Last night was Andre’s last night in Barcelona. We went to his favorite, and the most popular, party in the city. It’s called “Nasty Monday’s”, and takes place at the Apollo in the neighborhood of Raval.

The party is crazy. It’s been running for 3.5yrs at Apollo, and a couple years prior to that at another venue. Apollo is a big club, and uses every inch of space to squeeze in the crowd (I would guess about 1500 people). There’s also a line of about 500 people wrapped around the block all night. We told the door guy that we were on ‘Chris Heller’s list’ and walked right in. The main attraction of “Nasty Monday’s” is the DJ team of Max and Soren.
These two are fuckin lunatics…in a good way. They’re set up on stage and put on a full show, and play all rock music. They look like complete characters, stand up on the turntables, get the crowd hyped up, take off their shirts, and pretend the lights are light sabers and duel like ‘Star Wars’. Even with the non hip-hop format, I was still fully entertained.

At some point in the night (no clue what time), we were ‘called up’ to the stage, which doubles as the VIP area, by one of the promoters that Andre sort of knows. It was as if Andre was a minor league ball player that just got the call to the big show. I can’t believe how happy the kid was. He LOVES Barcelona, and LOVES “Nasty Monday’s”, and recently got a tattoo to prove both of these facts.
So for him to be on stage, on his last night, at his favorite party, was a huge deal.

Andre’s departure will be good for my health. He’s 23. I’m not. The past few weeks, after finishing up his job and realizing he was leaving, put him in full ‘fuck-it’ mode. Out every night, usually ending up at some club, going to bed after sunrise, and sleeping late. And I was along for most of his ride.

Now, Andre is going home to Portugal for a couple weeks before heading to Sweden for 6 months, then to Denmark the following 18 months, to get his Masters in computer engineering. We met less then 3 weeks ago, and clicked right away. His two favorite things are chicks and NBA hoops, so it was pretty easy. He really went out of his way to include me in everything he did, and to show me different parts of the city, while introducing me to a bunch of people along the way. On this crazy journey of mine, he is my first real friend, and I’m gonna miss him.

Adios, Andre.