Been a while...

I can't believe Professor Robert Hamilton, probably the sole person responsible for my move to Holland reads my blog. I am amazed at the amount of people who actually read this verbal bullshit I spew. Really. I feel horrible for not updating it all that often, nor reading much of anyone else's blog. I mean well, but I'm super busy and lack proper internet access sometimes on my travels. Well, here goes with another blog entry, and I promise it to be a doozy, as I'll explain my week covering Primavera Sound in Barcelona.

Low cost airlines have the craziest flight times. I was due to arrive in Barcelona at 12AM on WED May 30, or early THR morning, whichever suits your fancy. We were twenty minutes late, so I arrived around 12:30AM. I met a lovely Greek girl on the plane who lives in Barcelona, and she helped me take the night airport bus into Catalunya Square, where I took the N11 bus to the last stop to meet my friend who lives in Badalona, which is way the fuck in the suburbs. What he didn't know is that the last stop changed, and I was taken up this mountain and dropped off at a hospital, alone, at 3AM. I called him laughing, and he couldn't believe where I was. I walked in, asked for a cab and took a €10 ride back down this black mountain to his house, where he was standing outside in hysterics. I passed out immediately.

Another guy was staying at his house, Chabby from Austria, and I spent much of the next day with him until I was to meet up with Mike and Kev from DiS to begin our Primavera coverage. We went shopping in the morning, explored Badalona and then took the Rodales city train into Catalunya and floated around the old town, stopping for a Durum Kebab. We strolled down La Ramblas, got some juice at the Boquiera market and went to the beach. It was nice.

Around 5PM I headed off on the metro to Selva De Mar to meet Mike and Kev. We had a few beers and strolled to the Forum, where the festival was. I then waited in line for two fucking hours to get my ticket, as we picked the wrong line to wait in and the pace was slow. It all ended well, I had my ticket, and we spent the rest of the night drinking, seeing live music and floating around the festival site. That continued for four days.

I met up with a fellow writer, Claire, who lived much closer than Badalona from the festiva (even though I found out Badalona was the next suburb over) and I went back to hers at 8AM it seemed and fell asleep. She has to go to work the next morning so I was back out, exploring Barcelona.

I had to move house that day, from Badalona to the centre, so I meandered through trains and subways and four hours later I was in the centre at my new couch surfing home, Nick. His place was fantastic, and he proved a gracious host. Then I was back to Primavera for another night.

At Primavera there was a seperate area specifically for press that had free booze, sponsored by Estrella Dam and Red Bull. The thing was, the area (which we called the island at that is pretty much what it was) was only audible to the main stage and was restricted, so we couldn't bring beer out. That meant a lot of hanging out on the island, including seeing The Smashing Pumpkins, the Fall, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Wilco and Maximo Park, among many others. The festival itself was great, tons and tons of music, average food, 5 stages, a music bazaar... Saw many a bands, in which will be published tomorrow, so I won't talk much about it. I will say that the venue was a concrete wasteland, quite postmodern, right on the sea, so a few stages actually backed onto the sea. It was beautiful and ugly at once, and there was a nice breeze filled with saltwater that made my glasses foggy. They also had tons of handicapped porty-potteys, so I peed pretty for four days. I hate those open urinals.. just not for me.

Saturday involved some beach time. I went to the beach near Mike and Kev's hotel, which happened to be a nude beach. Ah, when in roam right... It was a bit odd being completely surrounded by naked people, but it felt kinda free and in some ways, right. It was like people weren't hiding who they were, at all... Forty minutes of naked sun-burning and I was spent.

Back to the hotel and back to the festival on Saturday, which ended extremely late, so Sunday was a late day. I did a bit of sightseeing - but I reserved much of that for Monday - and had a fantastic dinner with Nick and his friends, in which I cooked up a storm. I made daal (thanks Alan), basmati rice, stuffed tomatoes with Okra and drinks and appetizers. Dessert was provided by two amazing French girls and some kickass chocolate, and we drank like freshman. It was truly an amazing experience, one I'll remember for a long time, and one I thank Nick for. After that, I went to see Malajube and Of Montreal at the Apolo, which for a lack of a better word, was AMAZING.

On Monday I went to Parc Guell, which is a park designed by Gaudi. It was glorious. Then I met another friend (Katie) and strolled around Gracia, her area. We had beer, got soccer balls kick at us by rowdy kids and ate falafel and gelato. well I had gelato. After that it was a lovely dinner with my friend Nick and bed, before I headed off to the airport for a 6AM flight.

Yesterday I flew back to AMS, went home for an hour, moved some stuff into a storage room and then flew to Toronto. NXNE and Joe's wedding in tomorrow. lots of work to do this weekend. more updating later. here are a few pics :)