Do you daydream about quitting your job and traveling around the world? What about taking it a step further and building a location independent career, so you can live and work wherever you want to?

I can remember the first time someone labelled me a “digital nomad” on a major blog… Two-and-a-half years ago these were the words of Corbett Barr—back when his site was still called Free Pursuits. Corbett listed me among the top 10 Digital Nomads to Learn From, alongside Tim Ferriss and Rolf Potts—two truly incredible writers who inspired me to follow my own path in life—as well as huge A-list bloggers Chris Brogan and Mike Elgan, and big names in the travel blogosphere including Christine Gilbert from Almost Fearless and Chris Guillebeau of Art of Nonconformity fame.

I wasn’t quite sure what I thought of the label at first, although I was immensely honored to be among such incredible company. I was excited! Reading Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek and Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding had been a turning point in my life—those two books opened my eyes to whole new possibilities and put a fire under my ass to create a life of my own design, and try my hardest to enjoy every moment of it.

Not long after in late 2009, Jonathan Mead used me as a case study in his manifesto The Zero Hour Workweek, which played off of the ideas in Tim’s book, but took them even further to encourage people to build businesses that basically allow them to get paid to be themselves. Soon I was being interviewed about my live-and-work-anywhere lifestyle, and people started calling my story inspiring, and asking me about my travel experiences and advice for overcoming travel obstacles.

Sometimes I’m a bit embarrassed by the buzzwords (digital nomad, location independent… and lifestyle design… there’s another one!) but eventually I embraced the title Corbett had bestowed upon me. Who’d have known that just two years later I’d be running a business course called Digital Nomad Academy with the help of Corbett himself and several other hugely successful remote-control entrepreneurs I look up to!

Like many people, sometimes I feel like the small (but growing) online niche we’re in is a bit too cliquey, too markety, and sometimes people get big egos, or they feel under pressure to maintain the appearance like they’ve got everything figured out and their lives are just so cool.

I know, because I’ve been there… but I’ll be the first to tell you, nobody has it all figured out. I’ve been broke as a joke many times along my journey, I’ve been stuck up a creek with no paddle many times on my travels, I’ve experienced immense business failures, I’ve been stabbed in the back, I’ve been discouraged. But, this is an incredible life we’ve all been given, and I’m grateful for the amazing adventures and obstacles I’ve experienced. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything.

I’m even more thankful for the people around me who have helped fuel this adventure. It has its ups and downs for sure—I was defrauded and went through several down months. I wasn’t confident everything might not collapse at times. I took a break from blogging and let some of my friends use this platform to share their writing and their projects with you (I see no point writing unless I actually have something to say, but once I conquer the challenges laid out in front of me, maybe then I’ll have something of real value to share about them).

But despite the challenges of living an unconventional life, I have no plans to quit traveling, meeting new people, and having new experiences anytime soon, to stop experimenting with my own businesses, to ever go back to a 9-to-5 if I can avoid it, to move back home, or to stop blogging about this weird journey. Living life your own way, you will definitely be confronted with setbacks, and the journey will be more challenging than living according to someone else’s prescribed path. But it is absolutely, 100% worthwhile. 

My girlfriend and I are fortunate to live for now in one of the most beautiful regions in the world, in a three-story townhouse surrounded by forests and beautiful limestone mountains, all for a fraction of what it would cost back in California.

Emily and I recently spent a week in Singapore, and it was the most fun I’ve had in months! We were trying to decide what country to visit for a renewed visa and I decided I really wanted to visit old friends there. She teases me that I can’t travel anywhere unless I know someone there, and when I thought about it, I realized it’s not far from the truth.

Undoubtedly when most people think about travel, they tend to think of places, monuments and landmarks like the Acropolis of Athens, the Roman Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, London’s Big Ben, Bangkok’s reclining Buddha, Krabi’s mountaintop Buddhist temple, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Each of these are fantastic places I’ve been able to see on my travels. But what really has made my travels remarkable are the people I have met and the experiences I’ve shared with them.

I became very close with my French professor in high school, who was also a huge influence on me (as far as my interest in travel, culture, art, music and languages). The very first time I traveled outside the U.S. was a trip with some classmates to France, and what made it special was the wonderful family I lived with for a week on the Mediterranean coast in Cannes, as well as the time I spent with Mssr. Hodgins and my classmates wandering around Paris.

London is probably one of my top three favorite cities in the world to visit. Although I really enjoy wandering around on foot through London and sightseeing, it wasn’t the London Eye or the Houses of Parliament that kept me coming back… it was because I first traveled there on my own to visit my cousin Ian, who spent a year as an exchange student there, and it was the fun crowd of college students I got to know—James, the Toms, Sarah, Dav, Elaine, and many more—when I visited him for two weeks that made my experience so special.

