“My sweet angel, Barcelona, hide me safely, give me shelter
In a dark place, under assumed name, through Catalunya
Lost and rollin’, driftin’ loosely, no occupation, Barcelona
The last angel, Barcelona”
-Barcelona, by The Rentals

Having conquered the entire of Spain and a few bits of France within 3 weeks I arrived home in Barcelona early early Thursday morning (or rather late Wednesday night) both tired and tired of traveling. I won’t bore you, and myself, with the monotonous details of my last half/week in Barcelona because most of it was a lot of hustle, shipping of packages, a little more bustle, and generally running around tying things up.

Friday night I went out with Cindy’s roommates for a night on the town. Helga had a Columbian friend over and he insisted on going to the Xampaneria. We arrived and found the dirt cheap bar packed to the freaking brim. I squeezed my way into the center aftter about 10 minutes until I found myself itching with claustrophobia as I was smashed on all sides between drunken spanish tourists. After escaping the rucus all of us shared a small space by the doorway with two bottles of cava and a few wonderful lomo con queso sandwhiches. We wandered off down Barceloneta towards the beach and paused for a moment to allow the Columbian guy to expound some bit of his comic-ridden wisdom on us when we ran upon a most peculiar sight. A man from Ghana and a Frenchman were sitting down by the port practicing some reggea jams on their portable keyboard and acoustic guitar. After befriending them with promises of free beer we hung out with “the Zion Band” for the rest of the night, goofing off and listening to their music. Only in Barcelona would this happen.

The next day Cindy and I went to the Barcelona Forum, the highly publisized international festival, to see what all the comotion was about. Our reduced price entrance fee of 12 euros came with a free pass to any Barcelona museum and soon we were inside patrolling the specially constructed sea-side Forum area. It was gorgeus. The architecture was fantastic with lookout points over the sea, bridges spanning large man made lakes, and a plethora of exhibition space. There was plenty of activities to fill the day including the Xi’an warriors, mini water park, carnival, circus (complete with contortionist and acrobats), and shows all with an educational and multicultural twist. In fact, after all the confusion amoung the public about what the point of the Forum really is Cindy and I decided that they could have cleared up a lot of confusion just by telling everyone just this; the Forum is an eductional and multicultural theme park… in catalan.

Our Forum day left us little time for anything else. We attempted to get into the Nit En La Pedrera event (champagne and a concert) on the roof of La Pedrera, which would have been amazing with its gorgeous architecture and scenic view of Passeig de Gracia, but when we arrived all the tickets had long since been sold out. Put that on the list of things to do next time I’m in Barcelona (whenever that may be).

My last day in Barcelona, Monday, was a whirlwind of busy errands. I picked up my deposit money from Dani (my roommate) along with my internet hub, went shopping, packed, blah de blah boring. That night Juan invited me over to his house for a last supper and Cindy was invited along at the last minute. Lily finally gave me a kiss hello, something she always refused to do before (be it from shyness or just because she is ounery) which made me feel very special. She and Laura had little presents for me, a wristwatch from Laura and a picture that Lily had made in school. I gave Laura her belated birthday presents of The Princess Bride (La Pricessa Prometida) and a princess Barbie, which she absolutly loved. Juan took me out for Horxata de Chufa before his again wonderful dinner of roasted chicken. The whole event was spectacular and really made me understand why I would miss this place, my Barcelona, so much. The simplicity, friendliness, laid back attitude towards everything. The night was capped off by watching L’Auberge Espagnole for one last time. Juan and Mayte loved it and I think it gave them a bit of insight into what my life had been like for the past year. I was invited to spend the night at their house so Juan could take me to the airport the next morning. I couldn’t sleep. Barcelona’s goodbyes rang though my head.

Cynthia met me outside Juan’s apartment the next morning at 6pm for the drive to the airport. I sucked in some deep breathes before I entered. This was the last time to breathe in Spain for a long while. The check in took a good bit of time to complete but soon I was hugging Juan goodbye. I will miss Juan… “but its not a goodbye.” Cindy and I were left in the terminal before the security gate. I didn’t want to pass that line and spent as much time as possible avoiding it the crossover, evening misplacing my tickets accidentaly? several times. But at the appointed time obligation pulled me across it, right before I said my last goodbyes and left my life in Barcelona behind. I was crying as I turned the corner.

Thus my year in Barcelona ended. It was over. Under the guise of “studying abroad” I lived one of the most spectacular years of my life. For 335 days I was absolutly and without question free, in the most pure sense of the word. I let go of responsibility’s hand and ran apart from it, glancing behind every so often to judge my distance from its imprisoning grip, laughing and exploring the space (where to next? Glasgow? Rome? Istanbul? Istanbul!), yet watching that distance fade ever so slowly until, finally, during my last days in Barcelona it caught back up with me, grabbing at my sleeve, its fingers brushing and craving to hold me back once again. And here I am. We are running side by side and it -responsibility, obligation, “the real world”, whatever its true name- is taunting me.

