The Village Idiot does it again, robbed the first day in Barcelona, boy I´m an idiot! Oh well ...

Please don´t read this posting or any other if u are conservative and worry about moi cus I always end up in crazy situations even without looking for it.

Anyways my trip didn´t start off too well as got my small day back stolen on my first day in Barcelona (also got robbed in Ecuador last trip so will I ever learn, probably not!). I was suppose to meet my friend when I got off the bus to downtown Barcelona. But I called her from the airport & wasn´t listening carefully & also English isn´t her first language, so I thought the plan was for me to meet her at the last stop. Cus she would book me a bed at this hostel. but there was no room- So she kind of told me over the phone to get off at this stop just before the last stop cus she lives by there. But like this idiot who doesn´t listen so I got off at the last stop. I waited 15 mins and finally decided to call her at this sidewalk phone. But I couldn´t seem to get through (I called her from the airport OK) so I kept trying a couple times then this guy calls out to me something as thought he was trying to give me a msg from her. So I´m busy dialing and listening and my bag was between my legs but not paying attention. So before I know it my bags gone but didn´t realize it right away.

So I lost my notebook computer, chargers for my phone, charger for my mp3, charger for my camera, expensive sunglasses, itinerary for my travels like my tkt , my med ins (I have policy number but not policy info about what´s covered, etc but can probably get it online), battery shaver , my reg shaver & other toiletries, other little gadgets like electrical plug converters, 16 gb usb stick, extra memory card for camera, phone cord, some clothers and some other stuff which aren´t going to be missed cus can´t remember what they are until I need them.

I wouldn´t have been carrying them around with me but I just arrived and going to a hostel so still had them and not in my big back pack yet. So I got these girls standing by to call my friend who came and met me. She took me to the police and we filed a report but don´t expect much to happen cus they said needed the serial number but didn´t have it.

When I got robbed it was like I was sick to my stomach for losing these stuff. My first thought was maybe I´m too stupid and old for traveling so I´m going home cus suddenly I didn´t feel like traveling anymore. Then my friend joined me and said don´t cancel your trip cus u spent a lot of time organizing & planning the trip (I didn´t but what the hell why spoil someone´s good impression about me as didn´t do much as only thought my trip didn´t do any research cus that´s work) but she did say I already paid for the flt. So she put me in a better space so we went to a bar to drink & play pool with another friend until 3 am to get my mind off the loss! So I stayed at this place my friend stays which is a family from Peru. So I pàid 20 Euros a night with breakfast & whatever else they feed m as don´t get up until 3 pm which is not too bad I guess about $30 CAD. But will try to book into a hostel tomorrow cus my friend works so don´t want her to feel obligated to entertain me.

But it´s odd but I didn´t want to fill out a police report cus I thought shit if I´m so stupid that I don´t look after my stuff then I deserve to get it stolen. Also it´s only material objects which can be replaced and no harm was done to me except a wounded pride!

I don´t really care about the stuff but I do miss the computer cus want to blog in my spare time and then go to the internet and quickly upload the stuff. But alas the idiot is out a computer but what the heck. Maybe ppl should be carrying the basic shit when they travel. So now I´m down to just clothes and toiletries so shit who cares if I get robbed again cus have nothing left that can´t be replaced in 1 hr except my fab wardrobe, ha ha a pair of shorts, t-shirt & flip flops.

Oh 1 thing I didn´t lose was the mini hard drive Darren u gave me. When I lost things like the day bag & Braun battery shaver I felt bad cus they were given to me by Jolene & Darren so they meant more to me than other crap! I will also miss my nice addias sunglasses which I got from my eye doctor. So need new glasses, shaver even bar of soap. But will get the stuff tomorrow enshalla.

On Sat we woke up around noon and walked all around this park where u can see all of Barcelona. There´s also the 1992 Olympic stadium along the way. My friend usually runs this route which is about 10 km with a lot of hills & beautiful paths. We stopped and had a cerveza (beer for u illiterate heathens) and got back around 6 pm for a siesta as had a bit of jet lag!

The bars, clubs, etc don´t get started here till 1 am on Fri & Sat. So we went out at midnight cus couldn´t get a hold of her other friends. So she was going to take me to this disco/club.

My friend had told me we were going to this cave where they were having a club with a dj etc. but it was out of town. Her friend has a car who would drive cus she didn´t know where it was. but couldn´t get a hold of her friend. So she said she´d take me to this disco but it was too early 1 am so we went to a bar for a beer and shawarma (middle eastern sandwich).