I traveled to Spain for a three-week Christmas and New Year holiday with my friends Paul, Tim, and Ryan. Barcelona was a stunning city with great food, equaled by the gorgeous views and historical Old Town on Ibiza (and it’s nightlife), but what really made the trip special were the incredible friends we made—Meye and Barbara, two amazing women who took it upon themselves to show us all the best restaurants and pubs in town, introduced us to friends, showed us the parades and the local Catalans celebrations, and invited us into their homes for Christmas dinner!

Greece, Turkey, and Italy are infused with history, vibrant culture, and amazing sights (especially for someone who studied history at university) but what made my travels there special were the memories and time I spent bonding with family.

When I first arrived in Thailand, it was two Thai friends I met—Poon and Om—who spent three days driving me all around Phuket on their motorbike showing me the sights.

Bangkok is a huge metropolis with great nightlife, great food, a big flag on the backpacker trail. But what made it so much fun for me was the people. I got caught up there for a year and a half eating cheap street food all the time with Migration Mark, Joel, Ryan, May, Nalin, Bank, and Aum, going out partying, and running fun monthly mixer events and volunteering with Dwight Turner, Christina, Craig Gonzales, and others. I remember the first day Sean Ogle landed in Asia, and we went with my sister and my friends Chris, Ryan, and Nick to explore the ancient ruins and Buddhas at Ayutthaya, coworking with David Walsh and Derek Johanson, planning a TEDx conference with Rob, Greg, Andrew, Chris, Karla, Fluke, and more.

Travel puts me face-to-face with friends—many friends I’ve known for many years from school or work, but also many who I’ve met and become friends with through running my business online.

In Bangkok, mostly through Twitter and the Bangkok Tweetups that Dwight and I would put on, I also was able to meet in person with awesome bloggers Dan Andrews, Adam Baker, Benny “the Irish Polyglot” Lewis, Gary Arndt, Matt Goult, Jodi Ettenberg, Jonny Gibaud, Marc Gold, Ross Hill, Kevin Revolinski, Wes Nations, Ryan Martin, Mark Powers, and many more.

Warning: I’ve linked to a lot of people in this post! But I want to share each and every one of them with you (I’m definitely missing more than a few, too) not to gloat… not because I’m some celebrity, but because I’ve been blessed to meet so many truly cool people from around the world—each of them working on their own unique, interesting things—and each of them has at some point or another in my travels made a profound impact on my journey in their own small way. Because of that, I do encourage you to check out each and every one of these folks and discover how they’re making the world a more interesting place. I owe it to them to share what they’re doing.

In Bali I met Kyle and Bessie Crum doing yoga in the rice paddies, Stuart McDonald eating ribs at Naughty Nuri’s, Jez Tryner for a drink, and spent time with my friends Jerm and Vie at their lovely condo.

In Kuala Lumpur I met Nomadic Matt Kepnes while wandering around hostels, Dwight and Mark and I met our travel buddy Agnes (who drove us at lightning speed at 11pm one night to see the cozy little town of Melaka, on a whim!) through Couchsurfing, and I met Hani Khaursar, Vishen Lakhiani, Brian Wong and others on a subsequent trip when I spoke at a conference.

Phnom Penh has been home to my two friends Brittany Sims and Caron Margarete who, along with some of Cambodia’s footballers showed me the town and made me feel right at home.

Here in Krabi, I spent considerable time climbing and beach partying with my friends Alicia, James, Vanessa, Peter, Jane & Toto, and I finally met in person with my blogger buddies Carlos Miceli, Colin Wright, Adventurous Kate McCulley, Backpacking Matt Kyhnn, and Shannon O’Donnell, who’ve all stopped by on their travels.

When I traveled back to the States this year, in Austin, I met up with Markus & Ashley, Nick Reese, Jenny Blake, Ridiculously Extraordinary Karol Gadja, Where is Jenny Leonard, Andy Drish, Andrew Norcross, Thursday Bram, Technomads Chris & Cherie, and many other good folks for a week of awesomeness while South by Southwest was on.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to a host of inspiring folks like Ramit Sethi, Corbett Barr, Amber Zuckswert, Charlie Hoehn, Lorna Li, and serial entrepreneur Rajesh Setty (and I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Chris Ducker there, who usually plays an Englishman in the Philippines).

Los Angeles is or has been the stomping grounds of my very good friend Ryan, entrepreneur Jun Loayza, blogger Jonathan Mead, dating coach Jordan Harbinger, my friends Dariane Nabor, Laurenne Sala, and many other cool peoples.

In past trips to Singapore, I’ve met other cool nerds (like myself) Adrianna Tan, Ziqi Koey (who also just visited us here in Krabi!), Guyi Shen, and many more.

