Barcelona

When I made my plans to come to Spain, I decided when to come based on weather (it can get very hot in late July and August), and to be here when my friends Crystal and Ashley from San Francisco would be here. Chalk it up to general ignorance, but I had no idea that I was arriving on Barcelona's biggest holiday of the year, Saint John's Day.

The day before the holiday, which is tied to the summer solstice, businesses start shutting down pretty early, and virtually everyone in the town turns out to set off fireworks and party in the streets and on the beach all night long. The following day is the actual holiday and the whole town is shut down.

So I was lucky to arrive at such a festive time. The beach party was fantastic. However, today I will need to find something to do and eat that doesn't require a business to be open.

It looks like a walking tour day!

From the relatively small amount of Barcelona I have seen so far, my main observation is how similar much of the architecture is to that of Buenos Aires. The little "don't cry for me" terraces, wooden window shutters, the ceramic sidewalks. This shouldn't come as a surprise considering Argentina was settled by the Spanish, but it's cool to see those influences first hand.

Danke

Sinking into life in Berlin has been nothing but pleasant. The only thing that would have made it better for me would have been if I had known more German when I arrived. I planned to try and cram a couple quick weeks of German lessons (on my Mac perhaps), but alas... there has really been no need. Many Germans speak English. But shame on me anyway.

My friends Crisi and Sarah, both of whom I met in Thailand, have been great hosts and guides, especially Sarah who has put me up in her place the past week or so. Her flatmate, Timo, has been quite hospitable as well.

Sarah and Timo live in Kreuzberg, a geographically large neighborhood south of downtown with a large Turkish immigrant population. There are many Turkish bakeries, restaurants grocery stores, and other businesses in the area.

The past weeks here in Germany (and Europe for that matter) have seen daily UEFA soccer playoffs. I knew football was a big deal in Europe, but I did not expect to see the utter preoccupation with the daily games. In the U.S. we have sports fans, and sports bars where they tend to go to watch their big games. During this playoff time, however, every game is a big game to everyone. And if it is your country playing today, it's really really big. Face painting, dressing in national colors, etc. Each evening after work on any block in any neighborhood, there are tables, chairs, and big screens set out on the sidewalks, for neighbors to gather together and watch the games and enjoy the mild summer weather over a beer or two.

So besides the German game days carrying a special excitement, the Turkish game days do as well, especially in Kreuzberg. Also exciting is that both teams have done nothing but win. When the Turks advanced to the next round last week, thousands of Turkish immigrants flooded the streets of Berlin and partied all night.... and this isn't even the quarter finals.

The German locals have been equally delighted about their team's success, but have been somewhat less raucous in the aftermath.

I have noticed examples here and there of Berliners' extra civilized behavior. For example, at a beer garden showing the Germany vs. Poland game, enough fans had turned out so that all of the benches set out in the yard to watch the big screen were filled. So the bar denied entry to other folks so that the bench sitters could see the screen. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

Also, riding my borrowed bike around town has been a relatively low stress affair, considering this is a bustling major metropolis. Drivers and pedestrians alike show a tremendous amount of courtesy and consideration out on the road. The extensive presence of bike lanes is helpful as well.

As always, it is so difficult to see everything there is to see here. I am trying not to stress about it. I am alternating tourist days with relaxation and recreation time. If I don't see all of the must sees here, it's OK.

The next couple of months of travel has begun to take shape as well. I bought tickets to visit Barcelona, Spain next week and Ghent, Belgium near Brussels to visit friends there the week after. From Ghent I will likely hop up to Amsterdam for a few days before visiting friends again in Prague, Czech Republic. In early August I will attend The Big Chill festival in England, which was recommended by a good friend in London whose tastes I hold in high esteem. It's pricey, but you only live once, right?

I am feeling especially lucky to have these friends in such great places. I did not expect so much company and support when I originally planned my trip to Europe. But after a relatively solitary time in Argentina, I have a new appreciation for time spent, not only someplace new, but someplace with good friends.

Danke amigos.

Berlin

I knew I would like Berlin. I have met some super cool people from Germany while traveling, and I have especially enjoyed the folks I have met from Berlin. I fully expected to like it here.. and I already do.

Germans have traveling in their blood. It is a part of their culture. I think it may be for this reason that I have found them to be quite hospitable to people like me traveling to their country. Upon arrival I had already been offered three different apartments to stay in, a bike to ride around town, and a cell phone to use.

