It’s day 10 here in Lisboa, Portual, and Sarah and I are on the second location of our European journey. It’s been a super exciting time here, packed with so much exploration and activity. I’ll take this short moment to write some observations about our journey so far.

SPAIN

We stayed in Barcelona as our home base, but got a chance to explore Ibiza, Girona, and Montserrat as our “Hakone” journeys. We call them Hakone trips because back in Japan, our first mini-trip from Tokyo was to a hot spring haven called Hakone. Ever since then, any mini-trip we’d take away from our main base of operations would be called “Hakones.”

Spain was as I expected it, as I’d been there many times before. For Sarah it was all new, and was special. It was special for me too, because instead of a typical boy’s trip, it was with the wife. And because of this, we were able to explore so much more than simply going to the club every single day. I got to personally see way more than I normally would, and got a true dose of culture. I did notice that Barcelona had changed since I was last year 8 years ago. It had become much more touristy- almost overrun by tourists. It was to the point where it not only disrupted the local residents, but also the other tourists that would be visiting. We stayed close to the Rambla in a hot apartment with no AC. Despite the fan in the room, we would sweat every day in there. We visited all of the local attractions as tourists do, but also got to explore the paths less traveled. It is with some sadness that I have to record here that Barcelona isn’t quite the place it used to be. There has been growing resentment amongst the locals to folks like us – and that’s all thanks to the new sharing economy of easier tourism. The news says that increasing global wealth has also contributed to this issue, and I’ve seen this in the growing numbers of gaggles everywhere. Lines for restaurants, museums, clubs, that I’d never see before. Locals spewing out expletives to tourists. Graffiti proclaiming “f***ing tourists go home!” everywhere. Notwithstanding this, we experienced great friendliness and hospitality to the places we found – we just had to look to find the good spots. Barcelona had good food, mostly tapas, and not too much variety. Nice place, but I think I shall be leaving this place in my memories for the foreseeable future.

PORTUGAL

Portugal was definitely more my speed and preference. It’s definitely a more laid back country, as evidenced by the hospitality, and the time it would take to do things here. It’s definitely not for folks in a rush by any means. Transportation is SUPER cheap. Food is SUPER cheap. We could travel 20 miles to Cascais, a beautiful beach town – for 2.25 euros. A huge meal would be 15 euros. Coffee would be 0.70 euros. Real estate was cheap. You could secure a 30 square meter flat for less than 150k euros right in the center of town. My friend Ash has a house in the Alentejo region down south, and bought it for 50k euros 2 years ago – it’s a cliffside condo with breathtaking views. This place has been getting touristy, but is what many people say is what Barcelona was 10 years ago. My feeling is that this city is like what San Francisco once was before all the tech douchebags inundated the city. It’s got a golden gate bridge – hell it even has a Bay Bridge lookalike, and has fantastic food and drink. I actually feel safe here- whereas in Spain I felt like I had to watch my back everywhere I went. I am enamored by this place, and it’s been a fantastic place to visit! This is a spot I’d love to visit again.

Onward we go- Morocco next with the gaysians. Should be an exciting time – can’t wait!