This trip, Emily and I had an incredibly fun time together…  we did all the touristy stuff: we walked all around the city on foot, stayed on the beautiful riverfront in Boat Quay, gorged ourselves on amazing delicious food from all around Southeast Asia and beyond, we hung out at the marina by night and took in all the city lights, wandered all around the big fancy new Marina Bay Sands resort and casino, went to a Salvador Dalí exhibit, to the cinema, briefly to a concert hall, and much more. But our time together there also reminded me that one of my biggest motivators is the people I get to share it with.

It was seeing my friend and singer Shimona Kee for her birthday and enjoying the hip young local music scene, having a lovely homemade dinner with Michelle at her impressive 16th-floor apartment, having a drink, a shisha and a catchup with my old friends John Berns and Martin, and getting to meet Derek Sivers in person (the very down-to-earth, engaging, but brilliant and wildly successful gentleman who founded CDBaby) to chat about travels, businesses, failures, and planting multiple flags (BTW you absolutely must watch this fascinating, short 8-part video series by Sivers). Getting to interact with, have fun with, learn from, and learn about all these fascinating people that are all doing their own interesting things—that’s what makes travel so much fun for me.

Running my business online has meant I’ve built friendships with people all around the world. Interacting with people through Twitter alone has connected me to dozens and dozens of new people that I’ve actually become real friends and done business with.

The point is, I’m just an average dude—but because of the way I choose to live my life, the way I run my business, and the way I reach out to connect with other people out there, I’ve had an extraordinary experience making new friends all around the world. The tools I’ve used to build an international network of friends and colleagues are also available to you.

Being location-independent, running a business online, and being on the move—living my life this way has opened many doors to people and experiences I wouldn’t have back in my “normal” life, that I would have never dreamed I’d have. My passion and what drives my journey is the interesting people I meet… making new friends and having fun new experiences with them, learning from them, and growing with them. Your interests, what drives you, and the life you want to have may look entirely different to mine, but whatever they are, there are millions of people you can connect with out there in this small little world of ours. The amazing journey I have had, like many others, is only an example of what anyone could do. You only need to start opening doors.

What journey are you on? What are the people, places, and experiences that have meant the most to you along your path?

If you found this interesting, and if you’re anything like me, click here to get some incredibly awesome (and completely free) stuff to add to your toolbox and learn more about my philosophy. You won’t regret it→

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Setbacks, and What Motivates Me to Keep Exploring & Experimenting

Patrick Lockton is a lawyer for digital nomads and entrepreneurs whose Matrix Law Group practices what they call Law 2.0—a flexible, on-demand, virtual legal practice—an alternative to big law firms that’s rooted in notions of mobility, technology and efficiency. One of the questions clients have for him most frequently is ‘How do I raise seed capital if I don’t know any investors?’

I know there are several of you who will one day seek funding for your own big business venture, so I thought it would be of great value to get some of his expert knowledge about the early-stage and legal aspects of forming a business here (hopefully with more to come soon). Everything that follows is from Patrick–

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Long gone are the days of pitching investors with hot new ideas and having money thrown at you. Entrepreneurs are now much more likely to dive into their own pockets and battle hard to start up and stay alive. But if you don’t have the cash and need money to pay for the development of, for instance, costly new software and a complex website, what do you do?

Luckily, there are still options for funding, but finding and securing the cash will take time, research, good negotiating skills, and, above all, a strong commitment to your new business.

There is no easy, one-size-fits-all formula, but I have developed a short checklist that I use when meeting digital nomads and entrepreneurs.  It has taken me years to put together, but it seems to work every time.  It is designed to spark ideas and inspire confidence.  Some of the items may seem obvious and some obscure, but if you start at the beginning and work your way through, you will stumble upon something that can make all the difference.

1. Do you need as much as you think?

This seems obvious but you can build a small business without a huge amount of funding these days.  Sometimes entrepreneurs think they need more money than they actually do.  You can structure the development of a business so that you start small and build it up with the income your business earns.  This is a good way of ensuring you don’t waste money and develop strong foundations before you invest more money.

Angel Investor Howard Greenstein, a Social Media Strategist and President of the Harbrooke Group, remarked in a recent interview:

“Build something (anything), put it in the hands of customers and get some traction before raising money. Any hardware/software/whatever startup can do this thanks to lean startup and customer development techniques and the decreasing costs of doing everything.”

One of my clients was starting up his own brokerage firm.  He wanted to spend money on an expensive office, logos and branding, PR and sophisticated IT system when all he needed was a website, an online trading account, an internet connection, a laptop and his client’s confidence.  His overheads were so low that he had more money and time to invest in getting clients and the long-term development of the business.  His business has become a huge success.

2. Borrow from people, not banks, credit cards or yourself

Don’t cash in your investments or pension, don’t use credit cards and avoid banks at all costs.

Even a very well run startup involves risk.  You always hear success stories about entrepreneurs who max out credit cards, take out second mortgages and borrow from their retirement funds and then go on to become millionaires. The truth is that a lot of people who take great risks lose everything. You can start with a simple loan.

