I just made it onto a train from BCN Airport (with a free train ticket) to set out into the city of Barcelona, Spain. I’m not sure what stop I managed to get off at but I remember that it was where the vast majority of other riders seem to be getting off at so I decided to “do as the locals do”. I found myself on a very clean platform following a mass of people up a small escalator to a train station lobby. I got to the top to find that I had to scan my ticket to exit the train system. I was hoping that my ticket was valid enough to get me past the exit ticket scanners. I kind of held my breath as I scanned it. It worked. I was officially in “the station”.
Train stations and airports are a stimulating place for me. All of the people hustling and bustling around me engaged in the very act of traveling. The voice over the PA announcing arrivals, departures and other notifications. I usually slow down and take it all in if I am traveling alone. I’ll see some shops and maybe just kind of sit and people watch for a little while. I wandered around the station for a few minutes to find a map of the Barcelona Metro System and took a picture with my iPhone. I usually do this to give me an instant pocket map of the local subway (I might opt for a city subway app later but starting off with a picture works great). Now that I had my own mini map, it was time to create a route to the “Jaume 1” stop on the L4 line (Yellow) cause that’s where my hostel was located. There was just one small problem. I had no idea where I was.
I looked on the map for a minute or 2 looking for some sort of “Usted está aquí” marker or circle or something indicate what station I was in. This is the largest transfer station coming from Barcelona’s busiest airport. It’s not too crazy of me to thing that there might be some better map legend. I thought for sure that I was over looking something. After a few mins of scanning this 10 x15 foot backlit wall map I became VERY frustrated with the Metro system. “Where am I?” I said this aloud to myself numerous times. I just want to know what station I’m at. I’m good once I have that.
I wandered around the station some more looking for some sort of signage or indictor only to come up empty handed. After about 3-5 minutes of frustration I just decided to head to the train platform cause it know that it WILL be posted somewhere there and I can come find that station on this map and figure out where I need to go from there. That was it. So i went to a train platform and found the name of the station. Once I found out my location I looked at the map again and it took me a minute or two find the station that I was at even though I now knew the name of the station. I wasn’t expecting English but I wasn’t expecting this. Why are things not clearly marked? I’m not even asking for signs in English. I just want a little “Su es Aqui” or a circle or SOMETHING so I could just glance at a map and know where I am and go.
Sometimes the most frustrations and strongest culture shock comes from something as little as not knowing that “You are HERE”!
Here are some other subway maps from my travels. Can you see how it helps to streamline the travel process if there’s a location marker?
