Domingo - 21.51

Well, yesterday was one of the best days I've ever had, and one of the worst nights I've had. Let me explain. We found our bus to Barcelona at the last minute, and made it there. I didn't sleep much because I had an aisle seat and there was someone next to me. I thought I had signed up for a window seat. When we got there, we started walking in the direction of La Sagrada Familia. I was super excited to see it, because I've been told about it many times in my Spanish classes throughout the years.

(At breakfast! From left to right, Alicia, then Miriam in the front, Jennifer and Brendan on the right)

We stopped along the way for breakfast, and I had a croissant with coffee. Never again in my life am I going to drink coffee. It tasted pretty good, almost like hot chocolate. The only reason I has some was because I wanted to see if the coffee, which is much stronger here in España, would keep me awake, or give me energy. It did no such thing. I was fine for the first hour or so, and then I started getting really bad pains in my lower abdominal area. I figured it would just go away, so I ignored them, because I didn't want my trip to Barcelona to be tainted with a bad memory. We go to the Sagrada, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Like much of Madrid and Barcelona, there was so much detail everywhere! I took a ton of pictures. I felt so honored and lucky to be there, to be able to see the building.

It was one of the highlights of the trip. Well well worth the 11euro entrance fee (and they had a student discount!). I also bought my first regalo (gift) in their gift shop. I'm not going to say who it's for, but I thought of this person immediately when I saw the item. It's not too special, but I hope they like it anyway. After the Sagrada, we walked in the direction of a park that Alicia wanted to see. We stopped at a small tore/restaurant for lunch. Originally it was because they had ice cream in the window, but none of us ended up buying any. I had a ham and cheese sandwich, and it was really good. Nice and cheesy, which made me think of Brandon.

We then found the park, but on the way, we found a little stairway garden thing. It was a great spot for pictures, both of us (which mom should be happy because I actually took pictures with some people in them haha), and the view, which you could see all way to the mountains in the distance. I took a picture of Alicia in what seemed like a road at the top, because it had a stoplight, but I wasn't sure what type of car could actually fit down. She then took one of me, and said she felt like she was taking senior pictures.

Then we went to the park. It was a workout with all the stairs and the sun, but we made it pretty near to the top. I felt better about my difficulty breathing when I realized Jennifer was having trouble breathing. She's on her university's varsity track team, so she's in shape. The views here were amazing! You could see Barcelona stretching out over miles and miles, and the Mediterranean Sea on the horizon. It was breathtaking, which is ironic, since we didn't have much breath left. After the gorgeous park, we headed down to the entrance to wait for Alicia, who wanted a picture of a lizard statue. Miriam and Jennifer were looking at necklaces that a street vendor was selling. They both had one picked out when someone came up to the vendor and said something rapidly. The seller then proceeded to literally grab the necklaces out of their hands and yank the blanket off the ground before sprinting to another section of the park. I guess him selling there wasn't too legal.

We began walking to the beach next, along several roads. We went into a few stores, but the prices were way over our budgets, so none of us bought anything. We stopped at an old aqueduct that Alicia wanted to see, and when we got there there were street performers in the middle of a large circle. They hadn't started yet, which enabled me to get a spot near the front so I could take lots of pictures. The dancers did an interactive segment with the audience, and Jennifer get picked to participate. It was so cool! They were doing front tucks over a line of six girls! After that, we took a few pictures of the aqueduct and left. We ended up finding the beach next, and we changed in these tiny, really gross bathrooms on the beach. I didn't care though, I had to go to the bathroom so bad! I think it was a late reaction to the coffee, or something else I ate maybe? I was complimented on my bottoms by my group, who thought they were super bright. I smiled and nodded. I didn't get too many pictures of the beach, because it was pretty windy and I was terrified of getting sand in my camera. So I used dad's trick and wrapped it in a Meijer bag, and then put it in a shopping bag, and then in the plastic bag that our towels came in. We bought a pack of three towels at a convenience store near the beach. It turns out that there was one normal towel, one towel about half the size, and a little washcloth one. We probably should have read the package more clearly.

