The Lonely Traveler

This is a collection of the emails I sent to my brother during my two week trip through Spain, France and London...

Originally emailed during August 2004

Day 1: Barcelona

can you forward any new mail in my gmail to this account? i´m waiting to hear from my future roommate regarding a new apt in NY, but she only has my gmail account and I can´t check it here for some reason.

anyhoo, this is sweet. i got to barcelona this morning and have been walking around the city all day. to be honest, seems to be a little more touristy than i expected and, although i have seen a lot of hot chicks, the streets aren´t overflowing with them like i expected either. i think it has something to do with the fact that most the people i have seen are tourists, not spanish. however, almost every girl here has a tight body and good tan. i tried to get some perspective on the city today...tomorrow i think i´ll just go to the beach and bronze my six friends. oh, and tonight, its gonna get reeeeeeaaaaaal dumb. i already have a cold sore and its day 1 (not even including night 1). i´m fucked.

peace up.

Day 2: Barcelona (Dumb Indeed)

last night was actually a little more mellow than i thought it was going to be. i think everyone in the hostel had a huge night (pub crawl) the night before, so everyone was a little burned out.

this hostel rocks. everyone is pretty outgoing and music is playin like 24 hours a day. not a great place to sleep, but you definitely meet people to go out with. we went to a mellow “jazz” club (they said they played jazz but actually just played hip hop and r&b) last night...it was fun though. i definitely hooked up with the hottest girl at the hostel...so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

its only day two and my body already hurts. i went to bed at like 6am and got up at like 10. they´re filming some spanish music video in the courtyard of the hostel...sounds cool, but a little too early of a wake up call.

oh, and this cold sore...definitely not my friend right now. Fucker hurts. its cool though, i mean nothing helps a cold sore like booze and a lack of sleep, so i´m sure it´ll be gone soon.

anyway, i´m gonna try to take a quick nap and then head to the beach or something.

peace up.

Day 2: Barcelona (Part II)

so i pretty much did nothing yesterday except lay on the beach. i had a nice little surprise when i got there too. there was this group of 3 hot girls (i say hot, but the reality is, with my eyes, they could have been guys). anyway, i was kind of checking one out because she was standing up in front of me…next thing i know she reaches back and pops here top off. it was amazing. after that i looked around and realized that a lot of girls had their tops off...ahhh the pleasures of topless beaches.

not to be the perverted american tourist or anything, but i couldn’t help but stare at this group of topless girls. it was like a movie…at one point, one of the girls started rubbing another one down with sun tan lotion. I almost shit myself.

anyway, last night we had a pub crawl…it was pretty cool because almost everyone from the hostel went on it. these two really hot british girls were leading the crawl. i did my best to flirt with them until it got the point in the night when i was so hammered i just did that stare at/through them thing.

whatever, i got like ½ hour sleep and i feel absolutely awful…

time to go to the airport.

peace up.

Day 3: Madrid (Maria, Maria)

so yeah, i´m emailing you like a journal...so keep all these so i have record of all my great spanish adventures.

i just got to the hostel in madrid.

you know how whenever you get on a plane you hope 1) there´s a hot girl on the flight, and 2) that she sits next to you. well it finally happened. this super hot girl from some spanish islands sat next to me. i´m a huge pussy so i didn´t say anything until we only had like 15 mins left...but it was a great 15 minutes. she had a really hot accent and was a student in madrid (so i´m gonna go ahead and assume she´s 18). she loved the fact that i was from california. anyway, I just read that and it doesn´t sound that sweet...the story´s better when you can look at her and hear her accent. i was gonna ask her to come out, but pussed out. we both kinda did the odd goodbye where you wanna say something but don´t. once again, i let love slip through my fingers.

actually, i´m pretty suprised she talked to me as long as she did. i just looked in the mirror when i got to my room: i look like i haven´t showered in 3 years, that cold sore is big enough to start walking pretty soon and i haven´t shaved since that night in vegas. all in all, i look like fuckin garbage.

anyway, that hostel i stayed at in barcelona was money...the one i´m at now seems like its not going to be near as sweet. we´ll see. i saw a poster for the running of the bulls or something, and i think its tomorrow. if thats true, im definitely there.

alright, i gotta email that girl from two nights ago...she´s in Madrid and i think we´re gonna try to meet up here.

peace up.

Day 3-8: Madrid, Ibiza and Paris

Lots of new stuff man...

