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Back to Europa, back to Barcelona. . . .
Overall, the journey from San Francisco to Frankfurt wasn't too bad. I anticipated the delays at the airport, and didn't mind when they pulled my toothpaste and whatnot. What did bother me was that they grabbed my Haribo (German) Gummi-bears and gummi-cola's. As if I'm going to bite the heads off the bears and stick them together to make C-4.
I had planned on getting new luggage in the California, and thanks to my friends at MotoStrano, I now have some worthy luggage to travel the world with! I tried to pack light, butI didn't really succeed. Part of the problem was/is that I have to make my life in Barcelona when I'm not at the races, and that means I want to have some of the small conveniences that make like liveable in Europe. Things like clean clothes, new socks, and my trusty, old Haro Mirra 540 Air BMX took up the bulk of my cargo. Other cool things I picked up in the States will be revealed over time. I still cannot get over my Alpinestars flight gear, though. You simply cannot put a price on things that work, and stylish things that work are worth even more (and you know this, Ladies!).
About the only thing that really bothered me on the trip to Germany was the odd collection of Croatian Water-Polo fanatics who were returning from an event at Stanford (I think, my Croatian is at an all-time low). Like the Spaniards, they liked to yell across the rows and drink - a lot! Maybe I'm just lucky, who knows?
I was a little nervous about landing in Germany, because they really like to follow procedure, even if it costs you your connecting flight (see January). I was already two hours late from SF, so I was worried about missing my flight to BCN, but somehow we made up a bunch of time in the air. After wading through a grip of slow moving security lines, I found my gate and learned that the flight was delayed over an hour as well. So far I had been travelling for more than 16 hours, airport time included. I needed some fuel, and this is one of the most expensive Orange Juices I've ever paid for. Roughly 10 USD for a 25cl of juice and a teeny Coke. Outrageous!
After waiting an hour for the luggage to arrive at the terminal in BCN, I caught a cab back to the pad and started unloading my gear. I needed to connect with my Spanish buddy, Nachete, to pick up my plane tickets to Brno, so that was priority numero uno. We met within an hour of my arrival in the city and went for a nice walk to have a couple cervesas and some olivas. Not a bad welcome back! Thanks Nachete!
What's Super Duper Cool about this picture?!? I tried to take a nap after Nachete caught the train back to Reus (about an hour out of the city center), but I didn't really get in a good one. I couldn't wait to get back to the Spanish coffee, and it ended up keeping me awake more than I expected. Oh well, at least I was ready to head out on time . . . .
It is soooo awesome to be in San Francisco one day, and the next thing you know, you're halfway around the world. In 48 hours I was in California, Germany, Barcelona, Marseilles, Prague, and now I'm in Brno! Rock on!