I have been in America for a little under a week now going through a strong dose of (reverse) culture shock. The bigness, sweetness, and swiftness of The United States has caught me off gaurd and I am trying to catch up. Things haven’t changed too radically at home which I am thankful for but nevertheless some interesting things have happened. The biggest of which being my brother Zech moving away to Hollywood to pursue a fantastic job opportunity. I have been taking it as easy as possible, visiting the old friends who havent moved to Oregon, been deported, or gotten married and left; just trying not to let anything overwhelm me. I find myself comparing everything to Spain. It is my new standard from which everything will be judged. I have to admit though, I am happy to be home and its nice to come back to those who truelly love you, but it still doesn’t seem a permanent move. I haven’t unpacked my bags yet and I don’t really want to. It makes me feel like I could just get back on a plane at any moment and re-live that year. Thank God for last year. And thank you for reading my emails. Keep in touch.

Your friend,
Gabriel

*a work in progress
*internet cafe in Sevilla 17:32 June 30 2004

Thursday and Friday: Cindy´s friends Lauren and Adam arrive in Barcelona to start their honeymoon, regular touristy stuff, very nice young couple, party at Leo´s apartment where we end up staying up the whole night, the walk to their cruise ship takes forever

Saturday: last minute travel plans to leave with Cindy, Leo, his brother and friend in a rented car for Granada, we listen to a super random assortment of music in the car, get a call from Laura who tells me I missed her birthday and I feel like garbage, 4 hour drive to take a detoir to Alicante, finding parking takes forever, too tired to explore the beach but there are loud fireworks going off, shwarma, watch soccer game (holland vs someone holland wins) in the room, millions of people making noise in the streets all night

Sunday: in the morning quick rush to walk the beach (water is warm), there is a castle on the hill we don´t get to see but we find a beautiful cathedral, leave around 1pm and drive 2 or 3 hours, very scenic countryside, nice mountains, random gas station stops, lucky we have airconditioning, arrive in Granada late afternoon, a search for hostals and parking, asking for directions we find out the people to be super kind but have crazy accents (only pronounce half the word), huge arabic influence, shwarma, wonderful soloist and orchetsra show in front of the cathedral and a crowd of bright handfan-waving spanish ladies, watching a futbol match (Czech vs denmark, czech 3-0) in a pub, there are free tapas with drinks!, Leo and Alvaro wrestle in the streets all the time, back to hostel after hanging out with a bartender (Vane, apribers@hotmail.com or @yahoo.es) who wrote down her new favorite spanish summer songs for me

which are:
Aventura - Obsesion
Queco - Tengo
Aldo Ranks - Mueve Mami
Ozone - Dragostea din tei (not spanish, hungarian?)

Monday: la Alhambra (old muslim fortress and “water palace” in hills overlooking Granada) is amazingly beautiful, gorgeous gardens, fantastic artistry in the buildings, the tilework is superb, did I say its amazingly beautiful yet?, internet cafe, walk around later in the day, through arab quarter with everyone, more free tapas with drinks, no air conditioning in hostel that night, Granada is a lively city

Tueday: short breakfast of cafe con leche, drive 3 hours through even more scenic countryside, antics in the car, stop at some random cafe in the middle of nowhere for jamon bocadillo, always passing by ìmpressive castles and churches, detour to Cadiz for the beach, few hours in the long stretch with very fine sand, little kids with crazy andalucian accents, continue driving to Sevilla, arrive to the city during a rolling brownout, no electricity and its 47degress celcius (110?F), drop off the stuff at hostel buen dormir which is the nicest hostel Ive ever seen, out for cold gazpacho and a short walk through this wondeful city that has a “love at first sight” feeling to it, walk through Alcazar gardens late at night because the hostel still doesnt have power (no aircon)

Wednesday: already decided Sevilla is the best city in spain (next to bcn of course), white washed everything with straw and red trim, its freaking hot again, more cold gazpacho (which is the best Ive ever had), third largest cathedral in world where Chris Colon is supposidly buried, mulsim palace converted christian Alcazar which like Alhambra is amazing beautiful, tile work out of this world, breathtaking frescoes and carvings in the walls, i took lots of pictures, its still freaking hot, tour of the bullfighting rink is rad, Cindy charged at me

its too hot to do anything except sit here and type, we might go to a Flamenco show tonight, Holland plays Portugal at 9pm, might stay another day and ditch the other guys take trains the rest of the way, Cordoba?, Madrid?, Salamanca?, no plans, try to be back in BCN by July 6th.