I can't remember the last time I emailed you, but i think it was right when i got to madrid. Recap: The first night in spain, i hook up with a pretty hot girl; night 2 i flirt around all night with a couple pretty hot girls; day 3 i meet a hot spanish girl on a plane; days 3-6 I got sicker than shit. vegas + new york + barcelona caught up with me in Madrid and ran me over like a fucking cement truck.

i met some pretty cool girls, canadian unfortunately, my first night in Madrid. i was starting to feel a little sick, so i decided to take it easy that night (i.e., no big clubs, just kinda bar hopped). I went to bed at like 5 or so, then these girls woke me up at like 8:30am. from 9am until about 8pm these chicks had me walk every fuckin inch of madrid. we saw every building, castle, church, stadium, park in the city. i bet we walked 30 miles. i had flip flops on and felt like i was swallowing broken glass the whole time (I had the worst sore throat). by the time i got home, i thought i was gonna die...so i took a nap...the nap lastest until 8am the nextmorning. i was pissed...i never really got to go out in madrid. in general madrid was a bad experience just because i was sick, but I did get pictures of a lot of cool shit there.

i think the best part of the two days was this 30 minute break from our speed marathon that these girls and i took in this park in the middle of the city. we were all just kind of laying on the steps of this old building that was set in front of this cool pond with flowing water. there was this old guy feeding the ducks and birds bread and this other guy playing this mellow tune on his guitar and quietly singing a cool song in spanish. we were all so tired and there was like this 10 minute period were we just closed our eyes, relaxed under the sun and could hear the sounds of the flowing water, birds and this guitarist. probably sounds lame, but for some reason its the most vivid memory I have of madrid.

to get to ibiza, i took this little propeller plane (cause it’s a little island off the south west part of spain). my throat was killing me, my nose was running all over the place, the cold sore was still in effect, my head was all stuffed up and because of this little fuckin plane, my ears were so plugged, they felt like they were gonna explode. i think it was the most uncomfortable i have ever been in my life. luckily the flight attendent was hot...so that kept my spirits up a little.

ibiza is known to be the best party city in the world. i spent my first night there in my little prison cell of a room coughing up flem and laying in my own sweat.

that said, i woke up the next day and felt like a champion. my nose was still a little stuffed, but the cold sore was mostly gone and my throat felt fine. so I wandered around ibiza and, more importantly, was able to go out that night.

the town is crazy. its like a year long spring break except way bigger. when i got breakfast in the morning (at like 10), most the stores and restaurants were closed and no one was outside. when i got dinner at like 8:30pm, there were people everywhere and chilled out music playing. there were street performers, hot girls, people everywhere. so the drinking began at like 9:00...starting with some mellow drinks getting a slight buzz around 10. at about that time, is when the chill music stops and more loud, techno-like music starts playing. oh, and this is in the streets and i was in the more mellow part of the island (supposedly, the streets and cafe's on the west end are way more crazy).

by 12:30, i'm hammered and decide its time to start making my way to the clubs. there are like 5 really big clubs (i think they are like the biggest in the world) on the island, all of which have world famous dj's. they get started around 2am and end between 6 and 10am. anyway, i went to one that the girl from vegas told me about (called amnesia). basically, they bus you out to the middle of nowhere for these clubs. they are in these huge buildings and i can't explain how many people there are. its definately a techno/house scene more than what i'm used to. but whatever, a lot of vodka and a lot of redbull later, i'm techno-dancin my ass off.

at some point i got tired of the place and decided to leave. it was around 8am and luckily this other club called Space opens at 8am and goes until 2pm. Long story short, i walked into my hotel at 10:30am and asked for an 11:30am wake up call. the guy behind the counter just laughed.

oh...and then, the whole hot chick sitting next to you on a plane thing...it happened again! i didn't talk to this girl cause she slept the whole time. she kept doing that thing were your head slowly falls to the side and then you jerk it back up...it was cute. i guess i could have been the nice guy and given her a pillow or something, but more than cute it was funny. so i just watched instead.

hmmm...what else. this got long. i just got to paris last night and met up with will, lorissa and my grandma. they left early this morning, but due to my lack of sleep in ibiza i decided to sleep in. i'm gonna go check some museums and stuff out...then look for some clubs =).

anyway, spain was fucking amazing...way too short, especially since I was sick for a couple days. but it was a lot of fun...and i'm really glad i went by myself.

hopefully you’re bored at work cause i just wrote a novel for you to read. talk to you later.

peace up.

Day 10: London

so thats cool u go out on wed night when libby’s in town...but every wed night im out there, nooooo. say hi to that hot Kiki girl for me...she'll definitely be there. she is to starlight what we are to kells.

we fly out of london on the 16th, but im gonna stay one night in NY. i guess we got an apt today, so i wanna try to check that out. ill probably head back to cali that tuesday...we should all try to have one last hoorah that weekend, cause after that im heading up home, then L.A. then off to NYC.

anyway, paris was cool...a lot of cool history there. we took the bullet train from paris to london...bullet my ass, supposed to take 2 1/2 hours...took closer to 4 1/2. plus, i caught an earlier train than the others and theirs is taking even longer. so ive been sittin in this damn train station for like 3 hours.

im pooped. ill talk to u later dood. have fun tonight.

peace up.