2016 Nike Barcelona SLS Skateboard Contest

When I was maybe eight or nine years old, I started getting seriously into bicycle riding. It started out innocently with a BMX bike that my parents gave me and, over the years, moved into more and more higher-end bikes and got to the point where I spent almost every waking hour when I wasn't in school or working riding with friends. To pay for my addiction, I started peddling (ha - punny!) newspapers when I was ten and later other jobs included selling, doing repairs, and so on in bike and skateboard shops.

My biking "career" spanned the last couple of years of grade school, through high school, and even some time at university. A lot of it was racing BMX but, by the time I was in 10th grade, our group of friends started "doing freestyle", which was stunt riding on BMX bikes. It was right around then that we also got into skateboarding. Some of the same spots that were good for freestyle lent (and still do lend) themselves nicely to skateboarding. Plus, when it rained or snowed, the bikes stayed home; we were limited to skateboarding in Center City Philadelphia parking structures.

About half way through university, a friend from high school moved to San Diego to work in the skateboard industry. I went to visit him for a week or so one summer and, within a couple of hours of landing in Los Angeles, I was hooked. Right after university, I was off to California where I spent the next 19 years. The whole time I was surrounded by friends who worked in the skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing industries. I was even lucky to work in the bicycle and snowboard industries for a while.

One those friends, John John, who managed what so many dream of doing - turn a love (of action sports) into an amazing job and lifestyle, recently messaged asking if I'd be around as he could get me tickets to the Nike Street League Skateboarding Pro Open contest.

I told John John that, of course, we'd love to go! When the day arrived, Diana and I took the train to the Skate Agora skatepark in Badalona, which is the next town north of Barcelona. We grabbed our V.I.P. bracelets and set in to enjoy watching pro skaters from around the world compete on the newish, well-designed, beach-side park.

Since moving away from California, I've only been marginally aware of the industry and sports that occupied such a majority of my time on this planet. Barcelona has its own (fairly big) skateboarding scene, the mountains are close, and you'll even see the occasional surfer at the beach but it's just not the same intensity as it was in Oceanside. It was nice to be back in the mix, even if just as an observer.

Thanks for the tickets John John! We had a great time (vicariously) reliving my youth. Maybe when you and the family come for a visit, we can roll around the park for a bit!

The (Travel) Force Is Strong With This One

Poking around my blog, you might guess that my love of travel is genetic and that I come from a long line of explorers. Well, that's really not the case. Actually, many in my family just don't get why I like wandering all over the world. There are a couple of exceptions though, like my aunt and uncle and, now, my niece.

Back in 2010, I was in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving when my cousin's daughter, who was in high school at the time, showed some interest in my travels. She asked me where I had been, what I liked, and some ideas of places she might visit one day. Even though she had yet to enter university, she was already thinking about where she'd could do an exchange semester overseas. As I had just come to Philadelphia directly from China, I think I said how impressed I was and that she might consider going there. I probably gave her some other ideas but I don't remember now.

Like all smart people, she's completely ignored my advice and is currently doing an exchange semester in London! By the way, it seems like that conversation was yesterday! I'm old!

When I found out she'd be in England, Diana and I told her she needed to visit during a break. It was an even bigger surprise when my cousin decided to visit her and that they'd do a quick Barcelona trip!

Even though it was for only a couple of days, we squeezed in all the best of Barcelona. The Magic Fountain above and the full Sagrada Familia tour. This was just a couple of days after we went for our private tour with Victor Ochen.

By the way, I was recently corrected that I'm wrong to call my cousin's daughter my niece but saying "my first cousin once removed" is just way too complicated, so you'll have to forgive me as I'll just continue saying niece.

I mentioned above about how my niece is a bit of a travel fan. She did a project in Belgium last year and has been bouncing around Europe for the last couple of months. I was jealous when I recently saw her posts from Croatia! It's good that the force is strong with (someone in) my family (finally)!

Taking in the view from Park Guell:

Between the wedding and several random visits like this one, maybe a third of my family's been, which isn't too bad when you consider it's like a ten-hour flight away. Now, about the rest of them...

At Casa Batllo:

It was a treat to have these guys stay with us. I can't wait to visit my niece when she's living somewhere in a land far, far away (hint, hint). Based on what I've seen, it won't be a long, long time...

