I came back for the moose.

November 22nd 2007

Pretty much black. Only the moon, the biggest I've ever seen it, coming down on me. I tell Carl to stop. I take a picture. It doesn't look as big on the screen of my camera. Nonetheless it is a beautiful moon and it's big.

Stockholm is a wonderful city. Dark by 3:30 but that's ok. Everything else makes up for it. It rained every day, but one night was ominously clear with an even clearer day to follow. Let's just say it was a long weekend away from Germany and a long time coming.

My flight was delayed and I was stopped by customs too boot. The guy there waved me in to the little quarantine area.

"Woar koomst du?"
"Uh....Germany?"
"(something crazy in Swedish)"
I followed him in to the little room with a dog tied to the sink, as I watched him go through my bag.
"What brings you here?"
"I'm meeting a friend, holiday."
"His name?"
"Calle Uglia, (I pronounced it Uglyia when its Uggla)"
"Ugglia.....ugliaa..." he said to himself

I thought, oh man what the hell is going on. I didn't have any drugs or anything, but I started to think maybe I had something that was bad. Or at least he was going to make it so. No matter what I said, I was guilty. He was going to take me in. It didn't matter. I had some drugs or he was going to plant my drugs or something. The dog in the corner got a little erection and sat there panting with his mouth open. That dog is for sure going to take me down if I run.

He continued to take every single article that I packed out of my bag. My camera. My boxers. My moleskin. He begin flipping through the pages. Sketches of penis', random frequent flyer numbers, a list telling me to shred my bills, call my aunt janet to thank her for a graduation card, and to buy a digital SLR camera, which I didn't buy, but was crossed off from the list anyway.

Taking everything from the bag he checked the walls of the bag to make sure there was no cocaine stuffed in between. (ohp, no cocaine in there he was thinking.) Everything was checked. Even zippers I had never opened before. A relentless check.

"So 'Carl' is waiting for you outside?"
"He's here?" I thought to myself, maybe Carl had called in! I was late and maybe Carl was here and they got suspicious because Carl asked about me and maybe there was an important drug deal or something and once he asked about me then they knew that they had to check me.
"He's here?" split second goes by, "uh, he's HERE, I have to meet him by train."
He looks at me again like I'm the shadiest person that had come through Stockholm.
"Do you have his number or something with his name on it?:"
"I have his number if you want it." I say, starting to get bored.

I don't give him anything and he continues to search every single zipper and article of clothing. Soon there is nothing left to do and he starts to put everything back into my bag.

"Is there someone you are looking for? Is this just standard procedure," finally comes out of my mouth after restraining any sort of obstinate American style indignance.
"Oh no, it's a new bag."

It was new bag. But still, can't people have new bags? I guess my stature and hair style combined with a new bag warranted a search. He let me go, no doubt feeling defeated, and opened a James Bond door at the end of the room. It slid open and I went for the exit.

My flight was delayed, I was stopped by customs, I had no more minutes on my phone and I was sure Carl was wondering where I was. I went down the escalators through the James Bond Moon Raker cave tunnels which is the Swedish Train stations and found my way onto a train. (There is a lot of things that are James Bond in Sweden.) As the train is pulling up, I get out to see Carl who is almost getting on my train to head back to the airport to find me. I throw him my big bag of heroin and we vanish into the central station.


Well it is 3:30 in the afternoon and it's pitch black outside. Sweet. I drop my bags off at Carl's house and since it is mid afternoon we decide it's time for dinner and a little drink.


We stop by a garlic restaurant. Outside it says, "Garlic and shots." You can get garlic beer, garlic everything. The inside is decorated like an American Rock-a-billy bar. The waiter comes over in tight greaser jeans and t-shirt that has an American flag on the back that says, "USA tour 2005," in faded print. He's a little over weight, but has the skinny legs and no butt that fit into the tight pants. His hair is greased back and he has black rimmed glasses. You know.

We're the only ones there, but the place starts to fill up quickly. I order the classic swedish meatballs with some sort of sauce that's like cranberry sauce, but it's different berries. Carl gets the same. It was the day of Thanksgiving and I can't think of a better meal while I was in Europe.