Gabe

*internet cafe in Salamanca 21:23 July 3rd 2004

Wednesday: (continued) we didnñt end up going to a Flamenco show, bar down the street to watch Holland get dominated by Portugal, the bar had no aircon, i sweated through my rounds of tapas, after walk around the city at night

Thursday: Cindy and I wake early to see the picturesque Placa Espana, load up the car and we head off to Cordoba, visit the infamous candy stripped mosque, we leave for Toeldo, I get to drive through the dry olive tree spotted landscape of Castilla de la Mancha, during a pass through some hills I try to pass two slow cars in front of me and the only cops we have seen all trip come out of nowhere, the first ticket I ever recieve in my life is from a Spanish cop I could barely understand, “no respetando la linea de traffico,” though its a shame it is more funny than anything (I´m keepìng the ticket as a souvenier), pass over a bridge where some police point there rifles right at us for no apparent reason, arrive in the town of Orgaz just outside of Toledo around 9pm and decide to spend the night, nice cheap hotel, we watch Greece come out of nowhere to beat the highly favored Czechs in the downstairs bar, chorizo is good

Friday: wake late and discover some castles along the road to Toledo, awesome ruined castle in Alcidra de Toledo(?) that is on the top of a dirt hill the car can barely made it up, probably one of the 10 people a year that visit the abandoned castle where El Cid supposidly lived, sweet view of the countryside, drive to Toledo, third time there with the regular stuff, I drove to Madrid that night, the guys hostal is full and crappy so find a nice one a little further down, walk around Madrid at night, suprised how well I know the city from my last visit, gazpacho and chocolate con churros

Saturday: abandon the guys and hop a 3hr train to Salamanca, lots and lots of stuff to see, (more later)

*internet cafe in Madrid 12:56 July 6th 2004

Saturday: (continued) Salamanca has about 3 different cathedrals, the best is the convent, famous University of Salamanca which one time rivalled Oxford, has a cool facade which is well known for the little stone frog, temperature is nice, out for vegetarian food (guacamole!), the streets at night are crawling with teenagers, make friends with a group of italians who are sitting in a circle on the ground in pl mayor, discuss american geography (miami is not in california)

Sunday: search for the bus station, 3hr bus to Segovia, medieval city on a steep hill overlooking the surrounding countryside that still maintains a lot of character, another cathedral (probably the 100th ive seen this year), amazingly sweet castle with a moat and everything, it was already closed for the day, to the other side of town to see the massive roman aqueduct, still in magnificent condition, to a coffee shop with some nasty white chocolate, walk around town and then to a back alley restuarant where weordered too much chorizo, walk through quiet streets at night

Monday: up early to see the storybook castle, still freaking awesome, humongous, gorgeous on the inside as well with its suits of armour stained glass throne room etc, the backside is literally hanging off the side of a cliff and you can see for miles around the countryside, climb the main tower to see a good view of old town Segovia, walk to the bus station, hour bus to Madrid, a bit of tiresome shopping around placa del sol, out for “la marcha” with Cindy´s old friends from Madrid to a few old famous bars

Tuesday: in line to buy Renfe tickets to BCN which cost 59euro each, most trains full, while Cindy visits el Prado

after shes done I think we are both going to the Thyssen which I missed last time. I leave for BCN tomorrow at 7pm. I´m pretty tired of traveling and wearing the same dirty clothes every day. Soon I go home to California. A little under one week now. Ive started to get a little bit excited but I know this is only temporary. Its going to be hard to leave Spain. Im trying to prepare myself for the “bigness” of america.

Gabe

and the awards go to:
Alicante: Most Random Fireworks, Loudest Streets at Night
Granada: Nicest People, Most Free Tapas, Most Beautiful Palace
Cadiz: Most Sunburning Beaches, Laziest People, and special regonition for the Children You Can´t Understand Award
Sevilla: the So Hot You Want To Die Award, Best Bullfighting Ring, Best Gapacho of All Time, Biggest Cathedral, Prettiest Tilework, Runner Up for Best City in Spain
Cordoba: Mosque Most Likely To Be Confused For A Candy Cane
Orgaz: Funniest City to Add An M To, Best Hotel, Best Bar To Watch a Futbal Match
Toledo: Most Hills To Walk Up Award, Most Random Escalators, Marzipan and Swords Do Mix Award
Salamanca: Best Church, Most Cathedrals, the Teenager Party Town award, Best Place To Meet Italians in Spain
Segovia: Radest Castle, Best View of Surrounding Countryside, Tallest Aqueduct
Madrid: Most Museums, Most Confusing Metro Transfers