The Day A Nobel Peace Prize Candidate Stopped By

Not too long ago I mentioned how a lot of random (good) things happen for Diana and me like the time we got an impromptu castle tour in Barbera de la Concha and when I taught the English class in Tibet. I figured this kinda' stuff happens to everyone but, after talking to some friends, it may come down to our openness to new experiences. The reality is that I can't remember a time when someone asked me to do something and I didn't except for when I was physically not able/there.

One recent example was when Xavi, the priest who married us, asked Diana if he could bring a few people by our apartment for pica pica one Sunday afternoon after a meeting. It's one of the reasons why we like living in the very center of Barcelona - people tend to stop by, which we really enjoy. Anyway, he didn't go into a lot of detail but, as usual, we said sure. Diana and I bought some food and straightened up a bit. Nothing special down to the plastic plates and cups. Hey, nothing screams class more than serving Cava and wine in plasticware!

Well, turns out that the guest of honor was Victor Ochen who was a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize candidate. D'oh, IKEA furniture and plastic cups!

Victor was in Spain to give a series of talks about his life and work. While my shallow self was worried about cutlery, Victor casually told us about how he spent his first 20 years living through civil war, surviving meningitis with no medical care, growing up in refuge camps, and trying not to get kidnapped and/or taken away to fight (like his brother who never came back). Then, if all that wasn't enough, how, for the last 15 years, he's been working for peace as well as starting and running the the African Youth Initiative Network. In other words, some amazing things.

We hung out at our place for about two hours before Xavi asked Diana and me if we'd like to go with them to the Sagrada Familia for a private tour. Sagrada Familia. Private tour. Hmm, is the Pope Catholic? Of course!!! And off we went.

Our tour was led by, you're not going to believe this, the parish priest of the Sagrada Familia, Father Lluis Bonet i Armengol whose father worked with Gaudi and whose brother oversaw construction of the Sagrada Familia for 28 years! Could this day get any better?

Father Bonet i Armengol took us through the entire church pointing out things like that the stained-glass windows each have a name of place, such as Lourdes and Guadalupe, where a miracle has happened. At one point, he asked Diana where she was from and, when she said Colombia, he said, oh, there's a window for Chiquinquira. What? The small farming town where Diana's parents are from here in the Sagrada Familia? Crazy. If you look at approximately 10 o'clock in the photo below, you'll see Chiquinquira.

We even had some fun during the tour. While in the crypt, Father Bonet i Armengol made each of us sit in a confessional that he said Gaudi designed. Here's Victor shyly looking out:

While in the crypt, I saw this lectern, which Father Bonet i Armengol said was also a Gaudi design. I love the dragons at the top and the bird feet down below:

After our church tour, we went to the parish office, which, if you're familiar with the Sagrada Familia, is the brick building to the left of the Passion facade. Victor signed the guest book and Father Bonet i Armengol showed us old photos and other Sagrada Familia memorabilia. Ah, yeah, that's me in the Sagrada Familia parish office with the parish priest and a Nobel candidate. Crazy day.

Father Bonet i Armengol sharing research he had done with Victor and Diana:

Victor had one more job to do after we left the Sagrada Familia. We went with him to a church where he gave a speech and met with parishioners. At this point, it felt like we were old friends so it was a bit strange to see him up on stage.

As you could imagine, Victor's an amazing guy. He's smart, funny, charismatic, humble, and even a bit shy. It was his humbleness that really struck me. Here's a guy who was nominated for a Nobel prize, who travels around the world speaking, who Forbes named one of the most powerful men in Africa, and who's got Desmond Tutu Whatsapping him, yet he was super humble. Like what he was doing was something anyone could do. Total respect.

Photo Credit

The thing that I'll always remember about Victor, well other than he invited us to come stay with him in Uganda, was when he and I were just outside the Sagrada Familia waiting for the others. Looking at the scene, he reached over and pulled me in close, looked me in the eye, and said something like "this is amazing". I looked back and said "really, this happens to me every day" and we laughed like a couple of old friends.

Tarragona

One of the best parts of living in Barcelona is having so much history in such a compact space. People have been living here for a long time but the city really had its first growth spurt during Roman times. There's still evidence a couple blocks from our apartment in the form of an old aqueduct-turned-building facade, columns from a forum inside another apartment building, and various building foundations throughout the city. Sort of like noticing the palm trees every day when I lived in San Diego, I never get tired of it.

For the last day of our trip to the Ruta del Cister, I wanted to visit the town of Tarragona, which is located on the coast about 60 miles south of Barcelona. Back in the day, Barcelona was a bit of a backwater and Tarragona was the big city. It was the first major Roman city on the Iberian peninsula and they have a bunch of Roman ruins, including an amphitheater right next to the sea, that you can visit.

