On 5th of January I arrived in Barcelona from Southampton to spend a few days enjoying the culture, eating a little too much and enjoying the winter sun on the beach at Barceloneta. I also had it in mind to begin preparing my schedule of travel across this diverse country in more detail and take life as it comes.

I had expected to spend a few rough nights out in the open, but I did not expect to find myself ´homeless´. I smile as I write this as being a Buddhist - which began 2500 years ago as a group of people wandering from place to place in India, who on the whole were considered homeless. During the rainy season they would normally be indulged by some patron who would make available buildings for them to occupy. I often wondered what the homeless life would be like and now I am on this journey of discovery.

Simply, I found myself in this situation because I arrived at a Station in Barcelona, to go a few kilometres south west to a Buddhist Monastery called Sakya Tashi Ling, which happens to be a Tibetan Order. I had hoped to spend a few nights before moving on.

So there I am at the ticket desk, trying to pronounce the name of the station in Pigeon Spanish - no i don´t speak the language - I reached for my wallet to find that it was missing and what should have been my rucksack at the side of me had also dissappeared.

Yes I had been stupid enough to take enough cash for the trip as I resent paying commission charges!

As the panic swept over me I said ´Lo siento´(I´m sorry) to the ticket man and made for the nearest Policia. I did not know that there were different types of police in Spain - a subject i shall try to cover at a different time - but eventually found the right person to talk to, who offered no hope of recovery and suggested I go to the British Consulate.

So Passport in hand, I walked from centro Barcelona to the British Consulate ( located at Diagonal 477, just in case you need to know ) and spoke with a civil servant who advised me to return to the UK.

´Fine´ I thought. "So can you lend me the money?"

"No. We can contact your bank or a friend or your employer to get them to wire the money to us and then we´ll buy you a ticket home."

Now the problem with this is that my ex-boss ( i had left the company to travel) was on a business tour in the States for 8 weeks. The company only consists of three people, so no one else could help.

I don´t have any family and none of my friends have any spare capital.

I cleared out my own bank account.

So you can see from this rather sorry position that I was and am truly ´stuck´in Barcelona. Not that it is a bad place to be, well most of the time it´s fine...no honest. It is warm during daylight hours but cold at night, especially when you´re trying to sleep in a doorway.

I have now been homeless for 14 days and have only just begun to find ´my feet´so to speak.

I am writing this from a pc in one of the many Barcelona libraries - yes i have become a member by lying about my address - and the downside to this is that I only have one hour´s access to the computer a day.

So update you tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this.