Shred Stick Chronicles: Final Chap

     For the final chapter of shred stick chronicles, I located a spot called Forum Double Flatbar Heaven where the forum brick waves are also found. I gained access to this spot via an underground skating map of Barcelona. After mixed communication and determined research I found a hidden itinerary of almost all the secret skate spots around town. Check it out. In order to gain access to the Forum Brick Waves (to shred at least) you must go at an early hour when the water is glassy and traffic is at a minimum. I am indeed telling you there is a perfectly sloped hill with wave shaped walls and gorgeous views to eat breakfast next to. Yeah!

#Builttoshred

Costa Brava Day 1: Figueres and Besalú

   




     Barcelona International College plans and sponsors one weekend trip for all their students. We were lucky enough to travel to Costa Brava. Roughly 45 students and 5 faculty members were in attendance on this excursion. Costa Brava is the northeastern coast of Spain, full of beach towns and old pueblos. This place became popular in the 50's and is now a booming tourist location full of clean beaches, fun nightlife, clear water, and full of numerous activities! Check out my action packed weekend in a three part post. PS sorry for lagging but this trip happened over a week ago and have yet to put it up. Well worth the wait, I think. Jumper:
#CostaBrava

Costa Brava Day 2: Palamós

     After our group was done romping around Besalú, we drove about an hour and a half to a beach town called Palamós. Palamós is beautifully located at the northern end of a large bay. Our director, Big Rich, had some connections with the owners of a sweet beach side hotel. This place sums up Costa Brava in a few short photos. Some of our activities included hiking, swimming, kayaking, cliff jumping, beach soccer, cooking, shopping, eating, drinking, and sleeping. Almost all in that order too. Check out some eye candy in this photo packed post.
#Activities

Costa Brava Day 3: Girona and Montserrat

   




      After a brutal wake up early sunday morning, all 45 of us stumbled on to the bus and fell asleep for an hour before rolling into Girona. Orignially inhabited by Iberians, this old town was a popular spot during the Spanish Civil War. They built their town surrounding an enormous cathedral that people used as security... and prayer of course. Montserrat was also on the itinerary for sunday which was an epic mountain surround by rock walls and steep inclines. Perfect place to get lost and do some exploring. Check out part three of Costa Brava after the Jump:
#Neverstopexploring

Chuckie

     Did I mention I saw a DJ named Chuckie play an epic set at a music festival? He played on the last day (pretty late) at the same time as some other very popular Barca DJ so my friends and I were front row lovin' it. A few of us were even lucky enough to meet this guy... 

Sónar

     


     Last thursday was the first of a three day music festival called Sónar. Located in the heart of Barcelona and streaming live day and night. This festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art went all weekend long but I had other plans to travel so my two buddies and I bought day tickets for Thursday and decided to check out this fiasco. Scope out a brief overview after the jump.
#Electric

Camp Nou

     Camp Nou - The home playing field of FC Barcelona. I made a morning trip to see the stadium and tour the very impressive museum located beneath. Camp Nou is the largest stadium in Europe holding 98,772 fans and is considered the 11th largest in the world. After seeing it empty and still impressed, I can't imagine what a sold out night game against Real Madrid would be like. With some strategic planning I arrived on a weekday just after opening and basically had the place to myself. On top of that delightful news I used my old Colorado student ID to get the student discount rate.
#Score


     

Solamente en Madrid

     This past weekend I had an open weekend to do whatever I'd like. I told myself I wanted to travel somewhere but I didn't quite know where. Many students went to Budapest, few went to Paris, and only a couple went to Amsterdam. I chose Madrid. Turns out one of my best friends has been doing a study abroad program for six months and was still living there, or so I thought. Just my luck two days before I boarded my plane to Madrid, Sean emailed me back informing me of another trip he was doing that weekend in another European country. My flight was booked, bag was packed and I was ready to make the most of it. Check out more of my epic adventure after the jump:
#Solotrip

Shred Stick Chronicles: Part II

     

     Part two of the Shred Stick Chronicles brings you a new and improved set of shred spots I found in Barcelona. More advanced terrain and eye appealing locations. This is no place for amateurs. All photos you see here are real life, even the last one. Don't forget I have a few different identities, California kid just wanting to shred is most definitely one of them. Don't hate. Once again I want to thank my parents for persuading me to bring my shred stick to Spain, I almost made a horrible decision not to.

#PlayAllDay

     

Mesa de Ping-Pong

    Who knew that table tennis, or ping-pong, was such a popular hobby among Catalunya locals. As I have been wandering around the city I thought I'd take a few photos at how convenient and awesome it is to get your pong on. I still have yet to get a game in with some locals but the locations and tables to play on are pretty epic. There is also a west coast vs. spanish ping pong table standoff after the jump:
#Wannapong

Roca: Barcelona

    

     While studying both spanish and international business during my time in Barcelona, my class and I were given the opportunity to tour a business called Roca. Roca is an international bathroom design company who focuses on saving water while carrying some pretty good style while doing so. Roca is a spanish owned company with manufacturers all over the world. Operating in over 135 markets and employing over 21,000 people worldwide. They even have one distributor in New York City, cool. Come for a tour if you'd like!

#Businessmajor

Fuente Mágica

     Every sunday evening in Barcelona, there is an impressive fountain located in front of Museu Nacional D'Art De Catalunya. This fountain has been known to put on a pretty good show. I happened to be near the venue of the magic fountain but it didn't start until 9pm. I took a little adventure of my own to kill and hour or two... Jump it. #waterpressure

Tarragona

     
      


     Barcelona International College (BIC) was nice enough to take 12 of us to a small Roman built village called Tarragona. This adventure started with a 9am departure on friday morning after a pretty thirsty thursday for some. I however, made the executive decision to get some rest the night before in preparation for what turned out to be a really cool day. Check it out after the jump.

