First day stepping off US soil
On October 1st, 2017, after having to had get rid of my muse, my half wolfdog Remi, something clicked in my head and decided that nothing else mattered and that I could do anything I want, so I went ahead and booked a plane flight to Barcelona for Jan. 20th 2018.
I knew that my roomate, and brewing friend, Anthony, wanted to go to Barcelona as well, so he booked his trip their too for the same day and flight as me.
As the dates began to get closer to the departure, it started to get more and more real. My brewing story was about to begin. Three weeks before we left to Spain I had my last day at the brewery, which I had run as the only employee on the payroll over a 9 month span performing the jobs of Tap Room Manager as well as Head Brewer. As I stepped out of the door of the brewery on that last day I knew life was about to happen shortly...
In those three weeks before embarking abroad, I wanted to go do as much activities as I could and see as many friends and loved ones as I could, and I did!
The last days before embarking on the plane to Barcelona I started to get really sick and extremely weak. This was NOT how I wanted my last few days in America to be, as well as moving out of my house...
I pack up my 70l North Face traveling backpack and put it on my back....... This shit was heavier then my old Marine Corps backapck! But I could handle it right??
After cleaning up my house and saying goodbye to friends and family, Anthony and I, get to Oakland airport with my life on my back as we are about to board the overnight flight to Barcelona leaving at 8pm and arriving at 4pm the following day.
I am usually pretty good at sleeping on planes, but being sick/nauseous/and nervous on a 12 hour plane ride did not go so well. Anthony slept the whole time while I was saying this mantra in my head trying to not sweat profusely and throw up from nausea "I am a strong and healthy man" It worked for the time being.
We got off the plane and set food on foreign soil around 3:30pm the following day and quickly decided I'm not as savage as I used to be. I had to get rid of some weight off my main pack. I brought 5 Pliny The Elder bottles to trade with brewers out here but I just want that weight off my back so I gave some cool people these free bottles. I also had to throw away a few pieces of good clothes simply because it added too much weight to my pack.
We had to hop on a shuttle to the airport then find our way to the train station and figure out what train to hop on, and we did actually pretty good. We got off on all the right exits and right when we got to the actual city of Barcelona we were introduced with a nice couple honks of a car as we were standing in the middle of an intersection looking at our phone to find out where to go next... Stupid tourists...
We got to our hostel sweaty and feeling defeated and check in to our stuffy/hot hostel room which was a lot smaller and apartment like then expected.
Even though it was a stressful first day, the second day was a lot better!! we woke up at like 10:30 am due to jet lag and got 5liters of water because the water here is not the best. We then decide to start walking and next thing led to another: became a member of a "coffee club" if you know what that means, we saw some naked chicks on the beach of the Balearic Sea, more graffiti then I've ever seen, and some of the best architecture in the world.
Tomorrow Anthony and I are going to brew with Edge Brewing Company at noon to help Riley, the head brewer there, brew a kettled sour and share a few beers with him and write up a little blog post about that brew!
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Until the next post!
Cheers!
Ty Stevenson
Brewer