barcelona and food poisoning. apparently the two go together hand in hand, as 80 people reported getting food poisoning in barcelona this past weekend. make it 81. undercooked omelette + stupid me eating all of it = salmonella. while barcelona definitely has a lot to offer and is really beautiful, i really found myself liking madrid more simply because its more unique. others have said the opposite, that barcelona is so amazing, their favorite place, etc. i think perhaps i missed out on some of the better parts of barcelona, which could help explain this. the gaudi architecture is one of a kind, his houses, temples, and palaces are really unlike anything i've ever seen outside of a star wars movie. check out this site if you want to see more about gaudi. . . las ramblas is about a kilometer long street that stretches down the border of the old part of town down to the harbor. its a crazy place, people selling everything from porn to pet birds to fake soccer jerseys. a lot of the stores are run by indians too, which was very very weird to see. the museu picasso was nice too, it was a self guided tour through picasso's life basically. they had a lot of his early works, drawings when he was still in art school, portraits when he was finishing school. its interesting, when i think of picasso, i think of cubism or at least nothing realistic at all. but all his early stuff was nothing crazy or innovative cause he had to acquire the skills first. i just never thought of picasso as an art student, i guess i assumed he was born with all that talent. thats just my artistic ignorance speaking i suppose. anyway, i saw the olympic grounds too, really not as spectacular as i was hoping. the stadium is really small, maybe 19-20 thousand tops. a lot of the fields are smaller than i expected too. . .althogh everything is different when theres nothing going on. . . crowds make a difference, haha. there was a holiday last weekend in cataluña too, sant joan. literally, over a million fireworks were set off through the weekend, so it sounded like a warzone, kept you on your toes. thats about it, came back to madrid and spent the next two days in a salmonella induced trance highlighted by a 30 hour fever, pounding headaches, hallucinations, and all sorts of rejection by my body's digestive system.. . .im better now though. my señora asked me if i wanted a tortilla (spanish omellette) for lunch tomorrow. . .i think im gonna lay off the eggs for a lil while. . .