Better late than never: Barcelona recap

 Ed's Massive Night @ Barcelona Casino

Just another night @ BLVD night club with the Catalans

Eddie Ice and girlfriend, Cassie on our afternoon stroll to Olympic Stadium

3V @ Barcelona's Olympic Ring

3 Hooligans

Their 2013 X-mas card, in front of Sagrada Familia

Beach day crew on our final day in BCN

 

Met up with the Achtor's (and their friends, the Murphy's) during their European visit

  

All I know is that Gines (w/apron) started making crepes.  3 minutes later, and there's flour, Nutella and alioli all over us/the walls.

  

3V before a night out

     So it’s been a month or so since the last post, shortly after we arrived in Barcelona.  In that time, you may have noticed that we’d neglected our duties as content-suppliers for the website.  About 3 or 4 weeks after the last post, the consensus was that the drive or motivation to foster the website was waning to nothing.  A week later, a renaissance (if you will….actually, please don’t.  I’ll choose a less pretentious word; revival.  Wait, why didn’t I just use that the first time?), happened.  We decided to jump-start things again.  Get the content flowing, as it had been for the first two months in Europe.    I thought about censoring this monologue, but I think it’s important for you readers to understand that we sometimes lose focus and motivation in pursuing our goals, much like many do. So if you were waiting for a post, sorry.  If you weren't, disregard the 1st paragraph.

                       

      The 40 days in Barcelona was absolutely wonderful.  As voiced in the previous post, the city just “clicked.”  We met several new people (some fellow poker players, study abroad students, Americans on a getaway).  Combined, we played over 12,000 games of poker, and printed some money in the process.  We even managed to make it to the Barcelona Casino, where Ed took the local fish hostage, gaining Euros aplenty in the process [see picture above].  Overall, it was a great poker month. 

                       
     Socially, all I can say is “WOW!”  Speaking of holding things hostage; the Catalan (and the Andorran) dudes we met made me go out for 8 days straight, and held my liver hostage.  @Mom:  I only drank agua every night.  Spare the diatribe.  @Everyone Else:  Not a chance the aforementioned statement was true.  We spent several nights at Ovella Negra, Razzmatazz, BLVD, Apolo, and Jamboree night clubs.  It was pretty common for a night to end at 7 or 8 in the morning.  While it took my body a few days to get back to baseline, I now have a better understanding of Catalan nightlife [see pic above]…and college nostalgia, for that matter (the dudes we met were 20-23).   
     
     On a side note, these guys are planning to meet up with us in Prague later this month.  I look forward to seeing you crazy Spanish tios (Spanish for “bros, dudes”).   A couple weeks into our time in Barcelona, Ed had an unexpected guest, and was surprised by his now girlfriend, who flew in from Bahamas.  Yes, our boy Eddie Ice, wooed a local during our month’s stay in Nassau, Bahamas back in Nov-Dec (they have a cool story of how they met. Ask him about it if you’re interested).  She stayed for 10 days, and soaked up all things Barcelona during her time.  Cassie, we were glad to host you, and you’re always welcome as a 3V guest.  Thanks for putting up with us 3 boys during your stay! ;)
     
     Follicly (sp?  Just kidding, I know it’s not a word, but just go with it), the 3V have embraced different dos.  Ben’s currently rocking the Jason Statham, action hero look.  Eddie Ice is growing his hair out (probably boob-length), and I have embraced the Dan Achtor-inspired, “Lawyer” Tim look, with hair slicked-back [think Matthew Mccoughay in A Time to Kill].  Next, I just need a 6-pack, moobs (man boobs), a tan, a southern accent, and talent (just kidding, you were great in……[trying to think of a decent film you did]……………………..[crickets]………………….[fade to black]).

                         
     The point is that we’re embracing change, and just going with it.  On the topic of change, we will be amp'ing up the intensity and hitting several cities in the next 3 months, and will be spending no more than 2 weeks in each city for the duration of our Europe portion of adventures.  This will ensure that fresh, new content will be coming rapidly to 3Vagabonds.com, and that we will be tested much more than we have before.  Thus far, we have docked our ship in ports for stretches of 3-4 weeks each, and were able to figure things out quite easily.  We either had native friends in each place, or spoke the language (I majored in Spanish).  In the next couple of months, we’ll have several language barriers to overcome(Italian, Greek, Czech, German, Dutch, and British English (ick!!! Jk, blokes and blokettes), which promise to make for awkward, funny, uncomfortable situations alike (all of which we hope to relay onto the website). But you adapt or die.  Here’s to avoiding the latter!

                         
 “So what’s next, you crazy vagabonds?!?”  -You, the reader

ITALIA!!!!

     We leave Barcelona April 1^st, and head to the canaled city of Venice.  We are planning on hitting up 7 cities in 10 days.  Why such a short visit in the country that invented delicious food?  Well, here’s the rundown.  Italy’s online poker situation is that it has a closed circuit.  This is to say that Italians can only play other Italians.  This ensures that the money stays within the country.  So they play on their site, “www.Pokerstars.it”.  What this means for us is that we are not allowed to log onto the Pokerstars client while within Italian borders.  Furthermore, this means that for the first time in 3 months, we’re actually able to take a holiday, of sorts.  No poker, minimal internet usage, and plenty of gelato and ravioli (God, I hope they serve Chef Boyardee there).  It’ll be nice to have a break from poker, as we have rocked poker grinds of 10+ hours almost daily since we started traveling. 

Cities include:  Venice, Bologna, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Naples, and Rome (we’ll actually be in or near The Vatican on Easter Sunday, oddly enough, which is kind of cool). 

Until then, Ciao,

TimmyOx