Try the obvious and easiest options first—approach family and friends with an investment opportunity

This doesn’t mean asking mom and dad.  This means tapping into personal ties to raise cash for a business that’s either too new or too small to get financing elsewhere.

Your personal network is a lot wider than you think.  A few emails and calls, using Facebook and LinkedIn can elicit a startling amount of interest.  A few tips on how to do this based on clients’ experience:

• Approach the issue with calm confidence, don’t appear desperate. You have to inspire confidence in your business’s biggest asset—you.
• Offer an investment opportunity, don’t ask for a loan.
• You should still follow professional standards in structuring and documenting loans or equity arrangements. Get a good affordable lawyer who specializes in working for entrepreneurs to do this for you quickly and cheaply.
• Give investors letters acknowledging their investments.
• Pay out attractive interest—say, 1% a month on a $10,000 investment. In setting an interest rate, consider how much money you are saving by borrowing from friends rather than a financial institution.
• Include a clause that allows investors to get their money back at any time. All they have to do is let you know and you will pay them instantly.

Try P2P Lending

Try the following P2P (Peer-to-Peer) online lending communities that are mostly made up of open-minded entrepreneurs.

• Zopa (UK only): where you can borrow between £1 and £15,000 from people.
• Prosper: USA’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace.
• The Lending Club:  offers some of the most competitive rates.
• First Funding: allows you to choose a lender from an online community of business angels.

Tips on getting a line of credit for your start-up ASAP:

• Get a good accountant to help you tell your story in numbers.
• Avoid conducting meetings with lenders at their offices. Try somewhere neutral.
• Do a team presentation, involving people you know  who will excel at them.
• Maintain, or clean up, your credit rating.
• Offer some collateral.
• Cut or eliminate your salary (i.e., don’t look for a loan to pay yourself).

3. Apply to Angel Investors, Mentorship and Seed Capital Programs

Angel Investors

Angel investors will want to have a lot of input into the way your business is run but they will share their money and knowledge. Think about this carefully; it is not free money.  If you raise money, it’s difficult  or impossible to take a small exit from your business, or run it as a cash business. This can be a godsend for many entrepreneurs, but I don’t often recommend this to mobile entrepreneurs because their lifestyles aren’t negotiable and can often rub Angel Investors the wrong way.

To find an Angel Investor, try:

• Angel List or
• Record yourself and upload your pitch to the investment community on My Pitch. Be precise, professional, use reliable accounting to tell the story as much as possible and focus on the figures.

Mentorship and Seed Capital programs

These typically include teaching, coaching, seed capital and introductions to investors.  So, if you’re a first-time entrepreneur and have little experience, money or contacts, these programs offer a good opportunity.  My top picks include:

Y Combinator: The Rolls Royce of mentorship programs.  They pay your expenses while you’re getting started and make small investments (rarely more than $20,000) in return for small stakes in your company (usually 2-10%). Entrepreneurs must move to the Silicon Valley area to participate in a three month program. These guys have funded over 200 startups, including Loopt, Reddit, Wufoo, Scribd, Disqus, Dropbox, Justin.tv and Posterous.

TechStars: TechStars is a similar three-month program offered once per year in four different cities: Boulder, Boston, New York and Seattle.  Startups receive up to $18,000 in seed funding for a 6% equity stake, intensive mentorship and the chance to pitch to investors at the end of the program.

Other Programs.  Below are some of the other good mentorship programs:

• Founder Institute – all over the US, Singapore, Paris, Brussels and Berlin.
• Capital Factory – Austin, TX
• LaunchBox Digital – Durham, NC
• SeedCamp – London (and mini-events throughout Europe)
• Launchpad LA – Los Angeles, CA
• DreamIt Ventures – Philadelphia, PA

4. Look into Government and Microfinance Programs

• Contact the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a government agency that awards millions of dollars annually through its Advanced Technology Program.
• Kiva, the Opportunity Fund and Grameen Bank now support US businesses and have always lent money to entrepreneurs around the world.
• In addition, last year’s economic stimulus bill granted $54 million to the Small Business Administration for lending and technical assistance to microlenders.

5. Ask your lawyer, accountant and clients

If you don’t have any personal investor connections, ask your lawyer, accountant or one of your actual or potential clients if they do. If you don’t have a lawyer or accountant or client, contact me and I will see if I can put you in touch with someone.

6. Look for a business partner

Rather than borrowing, perhaps you can get a partner who can inject some cash, new ideas and contacts into the business.  You may not have much money, but if it is your idea and hard work driving the business forward they might be happy to stump up the cash.

7. Last, but certainly not least—learn to be a schmoozer

If you’re looking for seed capital, but don’t know any investors, you need to learn how to schmooze and build relationships.

Learning to schmooze means getting out there and starting to meet the right people, and knowing how to get their trust and attention.  It is not going to be easy but this is not necessarily a bad thing. One of the reasons so many companies went bust during the dot com bubble was that financing was too easy to get. Getting seed capital is a good testing ground for your business idea.