Outside the window are cars covered in dirt with black rims. We talk about how nobody washes their cars here. Nobody cars about what rims they have. The whole place gave me a nice comfortable feeling I hadn't yet felt in Germany or europe. The rock-a-billy crowd. The guys with tattoos and plugs. The tight jeans. I mean for once, for once! it was nice to see some style.

Carl gets a call from one of his friends not to far away. It sounds like they're having a little get together. We head over there for a couple drinks.


One nice thing about Stockholm is the 70s interior design that has been left in so many apartments. We get to his friend Axel's place and there is a spiral stair case running up the middle with full size wall prints of Autumn scenes. I'm talking like the whole wall.


We get in just as everyone is finishing up a nice pasta dinner. Shortly there after came a whole bunch of Tequila. Axel
is a musician and he just got back from Mexico. I told him I miss burritos and that I am from LA. He gave me 140 pesos.


We messed around on some drum machines, drank too much tequila and box wine and sat in 70s ikea chairs. Carl's other friend Victor worked in motion graphics and we got to talking about the world I was now involved in. It was nice to meet other creative types who had spent time abroad and are well cultured. I was beginning to forget about the rest of the world. A box of wine has four bottles in it and is much more practical to through around and drink from. I was skeptical at first but became convinced as the night rolled on.


Carl looks on approvingly of the box wine.


We ended up walking to 7-11, yup, 7-11. I had to take a picture. 7-11, Mustaches, tequila, pesos, tight jeans? It was the closest I had been to LA in a long time.

Since Victor didn't live to far away we decided to go to his place and drink more tequila. I guess tequila is the thing over there. It was good, I just can't remember giving so much love to the agave plant outside that of margaritas since one night long ago when my car blew up.


At Victor's place we just looked up some old cars and wished that we had them. Everything from '71 Mustang Mach 1 to the Lincoln MK III to the Trans Am to the actually nice cars like the Chevelle's and pretty much every single old car from the late 60s to the 70s that you could think of. One more sign that I was pretty much in LA.


The next morning came quickly. We woke up around noon or so and because it got dark so early there we didn't have much daylight, but it was raining, and we didn't care anyway. Carl took me to an awesome cafe close to his house. The whole place was done up in second hand furniture that was for sale as well. I really don't know why this place doesn't exist in LA. It was perfect. Everything there. I wouldn't change a thing.


Downstairs was another haven from the light. Dressed up in more 60s IKEA garb than one knew what to do with. Carl remembers playing down here when he was in a band back in high school. He told me he used to play with all the kids I met the other night. Not bad I thought.


Having drank a box of wine and a couple tequila bottles, we decided to go back to the apartment after a little shopping spree. I couldn't last much longer. I needed to lie down. I did although pick up my own pair of authentic Cheap Mondays which are from Sweden for 400 Kronors! Oh yeah. That is about $60. So I had my new jeans and I was ready to go out in what I liked to think of as the closest thing to home so far, only cold and dark and an island.

Our first stop that night was actually some hipster pinball competition. It was in the bottom of some tiny pub and they even had the little window that the man behind the door slides open to see who you are. They let us in and I watched the competition.


It was fierce. People were getting angry. A girl was doing really good. And when a girl does good at anything that has already been predetermined as a boys activity, tempers flare. Guys were shaking the machines, tilt everywhere. I wondered how someone arrives at this conclusion. In the basement of a pub with 30 other people competing in pinball. I asked Carl and some other people and they seemed to think, what? Don't you have pinball competitions?

"Um, yeah for sure," I said. Maybe that's coming next, who knows? I better get my skills up.


We finished the beer. I counted the mustaches and we headed off to another bar before we went to, what had been being called since the last night, as the, "Architecture Party." There was a school there in Stockholm that basically did architecture. And there was a party in one wing of the school. Hence the name, 'Architecture Party,'


We showed up and there was a huge line outside. I didn't understand this. It was like they needed a line to look cool. Usually there is a line outside clubs that are around other clubs and it gives everyone this since of exclusivity. I thought, man it's cold, we're next to a church and we're in some sort of residential neighborhood for the most part.