The last time I saw Sharax was in Guatemala in 2008 I had some weed cookies which we ate. She didn´t smoke or do much weed even if she´s from Bolivia where there is a lot. But this idiot from Vancouver introduce her to grass. So we got stoned and went to this Japanese restuarant in Antigua, Guatemala. It was so funny cus we were the only ones in the restuarant. So we ordered and talked then her order came so she was eating and we completely forgot that I didn´t get my order. But when she finished eating we realized that I didn´t get my food- comida. So we asked and they said Oh sorry but we forgot your order!!! Like duh, there´s only 2 customers in the restuarant and u forgot to cook my order. Like what were u smoking cus would like to try some too but at least we had an excuse as we´re stoned or smoking (I call it being stoned even if we had 1 smoke cus being stoned to means having a good time causing no trouble but even if I don´t smoke I can do crazy things like just living & having a great time with cool friends). So that was a fun time that we talked & laughed about. So when Sharax returned to Barcelona some of her friends gave some weed and now she likes the occasional smoke with a cervaza/beer. So last night we bought some weed on the street and had a smoke with my new pipe/pipa in spanish. I also have a pocket vaporizer so u can´t taste/ smell or see the smoke. So she liked that cus it wasn´t harsh on the throat. So we were in an awesome mood and went to this disco-/bar/ club called Apollo which she said was cheap to go to. But I was a bit stoned and drinking a beer cus we can drink on the street here. But they told me I couldn´t bring the beer inside so I must have made a big deal out of it as just dropped it into the garbage. So the guy took a quick look at me and said we couldn´t go in. But dam conservative assholes wouldn´t let me in as it happened in Buenas Aires once too in my travels. I don´t think they´re used to seeing a person with piercings with shorts and being just a fun guy. But didn´t argue cus they probably only allow normal drunks who are obnoxious & loud then they´d allow me inside cus I look and act different or heaven forbide allowing the yellow peril in a nice club, bar, disco ha ha like then it´s their problem not mine as I never think in those terms! So hell we didn´t argue cuz wtf it was only a bar-club-disco and there were others.

So we were going to this other place and a guy was selling beer as you can drink on the streets but not sell beer. So I bought one as thirsty. So were walking to this other club and this guy came along and started bugging my friend trying to sell her a coat but never thought anything of it I suppose. But normally I would have told the guy to get lost but they were talking in Spanish so just ignored what was happening.I didn´t pay much attention cus I was a bit stoned/wasted and just looking at everyone . Well suddenly this guy had pick pocketed her phone out of her pocket. If I would have realized this I would have tried to get her phone back but like I was sort of in a happy mood and not thinking about it. So Sharax wanted to go to call and cancel her number so they couldn´t charge up a big phone bill of calls. So here we are going into the Police Station which took 15 mins for her to tell the police what happened and calling the phone company. In the meantime I start laughing cus I just realized that here I am standing in the Police Station drinking a beer and being stoned. But no one said anything so shit I wasn¨t going to throw my beer away.

I felt bad for her cus a week ago she got her wallet stolen from a bar so lost her credit cards, id, etc. They withdrew all the money from her account plus her credit card. So she´s now broke as she had money to get her own apt as she needs to pay 5 months rent to get a place. Dam but that´s a lot. So she knew how I felt and then she lost her phone.

So that kind of put a damper on our evening or morning plus it was about 4 am. There´s a lot of unemployment here in Spain with the downturn in the economy so there´s a lot of young ppl from other countries or smaller cities loafing around on streets. So thére´s a lot of pick pocketing but no stealing with physical harm. So idiots like me have to be more aware of our surrounding. I´ve always prided myself on being street smart as otherwise brain dead but nwo shit have to learn more thru the school of hard knocks I guess!

When we left the cop station we started joking about losing the phone. It was about 4 am so we never did get to a club but it didn´t matter cuz we had a good laugh. She had met a guy she liked and only had his number on her speed dial but didn´t know it by memory. He didn´t have hers either cus he was still living with his ex grilfiend but was moving out soon. Don´t ask me about all this cus yes it was a weird setup! I told her that but not that this dude was probably just playing her cus can´t want to tell girls that cus I´m no expert plus don´t want anyone to think I´m trying to wiggle in with her not that she´d think. Cus she knows me as she´d know that´s not my intention as don´t need the aggravation of more than friendship right now as I love my life simple and uncomplicated. Also if I fell for every cool or nice chick I met I would have driven myself crazy long ago as met so many nice hot looking girls who would be great to date, etc but also shit would lose a friend. Plus they´d have to tell me to fuck off or drop dead and so ends a great friendship. Anyway back to my story. So this guy´s ex girlfriend went home to Columbia for 3 or 4 months I think. Then he met my friend Sharax and they started dating and liked each other. So the guy´s gf just got back to Barcelona and he told her but think he just paid a month´s rent so hadn´t moved out yet. So he for some reason he´d never call her or knew her number. So we started laughing (guess this guy was maybe not her big love) as now she didn´t have his number & he didn´t know hers. We laughed cus they had no way of contacting each other in this city of 2 million ppl. So I said well she could check every guy she sees to see if he was her bf. ha ha. She doesn´t want to be friends with him on Facebook for some reason yeah another odd thing. But anyways I told her she could go on Facebook (the ultimate social network site ) and search for her bf´s name! So if there are 30 Jores Torres or whatever his name is in the world. Then she could send a note to each one asking if he´s her boyfriend ha ha. So I said shit is this the line chicks use these days to meet guys??? Cus I may be a loser with chicks but I have more pride than to try this method! So we were laughing so hard that ppl started to think we were crazy. Funny thing is she just colored her hair jet black yesterday from sort of a brunette blonde color. Hell I think she looks completely different as she looks more middle eastern than south american now. So if she sent her pic to him he wouldn´t recoginze her as I couldn´t tell who she was if I hadn´t seen her do it. So I told her in this mobile phone/ Facebook/ internet world ppl don´t have a clue where ppl work, live but just meet at a cafe, bar, coffee shop. Wow it got me thinking so do ppl really know each other? She´s a real cool chick and anything she does is OK with me and if that´s how she wants to live her life well who am I to dispute it?