The goal is to get introductions to investors, i.e. an introductory phone call or email from a middleman whom the investor trusts and respects.

It takes time and patience to build relationships and trust, this does not happen over night, so don’t get impatient.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, met with about 60 private investors over a six-month period in early 1995:

“I talked to all the people I knew who I thought could afford to invest $50,000 …. Ultimately that $1 million was raised, $50,000 at a time.”

A year later, venture capitalists began to line up outside Bezos’ door.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How to Raise Seed Capital When You Don’t Know Any Investors

World Cups, World Championships and Olympic Games—all great sporting events worth seeing live. Although I don’t closely follow sports myself, everyone enjoys a major sporting event—especially when you get to witness them firsthand as you travel the world, and they offer great opportunities for travelers to connect with new friends internationally and at home—so with the kickoff of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg today, I wanted to feature this guest article from Di Fly. [–Cody]

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For all of the advantages of watching great sporting events from the comfort of your sofa, nothing can quite compare to witnessing top athletes compete to the highest levels of excellence in real life. Whether it’s watching the lightning pace of a 100-metre runner or the supreme skills of a daring football winger, experiencing sport at the actual event is a unique opportunity that should not be missed.

Here are five top sporting events you will definitely want to savour in person.

FIFA World Cup 2010 – South Africa

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The 19th World Cup competition is shaping up to be an absolute belter. The first competition to be held on African soil is the most anticipated sporting event of the year. The usual bunch of contenders will be fighting for football’s most esteemed trophy including Brazil, Italy, Germany and Argentina. Who knows, England might even have a chance this year.

FIBA World Championships 2010 – Turkey

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If you want to see some of the greatest stars of the NBA play basketball but don’t fancy a travelling all over America, why not take a holiday to Turkey this year? 28 August sees the start of the International Basketball Federation World Championships, which this year will be held in the fabulous Eurasian country. Current Olympic champions, the USA have a point to prove against current holders Spain – this will be a spectacular event.

IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 – New Zealand

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The Rugby World Cup returning to New Zealand is like the Olympics coming back to Greece. Regardless of the origins of the game, no nation embodies rugby more than New Zealand, and the All Blacks will surely be favourites to lift the trophy on home turf. The 2011 World Cup will be the biggest sporting event ever held in New Zealand and a true spectacle to behold.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships 2011 – Italy

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Beach volleyball is just like normal volleyball but with sand and skimpier uniforms. The Beach Volleyball World Championships occur every two years and the venue for the 2011 tournament is Rome. America and China are the teams to watch, but there will be plenty of hot action from the likes of Brazil, Sweden and Norway also.

The 2012 Olympic Games – London

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Two years until London hosts the Olympic Games for the third time and already the anticipation is building to fever pitch. The excitement in England’s capital is palpable and the greatest congregation of outstanding athletes ever seen will be present for the 30th Games of the Olympiad. 43 world records were set in Beijing in 2008, and the 2012 Olympics will surely see more records smashed as athletes reach new heights of sporting supremacy.

Will you be attending any of the World Cup matches in South Africa or basketball Championships in Turkey this year?

Feature image by vramak.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 5 Top World Sporting Events You Won’t Want to Miss

I spent about a week in SoCal, and I’m still recovering from three nights sleeping in the desert!

Last Wednesday was a long night racing across CA-41 and CA-46 in the pitch black, which was a very eerie experience with literally no other cars on the road for miles and miles. After downing two Rockstar energy drinks and six shots of espresso, and slaloming down US-101, I finally arrived at in Goleta, CA, at 11pm and spent a couple days enjoying Santa Barbara and Isla Vista with my friend Nicole Pefley and her roommate Benita Chow.

Nicole and I traveled east toward Palm Springs to attend this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, CA. Last year with Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Björk was great, but this year undoubtedly blew all my past live music experiences out of the water! Coachella is a three-day concert where you set up camp in the Southern California desert and get your pick from about 125 bands. Nearly 60,000 people attend the festival each of the three days. Indio is sort of an oasis out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by golf courses, palm trees, a few rocky ridges, and little else. The festival is held on the massive Empire Polo Fields, which provide a large, flat, grassy blank slate for the venue. The headliners this year were Jack Johnson, Portishead, Prince, and Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd).

We got a late start, and after sitting at a standstill in traffic passing through Riverside, we were about 3 hours late to the concert grounds. We struggled to get our tent up as the sun sank over the horizon, so finally we rushed to get into the event before dark. As Nicole and I arrived, we were just in time to hear The Verve perform their 90′s ballad “Bittersweet Symphony.” A powerful song to start off a great weekend with. (I’ll include a number of Dave Bullock‘s gorgeous photographs from the event. Bullock was live blogging from Coachella this year and wrote several articles for Wired magazine)

Above, a bird’s-eye view of half the Coachella venue, including the Gobi, Mojave, and Sahara tents. As the sun set, and as The Verve wrapped their set, we played in the Sonic Forest, an array of 8-foot-tall metal pillars that chirp birdsong at us as we interact with them. Then we grabbed our first drinks at the beer garden.

