Friday Inbox clearout: 4hours 30 mins, 164 emails read, 35 emails written
Time to get back to backpacking and see more of Madrid. Last here in 1998 everything I saw yesterday felt like the first time, except Plaza Mayor whose statue rang a faint bell.
Hopefully some updates will make it here this week. Thanks for all the messages.
Two lines of eMail had arranged that I’d join the famous Bostonians Pablo and Steve in their hire car post tourney trip, which needed to get to Madrid by their Friday flight. More we did not know or need to. So it went.
With post tournament Monday speed we drove into Lisbon and met Tim and Minsu for lunch (rice and seafood claypot: yum) and sight(re)seeing. An �8.50 glass of port was the last time I’ll copy Steve. A stroll through Barro Alto led us into a bar for England vs Slovakia (4-2). Well lubricated we headed off to Michele’s concert and the remaining frisbee players. 3 bars later it wasn’t surprising that Pabs missed his camera and I’d forgotten the barman hadn’t had change for a �50 note. A late start Tuesday had Pablo creating chaos and getting hooted at doing Uturns wherever he could and often where others wouldn’t. His camera never showed up, but the barman was back at work and happily gave me my change. With much of the day gone and Steve navigating, we only made it as far as Caceres. What can I say about a Spanish city where everything is shut by 12??? We nearly starved and I’m sure Steve went to bed thirsty. Breakfast was good and cheap and we made it to Salamanca via some cool scenic roads. Roadwork cones gave Pabs an excuse to drive a slalom. The stern looks followed by supressed laughter as we passed the traffic control guy were classic. What else should one (or three) do in Salamanca but sit in Pl. Mayor and watch the girls walk by? (This question could also be applied to Spain in general.) We managed to fit in a stroll, visited the cathedral, ate paella, watched football (byebye Germany) and witnessed Pabs doing his best to lose his lightweight tag, long after claiming he was done drinking today. Salamanca did not stop by 12pm. Thursday’s arrival in Madrid stimulated more Uturns, first getting to a Decathlon outlet and then trying to find their airport hotel. Portugal-England delayed dinner, which turned into a Happy Birthday Steve morning. How Pablo could book him a flight so early on his birthday that the alarms went at 04:30 I do not know. In preparation for more solo travelling, I went back to bed.
Not been blogging a while and with this keyboard won�t change that much. I am well and in Salamanca. Was a while in Barcelona, went to Lisbon/Bar do Peixe via Madrid and am now travelling with a couple friends and a hire car. Birthday was good. Weather great. Much fun.
Not enough superlatives have been invented to truly cover how good I find this (beach hat ultimate) tournament. In 2000 I signed up, largely on a friend’s recommendation that its his favourite and not knowing much more about it. Now its much harder to live up to the hype. Yet time after time it does. Its my favourite. The day I miss one of these will be a sad one.
This year’s most significant addition was Chappy’s Arkansas crew. Having lived in Munich a while ago, last year he brought out his gf and some young teammates for a 3 week European Ultimate adventure. We all enjoyed that immensely, but one weekend coincided with BdP. We said he should’ve included BdP in the plan so this year he did. He also brought around 5 more players. I’m curious to see how this trend continues.
Getting to the beach was more of a story this year. Meeting Minsu at Miquey’s, Tim then drove us to first to Madrid where we enjoyed an excellent Paella dinner with Miquel and picked up ex-Munich Santa Barbara Alicia. Waking up on BdP day one and my 29th birthday in a 4 star hotel somebody else was paying for: Sweet! The drive was easy, despite too much luggage. One of the rest stops had swings. The Portugese border control didn’t seem too phased by the German, Finnish, Australian, American and Spanish passports they received from our car. Maybe they get that all the time? Games are starting…
I scored a great team. We were never going to win the tournament, but I finally got to play on the same team as Patrick and Kaleen. Big Steve (aka little irish man) and I teamed up again after a one year break and the hat threw Bruno and I together again. Munich’s Stoffel, Lisbon’s Marco, Arkansas Rachel and Vanessa (pre foot ligament injury) made a team that never quite got name, song or team photo together and had a heck of a good time together not doing it. After losing our first two games, we got it together (the wind probably helped) winning 6, one more than Pablo wanted. My post-Bronchitis lungs still didn’t cope with running around, but Patrick’s ventillator helped get me through much better than in Geneva. I’m not going to write about the shenanigans, but special mention to all the bonfire musicians who really took off this year.
