my newest digits. What an ordeal to get it.
Upon arriving in Spain, Emmy led the way to the Vodafone store, along with Matt (Brown) and Jeremy (Yale). We struggle to communicate with the salespeople, but the three of us (M, J and me) walk away with 19 euro phones. Emmy was seeking a sim card to trade into her Blackberry, but was told that the entire city of Barcelona was sold out of sim cards. Was that a load of bullshit, we wonder? We’re not sure, the salespeople were speaking catalan for a good portion of the sale.
So we had these phones but couldn’t figure out how to activate it. Many hours were spent on the vodafone website, to determine we needed to go to a grocery store/supermarket place to finally be able to use our phones. We trek over to Corte Inglés, which is a massive department store/grocery store place. We go up 7 flights of escalators to the cell phone area of the store. The salespeople at vodafone laugh at us a little when we tell our story, and tell us that ALL OF VODAFONE ISN’T WORKING. It seems as though the pre-paid plan across the nation was hacked somehow and no one could use their phone. Wtf, Spain? We walk across the aisle to Movistar and get the cheapest phones there. At this point in time, picture 5 American students all purchasing the same shitty phone. Comical and overwhelming at the same time. Matt, Jeremy and I hadn’t brought our passports (because we assumed the vodafone movíles would eventuallly work) and were about to throw a hissy fit when the saleswoman told us that one person could activate multiple prepaid phones with their passport (the law in spain is that a passport is needed for all prepaid phone purchases). Thank goodness for Aley and Dana, who had their passports on them.
An hour, a couple SNAFUs and 20 euro later, we all have the world’s crappiest cell phone and a spanish number. SUCCESS! I’m not sure how, but my phone had a random text message on it already. It said:
Good morning i am back from vacation. Metrobank rate today 69.40 we are open up to 6:00 pm. Best regards and God bless, vilma.
I have no clue what this means. Have I been drafted into some secret spy consortium? Is that what the Brown-in-Barcelona program is a cover for? Need-to-know basis, i guess.
So that’s the phones. Call me, hopefully my phone will work/I’ll have enough money to call people.
Next episode: Emmy and Paige get lost at 3 in the morning in Barcelona, wander by La Sagrada Familia. Get excited.
The water pressure is ample, but leaning down to pick up a bottle of shampoo sometimes hits the handle and turns the water off- or worse, to freezing.
the mediocre travel blog 