Later, the crowd filled in at the Coachella Main Stage for Jack Johnson’s set Friday night. This is just one of five venues that play simultaneously! Jack Johnson is always a fun act to see live, since he brings a carefree, upbeat atmosphere to the concert. It was an exciting surprise when he brought Matt Costa and Mason Jennings on stage to accompany him for a few songs!

Saturday was 103°, so we spent the daytime hours trying to keep out of the heat at the local Starbucks. The first big attraction of the afternoon was Death Cab for Cutie. We found a decent place to lounge for the duration of their show, and we were both pleasantly surprised at how many of their songs we knew and enjoyed. I guess I liked Death Cab more than I knew I did!

Next up was the German quartet Kraftwerk. The experimental group, part of a movement dubbed “Krautrock,” actually got their start back in 1970, and have had nearly two dozen members cycle through the quartet. They were some of the original pioneers of electronic music, and some of the earliest artists to give a voice to post-war Germany. Their show is an extremely powerful mix of aural and visual sensations as they perform their progressive electronica beats in front of a massive LED screen on Saturday night. Opening with “The Man Machine,” and continuing with “Tour de France” and their psychedelic “Vitamins,” the only way I could express it to someone who wasn’t there is that it was like the music reached inside your mind and wouldn’t let you turn away!

Being at these live music venues is an entirely different experience from any other music listening experience I’ve had, and I think it opened my eyes to the fact that with electronic music in particular, while many people don’t seem to “get” it at first, it is something that you fall in love with when you hear it live. Whether it’s because of the extreme volume, the energy of the crowd, or the intense audio-visual experience, needless to say this set the mood for the weekend.

Once we were able to shake ourselves from the mind control that Kraftwerk was exercising over us, we raced over to see M.I.A. perform in the Sahara tent. M.I.A. is an unimposing young woman from Sri Lanka, by way of London, but on the mic she puts out loud, thumping rap anthems with heavy African and Brazilian influence, and a lot of original Sri Lankan flavor. She brought Afrikan Boy out to help rile up the huge crowd with “Hussel” Saturday night, above—and when I say crowd I mean it. I’ve never seen the Sahara tent so packed—the audience was literally climbing three levels up the rafters! It was sort of unreal to step back, take a look around, and see yourself as a part of this huge unruly mass of people all dancing to the primal bass beats (Nicole appropriately called the experience “getting bassfucked”!) and sounds of gunfire as they cranked it up again with “Paper Planes.” The difference is, Nicole says, at the favela parties in Rio de Janeiro, the gunfire would be real.

Finally, we rounded out Saturday night at the Portishead show. The band is a trip-hop trio from Bristol, England, consisting of DJ/percussionist Geoff Barrow, guitarist Adrian Utley, and lead singer Beth Gibbons, who still croons her signature powerful, haunting high notes after nearly twenty years as the group’s front woman. The trio hadn’t put out any new songs together in nearly a decade as they each worked on their respective solo material, and Coachella was their first live performance in nearly as much time, on the U.S. tour to coincide with their brand new album release Third. Standing at the center of what felt like the world’s largest surround-sound system, Portishead’s classics like “Sour Times” and “Mysterons,” as well as their new songs like “Machine Gun” and “Silence” struck a powerful chord in the audience. As the last song hit its crescendo, I lay there in silent wonder—in a musical trance—enjoying what I can only call the afterglow of a night of music more perfect than I can describe, a musical experience akin to great sex.

You’d think Saturday night would be a hard act to follow, but Roger Waters was miles away from any sort of let down on the main stage Sunday night. The Pink Floyd bassist and songwriter played a full set that night that featured many of his solo works and several hits from Pink Floyd favorites like The Wall and Wish You Were Here. I hear they also released a gigantic flying pig covered in political graffiti, that somehow managed to disappear! After about an hour, Waters and his band disappeared for a set change and returned twenty minutes later to play Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. Yes, that’s right, they re-created Pink Floyd’s entire 43-minute classic rock trip under the stars in the middle of the Indio desert. And they did it quite well, utilizing the gigantic Coachella main stage surround sound to its full functionality with all the album’s original voice-overs and sound effects coming from all directions. The entire set was also accompanied by some pretty cool visuals captured by one audience member over at Vicarious Music. All-in-all it was a great initiation into Pink Floyd’s music for me, and for other listeners outside of that generation I’m sure. Waters played for nearly three hours, as the audience just couldn’t get enough on the last night of this festival, doing an encore with “Comfortably Numb.”