BdP keeps getting more and more digicams, but the websites are famous for appearing on Portugese time. Buddha’s photos are up. Maybe check back in 6 months for some more links.
madu
mine
What to write about Barcelona? If you haven’t been, you should definitely have it on your list of places to visit. Its especialy attractive to beach ultimate lovers with a fun team and end-of-season hat tournament: the porron open. This must’ve been my fourth time in town. Other than the Forum, there wasn’t much touristy that I wanted to do, although I probably should have checked out how much the Sagrada Familia has changed since I saw it last. An unfinished Gaudi project, the church is scheduled to be completed by 2040. The first time I visited, it was suggested that the whole plan may never be built. Now with tourists visiting in droves and funding the building, optimism prevails. Apparently there is some concern about consecrating the church, because its not right to charge tourists as much as fur the building site.
Yep… I’m writing about what I didn’t do. Much of my time was spent hanging out with the Ultimate crew and/or lying in parks or on beaches enjoying the weather and scenery. For those who still haven’t caught on… the women here are sensational eye-candy. When not too distracted or drowsy, I learnt a fair bit of Spanish, despite the prominence of Catalan. Its a good life. I stayed a few days in Hostel Miquey while he was working in Madrid and then moved to Andy’s flat on the same street, but 15 mins uphill. Late nights were had and a couple excellent bbqs including the farewell party for Oscar (England), Nadia (Italy) and Masumi (Japan). Quickly it seemed and it was time to get across to Lisbon for Bar do Peixe. I jumped on the bandwagon, organising a lift with Tim.
Estrella is in my opinion easily the worst beer I’ve had on this trip. Taking a closer look at the label I notice it advertises the awards its won. The only one in the last 90 years… an Australian gold medal. We must have more medals then we know what to do with… and perhaps even more bad beers. Shame Australia Shame.
I was quite excited about the Forum, thinking it was intended to stimulate a dialog and transfer of information and cultural ideas about problems the world is facing and potential solutions and improvements. I hoped it would fit into what I’m looking at and that some new leads or ideas may come from it. I went to the Forum for information and dialog. I got art and commercialism. Unfortunately it promised more than it delivered and turned out to be a disappointment.
Unknown to me at the time, Barcelona residents are either anti-Forum or simply have no idea what it is (despite saturation marketing of the logo). Built on the site of an old sewerage site and supposedly for all, the unemployed and homeless claim they got or are getting a raw deal and the better off benefit most
The exhibitions tended to be glitzy and not very deep. Depressing facts without solutions, commercials and art were the general content, rather than a systems approach to solving problems. Where does an individual visitor to something like the forum go with statements like: “Nature is the greatest obstacle to the future of the free market system and cannot be treated as an adversary. The message has to be: protect the ecosystem or perish” or even this one, “For all humans to live like Europeans or North Americans the surface of the Earth would need to be three times as big.”. Still this globe and satellite photos were cool and the Saatchi and Saatchi written Toyota advert will appeal to some.
The Forum’s only ‘free’ dialog component involves inviting a dignitary for a question answer session. I wanted to hear Klaus T�pfer, a German politician now the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. I can’t remember hearing a bigger waffler. The man spoke and spoke and spoke and never said anything. The moderator had to cut the question and answer session to two questions and still he rabitted on without actually answering the question. A Spanish girl and I tried to get hold of him afterwards (we both spoke German) and managed to get some comments from him in a couple minutes before his minders dragged him away to TV. Waste of time.
Maybe I should have stopped at my first photo, The Beer Experience. At least I got to take away this quote from Lao Tse: “He who knows he has enough is rich”. I was also reminded of one I’d seen before, “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas” (Linus Pauling - of course it helps that he was a genius).
This entry is for Jasper Mane, I doubt anyone else will find it interesting.
I just had my ticket checked on the metro. Here they have a system where you need to swipe a ticket to open the gates and get to the platforms, so I’m a bit surprised they check at all, but they were serious. 4 middle aged women in black slacks and maroon jerseys accompanied by a security guard and a big muzzled Alsation. They swipe tested all cards and scrutinised passports. I didn’t see anyone get caught cheating.
Getting to Barcelona was a mission, Geneva was relaxingly easy(jet), with a passenger playing guitar while waiting to board and the tournament picking me up from the airport. Munich’s R� and Nata were waiting for Barcelona Chris as I walked out (I’d not recognised him with hat): the first of many ‘hello again’s. The rest of friday was chilled, hanging out by the fields with the spanish crowd and whoever else turned up (the Irish) and relaxing until the welcome party. Stephan� played disc, beach volleyball and american football. He does not tire.
