I was more confident because now I was in familiar territory and I had been in Barcelona twice before. (see EUROPE2003. ) I did some pre-arrival preparation and rented out a flat off the Vallcarra Green Line exit, which advertised two bedrooms, full kitchen and cable TV. With a coy smirk on my face, I quickly boasting to the other tour-mates that from here on out, life was gonna be chill. Unknowingly to me, our flat was directly off Calle la Costa, which we found out was a steep hill.
"How steep could it be," I pondered to myself, not very worried.
89 stairs. I think we counted about 89 stairs before we reached the top from our subway stop. I could feel the glares against to my face, as I walked next to Daryl who was already fully broken out in sweat.

      But once we got settled, things really were simple. The sun kept his height, till about 10pm every night, and we were beat by that time. One day we met up with Darrell Stanton and a bunch of the Australian Volcom team. The ones I knew were: Jake Dumcome from "What If?" & blond mullet fame and Aussie photographer, which I recently heard about from a drunk girl at Star Shoes on Hollywood, "Do you know of a photographer named Andrew Mapstone?"
"I know of him" I subjectively reply.
"I fucking loveee that guy" she slurred back.
With this sort of credentials, his reputation was already sky high in my book.

      Things hadn't changed much since I last visited Spain. The two gigolos racked up tons of footage, despite the issues with tourists sitting on the ledges, the intense mid-day heat and Daryl's hair pulling rants. In fact things did get better, because we found an outdoor escalator, which took us up the 89-stair hill and then some, so we bombed the 'calle' every night before arriving home.

Notable memories from our trip were the following:

      After one super skated day, we stepped onto the subway's escalating stairwell at the bottom of what seemed to be about 100 stairs. As I turn to tell James something, my enlarged camera bag bumps the STOP button, which made the entire escalator, come to an instant and complete stop. The 40 people riding the escalator in front of me jar forward, causing their heads to make a whiplash motion and drop their bags. As if they heard a car crash, they quickly swiveled their heads and point angry stares in our direction. As embarrassing as it was for me, it was intensified when James said in his typical American talk/yell, "It was this guy, he was the one who stopped it... it was with his bag." During his monologue, he poked my bag and the stop button recreating the incident with his fingers. I shoot a look over to Daryl and Derek who had already started walking up the stairs, avoiding eye contact and head hung low in shame that they even know us.

      Even though I have been to Spain twice before, I never made the effort to enjoy the beach, but once arriving to this sandy paradise, it felt the same as browsing a playboy magazine. Derek, James and I left one hot afternoon and made our way to Barcelonetta, the main Barcelona beach. God has created the 5 wonders of the world, but after witnessing this, it should be changed to 6.
      Think how strange would it be if you saw a girl wear a jacket at the beach? It would look weird right? Well for a girl to wear any top at the beach is like wearing a jacket. It is just normal to wear no bikini top, yet it felt so un-normal for me to look. As I walk down the beach, my back red with burn, I scan through the old ladies and toddlers, to find any young supple woman to participate in my vision. Here's how it would go: Glance one would note the breasts. If they were good breasts I move on to glance two to confirm and see the other parts that complimented these breasts. Once confirmed then lastly comes the third and final, solidified photographic memory look. Anything more then three looks and I felt really dirty, perverted and well... I guess I had no problem with it. So my buddies knew I had found an exceptional girl when I requested, "Can we take a break right here, my feet hurt. No, no, RIGHT HERE!."
Let's just say my feet were hurting often on that beach.

      Barcelona seems as if it was made for skateboarders. Breaking it down it consists of perfect spots, beaches with topless girls and subways also flooded with girls, plus cheap food and cheap accommodations. Even the bars stay open till the early dawn. I often wonder, "Why don't I live here?"

      We didn't really party much in Spain, it was pretty serious skate time. Derek and Daryl felt as if Spain was an unlimited playground, and they wanted to have all day recess, which was fine by me. We hung out a bit with my old American friend Jen, which was pleasant having a female to drink wine, dinner and chat with. Her and I got along rather well, so we hung out often.

      Things seem to be smooth sailing, almost too smooth. James had to fly back home and return to work, so we all booked our Ryan Air flights to accompany him to assure he got home safely. Deciding to stay a week longer in Barcy with Jose Rojo and Rodent, Daryl said his farewells and planned to meet up with us a couple days later. I didn't really argue with him, because I was already getting tired of his teenage antics. This was my little Angel break.
      The sweaty short haired girl who rented us the place, returned to inspect the place and see if we destroyed anything. Two dishes and one small complaint from the neighbor and we were good to go. Noticeably there was a lack of excitement in our crew, as you can also read in this story. I figured we were just extremely tired, skating all hours for one week straight put a exhaust into us, that would take a couple days to mend. France would be a great place to do this. This trip was originally planned to meet up with my girlfriend for the last week in Paris, but considering our relationship decided to spend "time apart" a week before I left, this I had no idea where this story would lead.
      Worried and excited at the same time, Derek, James and I leave for Paris. Things have been looking up, and I am hoping things stay good.

UPDATE # 5 / I CHOSE NOT TO COMPLETE DUE TO BAD MEMORIES. (basically things didnt work out!, hahha)