As we got closer to the front and finally managed to get our way in, I realized that the line had formed essentially due to the fact that there were two people checking everyone's coats. Inside they sold drink tickets which would get you four tall boys of Scandinavian brew. I thought this was quite fine.


In Sweden you get your own bathroom.


The party was fun. It was interesting being in the school. You would walk to the bathroom and see the stairs which led up to the classrooms. You could imagine some of these kids just thinking that they had to go to school here. ArtCenter style. I thought it was cool though. For once I tried not to think about what it must be like spending endless nights finishing projects and being told you weren't good enough only to come to the same place that creates those anxieties to get drunk with your friends.


My favorite kind of picture, the American Apparel shot.


And of course, the Billy Joel.


"It's 9:43:," Carl said, "We have to get up in 7 minutes."

Carl had checked the times of the bus leaving from outside his house the night before. We had to catch the bus at 9:55 to get to the train on time to meet his brother who was going to take us up to his parent's place.

"It's 9:50, we have to go,"

I roll over on the couch not wanting to move. I had only just passed out 4 hours ago. I opened my eyes and Carl is standing outside the door with his hat and scarf on. Fuck, I think. I push my morning wood down and jump into my new skinny swedish jeans. Carl is literally out the door.

It's not like when you wake up late for work and think, 'Man, i guess it's no shower time, well I'll just put on my clothes, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and head out the door. It'll just take a minute. No need to rush. I'm already taking a huge chunk out of my 'getting ready time' today and I'm already late, so I'm going to at least brush my teeth and think about what clothes to wear. That should be fine. That's like 2 minutes versus 30. I'm totally ok.'

Yeah it wasn't like that at all, It was more like put your toothbrush in this bag and put your shoes on while we run down the stairs, bust out the door, with your high waist low crotch skinny jeans saggin and belt buckle flopping, creating it difficult for any running or leg movement of the running sort in general, chucks kinda on your feet, not really, putting your coat on, feet flopping down the street as you see the bus you want take off from the stop and head down the street. See that there is a stop up ahead and of course the bus has come to a red light. So then start running down the street to the next stop about a quarter mile away after only being awake for 45 seconds to start considering that this is now the worst hangover of your trip compared to the morning before, but due to the moment at hand, it has now edged its way ahead of the competition to take first place. It was more like that.

The bus is getting caught at every red light as we run down the street. 'We're going to make it!' I think.

My jacket is falling off, my pants are around my knees, i have my toothbrush in my hand and my shoes are similar to flip flops. I've been awake for almost 2 minutes now not really grasping the goal of what's going on, I'm just going with it. We manage to get on the bus.

"In Stockholm, you ride free if you have a stroller," Carl points out to me as a lady steps on behind us with her baby carriage.

I start to speculate how I could move to Sweden and ride the bus for free pushing stroller around all day.




The morning is beautiful and clear. We meet up with Carl's brother and we drive up to Yxlan where his parents have a house and a couple cottages. Everything is frozen and the sky is wide and the sun is laying on the horizon. We pull onto a Ferry which takes us across to the long island.

I can't get over how desolate and beautiful it was up there. It was quiet and the inlets of the sea create what you think are little lakes, but you remember your on an island. The houses are all classic Swedish red with white trim. The water is like glass and well you get the picture. I have all the picture uploaded here



Upon arriving at the house, Dad wastes no time putting us on assignment. He explains to Carl what he wants us to do.

"Well, I thought I would have some designers take a look at the place and give me some ideas and where to build," his Dad tells us.

Hmm, designers I thought. I had almost forgotten where I went to school. I had almost forgotten about design in general. It was nice to hear that or be regarded in that way again.

"I was thinking after that you guys can go get a christmas tree."

It felt nice to come home to a home away from home and have little chores to do. I didn't mind. It was brisk and Carl and I walked around the property leisurely checking things out.



