Well I have some catching up to do.

I will start out with what seemed to be the beginning of a minor life crisis, the modern day time standing still moment that many of us have gone through at one time or another.

It began with a plan. To go to Barcelona for the weekend to visit some friends with the intention of having a great time. As much as I would like to say that I went to see all of the Spanish monuments, Camp Nou, famous churches, and sites of that nature, I did not. But I don’t regret any of the time I spent during that brief period in Spain. I did not have to fall in love with the monuments, the sites, the tourist spots that (in some cases) I only feel like are a way to bring in revenue and scam people, but instead I fell in love with the architecture of the simple buildings, the people, the scenery, the graffiti, the city planning, the streets, the sounds… I could go on but I will stop myself before I get a little carried away.

I almost raise an eyebrow at this point, at the people who tell me that you didn’t truly visit a place unless you go to the big monuments. I will go there if i feel the need and have the time, but what I find to be the most precious is what is underneath the stone, not what glitters on top of it. I had an incredible experience painting a picture of Barcelona in my mind using nuances that I caught and the slightest details that I noticed. It made me wonder how much else I was missing from this travel experience entirely.

One of the greatest things about traveling is meeting people. Sometimes these will be friends that will remain in contact with for the rest of your life. Sometimes they are people with whom you share a moment and cherish it forever. But the most wonderful thing about meeting new people is that the odds made it so that two people were in the same place at the same time at that exact point in their lives. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that opportunity? Maybe they have an interesting story or something to share? Of course sometimes, no, but in my opinion it is definitely worth the effort. For example during one of my nights in Barcelona I was on the beach sitting on the boardwalk area, when a Danish man began talking to me. I was very interested to see what he would say because I had never spoken with a Dane before. I learned that he was 19 years old and already a successful entrepreneur, who had created and marketed an invention of his (which is actually really cool- it’s a speaker that has fire and the flames pulsate with the beat of the music). I was so impressed (and somewhat envious) of his early success, and now he was traveling Europe. He was such an open minded individual, and it is very difficult to find people like that nowadays. He left a lasting impression on me, whether he knew it or not, and just taking the time to talk to me and tell me his story was all that it took.

I met many many other people along the way, but some stood out more than others. There were people from everywhere- I suppose most people were on holiday. But it was very interesting to finally get a chance to practice my Spanish, since I have some knowledge of that language, and it is actually easier for me to understand than french. I went out to the various bars of Spain with about seven others and we had an incredible time. But now I will finally get to the part that is not so incredible and is the reason i am missing (most) of my photos: my phone was stolen the Saturday I was in Barcelona- and to make it even better, it was my Birthday. Now I don’t really have any way of posting photos unless it is through scavenging through my friends photos, which I will post below. After first losing this device, which had my entire life on it, I was first casual, then panicked, then depressed, then hopeless, then optimistic that I would find it, then sad again, and finally accepting with a more cynical attitude than previously. I went through all of that in about 5 hours so by the time it was over I was pretty much over the emotional loss of my phone, it was mainly just an inconvenience to not have it at that point. I experienced phone “ghost pain” and always reached for my pocket to check the time for the first few days I was lacking it, but it went away rather quickly. After having gotten three hours of sleep, the morning after the incident I was sitting with Danielle eating a strange brunch consisting of pizza and an omelette sandwich, and suddenly I felt a sort of freedom (or maybe it was a weird breeze) and liberation- I didn’t need technology anymore! Of course this sentiment was not at all true, of course I needed to let my mother know that I was still alive every few days but in that moment everything felt so much simpler. Not having a phone made me soak in every moment because I knew I wasn’t going to have a photo to remember it by. It was a chance to take in the memory instead of saying “I’ll just take a picture of it and look at it later so I can remember it”. I had to make an effort to capture certain images in my brain, and to remember certain sounds, faces, feelings, smells… Although undoubtably it was an inconvenience, positivity can be taken from any bad situation.

All in all, my experience in Barcelona was sleepless, relaxing, inspiring, filled with loss, the feeling of being lost, and meandering, crazy, exciting, frustrating, and most of all eye-opening. To say it was just “fun” would be an incredibly shallow blanket statement- a word I would probably use when saying hello to someone in passing after they ask me “oh by the way how was your trip to Barcelona?”

Unfortunately, I will not be able to post many more pictures after this post. You can thank my phone which had so much fun in Barcelona it decided to stay. You can look forward to many other posts shortly following this one…

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia… I suppose I did SOME sight-seeing…

A statue that I liked in Barcelona… Not really sure why. It was a part of a fountain.