Posts been slackin a little bit lately. Sorry about that. Been busy. Had a couple visitors.

Let’s discuss.

I decided to test out the whole couchsurfing thing. I hosted a girl from Hungary, named Timea, for 4 days. It was an interesting experience, as I expected. Timea was really sweet and nice, very respectful of my apartment. She was a little quiet and reserved for my taste. Not the type of girl who will grab your crotch under the table at a 5-star restaurant. I look for that in a woman. She had never been to Spain and had a list of things she wanted to see. A long list. So I figured this would be a decent way for me to check out some of the sights in my new city, since I don’t have, or plan to have, a list of my own. The first day we went to Parc Guell, which I remembered being my favorite place when I visited Barcelona as a 21yr old. Day 2 I slept late, and she went out and about without me, but I met her later in the afternoon to see a cathedral or something (clearly it had a huge impact on me). Days 3 and 4 she was on her own, as I was over the whole sight-seeing thing. We did end up going out most nights, either for dinner or drinks. I think I’ll try the couchsurfing thing again at some point. It really all depends on the personality of the guest and the host(which in this case we know the host’s is top notch).

Couchsurfing also led me to meet other people from across the globe, and consequently initiated the first rooftop gathering at my apartment. A girl named Katarina from Slovenia sent me a message through the couchsurfing website saying that she would be visiting Barcelona and would like to meet if I had some time. So, one night, Katarina, along with her friend Agata, and Agata’s husband Simon and 3 year old son Patrick, met me at the Irish pub in the Plaza where my apartment is. Then Timea joined us. Then Luis-Carlos (Peruvian), who Katarina had met last year while here in Barca, met us with his roommate Eddie from Miami, and their couchsurfer Carlina, from Latvia. A little while after that, my friend Ada(more on her later), who is Polish, but from NY, came to hang out. At midnight the bar closes the outside area, so I decided to invite the group up to my rooftop. In case you lost track, the crew consisted of people from Slovenia/Hungary/Poland/Peru/Latvia/Miami. Now, I have comments written in Slovenian on my facebook pics. That shit is real.

A few months ago my mom walked into her local Citibank and saw a hot girl behind the counter, so obviously, thinking of her handsome son as she always does, engaged the girl in conversation. Ends up she has a friend who is living in Barcelona for the rest of the summer. She gives my mom her friend’s name and email address. Ada is her name. She’s 20 years old. I make contact with her and she gives me a bunch of places to check in Barcelona, from restaurants to bars to clubs. We email back and forth a handful of times before I arrive, but between me having NYC peeps around for my first week, not having an apartment, her having friends in town, we don’t meet up until my 3rd week, which is also her last week. Ada has always lived in NY…Valley Stream to be specific. She did her spring semester in Barcelona, was supposed to leave in May, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. So she got a job and decided to stay through the summer. We ended up chilling a few times before she left. She’s awesome. Always had a great time together. Definitely plan to keep in touch. In January Ada’s coming back to Barcelona to do an internship while her school is between semesters, and she’s hoping to figure out a way to take spring semester here again. She’s been home now for less than a week and is already ready to come back. Hopefully she can.

My girl Shira came to visit for the past 6 days. Whoever bet on her in the ‘who will be the first person to visit me’ office pool must’ve cleaned up. She had to be a 40 to 1 long shot. But she stepped up and got to experience Barcelona with me before any of you. So there. It was great to have her here. We did a lot of cool shit, had good dinners every night, and didn’t go out once. It was a good transition for me as I hopefully head into a ‘normal’ routine. We rented a GoCar one day and pretty much banged out every sight the city has to offer(more detail later). We went to the Barcelona Zoo and saw 2 monkeys having sex, which may have been the highlight of my stay here thusfar.
We went to the beach in the city one day and took a train 20min outside the city another day to a beach town called Montgat Nord. Yesterday, with Shira’s help, I cooked for the first time…(almost) ever. Fill in your ‘how do you not know how to cook if you owned a restaurant for 5 years’ comments and jokes here. My kitchen even looks like an adult lives here, with salt and olive oil and all that type of shit. I made eggs for breakfast and finally laced up my bbq on the rooftop, grilling some burgers and veggies.
Pretty solid work if I do say so myself. My first ‘real’ visitor was an overwhelming success. Thanks, Shira.

You all need to try out a GoCar sometime.
They exist in SanFran, San Diego, Miami, Lisbon, Madrid, and obviously, Barcelona. It’s billed as a combination of a car and a scooter, but its really closer to a go-cart that has a scooter’s steering device(don’t think we can call it a steering ‘wheel’). This little shit drives on the main roads with all the regular cars, and really stands out. We took it all over the city and at a few of the cities biggest attractions, us in the GoCar seemed to get more attention than anything. The special feature that makes the GoCar amazing is the voice that guides you as you drive. Ours was a female. She called herself ‘Jo’. Jo told us when to turn, let us know when we had to make a decision to head home or go to a new sight, gave us info and history on the sights we were passing, told us that we may need to give her a push(we almost didn’t make it up the hill heading to Parc Guell, it was classic) and made some jokes along the way. Pretty sure if I kept the car for another hour, Jo would’ve jerked me off. She was that good.

Anyway, after a couple weeks of action, I’m solo again. Aside from a potential impromptu visitor in a week or two, I think I’ll be that way for a minute, and I’m looking forward to it. Tomorrow starts the health(ier) kick, cooking on the regular, workout program, and (hopefully) solid sleeps. Til next time.

Chinga Usted.