Mol, Belgium - April 13th 2012

This is Belgium in a nutshell.
I liked it here and all the small towns.

Hung out at this big ol’ tram bus hub/park. There was a live puppet show and  you know I said? YOLO.

I loved the porch at the venue, I want one for my house.
Reggie and I skated a bit while the local 13 year olds smoked cigs and watched.

Can easily say that I love John.

We were dropped off at the Brussels airport in the middle of the night after saying some goodbyes to some euro trash. JUST KIDDING they were all great people.

We had the airport to ourselves through the night so we set up camp and played some UNO.

Just had a flashback of James thrashing the bathroom, smashing his toiletries while we were brushing out teeth, haha.

UNO: Loser(John) had to get in a bag and get dragged thrown around the airport.
Cold Neil had to do 100 pushups in 20 mins.
James had to run laps around the terminals. haha… His whining made the win that much better.

 

In the morning the boys went off to New York to play the first date of they’re USA tour with Cold World.
I went to Canada to wait of them to travel across the country and met back up with them in Seattle on the 25th.
Later Europe, it was a time and half.

Paris, France–May 12th 2012

After saying a ton of goodbyes at the hostel and figuring out a bus to get to the airport to get my 6am flight I got to bed around 1:30am. The next thing I remember I was on the 2:45am bus to the airport. Barcelona does not sleep, the buses were still packed with people. Happened to meet someone who was eating a pint of ice cream to himself that ended up being on my flight. Every flight I packed all my gear into one carry on bag so that I didn’t have to check anything the whole trip so I had thermals, and three jackets running though the airport because I put in the wrong line. Again I did not sleep on the plane because the view from up in the sky is incredible. Took a bus into Paris and then looked at this map.   (The above picture is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.)

  I figured I would walk to Arc de  Triomphe then to the Eiffel tower. I got some of the best sushi I’ve ever… on the way.















Honestly did not think the tower would live up to the hype, but when I turned a corner and got my first impression, pictured below, I had an overpowering feeling come over me. Don’t know how to explain it exactly but I was in some kind of romantic awe.



I spent probably 3 hours in Parc du Champ de Mars  in pure the amazement of the tower.







Sometimes I wish I had a real camera.


Needless to say it was a long day feeling like homeless dude after no sleep. But seeing the boys was light at the end of the tunnel.




Free food for the boys.





Crepe in France with the boys, no big deal.


After the show some kid offered us a place to stay but there was a language problem and he thought that we wanted to go out and party because some said that jokingly. So we drove for about 2 hours back and forth before we got to his house. By the time everyone settled down and started to get to sleep it was around 5:00 am. I had a bus to catch on the other side of Paris at 9am so I left that apartment around 6am. So just a reminder that’s an hour each day for the last two days. I hit the streets and found an underground subway.







I had to check in at 8am and this picture was taken about 7am on the other side of town. I also had to find a printer to print out my boarding pass in that time. Was really fun reading that map and hoping from train to train. After about 5 trains and a hotel that let me print out the pass I got to the bus around 8:57. What a rush.

Probably the most exhausted I have ever been in my entire life.

Next spot Mol, Belgium.

Barcelona, Spain April 30- May 11th.

Half way though the UK tour we got word that there was no room in the van for the main land portion of the tour.  I ended up being about to meet up with my friend Ruben from Carpinteria who was staying with his girlfriend, Opal. As soon as I got to the apartment (the view above) we went out and Opal gave me the grand tour of a couple of the cities districts. Ruben bought me my first kabob and I was instantly hooked. The kabob is like a grilled burrito with cucumber, lettuce, tomato, carrots, olives, ranch like sauce and thin shaved meet from a rotisserie. Everything here is so insane too look at, I finally got some culture shock in my trip.

Ruben and Opal being sophisticated.

I have never been so excited to do laundry. Happily doing it Spain style.

Turns out Ruben loves the Shangri-Las too, so I knew right away the trip was gonna rock.
Alot of these odd scooter things.

We found the key to the roof of the 7 story apartment building…..
    
One day Ruben had a baby sitting and I decided to go along. Her name was Clowie, she was awesome. We got Ice cream did a puzzle, danced with me on guitar and her on the microphone. We were basically a match made in heaven. By the end of the evening when here mom came home she called me her boyfriend. Kinda ties me up for the rest of my trip but oh well. Her mother liked me and offered me a place to stay for two nights. She was actually originally from the UK so she was kind of a hybrid crossover from my trip. She said her name was butchered here and the worst she has gotten was “Chips” out of her real name Chevon. Chips killed me, I loved it, so funny.
  
Thats Chips!
 
Picture of my first taxi ride, I have had a lot of firsts this trip.
  
Oh really….. I can rent a scooter… ?
Not having my motorcycle in this city is ripping my heart out of my chest. EVERYONE RIDES!!
Mostly scooters but everyone rides, girls and boys. Most of the real motorcycles are like 125cc, its funny.
The city is dominated by motorbikes, people rip though side walks and alleys through crowds of people. It looked so fun!

Found a flyer for a band I used to listen to when I was 15. Hmmm looks fun.
 

Gaudi Park
What an insane person to have done such brilliant work.
The best way I can describe his work is that it all seems like its melting.


Outdoor escalators to go with my all my gelato!
 
Getting all shacked in Barca …. yew
Locals only, as always.

