Biosciences Bonn: Barcelona Baby!

Last stop of the Sprang Break: Barcelona! The morning of my flight to from Lisbon to Barcelona, I had been feeling extremely sick. Everything that went in went straight out. I felt like death was coming for me! By the time that I had gotten onto the plane for Barcelona, I felt like I had lost everything that I had stored in my stomach, fluid or solid. I decided that I probably needed to give the doctors in Barcelona a visit in case my sickness was something serious (more than just a stomach bug or food poisoning). I informed Dr. Wasser, Nick, and Nathan about my condition. The flight was miserable, but I tried my best to sleep through the entirety of it. I woke up when the plane landed in Barcelona; I immediately got my luggage and found a taxi for the airport. I had taken Spanish classes in middle school and high school, so I knew a little bit of it. However, I had never had the opportunity to apply the knowledge I knew in a real life situation. In Barcelona, the Spaniards spoke Spanish and Catalan, both of which are very similar to one another. The taxi driver didn’t speak too much English, so I had to pull out the Spanish that I was able to recall so that I could communicate with him. Although I wasn’t feeling too great, I was able to tell the taxi driver where I wanted to go. After about 30 minutes, I made it to the hospital. The wait for paperwork to be finished took another 30-45 minutes and waiting for the doctor lasted about 15 minutes. The doctor diagnosed me with Gastroentiritis (stomach flu) and prescribed me Paracetamol to take for the next few days to aid my recovery. I made my way back to the AirBnB where everyone else was. I found them all to be resting; I think they decided to take today easy and let everyone recover from the lack of sleep during this spring break. I slept for 15 hours that day…..from 5PM to 8AM the next day. It was probably the most I had slept the entire semester. I was already starting to feel a lot better that morning; I still felt a little weak, but I was definitely on the road to recovery. I was also able to eat more food and keep it in. We made our way over to La Sagrada Familia (or La Sangria Familia as some of my friends thought it was called…). The place was packed with tourists, and because we didn’t preorder tickets, we weren’t able to get in. :( Our next stop was the Park Güell, which was a public park composed of gardens and architectural elements designed by Antoni Gaudí. In fact, Antoni Gaudí designed most of the intricate architecture found throughout Barcelona. He basically owns the city haha! Afterwards, we stopped by a Thai restaurant; I was able to finish the entire meal with an appetizer and dessert without any trouble. Afterwards, I was still hungry and purchased a footlong sandwich as well as ice cream with a macaron in the center. I was definitely testing the limits of my health, but none of the food came back up. We stopped by two more of Gaudí architectural masterpieces: Casa Milá and Casa Batlló both of which had designs that were very similar to the architectures of Park Güell and La Sagrada Familia! We made our way down La Rambla, which was a street lined with numerous shopping and tourist stores! On the way down, we noticed an erotic museum, which we thought to be quite odd; it turns out that it documents the history of eroticism. We continued exploring the area and stopped by the Columbus Monument and the Cathedral of Barcelona before heading to Montjuïc to find the Magic Fountain! Unfortunately, the Magic Fountain was not illuminated on this night; however, it would be illuminated Friday night, so we decided to go back the next day. The next day, we took a day trip out to Montserrat, an extremely popular day excursion from Barcelona. We caught the earliest train there, which departed around 8AM, and we arrived in Montserrat around 9:30AM. Kyle and I had decided to hike up the mountain, and the rest of the group was going to meet us at the top. It was a pretty chilly morning, and I was wearing shorts; I was hoping that hiking would cause me to generate enough body heat to stay warm even with shorts on. I had never been hiking before, so this was going to be an extremely neat experience! Luckily, Kyle had gone hiking several times before, so we weren’t going to be complete newbies to this! We were told that the hike would only take about 45 minutes, but after 45 minutes, we both knew that this would take a lot longer than that. The views were incredible, and it only got better as we got higher up the mountain. The weather was perfect for hiking. It was warm enough when we stopped to rest but still cool while we made the hike upwards. 2 hours later, we made it to the top of Montserrat. We were both tired and sore, but the hike was definitely worth it! The monastery at the top of the mountain was not quite what we had expected; it was full of tourists, and there were hotels that were constructed so that people could live there while visiting the monastery. While we were at the monastery, we were fortunate enough to hear the renowned boys choir perform for us! They sounded just beautiful. I wish I could sing! Afterwards, we visited the art museum nearby and made a 40 minute walk see the Cross of San Miguel. We also saw the Black Madonna! It’s quite an interesting Catholic icon! We got back to Barcelona around 4:30 in the afternoon and booked it to the Magic Fountain to see the show, which happened every Friday and Saturday evening. The fountain reminded me of something that you would find at Disney World; the waters flashed so many colors! Afterwards, we went to a tapas bar for dinner! Tapas are one of the specialties of the Spanish; basically, tapas are an assortment of appetizers that are eaten as small entrees. I got a seafood paella, which consisted of Spanish rice, veggies, shrimp, fish, prawns, and lobster! The next day was our last day in Barcelona; it also happened to be my 20^th birthday!! For the Aggies, I guess I’m not so redass anymore hmm? We went out to get more tapas for lunch; I got fried calamari as well as squid (I thought they were the same thing too...but I guess no in Barcelona?)! Afterwards, we went to the beach, played some volleyball, dipped our feet into the water, and chilled out! The weather was spectacular. The water was really clear; I could actually see my own feet unlike the water at Galveston Beach in Texas! A couple of hours later, we made our way to the airport. The girls caught a taxi to the airport, and the other guys and I took the subway. At the time, this incident wasn’t funny, but looking back, I’m laughing. We were all waiting for the subway to get there; all of us were minding our own business. I was looking at the map to double check our route to the airport, Michael was listening to music, and Kyle was talking with Raju. The subway arrived, but it was a packed. A bunch of people came off, so as we were walking on, the door started to shut. A few minutes into the ride, I get a text message from Michael saying…”Hey, what stop do I get on??” I know right! What the heck happened?? It turns out that Raju was in the way when the door shut, and I guess Michael just let it shut and miss the train haha! Anyway though, we told him, which stop to meet us at, and it all worked out! On one of the subways, a group of musicians started playing Ai Se Eu Te Pego on the bagpipes. The whole subway started jamming (I know I was)!! We made it back to Bonn in one piece! The weather in Barcelona was perfect, and the weather in Bonn was just as you’d expect…cold and rainy! After we got back to our apartment in Bonn, we met up with our friend, Amran, who had spent his spring break with his family in Morocco! We went to Vapiano’s and exchanged stories about our spring breaks! To end the night/spring break, we went clubbing at N8, and we did it the only way you can do it in Europe. We were there until 4AM HAHA! Sprang Break 2K17 was one for the books!