Those Bronx sunsets…

… so beautiful, but comes with the consequence of rampant asthma throughout the borough!

 

I hope everyone is doing well. I’ll be busy until Wednesday with pulmonology and microbiology/infectious disease stuff. Updates shortly thereafter!

Barcelona pics…

As promised, check out the gallery.

A 30 hour monday…

… due to flying westward from Barcelona to NYC. The trip was wonderful, and Barcelona is beautiful. I can’t wait to return. A quick rundown:

Thurs: Arrive in Barcelona via Frankfurt. Meet up with Keith at baggage claim. Time to kill until our host (Pol – or Paul) gets off work. Go drink beers and eat chorizo at a little bar in the Clot neighborhood. Drop stuff at Pol’s place, rest a bit, then out to walk around and eat some tapas. Sleep.

Fri: Get up and take train to Montserrat. Beautiful mountains that look like individual teeth biting sky (which happens to be quite blue and nice today). Hike up past big church to the top of these hills/mountains. Find a creepy little chapel-thing to some unknown (to my heathen-self) saint. Eat one of the finest lunches ever: bread, cheese, and chorizo purchased earlier that morning in Barcelona; all the while looking out on the Spanish countryside. Go back down hill and walk through huge ornate church. Back to town via train. Shower/change, then meet people for nice dinner. Paella is good… really good. Go to “Harlem Jazz Club” good early rock tunes being played. Drink beers. Move to “megabar” and drink Sangria and play some foosball. By now it’s roughly 2:00am (having crossed over into Saturday) and we head to “Razzmatazz” which is a gigantic conglomerate of clubs in one building. We get on a list somehow. Bypass line, in for free, and free drinks. Hazy from here on. End up walking home at around 4:00 or 5:00am.

Sat: Get up late. Walk down by Olympic stuff. Has a weird abandoned feel to it, though only a few years old. Very modernish. Good walk though. Hurry back to the older part of town. Rest, then a good dinner. Kinda a lazy day, but good and needed.

Sun: Go rent bikes. Ride up Montjuic to see the big castle up at the top. Long hard ride on a bike that weighs roughly 50lbs. Castle looks out over the sea and is a weird mix of very old contrasted with early 20th century artillary-turret type guns. Bomb down hill on the bikes, and ride throughout Barcelona. See much of the Gaudi works throughout the city. Impressive. Fun. Riding a bike causes instant reversion to childlike happiness and sense of freedom. Drop off bikes, go change, then head to FUTBOL game! Stadium is HUGE. Holds roughly 100,000 people I believe, and the roar is unreal. These people take this shit seriously. It is their regional honor, pride, and patriotism played out on the field. Finally, end with a fun dinner with people. Rest.

Mon (today): Up at 6:00am. Train to Barcelona airport. Hang out there for 2-3 hours. Fly/sleep my way to Frankfurt. Frankfurt is awful – huge/sprawling/bleak airport, and the people aren’t terribly friendly when they wake you up telling you to leave the terminal while they shut it down for 20 minutes. The German language is not pleasant to wake up to. Finally leave after 4 hour layover. 7:30pm EST – touchdown NYC.

More later, and pictures of course. For now, the diphenhydramine is calling me to sleep.

Late night packing…

I’m bidding farewell to the Bronx tomorrow evening for temporary respite in Barcelona. The trip is the result of a sudden sleep-deprived ticket-buying episode, that (in semi-clearheaded retrospect) was one of the wisest decisions I’ve made lately.

I’ll be back Monday…

Reading recommendation…

I just finished A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace, and I implore you to hurry to the library/bookstore/online-retailer of your choice and get this book. The title essay, which closes this book beautifully and measures a short 100 pages, is hysterical. In a clichéd stamp of approval, I was laughing out loud on the subway while reading it.

After completion of a particularly great book ( -in addition to Foster Wallace, Vonnegut and Salinger frequently leave me with the following aspiration and frustration), I am tempted to try and write something clever, insightful, or otherwise worthwhile. It always fizzles after the inevitable realization that crafting something with insight and flow requires skill that I am sorely lacking.

This is fine with me. I will just continue to greedily lap-up the writings of these great authors.

Belated tales of hiking the Presidentials…

Last October, I went up to New Hampshire with my friend Mike to hike the Presidentials. After the long drive from the Bronx, we arrived at the northern portion of the White Mountains at roughly 2 or 3 in the morning. We threw our sleeping bags in the grass at a campsite and slept for a few hours before heading up the hills the next morning. On our way up, we ran into a few people heading down – they mentioned a chance of freezing rain to us, but that wasn’t about to deter us when we had driven so far. We had an uneventful hike up to an area that made for a good campsite and set up camp as the sun was dropping towards the horizon. After we ate some dehydrated food (which tastes great after a day of hiking) and were heading towards sleep, the snow started to fall.

Upon waking up, we had to dig ourselves out of roughly a foot of snow. We still got some great hiking that day, and made it to the top of Mt. Madison. We started up Mt. Adams, making it quite a ways up, but it was getting late, and it was a little more sketch without crampons. We stayed another night in the snow then headed back down.

Anyway… I finally got the pictures from Mike, so go over to the gallery to check those out.

Airport blogging…

A big thanks to a friend who informed me that PDX has free WiFi… it makes sitting in the terminal a little less boring. While I wait for my midnight flight back to NYC, I thought I’d say ‘thanks’ to all the family and friends who made my break awesome and ’sorry’ to the many people I missed.

New years was awesome, though I am done with shot-gunning bud light for a bit. I also highly recommend purchasing the “shot glass roulette wheel” if you are looking for debaucherous fun. Of course, it helps to have a friend named Leslie to egg you on in continuing to take shots long past the point that you should!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!