Everyone's pretty relaxed up there. The quality of life has more to do with how much time you spend with your family and whether or not your happy in your life instead of how much time you can dedicate to your job. The country cares about the people and some of the TV stations are still government owned without commercials. From being politically neutral to having some of the best style I've seen in Europe, I was starting to imagine my own permanent vacation home shared with the intimate (only 9 million) people of Sweden.


Although it was nice to see it in the winter time, Carl told me about the different celebrations they had in the spring and summer. You could sleep in your little cottage, walk outside naked, go in the sea and wash up, lay out in the sun and i guess get drunk. I'm not sure what else you do besides sail from one island to the other docking and meeting people and sharing stories.


Small cozy 1 Bedroom on the Water! Must see to appreciate!


For rent. A cozy 1 bedroom cottage right on the water. Water, trash, parking included! A slight fixer upper for the creative type! Bathroom can be remodeled if not adequate for needs.


We thought of ways to remodel the cottage, but mainly just had fun checking out the "toilet," and the "shower." The place had a charm of it's own. No doubt it will receive a little Uggla design charm for the summer.


There are so many great pictures. Later that night, at 4 pm, the moon was a big as a baseball. A baseball's not that big and well, you get the idea. We came home from our Christmas tree adventure and ate some real Swedish cooking. Mainly bacon and sausages and meatballs. It was a good meal. Just what I needed. I hadn't had a real home cooked meal since I had been out here. We drank a beverage similar to a ginger style sassafras soda that they drink during the christmas time. We sat around the table and joked. It was dark outside and I was ready to go to bed after a day of hard work. It was only 4:30 so we said goodbye and returned to the city.

That night we watched deal or no deal in swedish which wasn't as exciting as the US version. People didn't get crazy and the set wasn't very friendly. The girls weren't as cute which surprised me because every single girl in Sweden is a super model and the hottest girls do live here. I just assumed that the real Swedish models probably had better jobs than Deal or No Deal. We flipped between that and some Christmas Nicolas Cage movie about trading places or something.

We started up on the box wine again and got side tracked because the government owned channels like to break up the movies with a half hour report about what's going on, aka, "the news." Before the movie came back on we took off to a bar to meet up with some more friends. I'm thinking Nick Cage learned a valuable lesson that Christmas about family and his Ferrari. I think the movie was called, Nick Cage and his Ferrari at Christmas time. I'll have to rent it when I get home.

London

London is alright. I arrived early Saturday morning to Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving I remembered that Heathrow probably has the least amount of security out of any airport. And by that I mean the most security. We waited in line for about 20 minutes as people checked our passports. Everyone had to fill out these little sheets stating their purpose and where they would be staying while in London. I filled in every blank expect for occupation which was about the the same size as the space for 'middle initial.' I thought, whose occupation is only one letter?

I gave the lady the slip and she asked me the usually questions. Then she said, "What do you do? You've left occupation blank." This is where I say, "Um, well it's complicated, it's like computers, but I work with the automotive compa......" and just as I was uselessly explaining myself she writes, 'IT.' Yup, IT. It's over, I am now an IT consultant. How did this happen? All of the sudden my job has broken down to being IT? Well I guess if I end up missing or become suspected of plotting some sort of terror threat, the men in charge of the case will say, "Well of course, look, this guy knows computers, let's get em boys." Of course I know nothing about computers, except how to run the programs at work.


So off into London. Our hotel was located in a nice area just north of Covent Park and Soho off Googe Street. The room wasn't ready until after 2 so I had about 3 or so hours to kill until I met up with Jake. Jake had been traveling the week past from Rome, to Barcelona and now London. His trip is pretty monstrous to say the least. I was hoping we could cool off with a couple pints in the old country eh.


Although it is true they speak English in London, the customs are still European. I went into a coffee shop in an area off Oxford Street and found myself asking for a tall coffee with my hands and pointing to cakes while speaking very basic English. It was strange because I could understand everything everyone was saying, but I have been so used to not understanding everyone's conversations that I forgot all people talk about is pretty much crap. I began to be thankful that I didn't understand everyone in all the other countries I'd been to. Sometimes I don't want to hear about what your girlfriend did at your other girlfriend's house and how you can't believe it.