After leaving Joan's place, we drove about 30 minutes through mostly farms to Tarragona and parked under La Rambla Nova. Immediately after coming up, we came across a fundraising event for a dog rescue. There were a bunch of dogs for adoption (no, we didn't get one much to Diana's continued frustration) and lots of dogs and their owners were dressed in costumes.

Tarragona and the surrounding area are respected as one of the powerhouses of castellers so much so that the annual castellers competition is held nearby. They have a surprisingly big sculpture celebrating the tradition about half-way down La Rambla Nova. After my time as a casteller, I couldn't help myself and pitched in with the pinya:

We spent some time walking along the old city wall and through neighborhoods near the old town center. One of my favorite things was seeing all the orange trees lining the streets. Diana sampled one of the oranges but it wasn't very good - not sweet at all. But they sure do look nice.

After a quick stop at the cathedral, we walked down towards the sea so we could visit the Roman sites before they closed for the day. The first thing we came across was the old Roman theater, which is built along a natural rock formation. It's been partially renovated but not by so much that it looks new. (Note how crazy blue the sky is in these photos.)

There's a Roman-history museum that opens up into of the ruins. You know the tunnels that you have to go through at some stadiums or the hallways behind the seats at the theater, well here's the ~2000 year-old version:

From the museum's rooftop, there's a nice view of the sea and surrounding city. That's the cathedral in the distance.

On the way out, my mom's voice popped into my head as I spotted this Romulus and Remus sculpture just like one I saw in Italy. "Were you raised by wolves?" she'd always ask when we did something foolish like leave the door open, be rude to someone, or perhaps, sometimes, just generally annoy her.

The final stop on our planned-to-be-lazy-do-nothing trip to the Catalan countryside was at the very scenic Roman amphitheater. It surprises me that this has managed to survive for something like two millennia.

If you'd asked me just a handful of years ago if I'd be spending my Sunday afternoon checking out Roman ruins along the coast of Spain, I'd have laughed. Even more if I'd have thought about giving up the palm trees and lovely Pacific for the history of Barcelona. But, it's been an amazing "trip" and our vacation to La Ruta del Cister and Tarragona was one more feather in that cap.

Ruta del Cister - Part 2

This is Part 2 of our trip around the Ruta del Cister. Part 1 is here.

On our second evening, after eating our calçots lunch, we decided to go check out the Museum of Rural Life in the small town of L'Espluga de Francoli. Our host Joan recommended it as it's near his wine shop and has some of his family's heirlooms on display. How crazy's that? Do you own anything that is old/special enough for a museum... Anyway, I don't have any worthwhile photos to show but the museum was interesting and extra special because we got there about 45 minutes before they closed and were the only ones there.

After the museum closed, we went for a walk through the town, which, like lots old towns, is built on a large town-sized rock (just like Montblanc, Mont Sant-Michel, or Castellfollit de la Roca). It's amazing to see houses built right onto the hillsides...

...like this house above a cliff face with a small, cave-like space complete with a bench and mood lighting:

We returned the next morning to visit Joan's wine shop as it was closed by the time we got there the night before. It's located next to river in L'Espluga de Francoli. The shop is run by Joan's niece and her husband and there's even some production going on in the building.

Joan's shop shares a parking lot with a museum that's built on top of a large, underground cave (according to Wikipedia, the seventh largest in the world). It's not quite the Cathedral de Sal but La Cova de la Font Major (the Major Source Cave) was a worthwhile guided-tour visit. They take you down into the cave and walk you through history using some videos, music, and displays. The staff wasn't too keen on photo taking so I (unusually) grudgingly complied thus no photos. But, it's a cave. If you don't like enclosed spaces, it's probably not your cup of tea.

Our next stop was at the Poblet Monastery, which is Diana's favorite of the ones in the area.

Poblet is also a Cistercian monastery and was founded in the mid 1100s. It's a testament to the work of the Generalitat of Catalunya and their restoration and maintenance efforts. Like Santes Creus we visited the day before, I'd imagine the scale of these facilities was awe-inspiring back in their day as they still are today.

Just look at the cooking area on the left side of the photo below. The "stove" room is similar in size to the entire apartment where Diana and I live!

The Poblet monastery's church is another reminder why it's good to be rich. Not only do you get to buy elections, you get to be buried and displayed for all time in the church.

