school boy error

sorry for not writing a blog in a while, there just hasn't really been anything note-worthy to write about. I'm in Barcelona at the moment, in a very tiny room sharing a bathroom with teh rest of the hostel, which comprises mostly of businessmen up to God know's what and a few younger German backpackers that don't speak English or Spanish. The owner is a lovely, lovely woman that speaks pretty good English. It's dark all the time, so it's kind of messign with my sleep habits a bit, but all in all it's pretty okay. Accomodation in Barcelona is outrageously expensive, as all the backpackers are booked out for whatever reason. I spent most of yesterday plodding around in the pissing rain looking for cheaper accomodation, but couldn't find anything. I guess I'm paying for that rain adventure now because I don't think I've ever felt so sick in my life. As mentioned before, the food here just doesn't sit well with my stomach. But now I have this weird earache, throatache thing to deal with too. Epic. I went out earlier this morning and bought some multi-vitamins though, so hopefully that will knock whatever this is on the head.

After my last blog, I met up with some backpackers when I was at the market. Tet and Valkolvov. I couldn't pronounce his name, so I just called him V. He seemed to think that was hilarious. Anyway, Tet was a Cambridge Scholar, originally from Japan, and he was enjoying some time off to visit soem friends in Madrid. We had a pretty cool day together, and then went out that night to grab some awesome tapas. 5 euro for a beer ( or whatever drink you want really ) and you get a free plate of tapas. The place was booming, but it was pretty awesome. Then we met up later with some Dutch backpackers from Amsterdam. Not going to lie, they were so good-looking, I was rendered speechless. But none of them were even remotely interested in anyone but Spanish girls. Lame. But all in all, it was a pretty awesome day.

I left Madrid, however, in a bit of a hurry, because things got pretty messy my last day and night there and I decided not to push my luck. So I hopped on a train to Barcelona and found the hostel I'm currently staying at. After I settled in, I decided to go out and grab some dinner and watch the football. Only my all time favourite team vs another of the top teams, athletico madrid. So I found a nice little local bar/restaurant and found it filled quite nicely with locals doing the same thing. It was great, I had some cheap calamari and watched FC Barcelona triumph. Pique even scored! I literally jumped up and cheered. Luckily I wasn't the only one. It was an amazing game, despite Messi getting totally annihilated. He's out for 2 games, at least.

Yesterday I went to Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona. I was literally trembling with excitement. There were posters of Pique, Puyol, Bojan etc. everywhere. It was incredible. I just about died. But then I started to notice something. The prices. 70 euro just to see the museum. 70 euros?! That's like...$130. I couldn't justify that. So I had to give the museum a miss, and I headed over to the store to buy the one thing I wanted from Spain - a Pique football jersey. So I wandered around, not really looking at prices until I finally found it - the jersey, with that magical number 3 on the back. I put it on and it fit pretty well. I was sold. I anxiously reached for the price tag....

And my jaw dropped.

195 euro.

Roughly?

$380.

I was devastated. I couldn't spend that much on a jersey. So instead, I wandered around again - feelig very disheartened and disillusioned by the whole thing. I picked up some cheap socks, and marveled at teh random shit they were selling. FC barcelona batteries? FC Barcelona beach kits? Even some FC Barcelona g-strings. I settled on a poster of Pique, some socks and then I suddenly had an idea. The football shorts were only 30 euro or so, and it only cost 15 euro to have a number put on them. So I was sold. I bought a pair for myself, with a little 3 for Pique. It's no jersey, but they're super comfortable and it didn't cost me $380.

I've been not feeling too good for a while now, but I'm hoping it's on it's way out, whatever it is. You guys might remember Eban from my blog when I was last in Barcelona. Lol. His name is not eban, that's just how you pronounce it. It's actually Ivan. We had a good laugh about that. He's been great, coming over to the hostel after work and bringing me food and stuff because he knows I'm sick and don't have friends in Barcelona. So we just chill out in the hostel, talk to eachother using Google Translate and eat Chinese, or kebabs etc. it's a lot of fun actually. He's a chef by trade, and works 7 days a week during the day. I'm starting to understand the Spanish work day. They start much earlier than us, at 6am, and work until 3-4, then go home and sleep until about 8 then go out and grab dinner, then go home again and sleep until about 1, then get up and go out and party until about 4, have a nap then go to work. Insane, aye?

Anyway, so he's a chef by trade, but his passion is in music. Also, he has 7 brothers. How insane is that? 7. Wow. We're going to attempt to hang out tonight outside of the hsotel and see how our communication skills go. I predict epic fail, but hilarious all the same.

Ahahaha.

Also.

So I may have got Grenada mixed up geographically with Gibralter? So that whole 'going south' thing isn't going to happen. Money-wise, it's jsut not practical unfortunately. It was 150 euros on a train from Madrid to barcelona, which is expensive enough already. And to get down south it's like, 10 trains etc. and then I have to get all the way back to Madrid for my flight out by the 1st. So Barcelona's going to be my home for the next few days.

Um. If someone wants to send me some Vegemite? That would be so awesome. I've been craving it like crazy over here to maybe settle my stomach. If you send me a message, I'll send you the address to send it to. Thanks!

Now I'm going to try and have a nap to get this fever down.