Barcelona & Madrid: Birthdays and Reunions

There is no greater cultural whiplash than traveling from Munich to Barcelona. Within minutes of arriving I was met by my former flatmate, Francesc, and a blazing Catalonian sun.

We had several long walks through Barcelona neighborhoods.

One afternoon we stopped by dj session at a local DJ School: Bridge 48 Studios. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, aspiring DJs spin for the public at the studios. I didn’t take a photos of the DJs, but in the event space their backs are to the crowd as they are being recorded, analysed, and critiqued. I did get a photo of us though.

Continuing with my reunion theme, I got to catch up with Keiron, who I taught with at my very first teaching job in San Francisco. He came up from Andalusia, and Ane, from San Sebastien, who stayed with us in Sydney a few years ago happens to be in Barcelona now too.

Another big draw was my friend AnneLise’s birthday celebrations that weekend in Barcelona. Born in Frankfurt to a Danish father and Catalonian mother, I met AnneLise at UC Berkeley when she hired me as a travel writer for the Berkeley Guides.

She put on quite an event.

And as luck would have it, Momo was in town too. So we had a little side trip to Sitges to catch up with him – completing a Zurich/San Francisco connection we all share.

I also managed to explore the green lungs of Barcelona with a hike in the woods above the city.

Barcelona was definitely a whirlwind of reuniting with lifelong friends, and so was Madrid.

My most visited city in the world is Madrid – because of this mob.

It is always a coming home event for me in Madrid.

Marta, her husband Jorge, and I met during my last year at Berkeley, and I have been coming here almost yearly ever since.

One of the sons was introducing Marta to his girlfriend for the first time. He invited me along for the event ‘because we are family’

And this jokester, Jonathan, was kind enough to pop over from the UK (and Sydney) for my birthday weekend.

We took in the sights.

Had a little boogie.

And had a magnificent little birthday gathering on Saturday night.

Could not have had a better time than this.

Viva Spain!