So now I'm responsible for every homeless guy and lost tourist. No more looking dumbfounded when some one asked me for change.

'At's right mate, you know wat I said, don't look me like that, and ova a quid,' the bum thought.

'Damn understanding English,' I thought to myself.



So I meet up with Jake at the hotel and we walk down to the Thames. Apparently it was Veteran's Day in England and there was a fireworks ceremony over the river. We took it in. After that, we were close to the London Eye and I like to go up high in big cities and look at all there is to see. It was a slow nice ride and I took 64 pictures of Big Ben.







We walked some more across the river and into China Town and Soho. Somehow we miraculously found a restaurant off a side street that had a hip flare and healthy menu. I didn't expect to find anything in a huge city I knew nothing about and I was pleasantly surprised by this place. I had a vegetarian burrito with plenty of beans and Jake had some super duper healthy burger. The table next to us reminded me that all the other people that got drunk in other countries probably sounded like idiots too. We paid a million us dollars for our food and left.


The next morning we got up and took the bus all over the place. London was quite easy to get around and the bus went everywhere. We never waited longer than 5 minutes and the bus routes were posted clearly everywhere. It was well good. After riding around we ended up at the Tate Modern Art Museum. There are some famous pieces here and I remembered that I went to Art School.



After that I found some stairs that went into the water next to a life preserver with no intention of ever being untied from a post in an area where there were no attempt to stop anyone from falling in. We moved on from here to the Design Museum. This was falsely named as it should have been called the Zaha Hadid Museum. I liked seeing all her work, but it was only two rooms and only her work. I then remembered I went to Design School.



Later that night we got some pints and headed in early. The next morning was short but I saw what was close to the fifth or sixth MK V R32. London pretty much has the mk V r32 thing locked in. Everywhere you turn there is another super expensive GTI and alot of them 4 door.



Overall I liked London compared to the other big cities I've been to in Europe. It wasn't crazy hectic and it was easy to get around. Besides the fact that everything is way too expensive, it's a nice place. People are friendly and they have an Apple store. There's quite a bit of diversity and the NHS will take care of you if you get hurt! Cigarettes are $14, there's a lot of Indian food, they like cars and I like the rain. So this is what i learned in 2.5 days in one of the biggest cities in the world. Cheers!

When in Rome...

My lovely girlfriend Jin decided to visit me for a couple weeks. It had been 2 and half months since I'd seen her. More than enough time had gone by. We planned to go to Paris for 3 days and then spend the rest in Spain and Barcelona. So here we are getting ready to go to Paris.


When we arrived in Paris there was nobody checking passports. We just walked outside and got a taxi. I actually printed my ticket from a kiosk in Germany and never once did I even remove my passport. We took the taxi to our hotel near the red light district. Jin found the hotel. It was a nice classic Parisian joint with all the fixins. It was the Eldorado hotel.



There was a cute little garden outside and a restaurant attached. We had to walk through the kitchen to get to our ground level floor just outside the garden. We decided to have dinner at the restaurant. It turned out to be the best food we had the whole time in Paris. We got in late and decided to tuck in early for the big day ahead.


In the morning we decided to have the "breakfast," which was included. What they meant to say was a baugette with assorted marmalades. I mean just a baugette. Nothing toasted, no eggs, just the bread. I saw people walking around Paris with just a baugette under their arms tearing off a piece here and there. Straight up. Just eating a baugette. The stereotype is true. Tell your friends.



The trains were on strike so we decided to take the walking tour of Paris. Our first stop was the Arc de triomphe. We walked down champs elysees for awhile and had a 6 euro shitty coffee. While we were in the cafe we watched to labor workers on their break smoke about 6 cigarettes or so and just put them out and the bottom of their shoe and drop it on the ground. Apparently that's how Paris rolls.


So just to make sure if you're going to Paris bring a baugette and put your cigarettes out on the floor no matter where you are.


From there we deiced to see what the Eiffel Tower looked like. We walked up the steps of a museum/theatre/university thing to get a better look at it.


