M: I have had enough of being sick. It’s only gotten worse and none of the medicine I’ve gotten has done a thing! After speaking to my travel insurance company I set off for the hospital early this morning. The hostel and the Internet both said my best bet is going to the emergency room. It was an early morning and Savanna isn’t nearly as sick, so I let her sleep in instead of making her come sit with me and a bunch of sick people.

I don’t remember the last time I was in an emergency room for myself, if I have been at all so I didn’t really know what to do. Thankfully, I was able to sort my way through with the triage nurse, both of us using google translate. She picked up on the words asthma, ventolin and beclovent and directed me up to the third floor. Now wearing a hospital wristband, I was greeted by a lovely nurse and again pulled out the google translate (this is an extremely handy app). After all the language barriers with nurses, I typed out everything I wanted to tell the doctor into google translate so I would be ready when the doctor came but thankfully he spoke English. After an exam he decided it was not an issue with my lungs – thankfully – but instead with my tonsils. He was very nice and prescribed some antibiotics, cough medicine and a few pain killers. Success! I was back at the hostel within about three hours, which was a nice surprise as I was a prepared for the hospital to be a day-long undertaking.

Not knowing how long my hospital trip would take, we all agreed that Sav, Adam and Po would take off and I would catch up with them when I was done. I ended up going to La Rambla, a long pedestrian area full of shops and stalls. It was nice to walk down the tree-lined street in the crisp air and look at all the people going about their days. Since it’s almost December I figured I could find a Christmas market nearby. I wandered around the streets of the Gothic Quarter until I found a Christmas market set up in front of a cathedral. I’m really going to miss days of aimless wandering and discovering new nooks in beautiful cities.

I headed back to the hostel to meet up with everyone and had a little nap in the sun while I waited.

S: Po had a particular art exhibit she wanted to check out that did not interest me, and with me having already dragged Meags to the zoo in Vienna I figured I’d spare her the hours of me ooh’ing and ahh’ing at the same animals in Barcelona. Adam was keen to check out the zoo though, so we grabbed a coffee and headed over in that direction, with plans to reunite with everyone at the hostel in the afternoon. We had a great time exploring every single exhibit. It’s always fun for me when someone is equally as excited about animals and as Meaghan would say, there was a lot of hand-flapping excitement and quick scurrying from one part to the next. This time not just from me! We coo’ed at little baby gorillas, got so close we could almost touch a rhino, and laughed over what animals we thought we resembled. Adam got a couple of great photos of me trying to climb a giraffe statue (hard for someone my size) and patiently allowed me to recite as many animal facts as I could the entire time. The nicest part is there was barely anyone else there, so we didn’t have to wade through crowds or wait in line to see anything. It was like having a whole zoo almost to ourselves!

I thought my navigational skills were getting better on this trip. Turns out, no. No, they are not. When we finally made it back to the hostel a little bit late, Po had already left for Mt. Tibodabo and Meaghan was waking up from her nap. The three of us set off to join Po, except Meaghan and Adam somehow had me leading the way…

M: Ok now, Sav took charge and asked for the directions. Adam and I had faith! We thought she was getting better! Alas, she is not. With Savanna leading the way, we ended up on literally the opposite side of the city from Po and Mount Tibodabo. We figured this out halfway up the hill on the bus when I realized that no, this bus route was not going to do a u-turn and bee-line for the other end of town. We had a good laugh at Savanna’s expense for getting us there, then texted Po to say “sorry don’t bother looking for us!” I was a little suspicious when the directions were to a castle on a hill rather than a church on a hill, and that it would take us less than an hour when Po thought it would take a couple of hours. Hmm…maybe I should have investigated earlier.

Nevertheless, we ended up on a hill at the top of a fort called Castell de Montjuïc. It was right by the sea so we could see the entire port and coastline, as well as the whole city on the other side of the hill. We watched the sunset from up there, and like the zoo there were very few people so it was quite special. The sky turned a beautiful mauve colour and seagulls flew overhead.

With the sun gone to bed, we went down to the beach to grab some dinner and meet Po. After Sav ran around in the cold surf for a few minutes we settled in for food. It’s been a few days since we’ve had gelato (gasp!) so we had to deal with that situation too (S: she means emergency). While we ate our gelato, we prepared ourselves for being interviewed by Po. She is making a video compilation of interviews with travelers she has met along the way and we were lucky enough to be included!

S: Meaghan and I did our interview together, as Adam watched from the corner. Po asked us about things like the pros of travelling together, what we wished we’d brought/not brought and our favourite places – among a host of other questions. Having watched us first, Adam plucked up the courage to sit in front of Po himself and answer similar questions. It was interesting to see Po in action behind a camera. As nervous as we all were it was a really cool experience and we are looking forward to seeing the finished product! Overall it was a wonderful day for everyone.

S&M