The whirlwind tour of Barcelona

As you know this morning started rough. I went back to bed for a bit after writing my last entry and slept until almost 2 pm. I'd be up and about off and on since I've arrived in Barcelona enough to know my roommates. I remember saying goodbye to some of them (who were moving on) and wishing others a good day. I also vaguely remember staff coming into the room to clean up. It's actually all been uite fuzzy and a blur. Perhaps I was feverish too? Oh well, I woke up at around 2 and started to get ready when one of my roommates came into the room and looked surprised that I was still here. At this point he walked in to seeing me sitting on the bed with a bag of ice on my face. He got me to remove the ice and said that it really didn't look that bad anymore. Anyway he asked if I still wanted to do that hop on/off bus tour and if so he'd join me so off we went! It was actually great that he asked otherwise I probably would have stayed hidden in my room all day with the bag of ice. So, we went on this bus tour. I gotta say Barcelona is a gorgeous city that deserves to be seen in more than a day.

On this tour we saw; torre agbar (which can be seen from my hostel, it glows all sorts of pretty colors atnight. Reminds me of the Oriental pearl in Shanghai). The Sagrada Familia, trinidad, la pedrera, casa battlo, catedral gotic, colom, jardins de miramar, font magica montjuic, placa espana, estacio sants, palau real de pedralbes, and much much more from the bus. We did decide to hop off at the Sagrada Familia. The Sagarda Familia is Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece. It is a gorgeous cathedral and a wonderful piece of art with the way that it was created. You can see plenty of Gaudi's work throughout the city. Part of my reason for coming here was to see his work. The next place we hopped off the bus was at La Pedrera, another piece of Gaudi's work. This building was designed to look like waves and some of the decorations is supposed to resemble seaweed. Fun note, this building was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in I believe 1984. From there we walked down to the gotic cathedral while admiring the casa battlo and the placa catalunya. We did get turned around a little and thankfully I was able to find a lovely couple who helped us find the church. Once we were done the red line we attempted to go back onto the first line to get back to the hostel but that didn't work out. Apparently the tour ended at the placa catalunya because it was getting late. We were both hungry so we gathered our bearings and ventured forth to find food before exploring the subway system. We found this lovely little place that had amazing paella. Daniel ordered some friend prawns. He was quite shocked to see 4 whole prawns on his plate and explained that back home they take them out of the shell for you. So I had to show him how to remove the meat from the shell. This is one of the only seafood I'll eat so it was surprising that I knew how. He looked pretty horrified at doing that and wound up poking the food out with his fork. Daniel is my roommate in the hostel. I met him this morning. He sleeps on the bed that's on top of mine. He's actually really sweet and treated me to ice cream while we were admiring the sagrada familia (which means sacred family). Daniel's from Manchester, England. He's only in Barcelona for a day as well. So we had a great time and feasted wonderfully (as much as he was horrified by his food staring up at him (yes, the prawns still had their eyes) he says it was an awesome experience that he never thought he'd have, ever. So that's good. I had fun watching his expression! You could see the horror). After dinner we went to the metro station and to our luck it was the right line to take us home. So that was really, really nice because at this point I could feel my face and legs starting to throb from the burn. We made it back to our hostel with little trouble and basically packed up and got ready for bed. I soaked my towel again and pressed it on my face for a bit, such a relief! The burn is doing a whole lot better now that earlier.

 I also avoided the sun when it's said to be at it's worst so hopefully that'll help. I can touch my face now without feeling like there's thousands of needles pricking it so that's good! I'm actually quite estatic at that. And my nose is back to looking like my nose. Yay! (I definitely just noticed this as I unconsciously rubbed my eyes and realized that there was no agony.) Tomorrow morning I have plans to leave Barcelona bright and early. I don't want to get to Madrid too late at night. Hopefully I can be on a train by 9 am, 10 at the latest but we'll see with the lines and if there's automated machines to buy tickets or not. That will make. A difference. Natalia's a saint and said she'd pick me up again, this time at Atocha station. I plan on texting her when I board my train with the estimated arrival time and the train number. I can't wait to see her again. This week will be great fun! I already have a tiny shopping list for when I'm there. Shoes, more aloe vera, and stronger sunscreen. I don't plan on passing out on any more ferries but the sun's stronger in Tarifa than anywhere else I've been on this trip. I will also ask if I can upload photos from her computer tomorrow night as I've taken a few great images in Barcelona.