Ben Tsui: March 2010

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Pictures

From Ben Tsui

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I’m back in Dublin now, but I haven’t put together any footage from my trip to Spain because I’m studying for another set of midterms. I was supposed to arrive yesterday morning, but instead arrived at 2:00 am today. Yesterday I missed my flight because I took the bus to the wrong terminal. Who knew that Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 could be so fricking far apart? Even though I arrived at the check in desk 45 minutes before my flight left, there was nobody there. Bastards. After a 10 minutes of non stop swearing (in my head, of course), I used my handy dandy Mac to book another flight home. Luckily, there was a Ryanair flight leaving late at night from another city, Giorna. So, I took a few metro stops and bus rides to another airport and arrived at my apartment 15 hours later than expected.

One thing to note is that I met a cool guy named, John. John is an actor who lives in Dublin and also missed his flight to Dublin. I saw John at the airport, cussing (out loud), and I asked if he wanted to travel with me to Giorna airport. How did I know he was going to Dublin? Well, it’s kind of easy to pick out an Irish accent in Barcelona, especially if the accent came out of a burly red headed man. It was nice traveling with John because it made me more confident in trying to get out of my sticky situation. So I guess my morning disaster wasn’t ALL bad, because I made a new friend out of nowhere.

John Carey

Here is a video that took me about 10 seconds to put together. It's all about the scenery.....the rest sucks.

Climbing in Ireland from ben tsui on Vimeo.

Final Stop: Valencia

Right now I’m on a train heading back to Barcelona. I’ve been in Valencia all weekend, exploring the city, solidifying new friendships, and eating a lot of good food. I was not planning on going to Valencia because I was tired of travelling with my heavy and bulky crash pad , even though I would have a free place to stay at. But when my German friend, Carson, told me he was driving there to pick up his friends, I took it as a big sign that I should not leave Spain without seeing one last city.

I stayed with a couple I met in Albarracin, David and Gema, and had an incredible time getting to know them. They are very knowledgeable of the city’s history and were very generous people. They took me out into the city to eat tapas, explore the city, and see the great hemispheric. I had a great time getting to know their friends from Seville, who didn’t speak a lot of English, but were hilarious to interact with.

David also invited me to eat at his mother’s house, which is on the beach. I ate traditional Spanish plate, Palallas and had a great time meeting his family. After we had a lot of the best Italian Ice Cream and saw an Imax that is way bigger than the one in Chattanooga.

I arrived in Valencia right after Fallas ended, which was probably good because I am not a big fan of a super busy city full of burning statues and drunks.

To sum up the trip I have:

1. Met 20 amazing people by going out of my comfort zone.

2. Climbed a lot of rocks

3. Got sick (literally) of traveling by train and bus.

4. Fallen in love with Spain

How did I meet David and Gema in Albarracin? I was trying to decide what cheese to buy while the owner of the store was blabbering at me, and David came over and offered to translate for her. After that, I thanked him and went on my way. A few minutes later, I saw him and Gema in the street and talked for a little bit. After, they gave me their contact information and the rest is history. Crazy, huh?! I had the best time in Valencia just from deciding to buy cheese at 8:00 pm.

The one main thing I really enjoyed from my trip was having the constant opportunity to reinvent myself when meeting new people. Where there is no predisposition to act like my normal self- whatever that may be- I can try new things out and see what works and what doesn’t. For example, here is a made up monologue for myself:

“Hmm…In Dublin, I’m always acting like the modest, humble, and non-ambitious Ben. Now that I’m Spain, I think I’m going to be a confident bad ass and see how seriously people take me. Gee, I hope I don’t piss them off. After I leave Spain and go to Paris, I think I’ll go for the silent and sophisticated Ben”. I don’t think this is deceitful, only industrious.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Just testing out Picasa 3...which is pretty sweet for uploading photos to the blog

Albarracin

Balaguer

Spain

I haven't posted in awhile because I haven't been able to access any internet due to spending most of my time in train stations and rock climbing in the middle of nowhere. So here's a big recap:

Monday, March 9

I had the weekend to kill before I left for Barcelona, so I decided to go climbing around Ireland. On Saturday, I went back to Glendalough to go bouldering with Sean. It was very scenic and just a fun place to hang out. On Sunday, Sean took me to a place near Wicklow called, Glend-lock-ness (have no idea how it’s spelled). There were a few people there, but not many are willing to hike for 45 minutes in a wet, swampy field. Although the view was spectacular and the climbing was descent, I don’t think I would go back without some hardcore rain boots.