Nicole and I stayed for the very last act of the festival, the French DJ duo Justice, who waited respectfully for Waters to finish out his set before they started mixing their signature thumping techno/dance music at about 12:30 AM. These guys really have energy; you can tell they really have fun with it, bobbing their heads to the beat while they mix up blaring electronica with a heavy rock flavor. The two perform on turntables and laptops alongside a giant lighted cross, and their up-tempo beats were the perfect thing to give the audience one last rush of energy before getting on the road back home.

This year’s event was beyond a doubt the richest musical experience I’ve had, and as long as Coachella continues to have great lineups each year, I plan to continue going regularly. It’s a fun road trip down to Southern California, and a beautiful natural setting for a great concert. If you’re interested in making the trip with me from Sacramento in 2009, get in touch.

All photos are copyright Dave Bullock/Wired.com

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Coachella Valley Music & Arts Fest 2008 Was Incredible!!

Last time I wrote my travel journals, I left you with my New Years adventures on Ibiza, the serene little Spanish island in the Mediterranean known for its gorgeous beaches and incredible dance music, which has inspired the global house music scene. We then returned to the mainland, checking in to the five-star Hotel Arts Barcelona. Fancy place, but you can read my last Spain post for more on my thoughts about the Hotel Arts…or to catch up on the story so far. Anyway, I’ve been swamped with work, drama, setbacks, and moving for the last month and half (!). We apologize for the technical difficulties, but I’ll finally share the rest of my trip through Spain and Washington, D.C. with you today:

Jan 3: Thursday, while trekking across town for Paul’s misplaced passport, he and I met the El Diablo himself on La Rambla. The Devil first tried to fool with us, but then kindly gave us directions to the Picasso museum. However, as it started to rain, we retired back to the hotel for the night.

Jan 4: Friday, Paul and I enjoyed a café con leche across the street from the towering Sagrada Familia church, a Gaudi design that has been under construction for 125 years through the contributions of the public. Paul treated us to a fun bus tour that circles the entire city. But, it’s eye-opening how much of the city we had seen already with a few locals as our guides! We got off on Diagonal avenue for an €8 buffet (way cheap for 3 plates of food!), and later that night we met up with Tim and his French friend Nathalie at an Irish Pub in the Ramblas. Besides two others, there was a red-headed American gal tending the bar—turned out she was an expat from Southern California working to finance her stay here in Catalonia. Again, it’s funny how many people you find from back home when you’re half-way across the globe! Late that night, it was too late to catch the metro, so on our walk home, after all the Guinness had made my stomach rumble, I decided to give a Spanish Burger King a try. Can you believe a simple whopper will cost you the equivalent of about 5 bucks in Spain! No fries, no drink…just a whopper.

Jan 5: Saturday was Three Kings Day as the locals refer to it, the Catholic Epiphany. We completed the second leg of our city tour, scoping out Parc Guell again, the Palau Reial, the F.C. Barcelona Stadium (a.k.a. where BC’s soccer team plays, for you beginners), Montjuic mountain, the facilities built for the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the Palau Naçional museum.

I guess that traditionally, in Spain, Three Kings Day is when children would receive their Christmas gifts. It makes more sense really, framed within a Christian viewpoint, that the three kings would bring gifts, as opposed to a jolly old fat man in a red suit. I don’t really remember him in the nativity story! So, we joined a few local Catalonian gals—Meye , Iva, Joanna, Núria—that evening for the Three King’s Day parade that snakes through Plaça Catalunya. It’s more for kids really, but around here it’s apparently huge, and pretty fun to see, as a visitor.

Later, we all enjoyed the finest sampling of local Spanish tapas and wine that €20 can buy, at La Vinateria del Call in the Barri Gottic (Meye knows all the best local spots!), followed by a few drinks at the popular nearby DJ bar and disco.

Jan 6: Sunday morning was Tim and Paul’s time to say goodbye and catch their planes home. It was a pretty decent day, so I voyaged over to the beach near Villa Olympica for a while, then I strolled through the Museu Picasso, with great collections not only of his own work, but also many pieces from his private collection of other artists’ work. It was very interesting to see where he got his inspiration! Finally, I enjoyed some prime people watching in the nearby Parc de la Ciutadella. It’s a huge city park—the kind I only wish we had back home. There are people walking dogs of all breeds, lovers basking together, joggers, bicyclers, elderly men enjoying a quiet solitary walk, peddlers, ganja dealers, parrots, peacocks, and a city zoo! Parents playing tag with their kids, young men playing soccer in the wide alleys, a father playfully wrestling with his toddler son, hippies jamming in music circles, and street performers practicing their juggling techniques. It’s an interesting collage of people of all different demographics. Much like Balboa Park in San Diego, it’s the kind of peaceful, pretty, lively place you want to spend all your lazy Sundays!

