bit of splashback. I might actually want to put those sleeves on. It's not quite midnight, i've still got an hour and a half to wait here.
Oof, and wind. Yeah this really sucks.
I booked it for the Escorxador, pausing at the trash sorting bins a couple doors down. I refilled my two water bottles from the big one i'd just purchased, then chugged what didn't fit. I arrived just a few minutes early. Doors were open, there was no line. I found my seat easily. I was in the second row, centered with the screen. Which was nice, because every other screening today i've been at a pretty extreme angle. The price i pay for having waited until the night before to buy tickets. So it goes.
The director came out to introduce the film. She brought the star, a producer, and the production designer up with her, but the other three didn't actually speak. "I don't want to say too much about this film before you see it, i think it's better to go in without knowing much," she started. "But, if we're all here, i'm assuming it's because you like mucus, monsters masturbating, and awkward sex scenes."
Oh so this is like, a full-on monsterfucker movie. Got it. Yeah, i'm in.
In accordance with the director's wishes, i won't say much about the movie, either. But i will say it's among the most fucked-up movies i've seen. Certainly not THE most fucked up; after all these years i think that award still goes to Wetlands and probably always will. Maybe top 10 though. Certainly top 25.
I've, uh. I've seen a lot of fucked-up movies, haven't i?
Less monsterfucking than i expected, to be honest. Not zero, though.
The credits rolled at 11:29. I could stay through them, as i usually do, but if i go now, maybe i won't have to run for the train. Hell, it could be a pretty leisurely walk, if i wanted.
I didn't wait. I slipped my ballot into the 4 slot on the way out and went for the train station. I was walking fast, even by my standards, but it never became a run. Looking back, i really wish it had, though.
I walked up to the station just in time to see the 11:38 train to Barcelona pull out. In the moment, i was disappointed, but not devastated; it should just be another 20 minutes until the train i was planning for anyway.
Welp. We know how that turned out.
It's now 12:04, and i'm still right where i've been.
---
I sat there, on the bench, outside the station, working on the movie reviews for another fifteen minutes after i wrote that last bit. Then, the storm became too much to ignore. It was raining hard enough and the wind was blowing straight at me that drops of water were vaulting over my laptop screen and landing on the keyboard. The lightning strikes were getting more frequent. I had to pack it up and go inside the station.
I'd drank most of the water i'd purchased, knowing i would still need more before bed once i reached the hostel. But now i was realizing, watching the steady streams of precipitation outside, that the only bathroom this train station has is inside the café, which has long been closed and locked.
It's okay, i told myself. It won't be much longer now.
But that wasn't exactly true. I'm not getting back to the hostel at 1:30; that's when i board the train from Sitges. Then it's an hour back to Barcelona, and, oh shit, this train stops at the Barcelona Sante station. How am i getting from there to Passeig de Gràcia?
Checked Maps and...there's no more trains tonight, but there's a bus that'll take 28 minutes to get me to Gran Via-Pau Claris, which is a few blocks away. Or i could walk it in 33 minutes.
Fucking shit. I'm not getting to bed until 3am.
This sucks so bad.
I noticed a paper departure schedule posted on a board near the door. Out of curiosity, i checked the list of departures to Barcelona.
The paper schedule has the last one at 22:22. The 22:58 isn't even on it. I'm not the only one who's been looking for that train, last Thursday or tonight. What the hell? Why is it on Google Maps if it doesn't exist?? Why are there so few later trains during the biggest goddamn film festival in the country?? Even this special 1:30 train, which only runs during the festival, seems inadequate, as there are still movie screenings starting up until 2.
By 1:00, i was feeling like i wouldn't even make it. I asked a security guard if there was a bathroom. He didn't speak English, but at least i know baño. He pointed through a ticket gate that was held open, to the also-open front door of the station. "Will i be able to get back through?" i asked, pantomiming the action of going back and forth through that gate.
He gave an exaggerated nod. "Si!"
So i walked outside, looked around...and did not see anything resembling a bathroom.
I went back in, and waited until i saw two other security guards.
"No, not in the station," one of them said.
"Only on the train," said the other.
"There's one on the train?" i asked.
"Yes."
I didn't believe them, but it was my only hope. Either that or sneaking down to the end of the platform where it's dark and peeing on a tree, hoping the security cameras can't see over there. I was seriously considering it.
But i waited for the train, like the dainty little flower i am.
The storm had finally passed. My bladder was too full to sit back down, though, so i paced around the station instead of writing in my log.
I held out a long time, but around 1:10 i finally zipped the sleeves onto my vest. Drew was right when he looked at my Bunkers del Carmel photos and said, "That poor vest is absolutely a different color." The arms are a noticeably more vibrant shade of blue than the rest now. It's not as dramatic as the pants, but the ravages of the sun are unmistakeable.
People started coming right up to the yellow line to load into the train. I've been here the longest, though, like hell if i'm gonna let any of these newcomers beat me to that bathroom, if it exists. I asserted myself a position on the line, ready to snap into action the second that train was stopped.
It finally arrived, still managing to be a couple of minutes late.
It looked like a normal subway train. I glanced up and down the length of the vehicle, at first seeing it as nothing more. Then i realized, hold up, there's something bulging out of the wall in the middle there, a few cars away from me. I walked toward it, arriving just as the door slid shut.
WC.
Water Closet.
Hot damn.
Those security guys were right.
I didn't get there right away, but i still managed to be second. Sweet relief.
Yeah there was no way i would've made it all the way back to the hostel, possibly even all the way back to Barcelona.
The trip was only about a half an hour, not the full 60 minutes i had calculated, which was nice. The hour estimate had been the entire trip from the Mediterranean Youth Hostel to Sitges, which included walking to the Passeig de Gràcia station and then the ride between there and Sante. So fortunately, i'd overestimated.
The train was overland from Sitges, but coming into Barcelona, it became an underground. Coming up from the station, there were clear signs that precipitation had happened outside, but it was calm at that moment.
I did not particularly want to mess with any additional public transportation at this time. If there had been a subway train from Sante to Passeig de Gràcia directly, i'd have taken it for sure. But since it would be a bus, and i didn't have a bus pass, and i didn't know how to get one at 2am, and i didn't care to find out, i decided just to walk.
When i arrived in Barcelona last week, at this very station, i was trying to outrun the impending rain, and failed. Now, the second time i'm walking away from Sante, it's already rained, and i'm just hoping that the rain doesn't come back.
Didn't get that wish either.
It was sprinkling on me by the time i crossed the street.
But i went for it anyway.
It was fully raining within two blocks.
It never got very bad, though. It certainly wasn't anywhere near the downpour i'd seen in Sitges, and there wasn't any lightning.
Friends, i made that 1.75 mile walk in 27 minutes, at a pace of 15:05. Walking.
The bars are closed, and if this hostel has any other common area, i haven't found it. I still needed to chug a bunch of water, and i wanted to finish my log. Also, for *some reason* i was suddenly very hungry. So i filled my bottles in the bathroom, grabbed a Twix bar from the vending machine, and took a seat on the tile floor in a particularly wide section of hallway near my room. This is where i am now.
I haven't looked at tomorrow's film fest schedule yet, but given the nightmare that the transit system has been for the ride home, i think i'm just not even gonna consider any screenings that would run past 10pm.
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