Today is Monday and I am stuck at the Lleida transit station because I missed my train to Balaguer by waiting in the wrong fricking line. No worries, a guy told me to use the same ticket to go somewhere else, where Balaguer is on the way. I didn’t sleep last night because I wanted to use my sleepy energy to pass out during my flight to Barcelona-it’s a pretty swell system I have going on right now. When I arrived, everything was getting drenched. Although it was raining cats and dogs, I still went in the city to kill some time before my bus left for Balaguer. As my luck would have it, every bus was canceled due to bad weather conditions, so I had to take a train. There were a lot of little annoying things about the bus to train transition, but it’s probably only worth summary:

*Met a Sweed named, Magnus

*Realized climbing gear (rope and quickdraws) is a lot easier to travel with than a fricking crash pad.

*My Spanish blows.

Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be sunny and 9 degrees (Celsius), and I’m really psyched to go out climbing.

Friday, March 12

Balaguer

Balaguer was really amazing! My hosts, Annika Muuler and her boyfriend Jordi, were very kind to welcome me into their home. Annika is a journalist from Germany and can speak, German, English, Catalan, and Spanish….very impressive. I spent half the time in Balaguer sight seeing and biking because Annika had an unexpected article she had to write, but it was worth the wait because the climbing is amazing. Jordi is a really nice guy who speaks only a little English, so we only spoke when we were climbing at the gym or eating. Annika showed me around Santa Linya, where Chris Sharma now lives, and climbed there for a day. The famous cave in Santa Linya is amazing! I have never seen so many 5.14s and 5.15s before and it really inspired me to improve in climbing so I can one day climb one of the routes there. I also climbed in Os de Balaguer, which was more technical climbing. There are some climbing lounges and hostels in Balaguer and Sanata Linya, so it is somewhat easy to find a climbing partner there if I go alone, again.

After Balaguer, I took a train to Lleida, Zaragoza, and Teruel. This should have only taken 4 hours, but due to ONE fricking train arriving 10 minutes late, my schedule was ruined and the journey took me 12 hours. Hijo de puta! Due to the lack of sleep and spending 8 hours in a train station, I caught a weird infection in my throat. Out of desperation for a warm bed, I took a taxi from Teruel to Albarracin. There were buses going from Teruel to Abarracin, but I missed the last one (damn train) and did not want to wait until tomorrow. I asked a lady at the Molino del gato, a former water mill reconverted in bar ,where I could find a cheap hostel and I ended up at the, Meson del Gallo.

Saturday, March 13

Albarracin

This morning I woke up around 11:00 and had a hot shower and breakfast. I was not in a hurry to climb because I still felt tired and sick. I walked around Albarracin and was amazed by all the ancient buildings in the middle of nothing. Very beautiful city filled will huge mountains of prehistoric rock paints. After walking around, I went to a camping site full of bungalows to find some climbers who would be willing to give me a ride and climb with me. I was in luck. Since it was late, there was only one car left and it was about to leave. I used my horrible Spanish and I found myself climbing with seven great guys. All of the guys were either finishing med school or their PhDs, so they were not only funny but also smart. Two of them spoke English, Omar and Hans. Omar is from the Canary Islands and has his masters in Interracial Relations and Hans is from Austria and is about to finish med school. After climbing, they invited me to have dinner in their bungalow. Omar is a fantastic cook, but I am not sure what I ate. After dinner, we played poker while listening to some DJ music.

Sunday, March 14

Today I went climbing with the fellows from Austria and Canary Islands and found a nice couple from Germany that needed another person to share a bungalow with. I decided to take it easy and give my tendons a break, so I took a nap and walked around the city. Albarracin is pretty famous for their homemade cheese, so I decided to eat only that today and now I feel fat and satisfied. It was pretty cool just hanging out in the city, watching Madrid beat Valencia while eating tapas and bocadillos. I also met a nice couple from Valencia who were very nice and welcomed to show me around their city anytime, so I will definitely take them up on their offer. Now I am going to eat some more cheese.

Wednesday, March 17

The weather has been amazing, but my arms and shoulders are hurting pretty badly. Sharing the bungalow with Frank and Anna has been a blast. Everyday we get up, eat breakfast, go climbing, eat dinner, watch climbing videos and go to bed. Tomorrow it is supposed to start raining and it won't stop until next Monday, so I will probably head out to by then.

Videos will be posted when I return to Dublin....

Ben Tsui