The Talampaya Open is a big fun good level co-ed tournament with 32 teams in this anniversary edition (3 from spain, only 2 from germany). For me a lot is about the people, which is tough to write about. Old friends galore including some unexpected ones and as at most tournaments, meeting some fine new ones. My Canary Island team Mubidisk were great people: will be even better when I understand all they’re saying. Luis (38) in particular has amazing skill at making friends and having fun without a common language.
The parties were a welcome grill (bbq/braai), an open-air 100 000 people festival and a private costumed (“Cartoons and Superheroes”) party. Beat from Zurich again got his costume designer talents going and turned out a teamful of The Muppets: Animal, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Kermit, the cook, the chicken, the old geezer in the gallery - he made them all. Other theme teams turned out Smurfs and Asterix characters. Two teams went pink-panther. I got to dance with Smurfette and Miss Piggy… dream on kids, you never know what’ll come true. I never took out my camera all weekend, but Buddha’s site has photos from three people.
With all this going on and great weather, that Bronchitis stopped me playing was a disappointment, but couldn’t ruin the weekend. Too soon it was time for another round of goodbyes, I’d lost another disc and it was over. Javi had the same Tuesday afternoon flight, so I tagged along with him, Dianne and Alia. Despite being cooler and wet, the day almost turned into the trip highlight. Hot chocolate and chocolate croissants for breakfast, a random walk picnic lunch under cover and then a pretty wooded area near the river, a beautiful cemetary and an unexpected just-walk-in zoo: good going for a day without expectations. The positive, happy attitudes of the two girls was just infectious: great company. The afternoon flight back to Barcelona went without a hitch and plan Spain resumed.
I’m now in Barcelona, enjoying summer sunshine with a warm glowing memory of Geneva and looking forward to visiting the forum, but this entry backtracks to last Thursday and how I got to Barcelona in the first place.
The plan did not involve starting to write a journal/blog entry in the business class lounge at Malaga airport. If I’d planned things like they turned out, I might have fitted in the Picasso museum. The plan, built as it was on rushed silliness, involved arriving in Granada Wed afternoon, picking up my tent and thermarest, seeing people and then a painful day-long train ride to Barcelona to teach me for booking flights too hastily. The plan was to use the journey to teach me some Spanish.
What’s the point in plans? Events happened: Tuure took me to the doctor since the coughing had gotten ridiculous. (Bronchitis was diagnosed and medicines prescribed, meaning I can now only salivate at the well stocked help-yourself bar.) The next morning 8:30 train turns out to be all of one carriage and completo. Wave goodbye (no way to sneak on) and find out the next night train is also already full. You’d think they might be able to find a second wagon to hang on the trains. Bugger. I’ve done funky train switching before to make connections, but nothing would get me to Barcelona tonight, only tomorrow morning, close to my flight and not allowing me to dump gear I don’t need in Geneva at Miquey’s place. I don’t think all that well at 8:30 at the morning at the best of times, but the train options sucked so badly, something needed to be found. I decided before paying more for a night train from hell, I was going to look at last minute flights and recheck all options on the Internet. Unfortunately I had no chance of making a 9:20 Granada-Mallorca-Barcelona connection I’d already considered. While waiting for an Internet place I found to open (at 11), I rang up my insurance company (so nice to hear a friendly Australian) to suss out my chances of claiming some travel expenses either getting to Barcelona, or letting that flight slide and going one-way from here to Geneva. I forgot to write down her name and its gone, but she said if I claimed it the way I told her the story and went with a reasonably priced solution, I should be able to claim. This will be put to the test.
Internet showed that some of the �90 flights I’d been looking at were no longer available. Renfe confirmed that train options were hellish and over �100. One-way Geneva flights were all well over �200. AirEuropa to Barcelona from Malaga via Madrid was �5 cheaper business class at around �170. A few hours with lounges and a free bar or packed full night train with a crappy sleeper car - you tell me?
I can now tell you that AirEuropa stewardesses are well endowed and wear jeans. This fact was really the only thing that went right first time the whole long day (Miquel had to stay in Madrid with work and it was past 2am till I got a key to his place) and yet most of the time passed quite enjoyably. All we need now is the insurance to play ball and this may turn into a good day just yet. Falling into bed, I realised that looking forward to tomorrow had taken on a new meaning: things couldn’t go wrong more than today and things worked out in the end.