We walked through the park and waited for a bus that went towards Notre Dame. Most of the buses weren't running either so we caught which ever one was. Notre Dame was beautiful and probably the most excellent 'site' we saw in Paris. Inside the cathedrale was even more breathtaking. I had seen pictures in art history class with the flying buttresses and what not, but it was truly magnificent in person.


From here we stopped off at the Lourve. We decided we didn't really care much to walk through it though. I did although want to see where Tom Hanks had stolen the secret treasure or whatever happened in there!




So it had been a long day and we went down to the metro to see how bad it was. We waited about 10 minutes for a train to come by. Sure enough the train came rolling in with people smushed up against the windows. The doors opened. No one got off. Some people pushed their way on. I looked at Jin and we both thought, I don't want to do that. The doors closed and I swear there was one guy essentially horizontal to the ground with his ipod in one hand and face pressed firmly against the glass.

We walked some more and got a cab back to the hotel. Later that night we went to the Bastille to check out some French Hipster bars. They were pretty cool, but Paris doesn't apparently drink like Germany. The places were fairly empty and they closed at 2. I know you can find clubs and what not open later and it was a Wednesday, but so far Germany doesn't really care what time or what day of the week it is to drink.


The next day we moved our luggage to a hotel in the Bastille. This hotel was more of the 'let's just get it over with' types. Luckily it was located next to all the cool bars and shops. We took it easy that day just walking around seeing what there was to see.


Around our hotel were many little cafes with happy hour special. I had found a few I wanted to go back to and they ended up being quite fun. I remember the bartender at one bar was really happy it was Friday. I ordered mojitos for me and Jin and watched all the Parisians mingle. Across the street from that place was another place going off.

I don't really remember much of what it looked like, but I do remember going downstairs to find a bathroom and instead finding a basement with a 60s style French Mod band playing. It was like a train tunnel with a bar one end and the stage on the other. I think the place was called "Pink's" or at least there was a flyer there that said so and I wanted it to be called Pink's.


The next morning we headed out of Paris to catch our flight to Barcelona. I don't remember when it became hard for my to fly. You would think things would get easier as you get older. I had never had a problem with flying, but now days I just always wonder. Maybe it's just the cheap Euro hopper flights I've been taking lately.


Barcelona is nice. We rented a 3 room apartment for 3 days in the old fisherman's quarters. The place was nice and cozy. Perfect for a little get away. We were just meters from the ocean and the weather couldn't have been better for late October. Reminded me of LA.




We rented a scooter and took that thing all over the place. From Montjuic to eixample to where ever. That was probably the most fun part of the trip. Having my girl behind me on top of 125-cc's of pleasure. Oh yeah. But for real, scooters are really fun and I think I'm going to buy one when I get back to LA. They're nice for just around town stuff and they get a million miles to the gallon.



We took it relatively easy in Barcelona. With the beach and the palm trees, the ambience just told us to relax. So we did. We didn't quite find the night life until later that week, but that was ok. I was just happy to ride around on a moped and have a place to call our own. It was nice just going home to an apartment and imagining what life in BCN would be like.



It's a young crowd with lots of cool ideas. There was a start up innovative idea everywhere you turned. And things were cheap! On the beach were these train car like containers that opened up onto the boardwalk as a little bar. It looked simpler than anything to make and run. Inside the scooter store were these over sized bean bag pillows you could just hang out on. Every building had some crazy architecture to it and some law of industrial design had been implied. Pretty much if you want a business that has men riding around on unicycles on the beach selling ice cream cones, then you should do it in Barcelona.


We had 3 days in the apartment and then 3 more days of doing whatever we wanted. We hadn't got any hotels and I wanted to rent a car and drive up to the Pyrenees Mountains to see the beautiful foliage of the season. I knew it was the off season, but nonetheless the mountains are forever calling me.


Driving through Spain was quite a trip. From Barcelona we drove up North toward the French border about 500km. Along the way we stopped off in some small Spanish towns just to see what they were like. Nothing could prepare me for what I even think I was supposed to see. I mean a small Spanish town in the middle of no where. Go ahead imagine it.



