tales from el prat

well, i made it back... finally. i missed my flight on sunday, spent 36 hours at el prat, paid more money for another ticket, met the colombian womens' junior football league, witnessed an obscene, obnoxious, old german man who seemingly had been stranded for a while at the airport, penniless left only to search for left/stuck public phone change, tourists from allover, mainly upper middle class america, fights with ticket offices, ... it was eventful at the least.

train to venezia... long. i left sunday at 17h21 and arrived 08h33. switched many times, finally at 00h00 we switched to trenitalia. we were warned of a scheduled robbery from 02h00-04h00... just to keep it in mind. the lady accompanying me in the compartment was an older czech woman, who spoke czech, german, and 10% english... she was stressing the entire trip after the warning, hassling the conductor every 15 minutes and asking me what to do. i told her to hide everything in the mattress linings. after enough harrassment, the conductor convinced the driver to keep going straight, not stopping for the scheduled heist in vienna. the woman proceeded to tell me that austria was now worse than bulgaria. she then gave the conductor a chocolate bar for his kindness. the next morning as we were pulling into mestre she filed a complaint. there was zero sleep to be had. checked in and headed across the bridge to kill time and get some espresso, surprise/chance running into pedro at santa lucia.

the biennale was good... though i have to say not as great as 2006, though i still walked away with a few things to think about. it was great to be back in italy, my italian has greatly improved... i'm very happy for this. in fact i'm halfway through il nome della rosa! ran into genova kids and rice. i felt the whole time i was back in genova mode. highlights would have to be the un studio video installations, droog's installation, italian housing studies, the italian pavilion, ... disappointments would have to be venezuelan pavilion (total propaganda), spanish pavilion, belgian pavilion (though we made the most of a building full of confetti), the fact frank gehry was alloted space for a wooden trash heap, fuksas' overrated computer generated living conditions, the gondola video exhibit....

roma was great fun. we got to stay in the waldorf-astoria for free, obviously you can imagine we were out of our element as everyone was over the top diplomatic or posh, and then there was pedro and i with our backpacks... it was a sight to behold! it was a bit out of the way, on top of the mountain, but we managed to find our way in the middle of the night... lucky for us there were random people still stirring around town. met some interesting people at the ciampino airport... our flight was delayed 3 hours! so 1 hour was spent just standing in line, as 10 minutes turned into another 10 minutes, .... until an hour had passed and we realized we were still standing in line. go figure. arrived to beauvais quite late... listened to old italian men telling tales about the french. long bus ride!

i somehow remembered the way to mathilde's flat, 3 years later... but conveniently forgot the codes. no phone, no card for the public phone, ... , i was planning to camp on the street when a young guy passed by heading into the building, i convinced him i wasn't homeless and was actually a friend. got in, but rang the wrong doorbell at 3 am, as i was exiting i saw the note and the bulging door mat. saved! an hour later the guy who's bell i rang came home. i woke up sick! this was basically my week, sick but trying to enjoy the time. met with alex, his flatmate fred, the straight fashionista... gibert's birthday shindig... met all of paris' brightest, newly declared medical professionals... domique perrault exhibition at pompidou... world's best falafels... second hand romping... farewell party to a newly befriended medical internist.

plane to girona. bus ride to barcelona. nocturnal exploration. nightcap with a napolitano and an ex-cia opperative, who pushed my buttons polically, as he was publicly declaring his conservative republican views, admiration for mccain and his attraction to palin. jesus! the blood pressure was ticking. he basically ridiculed me for being a green party supporter and my belief in global warming. he made racist comments against black people when i answered his questions about moving to jamaica with the pc. yea overall, good friendly hostility.

barcelona is amazing, once you escape the mad tourists and the traps which try to lure you in. the mix of cultures is so diverse, the neighborhoods and districts all different and enjoyable for something distinct. i met so many interesting people, saw some good local performances, and am ready to move when pc is over. i'm sold. catalan sounds like a strange mix of portuguese, french, and a drop of spanish. but it adds even more dimension to the city when you hear all these different sounds. my hostel was full of italians, brasilians, and canadians. made friends fast. went out the last night with my roommates, some girls from rio who were studying in salamanca. i'm also a big fan of the parks. i got hassled more so than in italy... but all you can do is laugh it off. nothing offensive. i also got cornered by a mormon on my walk to the forum... i told him it was a shame i spoke only italian, lucky for me, he was italian and filled my bag with all these italian pamphlets. only me of course. i made an effort to try to experience all the different neighborhoods and see all the different types of living environments. quite informative. thoroughly loved park guell.

missed my flight the next morning, as i was convinced it was at 13h00, yea pretty sure it was at 11h00... so had to camp out in el prat waiting for confirmation of another flight. so began my intensive observations, random interactions, and strange coincidences.... and above all a very long wait. i filled myself with sesame bars and cafe con leches to keep sustenance... like the majority of my trip. had a long talk with some colombian guys, who favored me as soon as i had some nice things to say about their motherland. life is tough, they made this that much clearer to me. i passed the whole night and early morning hours with them, and once they left i had a lot to process. i witnessed a lot of thought provoking actions, scenes, and discussions in that airport... amazing you can pick up so much in a space for so many hours.

i finally got to my flight a million hours later.. it was full of upper class, older spaniards. i sat next to 2 couples who were friends going to prague for the first time. the man next me hated flying, but decided to give it another try. we talked the whole trip about traveling, spain, history, prague, and the czech republic... i'm sure i sounded like a cavewoman speaking spanish. it was a mix of italian and spanish, and many bo's. regardless, i think i attracted attention, all the rows around me started asking for information about prague, asking me to draw maps and write down names for them... as soon as we were passing the alps everyone ripped out their cameras flashing pictures left and right, and before i knew they were making me pose by the window so they could remember the girl who helped them. why? i can't imagine their expressions when they return home and begin reviewing their photos to stumble upon a dark eyed white girl smiling next to a window with the alps in the lower background. anyway, at baggage claim i got hugs and kisses and promises that if we ran into one another on the streets of prague i would be in for a dinner or drinks. i thanked them kindly, and broke it to them we may not, but to enjoy the trip anyway.

i made it to the metro, but unfortunately attracted the attention of some homeless, white pill-popping drug addicts, who kept staring waiting for me to make a move. i tricked them into getting off at mustek, but the damn backback with the spanish tag set all of the prague petty thieves on my trail. long, long way home. got tricked into trivia night, which we scored another 3rd place, damn shitty music and movies, and a 2 point penalty for teams of 5 people. finally made it home to pass out around 1hoo. more than 48 hours awake at that point, i don't know how i figured i would be good at trivia without sleep and sickness prevailing. regardless, good time had by all, despite our losing.... usually takes a few hours to overcome we've lost.

made it back in time for prague's designblok. looking forward to checking it out today till the 12th.