If you remember back to part one of this story, I said that my idea for the weekend was to hang out and relax, maybe read a book, and so on. Realize that we're probably 72 hours into this "relaxing weekend" trip and we've already done more than probably most folks would do during a whole week. And no books were yet read. Oh well, that's kinda' our style.

So, onward and upward. The Poblet monastery is right next to a village named Vimbodi. We had no idea what was there but it was like three minutes away so we headed over. There was pretty much nothing but an old church, some houses, and a bunch of winding little streets. Just as we were about to leave I looked up at this house and noticed the plaque (above the top right-hand corner of the wood door) that says it was built in 1776, which is the same year the United States was founded. And someone still lives there!

One of the last things Diana and I wanted to do was visit the little town of Barbera de la Conca, which, yet again, is built on a town-sized rock. We had driven by it several times as it was right near where we were staying in Cabra del Camp. On our way there, we stopped to take photos and, just as we got out of the car, the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the town of Barbera de la Conca and made for a great photo!

We walked up to the top of the hill to check out what was left of the castle we could see back when we took the photo above. As we got to the castle's door, there was an early-twenties-something couple just inside. We asked them if we could come in and they told us that they were waiting for a woman who'd be coming in a few minutes to give them a tour and it'd be better to ask her.

The woman was a member of a local group who oversees and cares for the castle and they periodically offer tours and hold special events like concerts. She was super nice and agreed to let us join her tour.

The castle, like a lot of things in the area, was first built in the mid 1000s and has served a variety of purposes including, until recently, a school. One of the more interesting things we saw was the old prison/dungeon room. Originally built with only the square roof opening, they've since opened a new slightly larger hole and put in a step ladder to make it easier to get in and out. I'd imagine this wasn't the best airbnb stay!

The other castle-tour highlight was going up to the top of the observation tower, which had a commanding view of the area. Note the Catalan-independence flag - you see a lot of more of these when you get outside Barcelona.

We were super stoked to happen on the castle tour and thanked the guide. But, it turns out it wasn't over! She asked if we wanted to come with her to visit the Agricola de Barbera, which is a wine-and-cava-making facility down at the bottom of the hill. What? Wine-making tour? Absolutely!

By the way, these random things happen to us a lot. I'm not sure if it's because we seek them out, if we're just open to "random", or what it is. There's another story I'll be writing soon that was also a very cool random-chance thing like this one.

The Agricola is a cooperative where local smaller-scale wineries can use the shared production facilities. Diana and our guide checking out one of the bins where incoming grapes are transferred from the trucks into the facility:

I've been to a couple of cava-factory tours (here and here) but those tend to keep you (understandably) at arms-length from the equipment and facilities. This tour was right up close to everything including the grape-processing equipment, fermentation tanks, cellars, and even the packing facility:

The funny thing is, that from the outside, the building looks fairly small. But it isn't until you go past the shop and through the production-facility doors that you realize just how big the place is. It's a full-on factory and warehouse.

We walked around the facility for a good 20 minutes. When we thought we were done, the guide took us down some stairs in the corner of the building, which led to the caves down below. Wow! Crazy... These caves are where the cava is kept during the fermentation process

After a nice glass of cava and some tapas, our our visit to the Ruta del Cister was over (but not yet the whole trip). It was back for one last enjoyable evening with Joan armed with even more stories to share.

One final view over the vineyards in front of the Poblet monastery:

Ruta del Cister - Part 1

Diana and I travel. A lot.

If you know me and/or have looked at more than just this story, you'd probably already know that. Many of our trips involve flying to this place or that. Getting stamps in passports. Passing through customs. You know, basically what you think of when you hear the word travel.

This time I wanted it to be different. I wanted to do some nights away from Barcelona that would be, well, easy. You know, maybe like people who go to the beach or something. Wake up late. Eat a leisurely breakfast. Maybe read a book. Take a nap. You get the idea. So I asked Diana to come up with some plans where we could rent a car, drive not too far, and just be able to hang out and relax. Maybe stay at farm house or something with no distractions. Easy.

We rented a tiny car and headed out on our road trip. About an hour and a half after leaving the city, we arrived at our airbnb in Cabra del Camp not too far from the Roman city of Tarragona.

Farm house? Check! Complete with three horses! And that's our host, Joan, showing Diana around the back 40. The house and the surrounding property has been in his family for literally hundreds of years. It was a living museum complete with family artifacts from each of the last four centuries.

Oh, and the last major house renovation was right around when Jefferson and Madison where in Philadelphia writing the United States Bill of Rights back in the 1790s!