Everyone here is especially impressed by my choice of season to visit. It is quite warm and sunny here now.. a departure apparently from the past several months. It was not rocket science though. As I recall, I just looked on lonelyplanet.com to see "when to go", and then fine tuned that with some friends' suggestions.

After two days here, I have been invited to a party on a rooftop of an abandoned war torn building, headed out for a day at a nearby lake, attended a lively beer garden to watch the German national football team play (and win) a playoff match against Poland, and practiced my poi spinning at a beautiful river side park. The busy, fun lifestyle here seems to rival that of my dear home. The folks in this neighborhood seem young, bright, creative, and laid back.

Like I said, I knew I would like it here.

Layover

After a delightful week on the beach with good friends, I headed back to San Francisco for two days before heading to Europe. Two days is not very much time to do much of anything except a long list of errands. However, staying any longer would have meant either a later return home in August or a shorter stay in Europe, and a more expensive plane ticket. So two days it is.

I realize now just how spoiled I am with what I consider necessities. Not that I am carrying very much with me, but certain things like having my brand of toothpaste and deodorant (Tom´s of Maine), certain vitamin supplements, a new pair of jeans, flip flops, etc. These are all items that, for some reason, I thought I could find in any decent sized city. I couldn't find any of them in Argentina and now I am not so sure about Europe either. So now is my chance to shop till I drop, and load up on goodies.

My most prized item to pick up is my Macbook. Since I chose not to bring it along to any beaches or developing countries, I have been relegated to Internet cafes for quite some time. I plan to try and be productive over the next two months, getting myself geared up again for work, diving back into some hobby projects, and finally having access to some new music again.

I also got a recharge on face time with loved ones back home. It wasn't much time, but it did mean a lot to me to see some of my favorite faces and to remember what makes home so special.

Tomorrow I will begin my twenty nine hour door to door journey to Berlin starting at 5 am and culminating at the main Berlin train station at 6 pm the next day.

Deep breath.

Conned

I had a very strange experience back in Guatemala that I refrained from writing about until I had a better idea of what actually happened.

One day back in April, I had been trying to make a number of airplane reservations online. After two successful payments, my Visa company got spooked and put a hold on my card, so I was unable to finish the rest of them. I sent an email to my issuing bank and gave up for the day.

I went to a local bar to return my friend's laptop that I had borrowed. She and some other friends were there and were talking to a fellow I hadn't met. I gave the folks at the table my sob story about the airline flights and credit card problems.

Coincidentally, the new fellow, named Darius, had an airline story to tell as well. He said that he flies around the world a lot for work and has accumulated over two million frequent flier miles that will soon be expiring. He said he couldn't possibly use them all before they expire, so his intention was to give them away to anyone that wants to fly somewhere. He said he didn't want anything in return. He just didn't want to see them go to waste especially if they could benefit others.

The something-for-nothing red flag went up in my head. I am quite a skeptical sort, so although I wanted to believe he was for real, I was definitely crinkling my nose about it. I had plans that night so I couldn't stay and chat about it, but he suggested we meet up the next day and he could hook me up.

That night, some of us discussed what could be up with this guy. We smelled a scam, but the guy didn't seem to want anything. He said that he would purchase the tickets for us, so I thought maybe he is collecting private info like passport numbers. Who knows. But at the same time, someone was offering me a free flight, so I planned to follow along with it until he requested something I wasn't comfortable with. Then I would drop out.

The next day, I opened a One World frequent flier account through American Airlines since he mentioned his miles were with that group. I figured I would ask him to transfer some miles to me online rather than buying a ticket and see what he says. I also happened to have a friend who was out of money and desperately needed to return to the States, so I let her know when I was meeting him so she could potentially benefit.

I met him at Zoola, a pleasant restaurant and hangout spot, operated and frequented by Israelis. He said that he had just finished arranging for a ticket for another friend of ours and to just let him know where and when I wanted to go and he would arrange it. His manner made it seem just so easy and plausible. I still wasn't sure about the guy. But I felt more comfortable about the situation. He said he didn't want any personal information. Only a first and last name to list as the passenger name. He seemed concerned that somehow having personal information would be a bad idea for him and the people he was helping.

I asked about transferring miles and he said it was a big hassle to do because the miles were all tied up with his company, a big New York investment company. He said that he was very good with math and that's why he had this important seeming job. His story made a lot of sense. He said that he didn't know his flier miles belonged to him and had been accruing them for years. He had just become aware of this huge balance of points when someone from the company contacted him to let him know many of them would expire soon. He said he was having trouble giving them away because people were creeped out by the idea of taking something so valuable from him. There must be a catch. I decided to keep playing along.

