Been back from Spain since last Tuesday. Left Spain at 2:30 in the afternoon, I think, which is 5:30AM in California, and landed at SFO at 5:30PM. So around 12 hours in the air. Fun!
Okay, so that part wasn’t much fun, but the trip itself definitely was. My wife and I left Thursday night and after a 12-hour flight arrived in Barcelona around 2:30 or 3PM the next day. Because the nights in Barcelona are days in California I had to work that first night (I have a day job I can’t actually get 100% time away from, unfortunately). So that first night was all about paying moderate attention to my computer for me, while my wife went out (roller)skating the streets of Barcelona until midnight and bringing back some tasty tapas.
The next day we set up a kayaking trip, which ended up being a lot of fun once I figured out I wasn’t going to die. As I’ve mentioned a time or three in the Alert, I’m overweight right now, and so the prospect of climbing into a kayak and traversing a section of the ocean filled me with quite a bit of initial dread. Every time the kayak rocked when my wife leaned over to take a picture, or wobbled amidst a particularly robust wave, I tensed. A lot.
As a result, by the time we’d visited a couple of caves, stopped to cliff-dive (I stayed in the kayak) or snorkel (again, yes, I stayed in the kayak) I was exhausted. Not just from using my arms to paddle, but from using my legs to keep us upright. I was pushing so forcefully and constantly against the footholds in the kayak that by the time we finally returned to shore and I had to get out of the kayak I nearly fell flat on my face in the surf.
My legs were exhausted. It was as if I’d gone to the gym and used the leg press machine. Only without the positive results.
But really, beyond the self-inflicted abuse I put my body through, I had a good time. Our guide, Borja, who was half-Spanish and half-English (mother and father, I believe) was very cool, knowledgeable, capable and entertaining. He was very talkative, which I often am not and so appreciate in others, and had an infectious energy that was hard not to match. We also went on the trip with two other groups, and had lunch with them afterwards, which gave all of us time to chat and get recommendations for places to eat and things to see.
Because the kayaking was so physically draining for me I mostly stuck round the hotel that night, but in the morning we went on a bus tour of Barcelona, which I’d highly recommend if you ever happen to visit. You can get on the red or blue line, and the buses will spirit you to popular tourist spots throughout the city. The next bus is almost always only 10-15 minutes away, so you can wander around anywhere you’re dropped and either return to the stop where you got off or walk to the next and another bus is sure to be just around the corner.
That second day was probably the best one for me (though I did sweat like a guilty person in the heat) as we walked the streets and alleys, checked out the sights and sites, bought little things to bring back to the boys, drank frozen drinks to stave off the sun if even for a few minutes, and overall just took in the city.
We ended up eating dinner at an amazing tapas and steakhouse that was recommended to us by one of the people we’d kayaked with and it did not disappoint. Some of the best steak I’ve ever had, and we got to pick the hunk that was cooked for us. Though the meat was far more mature than I was.
Afterwards we took a leisurely 40-minute walk home and got to see the city at night, which was also really nice, from the much older architecture to the more modern and various types of street art.
Of course, speaking of dogs, we did get accosted by a pair of them as we strolled through the park, “Keep your dogs on a leash if you can’t control them, people!”, but my wife “came to my rescue” (I saved her, really) and the rest of the walk was without incident.
On the final day we did what’s called a picture tour where I again sweat buckets and I’m sure ruined just about every picture the photographer took of us. She guided us on a slightly less-expansive tour of the city where we hit up some of the more photogenic spots. This is definitely the part of the trip where I wish I’d lost a bit more weight before we went, but it was nice all the same. The photographer was lovely and personable and there was another very nice guy on the tour who swapped phones with us so we could take extra pictures of him while he took extra pictures of us.
After that we had a truly excellent 5 or 6-course lunch my wife had arranged in advance and then burned a bit of it off in the hotel pool. Unfortunately I had to work that night so we missed our chance to see a flamenco show or eat paella together, although my wife did get to do both those things after I left.
That’s right! While the next morning I had to take a cab to the airport and get on yet another 12+ hour flight home, my wife stayed in Barcelona for a whole ‘nother week!
Actually, the only reason I went at all was because she was already planning to go for a week for a skating event/celebration a bunch of her California skating friends were going to, and so we thought why not go a few days early just the two of us and have our own Barcelona vacation before the celebration began. So she was kind enough to throw this old dog a bone. She’ll likely be flying home as you’re all reading this Tuesday.
At any rate, I did have a blast and would definitely recommend Barcelona as a vacation spot if you’ve never been. I spent quite a few days there and feel like I explored only a single-digit percent of what the city has to offer. If we have the chance I think we’ll absolutely go again.
Quickies
-MoonRise. I did manage to complete another episode of my upcoming Webtoon Originals series during the trip, which I was not expecting to happen. We’ve now finished double-digit episodes and are creeping ever closer to what would be the episode count for our mid-season break. It’s likely that Webtoon wants us to reach that mid-season episode count before they’ll provide us with a date for our debut. My guess is that’ll only be another few weeks!
-Weight. I’ve been baaaaaaad since returning from Spain, basically only eating delivery/junk food and drinking far too much soda. I’m easily 290 again. Sigh. It’s all coming to a stop once my wife returns on Tuesday and then it’s nothing but, uh… celery and, I guess carrots and salmon and stuff until the wedding? I can do that.
-Comics 101. I know I was supposed to have taken one of the Scott Snyder run comics writing classes I missed between last Alert and this one, but… I went to Spain, okay? I didn’t want to learn anything while I was in Spain! However, between this Alert and the next one I will take said class (it’ll be on Characterization and also features Donny Cates, so it should be good) and report my findings forthwith!
-Facts. In tweet format.
Meant to share this with an earlier Exner Alert, actually, but despite the fact that it’s over a month old I think it still resonates quite keenly.