#Energy

Lugares de Fútbol

    When you think of Barcelona the thought of soccer has to cross your mind.  Turns out their season ended a few weeks ago with a disappointing loss to Chelsea in the Championship league. They even had a chance to tie in the last seconds of the game but decided to hit the crossbar instead. Despite loosing to Chelsea and their season ending, I am going to try and catch an exhibition game or a scrimmage of some sort, we shall see. As for now, I thought it would be fun to explore the soccer world into further detail here in Barcelona. It turns out there are numerous soccer fields of all shapes and sizes. I have stumbled upon a few so far and continue to find arenas, fields, stadiums and courts all over the city. Check it out after the jump:
#toughloss

Shred Stick Chronicles

     The Shred Stick Chronicles began with a decision to either take the shred stick to Spain or to leave it sitting at home awaiting my return. I didn't want to be that American who shows up looking like a surfer brah from San Diego just looking to party. At the same time I find myself to be a pretty avid "skater" and pondered the decision over and over. When it came time to actually pack my clothes into the bag I noticed I didn't have a bag big enough to fit the skateboard. That means that if I really wanted to bring it I would have to carry it by hand the entire way. 
#TSAallowed

     To my parents - Thank you for the supportive attitude and positive thoughts when it came to my decision to bring my shred stick with me...

Pronto Parada en London y Mas Tarde Barcelona

     Indeed I made it on the flight with a few minutes to spare as I was ready to jump the puddle. American Airlines took me from Boston Logan and dropped me in London. Like I said before I sleep easily almost anywhere I get the chance but for some reason I thought it'd be a good idea to take one Tylenol PM (Boston to London) to knock me out for sure. It did the trick. The only problem occurred when the stinky old lady sitting next to me had to physically shake me awake before landing. If you know me I'm not the happiest person shortly after awaking, needless to say I was not a happy camper. It was as if her and the bitchy stewardess were on a team to ruin Hap's slumber. 
#Betch

    Anyways, I arrived in London and had to wait a quick five and a half hours before taking off towards Barcelona. Once again a hapnap was in order. Finally... I got on my final flight landing in Barcelona around 5:30pm. It was quite the experience once I stepped off the plane and realized I was going to live in a foreign country for a month by myself. I told myself it was time to sack up and start speaking whatever spanish I knew. I proceeded to struggle through a couple conversations about where Barcelona is this hotel and what bus should I take. After I was pointed in the right direction I jumped on a bus and was on a roll. Made it to my hotel after a long painful walk of shame looking like a tourist, speaking like a Torrey Pines grad, acting like an adolescent and smelling like shit, ew. 
#Mobbing
     

Oriente Costa Para 8 Horas

     My adventure began on May 25, 2012 at 10:10pm. I arrived at the airport with a one way ticket from San Diego to Boston. Took the red eye east, San Diego to Boston with an hour layover in Philadelphia. It was a long night and an early morning. I finally made it to Boston Logan after touching down briefly in Philly. 
#Exhausting 


     Picture me getting out of a taxi at Boston's north station with two duffles, a day pack, ear phones still in, irie eyed, pants sagging to low, and my skateboard under my arm (obviously). After giving the cab driver too big of a tip I waddled my way through the crowd and just made it on the outbound train to Beverly Farms. 
#Waddling

     
     Most people who live in Boston travel via train to the beaches close to my grandparents house on the weekend. Since this was a saturday morning it was peak hour for bleach white Bostonians to have any chance at catching some rays at the beach. So while I was sweating my tits off acting as the world's strongest man, there are numerous Beantown locals lathering themselves in sun screen and making sure to drink plenty of icy cold fresh dank pure amazing refreshing water right next to me. Sweet.
#Shoobies

I proceeded to pull some random photo off the internet relating to my perception:

   
     I finally made it to my grandparents house and had about 8 hours before my Uncle Billy drove me back to the airport for my flight to Spain...

Introducción

     ¡Hola y Bienvenidos! I will begin by letting you all know I am new to the blogging world. This is my first post ever and I am proud of it. I have stumbled upon many blogs and have even made a guest appearance on one (redhotbuffs) but I am no expert so please forgive me in advance. For the record, I am not a professional scholar or enlightened philosoph either and will most likely have numerous* typos along the way. Also, I do like the word "numerous" so prepare yourself. Anyways, my goal with this silly blog is to update and inform anyone who is interested in my life while I am living in Spain for the month of June. I will aim for my posts to be fun, exciting, interesting, wild, crazy, happy, heartfelt, and hopefully sober. I promise you that every photo on this blog will be taken by yours truly unless otherwise stated. Like the one below-notmine. I will also be adding hash tags to the end of every paragraph. Basically trying to sum up the theme of each piece of creative writing. I happen to have a twitter account too. Check it out. If you have any suggestions for me please express yourself in the comments. Be nice. For all of those who don't know, I do not have a facebook. There are many reasons why but lets not get into them. I simply want to include family and friends and share my experience while living in Spain. Therefore I created a blog, a place where people can go if they WANT to see what I have been up to, no timeline nonsense here. Keep in mind this is no blog for little kids. This is Hap Knowles. Living in Barcelona. The real deal. Viewer discretion is advised...
#GoTime