Got home last night-this morning and was still stoned (not my idea to do smoke but my friend wanted to get some not me as I´m just an innocent of smoking as trying to do things like a church mouse but the devil keeps making these happen) so got home & wanted to write my blog on her computer as she went to bed. But I couldn´t figure out how to use it as the keyboard is all different. Boy I´m a real loser. Here I am a guy who did software development working in 6 countries around the world & now I can´t even use her Spanish computer. So I just listened to music till whenever. So slept till 3 pm when she had to wake me up.

So that was the first crazy 2 days in Barcelona. So tonight we´ll maybe go out somewhere to do whatever but going to keep our wits about us now. She has no phone , phone number or list of phone number as has to get a new one tomorrow. Luckily my phone is not my life like most ppl cus don´t do phone calls much plus don´t have any friends to call or life for that matter.

But I have to buy some toiletries like shaver, etc now. Plus chargers for my camera, phone and mp3 player. Will miss my computer but I feel like maybe it like that reality show LOST is it tho I have never watched. But Jolene tried explaining it to me so think it´s about ppl lost trying to find their way out. Well now I´m travelling with my entertainment on my computer so when I´m chillin I can watch some videos downloaded, write blogs, write short stories (for my own enjoyment), ripped a bunch of audio books on it so can listen if bored (it´s easier to carry than books) or communicate wih friends to write things and then posting it in my blog, emails or FB, etc.. So now I have to find other things to amuse me like doing things I wanted to avoid like partying or hanging out at an internet cafe. But thought maybe it wasn´t meant for travellers like me to take a computer or electronic things traveling cus that´s not what traveling is about. But shit once an computer geek it´s hard to quit.

But I´m over the loss cus I still have my passport, credit cards, money and sanity (cus never had it to lose) so what else is there as the rest is just so much fluff.

I had a hard time saying good bye on this trip after what happened back home as Irene´s Mom died from an anyerhsyn and my Mom having cancer. So was thinking maybe this trip wasn´t in the books for me. But I got the support and love of my family and friends back home who don´t begrudge me for traveling which is why I feel obligated to blog to share my good and bad experiences.

So I thought I love traveling and it gets to be like a game of trying stop from stealing from me. But I just got beaten this time so fuck that´s like 2 times in 1 year so not on a roll as my luck has been bad. Shit I wasn´t even on this trip 1 day & I get ripped off!

I have to give a lot of thought about how far I should venture far into the bowels of Africa!! I will be more aware as needed a wake up call! So the wake up call cost me about $500 or 600 so have to cut back on my traveling now maybe. I still feel I should pack it in early cus lost a bit of enthusiasm but my friend still thinks piss on it don´t let those idiots win if u pack it in and go home. Cus I know sooner or later I´d get bored, broke, run out of places or transportation to get places or get robbed. Well one thing happened but still I still kind of figure shit so I lost some material things but at least I´m OK.

So I may hang around Barcelona for another week or so cus next weekend is Carnival time (maybe not as big as Rio but still a big celebration here). Plus want to check out embassies for visas, replenish my charger stuff and generally just chill and see more of the area. I also want to check for buses to the tip of south Spain to go to Gibratar and Morocco. Also think about what I´m going to head to as haven´t given it too much thought yet but waiting for the wind to blow me around the globe I guess.

So anyways don´t worry about me cus just lost my pride and stuff. Just wanted to let u know cus today it´s not so painful to think about my stupidity!

So anyway have to go but I´ll keep in touch so don´t worry I´ve been woken up so I´ll be more aware now!

Lv u guys,

btw I may have to edit this posting again as just wrote this quickly so if u don´t understand this posting well I´ll try to correct it. Or maybe I´ll just say piss on if u can´t understand than maybe you shoud learn some pidgen Japanese Canadian English at the school of hard knocks like moi! Ha ha shit this blog is only to write my experience about a fun time and not hurt or insult anyone!!! May have some trouble posting pics as some interet cafes have bad computers with viruses, etc. Plus all European computers have different keyboards so sometimes takes time to get used to them.