Barcelona!

The longest leg of my trip has ended.

1,255 kilometers, from Zurich to Barcelona. In total I've done somewhere between 1,600 and 1,700 miles. About the distance of Charlottesville VA (my permanent residence) to Denver CO. 

The first leg of my journey, Kranj, Slovenia to Vienna was such a shit show--poor sleep, inconsistent mileage--that I was spooked for the remainder of the trip and was overly conservative on planning. 

From Zurich to Barcelona I really hit my stride and was doing 100+ kilometer days every day no problem and had gotten really efficient at camping. 

I don't know how people camp occasionally. I did some math and I slept outside/wild camped about four days for every one day I used Warm Showers (cyclist social network for free lodging) and Hostels. I've essentially wild camped exclusively on the road and found indoor options when I was in cities and twice during bouts of rain. 

I really like cities though so I extended in almost every major destination: 4 nights Vienna, 3 nights Innsbruck, 3 nights Zurich,  3 nights Séte, and now due to my conservative planning I'll have a week (!) in Barcelona.

After Barcelona I'm riding 400km to Valencia--my last biking/camping leg. I'll spend just one night there then take a train to Madrid. I have a two day tattoo appointment in Madrid and will spend another 5 nights there for a total of a week. Then a train to Bilbao to meet Becky and spend two weeks with our friends Russel and Erica. 

 really loving getting a real feel for Barcelona. It took me three days just to figure out the lay of the land. I've been making pasta sauce evey night and getting more ambitious with it each night. I couldn't figure out for the longest time why it was so hard to find good meat in Barcelona. It's because no one buys meat in grocery stores. You go to the markets with all the stalls and there are so many butchers it's amazing. 

So tonight my pasta sauce will have ground beef for the first time. I do the whole sofrito thing where I cook down celery, onion, carrots, and garlic and then add tomato sauce another seasoning. There's nothing I'd love more to live in a city like this and  buy fresh food at the market several times a week.

I'm also seeing two shows here. Thursday I'm seeing Gogol Bordello--my favorite rock and roll act (I don't really listen to much rock but I love this band). Then, Saturday night I'm going to a Psytrance party! One of my favorite DJs is spinning--I've only listened to his live shows on SoundCloud since 2022 and I am really excited to see him. Radikal Moodz is his monicker.

I dropped my bike off at a shop today for some much-needed repairs and upgrades. I've got a rental bike and I'm headed to the beach now. 

I miss all of you.