Amelie K: Virus 1 vs Airbnb 0

Unfortunately, the second week started very differently than expected. It was already apparent on Friday of the first week: we had a slight cold in half of our Airbnb. I came home after work and fell straight into bed, I didn't feel well at all. I spent the whole weekend in bed, but instead of getting better, it got worse day by day. So I decided not to go to work on Monday and to get some more rest. When I woke up at midday, I still wasn't feeling any better. Unfortunately, I had already used up all the medication I had taken with me from Austria because I simply hadn't expected to fall ill, let alone lie flat for several days.

So I summoned up the last of my strength and went to the pharmacy. Once there, I went to the pharmacist full of confidence and explained my symptoms to him in English and told him what I needed (nasal spray & Neocitran). He agreed to everything so I basically trusted him with my life and the medication he gave me. Back home, completely exhausted, I just wanted to take my medication and go back to sleep. Until that moment, I hadn't really looked at the packaging. When I finally took a closer look, the whole thing seemed strange to me. So I used the last of my energy to turn the pack over and read through the instructions, of course everything was in Spanish. After my head slowly put 1 and 1 together, I realized that this was not what I needed.

Instead of a cold remedy such as Neocitran, the pharmacist had given me a lice shampoo!I laughed so much that I immediately texted my friend Rui, who was still at work, and asked her to bring me the right medicine. In the afternoon, we went back to the pharmacy together to exchange the lice shampoo. However, we were told there that it wasn't that easy. In the end, I now have a lice shampoo that I don't need, so please let me know if you need it!

On Tuesday, I was still unable to work and everyone was starting to worry. Finally, we were told: "You and Flo (a housemate) need to see a doctor." So we went to a private hospital at lunchtime, at least we thought it would work out with my insurance. Unfortunately, it turned out that my private health insurance was no longer valid. So we had to go to the public hospital. There we were sent from one ward to the next. After more than five hours in hospital, we were finally examined. Full of hope, we thought we would finally get a diagnosis.

Fun fact: the doctor didn't know what we had either. They took our temperature and pulse, listened to us and that was it. In the end, we were both prescribed paracetamol and I was also given an antibiotic. We both spent the rest of the week in bed. It wasn't until Friday that I felt well enough to finally go back to work.

At the weekend we watched the Wimbledon final with friends, it was very exciting. We had hoped that at least one person would escape the infection, but unfortunately it hit the last member of our Airbnb group on Sunday. I certainly hope that the virus disappears soon and that we can all enjoy our time in Barcelona in good health. :)