The friend I brought along, however, seemed to get spooked and decided not to go with us to the Internet Cafe to purchase the ticket. He seemed really confused about it and annoyed that he had to try so hard to give stuff away.

Before we left Zoola, a group of Israeli travelers began to give Darius a hard time. He wore a star of David as a necklace. And I suppose when he didn't speak any Hebrew, they naturally asked him where he was from. He said he was from Beiruit, born to an Arab father and a Jewish mother. The Israelis would not let this claim stand. They could not fathom this and continued to pummel him with questions about his upbringing. After awhile it became somewhat heated and he got frustrated so we left.

When we got to the Internet place, he brought up some airline screens where he listed out ticket possibilities for me to get from San Francisco to Frankfurt and back. He said the points he had were only good for first class, so like it or not, I would have to fly first class. Shame.

We picked a set of flights which totaled about $7800 retail. He said he was sending the info to the company travel agent and that I should get a confirmation. He said it sometimes takes a few minutes and sometimes takes a couple of days. I gave him my email address although he didn't seem to want it, so that this person could forward the confirmation directly to me.

That was that.

At this point, I still wasn't convinced. I also didn't feel super comfortable with the idea of this guy having any type of change or cancellation control over my trip to Europe. But at this point, he still has not asked me for a thing. He is seeming more and more legit all the time. So I am pretty happy now, hoping to soon get a confirmation for a free first class flight to Germany.

He hung out with my group of friends that night and continued to offer these tickets. He also made some other strange claims though. He said he could count cards. No doubt part of his math genius tool set. He claimed he could keep track of six decks of cards during black jack and would play folks at the bar. It is a tough claim to verify since counting cards only gives you a slight advantage. You still lose sometimes. But ok. He can count cards. Great.

He didn't play for money. He didn't ask anyone for anything. In fact, he bought a couple rounds of drinks as I remember.

One observation my Israeli friend made was that, for a man with such a well paid job, his star of David necklace was obviously cheap. She thought that was strange.

So, as you might imagine, I was eager to check my email to see about a confirmation of the flight. He had said he spoke with the travel agent and everything was a go. But each time I checked, no confirmation.

A couple of days passed. I hadn't seen him around town. Neither had others.

He had arranged for three different people in town. After all the offering he was doing, only three of us followed through with him. One of the others actually had a phone number for him and called him up. He answered and said his travel agent had called and was concerned with all of the different names he was buying tickets for, but that he explained and everything was fine again. Just be patient.

The other person was a girl who by now was pretty creeped out by the guy. He had been hitting on her pretty relentlessly even though she told him she had a boyfriend in the next town. A true fact. But he continued to pester her with phone calls and visits. Nothing too outrageous though.

After three days or so, I was pretty well convinced that I would never receive a confirmation. We could not for the life of us, however, figure out why he did this. We had some theories: For attention, compulsive liar, maybe a gift that might be cashed in later for some kind of favor, or just enjoys messing with people's heads.

He did borrow money from one person that probably was never returned. But it was not very much. Not enough to warrant all of the energy required to put so many people on.

My main problem at this point was: I need a ticket to Europe. If I buy a ticket now and the confirmation actually shows up, I will have wasted my money. But the longer I wait, the more expensive the ticket may get. After about five or six days, I was satisfied and purchased my ticket.

We all talked about it for days, just boggled at who this guy was and why he did this. I resigned myself to the fact that I would never find out any more about the guy.

But then I did.

Last week, a couple of folks from San Pedro emailed me to announce that at least some of the mystery was solved.

Darius was not his real name. His real name is Simon Gann and he is a true blue con man. He also has an identical twin brother named Jordan who was just sentenced to prison for his cons. Simon is wanted in Massachusetts and several other authorities are investigating him.

As to what his motives or intentions were with this frequent flier deal.... I still don't really know. The "con" in con man is short for confidence. Con men build confidence and trust in their victims before abusing that trust later on somehow, usually leaving the victim lighter in the wallet. It is possible the behaviour is just compulsive. He can't stop lying and making up stories. Or maybe there really was more in store for us. I would like to think that I would have been smart enough to pull away from him if his story started to change. But who knows? These guys are pros... and I am just trusting, albeit skeptical, soul.

