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Reports

During my travels, I received free accommodation for a night in exchange for writing a daily travel diary. This diary documented how I reached my next destination, the hosts who welcomed me, the food I was offered, and other experiences along the way. Below, you will find the archives of these extensive reports. Please note that English is not my native language, and most entries were written quickly, often around midnight. Enjoy!
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Tuesday, 25 December 2001
--> Barcelona (E) vacation 'The Story'

On December 23 three friends of mine drove from The Netherlands all the way to the Spanish city Barcelona. With them they took along two great ladies from the northern Dutch city Groningen. And all their excuses were (of course): ‘we all needed to get out’. And of course I would love to be the HOST for a while.

As you know I received the key from Mr. Harry, the housekeeper of the apartment I am allowed to stay in for a while. This stay will be a sort of a vacation in my continuous world travelling and even I can use it very much.

I already noticed that I was breaking down in the last week in South Africa. Things weren’t going well and my health condition was walking far behind me. Not that I am ill, but don’t ask me to run around a block a few times or you might scrap me from the pavement.

There weren’t many updates in these days of vacation, but with friends hopping over, I managed to get my good friend Gerben (Harry’s son) to report a few times. He did it and found it hard – he finally understood my profession and he didn’t even had to travel the next day, haha.

With the following reports written by Gerben (and assisted by the other guests Munk, Mirjam, Justine and Irena), I hope you get some insight view of these last weeks.

Let me give you a short introduction of the characters here:

Gerben: fare away in his twenties, all-time journalism student, has an overall passion for music, literature and writing

Munk: is his last name, basically because we all forgot his first name and his last name is easy. His gorgeous sister is called Munky. Easy. Munk is also an all-time journalism student, crazy about all sorts of non-commercial music, a professional gliding pilot and an amateur photographer. He was admitted to study at the famous [I]Rietveld Art Academy[/b] in Holland, but did not want to go there.

Together with Gerben and Munk I share the passion of hanging around in hometown pubs drinking that yellow gold stuff. Not for a living, but just to fill it up with :-)

Mirjam: has been in her final year of her journalism study for years and moved from Zwolle to Groningen. She wants to finish college and become an art sculptor when she grows up.

Justine: is one of the Powerpuff Girls in real life. Jumps up and down and left to right and is honestly miss hyperactivity of the 21st century. She is fun and I met her for the first time as she came along with Mirjam from her hometown Groningen. Justine is a TV-host on Dutch television.

Irena: Irena struck me in my heart. I never met her before. You can read that in the following reports. Also Irena came along with Mirjam. After fleeing from Bosnia because of the civil war in 1992 she now lives with her family in The Netherlands for the last nine years. Irena is a social worker and school psychiatrist.

Gerben's reporting will start on December 27...

Good times!

Ramon

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