Joan's family has been making wine for well over 100 years and there's still various wine-making methods and equipment in the house including this old vat below:

Crazy amazing. We had stumbled into the home of one of Catalunya's lesser-known but highly respected wine-making families. Joan even shared a couple bottles of his homemade creations with us!

Diana planned some area day trips, our first of which was at the nearby walled city of Montblanc.

People have lived in the region for thousands of years but the town itself dates (only) from the 12th century. As with countless other medieval European towns, this one's been nicely restored and is it's fun to wander around the tiny streets and shops. More importantly, this town is the setting for the story of Sant Jordi versus the dragon!

Diana looking for flying dragons from the former site of the town's castle, which was disassembled over the years to build some of the housing stock.

And here she is checking out yet another church. Hello, is anyone home?

Random Montblanc street scene (I like this shot):

If you're not aware, I'm a sucker for a good bakery and Montblanc's Pastisseria I Confitería Viñas didn't disappoint.

As the sun set on Montblanc, Diana and I left to explore the town of Reus best known for its favorite son, Antoni Gaudi. We didn't run into any of the Gaudi family but we did wander around its winding streets and even caught part of an outdoor concert in the town's main plaza.

It's funny but, even with all its amazing buildings and nice scenery, it was this shop's wine and cava display I loved. We stopped to buy some groceries to take back to share with Joan when the guy in the photo below told me that he had worked in the shop for something like 40 years and the display had always been there. He laughed as he said that he couldn't remember anyone ever taking notice before. It's so simple and would be easy to do. Maybe my sister can pin it on Pinterest...

That night we went back to hang out with Joan some more. He's not only a farmer and winemaker but also a multi-book Catalan author. We couldn't get enough of his and his family's stories. Oh, and his handmade wine, made with grapes he crushed with his own feet (!!!), was an incredible bonus. My friend Dave would have been jealous...

Now it's time to explain the story's title. La Ruta del Cister translates to the Cistercian Route, which is a series of Cistercian monasteries not far from Taragona. The route provided the theme for our trip and the first monastery up on the docket was the scenic Santes Creus:

The Cistercians are a religious order of monks and nuns that was one of the main ways technology spread throughout Europe during the middle ages. They believed in doing manual labor and (still to this day) living an austere monastic life. Each monastery normally had some type of factory and/or main industry like metalworking, and the monks were prolific farmers, which fortunately for us, includes growing wine grapes! Woohoo!

The Santes Creus monastery is from the late 1100s and is similar to the other monasteries we visited during the trip. It's not to say they're not amazing and beautiful and impressive, they are, but rather that their consistency in design and scale is what's impressive. The scale, demonstrated by the giant dormitory room below, must have been awe-inspiring back when it was built as, even today, it's kinda' wow.

The Santes Creus cloister:

Remember back to the start of this story where I said I wanted to have a nice weekend where we could sleep late, relax, and maybe read a book? Yeah, well, we're just about 30 hours into this trip and it's been fairly busy so far. So what would a normal person do in this situation? Head back to the house and put their feet up? Hmm...not us!

Zoom zoom! Let's go. Off to the town of Valls, famous for the onion-like calçot, for lunch!

One of the things that Diana and I discussed before going on the trip was the possibility of stopping by Valls to get calçots, which I've written about before.

We drove into the center of town, parked, and started wandering around looking for a place to eat. It was already getting kind of late, even by Spain standards, so we were trying to find something fast. There was a couple about our age loading up a car so Diana asked them where we should go. They looked at each other for a moment or two and both said at the same time that there was really nothing nearby they could think of and that most of the places to eat calçots are outside the center of town closer to the surrounding farms.

They recommended a place called Bobila but they thought it might not be open on that particular day. No matter, we jumped back in the car and drove above 15 minutes to the restaurant, which is located in an old brick-making facility with some of the dining areas actually in the old kilns. It was around 3:30 pm so we knew there was a chance we wouldn't be able to eat. We pulled at the door and it opened! Score!

But wait, just inside and the hostess said that they were closed but that, because there was a special party in the other room and because "we had come all the way from Barcelona", she'd check with the kitchen to see if there was enough food left.

And...yes! We would soon be eating calçots!

The calçots were delicious and lunch was great! As always, the amount of food they give you at a calçotada is enough that you end up in a food coma for sure.

Diana digging into the third course "meat plate":

We finished up lunch at about 5:00 pm after a nice private restaurant tour. From there, it was back into the car to go to the next stop in our plan-to-do-nothing, relaxing long-weekend trip...