What really got me were all the ruins. You would see the skeleton of an old town on the side of a mountain. Maybe a river had dried up. Maybe the leader was really stubborn and didn't settle his town by the river at all and everyone was like, well whatever let's just stop traveling. Who knows.

We ended up driving all the way up to a ski town called Formigal. It was getting late and I didn't know what to do, but I just wanted to keep driving for some reason. Jin thought otherwise and I probably should have listened to her, but I just wanted to get to my preordained destination in my head. Guy style. Once we got up to Formigal, of course it was a ski town, but a ski town in late October. There was no body there and it was kinda spooky. I mean what's going on Big Bear in October? Not a whole lot I imagine. So we went back down to Sabinanago and got a pretty decent hotel.

The next morning we were greeted with the sun and the vibrant colors of the trees. Luckily the only station that we could get throughout the whole trek was classical and it fit with the changing scenery.


How were the roads you ask? Amazing, especially in a 1.2L 60hp Polo. Oh yeah. Straight sex that thing.


We found the Ordesa National Park just outside a small city Torla. Jin mentioned an old man walking in every little city we passed through. There would maybe be some cows or sheep and and old man. No one else but the old man. It's like he came with the city.


At the national park we walked along a trail for awhile, but being unsure of our next move we didn't stay long. I wish we would've stayed longer now, but it just wasn't as easy as driving up to Yosemite and getting a cabin or something. Most places were closed and there was absolutely nobody in any city. I know this might sound exciting and just what a secluded adventure should be. But after 3 months of living outside of the US and not being able to speak Spanish or any other language for that matter, and not really having any means of reading anything to figure out where to go or what to do, can make it a little hard to have a preemptive spontaneous vacation.




Visit the Flickr Site
for more pictures of Ordesa, there are too many.

Nevertheless we saw some beautiful country side. Based on my fear of not knowing where to stay and not having the proper equipment to have a mountainy adventure we decided to head back in towards the Mediterranean. The drive back down wasn't so bad, but it was getting dark and we didn't have any reservations so we decided to stop in Taragonna just outside BCN to see what was going on there.


The city had some of the world's most well preserved artifacts of the Roman Empire. It was crazy to see some things that had lasted for over 2000 years. And to imagine inhumane structure of the empire. We didn't stay long and headed up the coast to BCN.

Luckily on our drive up the coast we decided to stop off at a random beach area called Sitges. It turned out to be the location of St. Sebation Beaches. We had some of the best food, I thought, in Spain here and the waiter was funny and knew I was from LA. I was like, huh? But anyway I thought the little town was really pretty and this was one of my favorite places throughout the trip. I don't know what it was, but I remember it just happened. Jin and I were hungry, she looked at the map and said ok here's an average sized dot. I looked up and the exit was there and said ok.


It had been hard for me to let go and just experience things. I had been planning everything. From the hotels to the sites to everything, and I had forgotten how to just let the journey lead you. I finally reached this realization as I started to not care what Sitges had at all and just give it a chance. Of course maybe it was beautiful but it was also because I let go.

We arrived at our super posh hotel that I had reserved for the last two nights in BCN. Not only was it brand new and designery, but it was affordable too! In this regard, I like to plan things like this. It was called the Prestige Congressional and they have different hotels in a couple cities around Spain. The had taken the approach of Blue Ocean Strategy and made everything user friendly. They even had a Segway in the lobby you could take with you or rent.



From here we took it pretty easy. We found a fun little Japanese Udon restaurant playing a funny Japanese movie about cooking noodles. I forget the name but Jin knows it.


The next days I got a little sick from all the traveling and just watched Premier league soccer at the Hotel. We went out for one last stint in the Born area. On our last day we finally found some cool bars and restaurants. The other places we found were cool too, but I guess the 'area' in born is the place to be. We ate at a little diner that was trying to emulate itself around a classic American Diner. I didn't realize this until I read the walls and thought it just looked like it would be a cool restaurant in Silverlake. The food was excellent and it made Jin and I want our own little cafe. So in effect we would model our diner after the one we found in Spain. Which was inspired from something the owner saw in America. So it would be the American diner translated through Spain and then back to America. No one would ever know.