Hey! I’m back from my week’s vacation! First ‘far away’ vacation in years and years so I’m all like refrewshed and rejubbifiled! I was hanging out in Spain with the gf! Totally went on a plane and walked around in Spain!

Gotta admit over the past 6 months or so I was feeling like burnt out on stuff. Fried out. It started to worry me a little. Like it took me longer to think thoughts or whatever. I was wondering if my brain was broken. But vacation totally cures that sort of thing! I never knew! Like a reboot! Now I’m rejubblified! I didn’t realize that NO ‘far away’ vacation at all for like five or six years would mess with a brain situation! Now I feel more sparkled up! Like I got new synapses crackle or something!

Anyway, Hi! I really liked Spain. We had a great time. Definitely totally weird being in a totally foreign country. I was like, ‘Wow… Everyone here really does speak Spanish. Like totally fluently! They’re all Spanish here! And I absolutely am not! I can’t even pretend to be! No matter how hard I looked in my personal knowledge base I kept realizing I have zero Spanish. At best some menu items and Bee Guy from Simpsons.

First stop was Barcelona and I got a bunch of pics! It was hard sifting through all the photos. I have a bunch on the camera and a bunch on the iphone so I kinda just grabbed a bunch!

Here they are if you wanna see!

This architect guy 'Gaudi' was like the pride and joy of Barcelona. Pretty impressive stuff although I think it looks a little termite moundy. But coolio anyway. We learned from the tour that he got run over by a tram or something and mushed up dead. 100 years later this church still isn't done. Still building it. Guess he was pretty key.

This is the street we stayed on in Barcelona! There were these pharmacies all over. Health care is a constitutional right over there. Seems pretty coolio.

Coffee was a big deal. Spanish people are friggin nuts with their coffee. Problem is I'm so used to Big Gulp starbucks sized coffee I couldn't deal with the sippy cups. I'd drink like four in a row.

Also when we asked for coffee 'for takeaway' they looked at us as if we were crazy. Like we asked for a plate of spaghetti to walk around and eat. Coffee is for sitting and relaxing not for walking arounding like american style…

This building looked like a big boner. That architect had balls. Thankfully this building did not.

These begger women were sitting outside of a church. Some guy came up at some point and gave them all sandwiches. That was coolio to see.

So the bottom line is umm–… Nobody is every building something that looks like this like ever again. Never ever. Right?

This thing was pretty coolio. The city itself is weird because it looks really old but there's modern stuff all jammed up in it and all over it.

This is a main touristy type street called "La Rambla" (which translates to 'The Rambla'). There were alot of touristy stuff on it — but it was still a coolio
street.

Now and then we got warned about pickpockets. Sometimes I wondered if the warners were actually the pickpocketers themselves in good samaritan disguise.

There was lots of street art everywhere too. Some of it was decent. Some high end. Some junky.

This woman was singing outside a church. The acoustics were really good and she sounded like a bird. I threw a Euro in her basket and she stopped singing and came up to thanked me and gave me her card. Then she went back to singing like a bird. It was awkward for me.

One night we walked out and a parade was coming down the street. March of the Kings parade or something. It was coolio but I got frustrated with my camera. It couldn't figure out what to do… (fireworks setting? nightime landscape? wtf?!)

*sadly over this trip I realized my iphone was more reliable than my fancy
Nikon..

The parade was almost like a broadway show heading down the street with blasting music and mic-ed actors and stuff…

I threw a bread roll at this guy and it bounced off his head. I think I hit him in the eyeball. Everyone booed me and I yelled, 'I'm an American, bitches! I throw my bread rolls!' Then I gave double fisted fingers to the crowd.

After that I tried to ride this giraffe. It totally wasn't built for riding. (Cheap material) There was a loud crack and it collapsed and the head fell off right in front of these kids who started screaming. I yelled, 'Americana! Americana!' to explain…

… and then the parade turned a corner and disappeared (right before the buildings rose up like in Inception and collapsed on themselves.)..

The metro there made the NYC subway look like crap. Really kind of depressing that they're more advanced in Spain. I peed in a corner because I was smell homesick.

Soon we wanted to get out of town so I rented a car from 'Europcar' which is an awkward name. Not 'Eurocar?'… EuropCar. I told them they should change their name. I let them know I was an American and I know what's best in terms of branding and business. The guy didn't understand so to demonstrate I took out a magic marker and crossed off the P on the sign on their door and pointed on it. I said, 'No P! No P in your company, kapeesh?'

We drove up to this small beachy town called Cadaques. BTW — Along the way in the deep farmland, there were actual hookers on the side of the road here and there. With the miniskirts or just in underwear and stuff. Sometimes sitting in lawn chairs. (sorry no pics). There was a strip of farmland that was all tricked out. So out of place in the natural setting.

At the rest stops they sold beer and wine like soda. Thought that was pretty coolio. Can't do that here. In America dudes would be getting wasted at rest stops no doubt and then speeding off to get hookers…

Cadaques was really coolio. All postcardy and stuff — but because it was winter alot of stuff was closed. I thought it was cool that if you weren't paying attention you could drive into the sea. Splashdown style.

Cadaques was close to France so we drove there for lunch and met this bird. He spoke French. I told him I like Perrier and Croissandwiches.

BTW– It's weird– you can drive back and forth into different countries in Europe. No border partol at all. Like the guard post was abandoned. No passport check. Euro unionized!

And then home… Will post more pics later. There's too many to sort through right now. Neck pillows are both over-rated and under-rated…

All in all being in a foreign country was coolio. I liked Barcelona but think I’m more of a small town fan when it comes to vacation. Just chillout style rather than runaround. It’s coolio seeing sights but I’d rather just sit somewhere and drive to different towns. Wine and cheesery etc. Here’s some other things I noticed about Spain:

1. They seem really good at saving energy and water. Energy saving light switches. Two different kinds of flushes on toilets. There was stuff everywhere that was energy save-y.

2. Siesta time is great. The city closes down in the afternoon between 2-5 or something so people can take naps and drink coffay and stuff. Pretty solid idea. The whole place seemed destressized. Didn’t see any road rage or grumpy shoulder bumpers.

3. People aren’t obsessed with their phones and laptops. You walk into a cafe at siesta time and people are actually sitting around and talking. Rare to see someone busy with their phone.

4. There didn’t seem to be a hard-sell to buy stuff. Most of the stores we went into– people would basically leave you alone.

5. Garbage pickup was every night. You put your trash out on the street btw 8-12pm and off it went. Solid idea. Daily garbage. They seem to take recycling seriously too.

6. Most of the dogs in the city were off-leash and much more independent than American dogs. They didn’t seem food or people motivated. They’d just do their own thing and keep up with their owners. I’d call em over and they’d ignore me. Maybe they just don’t talk to tourists. Also they dogs looked a little different than American dogs– although I might have just assumed that because they didn’t speak english.

7. Cadaques is a really nice place if you want to get engaged to a gf– which I am now and done did! 🙂 (will type up more bout that laters!)

And that’s it for now! Great start to the year! And I feel revitilzized! Exciting times! And promise more postings here as well!

Thanks for your patience with me in 2011 with the slackery and all! Good vibes to y’all! And secret announcements finally coming true in 2012. For realzers. Stay tuned…

ok bye!

tOdd

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