Italy - Spain 2001 (1)

Hello guys. I am here in Barcelona and very much alive! Barcelona... have I written since being here? It may just be the best city in the world.. but then I've only seen a few in Europe so that's a naive statement. But, it superceeds Paris at least.. in my book. Why? Well, the city is huge but you can still see the sky. You don't feel like you are trapped in a concrete jungle trying daily to find your way to the world again. The beach is a five minute walk from our hotel and the center of town. The center of town is a gothic area with far too many bars for those lacking will power, wonderful plazas with fountains and narrow cobblestone streets everywhere you want them. The city is alive with trendy people, young people, students, professionals and of course loads of pobres or wanna be poor people who are as capable as me of having a job, so they don't get my pity. We actually got peddled by an English bloke, dressed ok and expecting sympathy cause he was barefooted.. Reminds me of a friend of my cousin, Carol. She was studying in Paris and one day came across a friend of hers from Ireland, begging in one of the main squares. She of course gave him a ration of shit and asked what the hell he was thinking... He said he makes more that way in a day than sitting around on the dole in Ireland.. slacker!

Anyway...I really love this city and I am also pleased to see the presence of soooo many dogs.. so I know Seamus and I could make it.. Quarantine in Spain? Don't know yet. Our hotel was recommended to us by some kid in the train station. They all hit you hard with promotional tourisy information about this and that, places to stay, places to eat, bike tours etc... So, we took that notion and headed to the hotel... after the hostal we wanted was too full to take us.. (I am still travelling with Finland). So, we get there and it's abit of a dive. Not too bad, but you know...cockroaches here and there, dingy taps, small creaky beds, sub-par lighting.. I know I just made that sound like hell. Let me fix the image. The guy that runs the place is like a dad! He is just the sweetest fellow I have run across in a while. He doesn't speak a lick of English, but complimented me on my Spanish.. yay. He does nice things like, washes our dishes (Don't worry, we refused adamantly, but he wouldn't take no...), offers us towels for the beach, suggests places to go sight seeing, tells us to watch for banditos.. how to do so, etc.. Just like a Papa! So, we share a double and stay out of the room most of the time.. And he lets us use his kitchen, dishes, everything.. Different than the American hotel, so maybe some of you can relate from experience, the rest.. you have about 30 years to get out there and do it, so get on it. :)

The beach here is perfect. The building stops at the other side of the street so you're not sitting under someone's balcony or anything. The sand is soft and yellow. They clean the beaches each night so in the morning, it is freshly swept and free of shit, trash, etc. The water was awesome too. Warm and not too full of sea weed. I still have my paranoia of sharks and today I was playing alone in the waves and I felt this massive current whip by my legs like someone waved a fin next to me. I never found out what it was and it could have been me for all I know. Tanja and I have to swim separately cause someone has to stay with the stuff on the beach. When I got back, she laughed and said she thought I drowned cause I was out there for 30 minutes.. I could barely bring myself to get out... Tomorrow, I'll go for an hour. Are you hating me for talking about this when our president is getting too big for his britches or is it refreshing..?

We went out bar hopping last night and I got to speak a lot! of Spanish with these fellahs that spoke no Ingles. I have one of them convinced to travel soon. He is 31 and has never been out of Spain! Now, getting out of the US can be tricky, but with their trains, there is no excuse. He was like, You are soooo right. I will go. I need to go and see France and Italy at least.. Get on it! Tanja met a Danish guy to keep her chatting as she speaks no Spanish. Did I mention, this city is very alive! I went to two museums the other day... The Museum of Modern Catalan Art and the Picasso Museum. Both were great. The Picasso museum has mostly his earlier works?? Not so much cubism and no multi media.. just paintings and some ceramics and a bunch of drawings too. It was really nice and well displayed.

The Modern Art museum has given me a new sculptor too bsess over and learn about.... name?? ughh... I have a post card.. I think it is Miguel Bray.. Quay.. something like that. And then another named Lluminoa.. I don't remember, but the first guy had this one sculpture in there of an old man sitting naked on a bench with a little girl sitting next to him, her head resting on his shoulder. I sat and looked at it for a while and I had myself convinced that it was a street performer, doused in powder, posing in the museum. It was almost to scale and the flesh was wrinkled, sagging, indented, fluid in so many perfect places.. and it was of Marble! Great!

Tomorrow we are going to see the big church.. Sagrada Familia and the Guida architecture... the park, the music theatre, etc. Then more beach and night life! Tonight, we were both feeling a little haggard so we decided not to go all out, even though it is Friday night.. so we just made our way through town and got so lucky as to stumble into a parade... a fiesta with fireworks, torches, drumming, horns, big papier mache dragons, pigs, devils, and other crazy creatures.. The biggest most Spanish celebration.. just like in my history text books...or social studies or literature.. I dunno.

OK.. the war... Well, like I said or did I... I haven't seen much about our current state of affairs on the tele here. They have their own problems. Local news is always about someone who was abductedand or killed or the situation with the ETA, etc. With an occasional mention of the Estados Unidos.. that's us. ;) But, I did get a paper and saw that Bush may be upsetting some people with his funny Texas talk, his cowboy mentality and his all out let's go to war enthusiasm. I also have received ump`teen petitions from all of you about settling him down a little.. take the easy approach. Looks like we may go back to the 60's. That's great. I always knew I was meant to be a hippie.. make love, not war.. all that groovy stuff. My Finnish friend says it will only bring more countries into the situation that otherwise would be out and loads of innocents will die like in the Vietnam war... but we have the right cause unlike that war, we have business, an obligation of sorts.. That's her thought.... I cried in a bar last night cause I have no one to cry with and finally it just got to me, so I sobbed with Finland and Denmark... not too much, just a little, poor Americans and I wish I could do more.. They sympathized. Everyone does. What a shitty situation.

Today on the beach the craziest thing happened! We were just laying there, taking in sun rays when all of a sudden a huge fighter jet, or some fancy plane flew right over the beach, right above our heads. It was so close to us and so loud that we were all plugging our ears... The beach was crammed at this time. Everyone sat up on their towels and stared in disbelief... What the hell was going on!? Then it headed out toward the horizon and turned back around!!! It came back doing sommersaults and spins and then went away ... then came back and right in front of us took a ninety degree turn up and flew straight up then another turn so that it was flying upside down.. then it made a nose dive and came flying toward the sea.. It came back by about three more times and then was gone. I had my things in hand, ready to run... paranoid? Everyone else just sat watching. It was like an air show, but the plane was so sleek.. not some little funny plane.. a full on F180.. ha ha. Like I know my planes.. Whatever. It was nuts!

As far as whether most people around here think we should go to war...I haven't gotten the impression that it is too on their mind. Spanish people seem so laid back. I know they're thinking about it, but Italy and France showed more signs of caring about the situation. I think, they are just reporting what the general feeling is inAmerica, which I can only guess is that we need to take a deep breath and go slow and easy until that's not an option. One of Osama's dudes should just kick him to the curb and then kill himself. Step up to the cause, ya know. Murder suicide for the betterment of man kind.. yeah, likely! Well, just thought I would let you all know I am alive! love and best to everyone.. Ciao. -rai