Barcelona, Spain 8-29-09

My sister passed the written and oral French examinations to enter law school in Switzerland, so part of her celebration was to meet me in Barcelona for a few days. I met Danielle at our hostel, Hello BCN, checked in, and situated myself in the 8 bedroom dorm. We made up our beds and I went on my computer to check my emails.

One of my friends, Ben, from Lagos, Portugal sent me a message asking me how I felt. Ben and I had the same exact symptoms on the same days as each other and we both went to hospitals in Lagos. The only difference is my doctor gave me a 10 minute check-up, looked at my tongue and in one ear, said I had laryngitis, gave me antibiotics for 8 days, and sent me on my way; while his doctor rushed him to another hospital which gave him a proper check up and checked for all sorts of things. His hospital said they would have the results back from the tests in a couple days and would call him with the results. Well, this message from Ben said that he just checked his voice mail now (14 days since that day in Lagos) and the results came back positive for Swine Flu. He was laughing in the message and just thought I'd like to know that I probably had it too. Makes sense since both we had every single symptom of what swine flu should be like. Luckily we're both over the flu now, but I least now we know what we had. I personally think that most people in Lagos, and almost everyone at our hostel must have gotten it.

The next morning we had breakfast and had to switch into different rooms at the hostel. We both walked up to our separate rooms and as soon as I stepped inside mine, a foul stench hit me like a ton of bricks. A mix of really bad men's body odor, throw up, and musky urine, filled my nostrils. I thought for sure it must be guys in this room who went to La Tomatina and never got a chance to wash their clothes (even though it smelt worse than that), but none of the guys in the room had gotten close enough to the tomato fight, since they got there the morning of (now I'm very glad we arrived to Buñol night before). Well, I spoke to the cleaning lady at the hostel and told her in Spanish that the room smells "muy, muy, muy, mal". I plugged my nose and made a funny face and she laughed and brought out this vaporizing machine. In Spanish she told me that it takes that smell out and will make the room smell fresh. Luckily, Danielle's room smelt normal. Danielle and I spent most of the day figuring out which hostel we would stay in for the following night. We went to the Gothic area, found a nice hostel and they directed us to their sister hostel at a different location. We went there and both fell in love with the area and the hostel.

Centric Point Hostel was located at La Plassia de Gracia in the main shopping district, right near a Gaudí building. The hostel was huge, 400 rooms, 7 floors, and had a very clean and modern look. We booked for the next night and then went to the Picasso Museum.

The Picasso Museum was incredible. I'm used to seeing Picasso's crazy abstract, cubism art, but I didn't realized how gifted he was as an impressionist, engraver, sculptor, potter, and so much more. This museum had vast quantities of his work, about 15 rooms full, and it was great to spend a couple of hours leisurely walking through them. Danielle and I had a really nice time together and talked about Picasso's art the whole time. After the museum we stopped for tapas at this really cool looking restaurant and had the best tapas I've had in all of Spain!

After dinner we went to the Plaza de España and saw an incredible water and light show at the huge fountain in the square. Every night at 9pm there is a show where the water and lights are choreographed to music. First they played all Disney music (in Spanish) from The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, and more.. (Tammy, you would have loved this!) and then they played American oldies with Spanish singers too. I was as much in awe of this show as I was watching the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas. The fountain sprayed up water so powerfully that we felt the mist the entire time, we thought they should have had a "splash zone" sign up...and we loved it.

Afterwards we went back to our hostel, made ourselves dinner, showered, and dressed to go out. We went out with a couple guys, Chris and Justin, from the hostel and went near the beach to a club called CDLC (Carpe Diem Lounge Club). The two guys we were with were from Texas and one was wearing flip flops and the other was wearing sneakers and when we got to the entrance of the club, both of them were denied. The guys told us to just go inside and they would find a way in. Danielle and I checked the place out and then were sitting at a table waiting for the guys when we saw one of them! And then 10 seconds later saw the bouncer grab his arm and escort him out. We decided to leave too and went into a different club called Opium. The guys were denied again but said that they would find a way in. Opium was so nice! All white inside, HUGE, great dance area, the hired dancers were wearing cool outfits were on the stage overlooking the dance floor, and there were a few really nice bars inside, a couple VIP areas and an outside patio. Danielle and I danced for a while and when we sat down on a couch to rest and chat we saw one of the Texas guys! Chris was wearing Justin's sandals and made it in without paying the 20 Euro cover (for guys). He said he'd be right back and soon Justin was in wearing his own sandals. The guys did a little switch-a-roo to get in (guess sandals are okay?) and they somehow passed their stamp from one arm to the other. We all spent another hour or so in there and called it a night around 5am.

