Enfermedades

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Going to Barcelona was an interesting trip that threw us a curveball.  On the way to the 11:00 pm bus to Barcelona on Thursday night, we stopped at a bar to kill an hour.  It was a nice little bar and we had a beer or two and some tapas.  One of the tapas was shellfish with chopped peppers and onions, which I had never had before.  We made it to the bus stop on time and everything was going great.  About an hour into the six hour bus ride, my friend Tyler got really sick and threw up in the bathroom.  In addition, my friend Patrick was complaining of a head ache and chills/fever.  We went to a pier at the Mediterranean Sea right away, which was pretty cool.  There was a school of maybe 50-100 fish swimming right at the top of the water waiting for food.  The weird thing was that they were like a foot and a half long or bigger.  After about 20-30 minutes of wandering it was time to check into the hostel.

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The hostel that we stayed at is known to be one of the best hostels in Europe.  When we walked in, everyone was getting their free breakfast (yup free breakfast and dinner, although nothing special).  We went to our room which was a 20 person mixed dorm.  There were several Australian girls, a British man moving to Barcelona, and my new Brazillian friend, Bruno.  It was great talking to all of these people about their travels, all completely different backgrounds and stories.

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When we decided to go and look at some Gaudi architecture, Vic, Tyler and Patrick had only gotten worse.  Patrick and Vic decided to stay at the hostel and nap.  Gaudi is an amazing architect, as you can see in the photos.  He is from the early 1900's so his art is way ahead of it's time.  Although it was really cool, I don't think it was worth 14 euros to get in.  The Louvre and everything in Paris costed about 6 euros so it seemed rather expensive.  The Gaudi house had the most random stuff in it such as a mushroom fireplace, window that were designed to look a certain way depending on the time of day, and so forth.  He used a lot of natural influences for his art.

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After the museum, Tyler was complaining that he had never felt so weird.  He had a headache, was slightly confused, and his whole body ached.  We returned to the hostel and Vic and Patrick were having similar symptoms.  They stayed in that night and those of us who weren't sick went out on the town.  We went to a bar with the most strange shots.  The coolest one was called the Harry Potter.  First they put oranges covered in sugar on top of the shot.  Then they spray it a few times with something really strong (maybe absinthe).  They then sprayed the shots with whatever was in the bottle and sprinkled cinnamon on it.  The cinnamon sparked and the sprays lit the whole bar on fire.  It was pretty cool.

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The next day we went to Sagrada Familia, which is a churh designed by Gaudi that is not finished yet.  It was very cool and very modern.  One side had geometric characters and giant pillars, but on the other side it literally looked like someone creatively threw mud all over it.  I forgot to mention, at this point this is how Tyler, Vic and Patrick are doing.  Vic went to the hospital before Sagrada Familia and was diagnosed with food poisoning (probably from the shellfish).  All three of them were aching, had pains in the stomach, and were in and out of the bathroom continuously.  They all were forced to eat bread and fruit and had three medicines each.  I went to the pharmacy to fill Vic's prescription, and they were willing to give me three batches without prescriptions.  Very different from our pharmacies.

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After Sagrada, we went up into the mountains to walk through Gaudi's park.  It was very beautiful and overlooked all of Barcelona.  Vic was almost dead, so we went back to the hostel fairly quickly.

I went out again that night without everyone else and met up with some others from Toledo.  I met this pub crawl guy who seemed like he might be in the mafia.  He got us into the nicest clubs for free without waiting in line.  I wasn't even part of his group, but he led me around anyways.

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Last but not least, I forgot to mention that it was CARNIVAL in all of Spain.  It was kind of like Halloween in terms of costumes.  On Las Ramblas, kind of like the State Street or Champs Elysses of Barcelona was a happening place.  There were street actors, you know the kind that look like a statue until you walk by and then they scare the crap out of you?  There was also a giant seafood, fruit, meat and any other food market that was really cool.  Look at the pictures because there is too much to describe on Las Ramblas.

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So we made it back to Toledo, after a really long bus ride and train ride.  The sicklings were miserable, and I was feeling tired but I made it through Monday.  Here is the funniest/saddest part of the story.  I got to my first class and less than half of the people were there.  About 50-65% of the people at my school got food poisoning!!!  Everyone layed in bed all weekend.  I happened to be slightly sick and on a diet the week before when everyone else ate the bad food!  I was lucky because I was sick for about 8 hours, and everyone else is still getting over it.

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I have midterms this week so I am staying in Toledo.  I'm gonna start studying right now, but I thought this would be a good time to keep in touch.  Hope all is well in the USA.