Surfing

For a couple of days I have been waiting for the right opportunity to take a surfing lesson. Every now and then I go to one of the shady tents where the surfers (aka instructors) hang out and ask them when a good time for a lesson might be.

Surprisingly, rather than sell me any old time slot, they seem legitimately concerned that I have a good time, so they continue to council me to be patient and wait for better conditions.

Since there isn't much to do in Sayulita but eat delicious food, sleep, and surf, I spent a fair amount of time out on the beach. I noticed one particular instructor seemed to be especially enthusiastic about teaching so I decided he was my best bet.

Like the others, he preached patience. He suggested we meet the next morning before the waves got too crowded with others. When I met him the next day, he looked out at the surf and pushed the lesson out another hour and a half so the waves would be breaking in the right spot. An hour and a half later, he pushed it another thirty minutes. Then, finally, the gods whispered to him that it was time, and he pulled a Norwegian guy and me down to the water line.

He taught us how to position ourselves on the board to paddle out, some general surfing etiquette, and then finally how to hop up on the board and the proper stance once upright. That was really it. Not much to the lesson. But then he swam out with us to the spot where folks were waiting for waves and then, as a wave would come, would yell "Paddle! Paddle! Paddle! Jump up!", then he'd give the board an extra push, and just like that, I was up and surfing on the very first try.

Since I am a snowboarder, the general balance and sensation of riding was not new to me, so I was surprised how easy it really was once one catches a wave. As it turns out, paddling around is much more challenging than riding a wave. I knew that paddling around required a lot of back and shoulder strength. You can tell by the tell tale muscle tone on most surfers. But I wasn't prepared for the neck strength it took just to keep my chin off the board, so as not to swallow tons of sea water. The proper posture is to have your shoulders and head well above the board while resting on your rib cage. Try staying in that position on and off for an hour. That turned out to be even tougher than the paddling part.

Armed with new confidence in my shredding skills, I rented a board the next day with Michael, who has done a little surfing, and we headed out for the waves... slightly bigger than the day before. As it turns out, having a dude in the water yelling "Paddle! Paddle!" and pushing your board for you is more useful than I thought. Choosing waves to paddle on was a challenge. Besides judging which ones I might catch, I was also preoccupied with not getting run over by other surfers, and so I had a hard time catching many at all.

All in all though, I consider the adventure a success. I don't think I will become an addict anytime soon. Running out to chilly Ocean Beach at 6 am before work still doesn't really appeal to me. But I will try it again next time I have more friendly 85 degree water to play in.

After a delightful week of beach bumming, I am off to San Francisco for a two day layover before heading off to Germany. I am creating an extensive shopping list of items to recharge mt backpack for the final two months of my trip.

Bye bye beach.

Sayulita

After about twenty hours of travel, I made it to Puerto Vallarta airport just about an hour before my good friends Shannon and Michael arrived from San Francisco. I immediately needed to shed my jeans and shoes for I am now highly aware of being in a new tropical zone of the planet. My hair went from merely wavy, to full afro in about twenty minutes. I was concerned the weather would be oppressively hot way down here below the southern tip of Baja California. But the cool Pacific breeze keeps the weather perfect all day and night.

They had arranged with Marc, a friend from home, to stay on his boat which is stored here at a nearby marina. Some friends of Marc's immediately greeted us at his boat and we had an immediate welcoming committee. Cruisers are similar to backpackers ad RV folks, in that they provide a friendly, helpful community at any marina around the world. These folks were no different.

The next day we headed for Sayulita beach, a small surfing town just north of PV. Within an hour or so, Shannon used her signature mixture of luck and sociability to secure us the guesthouse of a local beachfront business owner for less than the price of a normal hotel room. She really is a secret weapon. The place is the upstairs floor of a building overlooking the water with beds both inside and outside on the large deck, complete with puffy chairs and a hammock.

I didn't do much research about this beach before I arrived. I was mainly excited to see my friends and hang out at the beach. But I became immediately aware that this is a popular beach to learn how to surf. The waves are small but constant and the water nice and warm. Teachers and rental shops line the beach.

On Wednesday I thought I might like to take a lesson while I am here, so I asked at one of the tents along the beach. He says it is $30 US for an hour of training and would I like to get started right now. I tell him that today I am just chilling, swimming, and reading, but tomorrow I will probably hit him up.

The next day when I went out to find the guy, I realized there really weren't any waves out on the water. The teacher confirmed that it was now, indeed, a poor time to try and learn. I guess that was my first lesson of surfing. If the waves look good now, go.

Duh.