Salutations from Spain

The past week has been a whirlwind. I stole off into the dead of night after being hosted by another good friend currently living in London. I caught a late night / early morning flight to the beautiful city of Barcelona and thus began the next phase of my journey. Spain was unknown territory. I was finally out from under the safety net of family and friends and ready to try out "hostel living." I was a bit tentative at first but my wanderer spirit soon took hold.

To kick things off I caught Football Club Barcelona utterly destroy Sevilla in a Spanish La Liga match my first day in the city. It was incredible watching such high quality soccer, especially in a stadium like the Camp Nou. 80,000 Spaniards chanted and cheered on their home club for the full 90 minutes, taking extreme joy and delight in not just every goal scored, but in every well conceived combination of passes, displays of defense grit and determination, and any moments of creative brilliance or ingenuity. The fans in Barcelona truly appreciate beautiful football and I feel blessed to have been able to watch a match in their stadium.

In my hostel I was very lucky to be roomed with several other independent travelers from throughout the English speaking Diaspora. We all go on extremely well immediately - there was the Irishman looking to find work in Spain, the university student from Leeds, an American girl working as an au pair in France, a guy on vacation from work in Kansas City, and the New Zealander studying marine biology. We found great restaurants and tapas bars on quiet city side streets and sampled the Barcelona night life. It was sad to bode them all farewell...but the whole point of backpacking is to keep on the move.

After a very relaxing two days in the beautiful city of Valencia, I now find myself in Granada, a small town steeped in the history of the Christian and Moorish battles of the Medieval Period. I actually just got back from touring the Alhambra, an incredible palace/fortress built almost 1000 years ago by Muslim sultans. Both here and in Valencia I have crossed paths with very interesting people from all over the world.

But tomorrow is a new day, new people, and hopefully new adventure. Next stop: Portugal

Touching Down in England (part 1)

I flew from Flint, Michigan to Atlanta and then connected with my flight to London. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by funny accents and British wit, ruddy English faces freshly burnt by Easter holidays spent at Disney World. The gentleman next to me seemed friendly enough, but promptly tried to hijack my armrest space as we settled into our seats. I readied my elbow to launch a counter assault but noticed his daughter peering in our direction, still clad in her Minnie Mouse ears. I let his digression in etiquette go without rebuke, reassuring myself that I simply wanted to spare this lad the disgrace of being embarrassed in front of his family, secure in the knowledge that I could easily win back my rightful space on the armrest with a minimum of effort.

I readied myself for landing in England by picking the most appropriate movie selection provide by Delta (which, by the way, was extensive.) As we took off from Atlanta and began to cruise high above the east coast of the United States, I turned my attention to RockNRolla, Guy Ritchie's most recent British crime drama, full of gritty scenes of London's criminal underworld, fast talking, cool mob types, Russian billionaire investors, Ludacris and Jeremy Piven playing Americans in over their heads and Idris Elba getting to try on his natural British criminal swagger in lieu of his previous role as the very American criminal Stringer Bell on The Wire. People got shot, the plot twisted and turned, cool music and accents rang through the film, and I knew I was ready. All that cinematic action got me in the perfect mindstate England to take the island by storm the following morning. However, I couldn't fall asleep and proceeded to watch Don Cheadle in Traitor, Jim Carrey in Yes Man, and Leonardo di Caprio and Russell Crowe in Body of Lies. I sincerely enjoyed all of the movies (even though the plane landed before I finished Body of Lies) and arrived at 7am at London Gatwick Airport impressed by the quality of Delta Airlines' in-flight entertainment offerings...but also severely jetlagged.

to be continued...

Londontown

Arrived in London. Cloudy skies, funny accents and fried English breakfasts. More to come soon.

Carnaval 2k9 Megamix

Three years ago when I first traveled through Bahia a friend and I dreamed of one day remaking our own Salvador version of Snoop Dogg and Pharrell's "Beautiful" video. Those cinematic ambitions never truly came to fruition, but this year I tried to make a multimedia homage to the sights, sounds and people that made Carnaval 2009 an unforgettable experience. Obrigado Salvador.



And make sure to click HQ to watch the video in high quality!