Alicia was the first one in, and I was the second. We stayed in the longest. Jennifer tried to join us, but she got too cold to come out to where we were. Brendan went in after we were already out and Miriam didn't go in. It was a blast! We were hungry after a while, and the sun wasn't really out, making it pretty cold with the wind, so we decided to go somewhere for dinner. We ended up going to an area that was below street level, but open to the sky. There were bars, clubs, and restaurants all up the strip! We ended up splitting up, because there were three of us that wanted to try seafood paella because we were in Catalonia and right near the Mediterranean, and two that didn't want to pay so much for it. It was pretty good, and we definitely got our money's worth. There was bread with tomatoes and garlic for a starter, which was pretty good, though not my favorite. We also had a salad and potato chunks that were covered in what we think was a garlic butter sauce for an appetizer. It was delicious! I had to go to the restroom in between the starters and the main course, because something was kicking my butt and giving me sharp stomach pains again. It was not pleasant. 

Then they brought out the paella, which looked good. There was calamari, mussels, tiny octopus things, and prawns. It was pretty interesting. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I'm really a seafood type of person. It made me wonder if Ryan would like it. Anyway, the dessert was delicious, it was some sort of custard that looked like creme brule. It was yummy! Then we decided to bar hop before hitting up the clubs. I didn't do much hopping, because by this point, I was in pain. I kept needing to go to the bathroom, and it didn't help much. If I was sitting down for any period of time I could ignore it, but once I moved it was like a switch was flipped and I NEEDED to go. We all got a free drink (I don't know what it was) at a bar where Alicia had made a friend, though I couldn't drink all of mine. My stomach was too upset. We sat on a bench near a harbor with a lot of boats for a while before a few of the girls wanted to go dancing.

I was in no shape for dancing, and it turns out Brendan doesn't like to dance, and Miriam doesn't drink, so we all walked around a bit. We ended up behind a row of buildings outside of the wind and just talked for about a half hour to an hour. It was really peaceful and relaxing, because we were looking out at the sea on our right, and lights from the city on our left. I got some pictures, but the flash combined with the lights from the city made the air look all smoggy. I got some other night pictures too, most of which turned out. We decided to head back to the bus station then, because Miriam and I were shivering - it was so cold, and we were all tired. We made it back, and I first used the bathroom, and then tried to fall asleep in the uncomfortable chairs. I woke up about a half hour later, and Miriam said that Brendan went upstairs to lay down, since it was by this time about 3 in the morning and the upstairs was virtually deserted. I headed up too, because I was so dead to the world with my sickness and being so tired that I didn't even care if the floor was dirty, though it didn't look like it.

I remembered everything the program directors said during the orientation about thieves and pick pockets, so I used my purse as a pillow with the back side up, zipper under my cheek, and the strap wrapped around my arm. I then cradled my camera right up against my side with the neck strap still around my neck and my hand cradled around the lens. I think I did a pretty good job protecting my belongings. I don't think there were really enough people for me to need to worry, but I would have rather been safe than sorry. I ended up sleeping about three hours straight before I woke up needing to use the bathroom. The upstairs one was locked, so I headed back downstairs. Then we only had about an hour left, so I just waited. We managed to get on the bus (I had a window seat this time and no one sitting next to me) and I slept on and off, better than the ride in, but still not well. I woke up needing to use the bathroom. I was literally praying that he would stop somewhere for an hour before I noticed someone disappear down the stairs and come back up a while later. There was a bathroom! I was so excited!

I still felt awful, and by this point I was starving. When we did stop at a small store/gas station, I couldn't buy food because the sound of it all made me feel ill. I ended up with a small bag of peanuts, the size of the ones at the register in Walmart. I was only able to eat half the bag before feeling really ill. I was drinking a lot of water by this point though. It was like I couldn't get enough. When we finally made it back to the station in Madrid, I stopped into the bathroom first thing. I was in there for a while, feeling really sick before I left slowly. Brendan had waited for me because he had my gift in his backpack (it wouldn't fit in my purse) and we take the same metro line home. I finally made it home, probably looking like a total zombie. The first thing I did was drop my stuff off in my room on the way to the bathroom. Then when I got back, I moved all my clean clothes (thanks Pilar for doing laundry!) to the end of my bed, and passed out.

I woke up and took a shower, because I was feeling a bit better and knew I should wash all the sunscreen, sweat and saltwater off. I did feel better, but not by much and not for long. I skyped Brandon and he knew something was off right away. I felt bad for him because we only get to Skype about once a week, and here I was falling asleep on him. He said it was okay, but I still felt bad. I fell asleep right after I hung up with him. I woke up a bit before dinner and used the bathroom once more. Dinner was an egg, cheese, and onion quiche. It was really good, but I could only get three bites down and half the slice of bread. It was served with gazpacho, which I didn't even touch. Pilar wasn't in the room though, so I took care of my remaining food and headed back to my room, where I wrote this, and now I'm going to the bathroom, and then bed.