      
I have never appreciated architecture as much as the work of Gaudi.
Thanks dude. hahaha
  
My next motorcycle? Hey, it might be.
Quads are street legal here!!!!! You can even ride doubles! US is doing everything wrong.

I decided to take a metro out to the Toy Dolls, They were big in the 70’s and 80’s but I couldn’t believe the turnout of people that came to the show. Most of the crowd was in there 30’s. Olga (the singer) is probably in his late 40’s himself. They did not disappoint at all what a great live show. 

Pretty pink room at Chips’.
   
Barcelona sucks.

Had the day to myself so what better thing to do than go out to the nude beach!
Got a kabob, took a nap and then walked up the beach for an hour.
On the beach people go around selling all sorts of things but I almost regret not getting a massage.
Little Asian woman  were selling massages for only 5 eruos. They oiled your whole body up and massaged you for 20 mins.
I thought I blew it but one of the girls (Natasha) back at the hostel said she got one and her back got tweaked.

So they have these ping pong tables just set up all over town. BYOP
Every single day I hit up some gelato, mint and pistachio.
I was close-minded before but Italian gelato is better than ice-cream.
   
Back at Chips’ flat checking out the view of a father teaching his son how to rob stores, haha.
 
Wish I had my big camera in Barcelona, I especially liked the scooter shot.
The Simpsons…..
 
Workin on some postcards.

Told Ruben about the skate park and beach scene, so the next day we went out to the same spot and skated a small bowl and half pipe.
Got hot from skating and took a dip in the sea.

The weather is so perfect here, even the most clear sunny day in Santa Barbara does not compare. There must be some kind of difference in the pollution or air quality  of some sort. Both the skies and the waters are crystal clear.
   Photo credit to Ruben. Sorry girls, he’s taken. Speaking of Taken, I can’t wait till Paris.
 
The Mediterranean could really use some waves though.



Montserrat? Saw that poster, next morning I went out and got me a scooter,  picked up a babe and I was on my way.
   
Only an hour outside of the city and we got to These amazing mountains.
Riding a scooter isn’t as lame as I thought it was, obviously cant push any limits but you can really whip it back and forth and lean into turns because its so light. The twisty roads really tickled my fancy and Ruben didn’t get scared when I was scrapping pegs.

Ruben smokes cigs like its going out of style so he was not into going on a hike so I trail ran alone.
Unfortunately,  some wankers chipped off the times and on the way down the arrows so I got lost, every path that I tried to cross.

They’ve got the land, but we got the view.
  Look at this creep guarding the church.
Naturally, at the bottom getting my gelato on.
   
Every single day I got my juice on. Best part of the day. I can’t even describe how outstanding these guys are.
Pictured are, Kiwi & blackberry banana.
OK a close second, or third if we are talking about gelato, are the kabobs.
 
After the first week in Barcelona I booked myself into MY FIRST HOSTEL. The location was phenomenal, right here in Catalunya square.
 
The people at my hostel rule, its like summer camp.


Unimaginable. Who needs girls when my mind gets blown so often out here.

Oh wait… never mind, spotted the babe from the hostel.
 



 

Drinking games… Can’t we just play truth or dare?

She showed me her wits, and her life bucket list. Very cool, even more cool, is that her brother is going to give her $1000 if she completes it!
Next day I took a run out to the Olympic area from 1992. Then run up to the a castle.  

Cool place, great views 360 degrees.

What a fitting place or archery practice!
But wait a motorcycle playground?
   
I had enough running for one day. Cable car was righteous.
  
So the girls from the hostel, Natasha(Australia) and Briany (uk) woke up at their usual 3pm, made me some pasta and where into going to the hedge maze idea. I had never been to a hedge maze before so I was a happy camper.

These girls were so fun.


    


Good size, innit?

We all took our separate paths in the maze, Briany took first. I was a close second but quickly reminded that there is only one winner and the rest are losers.

This is what happiness looks like.

The girls hadn’t been to Gaudi park yet and I still hadn’t gotten to the top of the park.
 

 

White people.
   
Thank you for the day girls.

Magic fountain that night. Had a nice long walk home with a .60 euro liter of guava juice to reflect my long day. This place rules.

Everything good must end, so for my final day I went out to the Barcelona Burlesque festival for my first burlesque show.
I have got to say, life changing. Never have I witnessed a performance where so many different emotions were evoked. Although there was a lot of nakedness by both the male and female performers it really wasn’t a sexual thing in my opinion.
I was so so so impressed at the talents these girls had. I hope this doesn’t sound sexist but I have never been as impressed as I was watching these girls play piano, do acrobatics, hula-hoop, comedy, play with fire, doing all of these things I could never do, while being very sexy. Powerful woman. My favorite act of the night was actually done by a male, I had never felt the feeling that he brought to life in his work. He started out in some kind of soft slow dance with his arms in dark lights that transitioned into him on the floor showing us what looked like the deepest sorrow a human can go through. I felt it in my heart as he scratched his fingers across the floor of the stage and then pounding with his fists and feet as he hung his head on all fours. His sorrow had gone to anger and with that anger he made music with his body. He started with the pounding of his hands and tapping of his fingers and kept adding body parts until he was doing the most intense tap dance I had ever seen.  He had worked out his suffering though music. I walked away with a lot gained from the performances that night.
 
After the burlesque show, I had one last gelato with Ruben before I flew out to Paris at 6am.
Adios Barcelona. You were a dream.