In the morning Danielle and I packed up, switched hostels, and headed to see Sagrada Família (the Gaudí Cathedral which has been in the building process since 1882 (and still has about 30 years to go!). We took an elevator to the top and took the spiral staircase down. It was wonderful, so many intricate and unique designs were in this Cathedral. Afterwards we grabbed some food, headed towards the shops in the Gothic area, and popped into boutiques for a couple hrs. For dinner we had fruit smoothies and later had the best stir-fry ever at this place called Wok. Back at the hostel we got ready for bed and Danielle packed up her stuff for her flight in the morning back to Switzerland.

I woke up to her packing at 6am, woke up again to say good bye when she left around 7am, and then woke up again when she came back at 8:30am. Apparently, she arrived at the airport a day early by mistake, so, now we both had an extra day in Barcelona together. We booked another night and decided that today would be a good day to go to Sitges, a beach town close-by to the SW of Barcelona which gets 300 days of sunshine a year. We grabbed some sandwiches and hopped on the train. Less than an hour later we were at Sitges, one of the nicest beach towns I've ever been to. Cute shops, boutiques, restaurants, and cafe's were all over the place. Danielle and I stopped for smoothies on the way to the beach and had the most delicious mango/banana/orange drinks! We took some to go and window shopped on the way to the Mediterranean sea.

The beach was clean and beautiful with bright beach umbrellas everywhere. There was a soccer game in motion on the beach, children were playing in the water, artists were creating sand sculptures, the ambiance was perfect. Sitges is also known for being a popular beach for gays. Just past the pier was the gay beach with as many guys as our eyes could see. It was pretty fun to see and reminded me of Miami beach. Danielle and I found a spot on the beach and relaxed in the sun for a couple hours. The water was so warm and the waves were a pretty good size for body surfing (which we did for half an hour), but I wished I had a bodyboard.

After leaving the water we walked along the shore for a bit and found a really nice restaurant on the beach to eat. We ordered salads, a spaghetti and clam dish in a red sauce, a huge platter of muscles in a white wine sauce, and then for dessert had flan and baked pear with vanilla ice cream. It was the best meal I've had in months!! We were so full we just sat for a while and enjoyed the view. Eventually we were ready to explore again and walked to the city church we saw in the distance. After taking some pictures and walking some more, we found a local street market where artists were selling unique jewelry and clothes. Everything was really nice, but I only ended up buying a natural looking hemp anklet that had wood beads and Chinese good-luck coins on it (I think I'm getting pretty excited about visiting Asia!).

Around 9pm we walked back to the train station and made our way to our way to our beds at our hostel. In the morning, Danielle left for her 7am flight (again) and I went to the train station to take my 8:45am train directly to Geneva, Switzerland. We both wanted to get into Switzerland in the morning so we would be around to pick up our parents from the airport when they arrive later in the evening. Turns out, the train I wanted was full (since it stops along Spain's coast, goes through France, and Switzerland it was pretty popular), so I spoke to a lady at the information desk in the train station and we found an alternate route that took a little longer than expected. After switching trains seven times, making a few different friends, petting a pet rat from Paris, and 13 hours later.. I finally made it to Vevey, Switzerland (where my sister lives). She picked me up just past midnight and I had the best sleep I can remember.

It will be nice to spend the next week and a half with my family. I've missed seeing them. I've realized that I become much more homesick while traveling than I ever did in college. So, I'm excited to get in some quality time with them now. Might be another 10 months till I see them again.

Au revoir for now, xoxo

Lauren