Later that night, I met Meye at Plaça Molina near her home at north end of city. As a Barcelona native, she had said earlier that the lookout point atop Mount Tibidabo is the best place to see the whole city, so we made the drive to the top to see Barcelona glowing in the night. Tibidabo mountain overlooks the entire city, and has a glimmering church at its summit. It was a great spot to take some of my last photos of Spain. Afterward, we chatted more about travels and business (she operates her own business called MascotRaceClub) and enjoyed some warm coffee at the Mirablau cafe on the hillside overlooking the city streets below.

Jan 7: For my final day in Barcelona, I spent the afternoon sunbathing, reading, and trying not to stare at the topless runner that kept racing back-and-forth across the beach at Villa Olympica! Later, I continued my book from the park bench and did some more people watching at the vast Parc de la Ciutadella again. Not as many people playing and enjoying the sun’s rays as a Sunday, but still a great place to enjoy the good weather. But, I couldn’t stay long; I had to catch the Renfe train across town to get to the airport. It’s time to go back home.

Jan 8: Originally, I’d hoped to catch a friend or two as I passed through London on my way home, perhaps grab a pint with Sarah and crash with Farmer Tom. But, unfortunately engine trouble set us back two hours, and by the time I got through the customs queue in London, I knew it was too late. They have university and work in the morning, so I gave up and spent a long, sleepless night at a Heathrow airport cafe. I finally arrived in Washington, D.C., where my cousin Ian was awaiting my arrival at Georgetown University. We borrowed his housemate’s SUV, drove over to Capitol Mall, and checked out the Lincoln and FDR memorials by night.

Jan 10: I got the chance to meet my colleague Karen Seeh, a successful nonprofit and sustainability consultant who I’ve worked with online several times but never met in person yet. Later I joined Ian and his friends for a fun evening at the nearby Georgetown pub and piano bar with fellow grad students.

Jan 11: Ian and I explore Capitol Mall, including the White House, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the Nation’s Capital, and the Washington Monument. Later, we go for some great music and good vibes in the Adams Morgan neighborhood with Karin and Amanda, a few lady friends we made at the piano bar the night before. Nicole, who spent a year in D.C. as an intern for National Geographic, gave me all the hip tips about the nightlife and music scene in town, and the Adams Morgan is a trendy part of town with great dub music and lots of hoppin’ night spots.

###

Also, I just couldn’t help but share Nicole Pefley’s awesome list of awesome things to do in Washington, D.C., because it should benefit others just as it benefited me! I didn’t have time enough to utilize the whole list, but all her hard work shouldn’t go wasted. Let me know if you try out any of these places and enjoy it! Signing off. Here it is:

Top 12 Badass Washington, D.C. Nightspots

by Nicole Pefley

1. Tryst – Adams Morgan (on the main drag 18th st.) -Chill coffee
   house by day with cozy furniture, hip bar with great dub by night.
2. The Diner – Open 24/7, great alternative if you still haven’t eaten
   (they’ve got whatever you’re craving, I guarantee it), cousin and
   neighbor of Tryst. There’s a whole slough of sweet brunch places on
   18th, as well as where most of the Ethiopian restaurants are. GO TO
   ONE. They’re cheap, tasty, and have amazing jazz. Just ask your cab
   driver.
3. Old Glory – Georgetown. Good atmosphere
4. Blues Alley – GTown. Solid blues joint with great jazz too. Show up
   in advance (1 day prior) to buy tix (See also Madam’s Organ in Adams
   Morgan)
5. 18th St. Lounge – Fruit Loop (Dupont Circle) – Tucked in a narrow
   doorway by a mattress store. The best lounge in D.C. Period. Dress for
   it.
6. Cafe St.Ex (as in St. Exupery, author of Le Petit Prince) – 1847
   14th st. NW. Great Belgian beer, Samba and Bossa Nova beats
   sometimes–great vibes always.
7. Cafe Citron – Dupont – nice happy hour that turns into a hot salsa
   club later
   (see also Habana Village in Adams Morgan)
8. Capitol City Brewing Co. – Cap. Hill – Great brewpub with a good
   happy hour, inexpensive and extensive menu, across from Union Station
   in the historic Post Office Building
9. Hawk and Dove – Cap. Hill – Free food at happy hour and good
   political buzz- need I say more?
10. The Front Page – Dupont – Waaaay too many nights here. Another
    killer happy hour hang.
11. Union Pub – Cap Hill – 201 Mass Ave NW, Where I got my first DC
    buzz. Every night has a different happy hour deal. The brews are
    great, like the food, and on thurs. when I was there any beer was $1
    for the ladies. Worth investigating!
12. Tune Inn – Cap Hill – 331 Penn Ave SE – My favorite D.C. dive, bar
    none. Which is appropriate, since it’s really not much of a bar.
    Dingy, with good late night burgers. And check OUT those bathroom
    walls! Scary, but good times:)

And would it be an email from me to someone traveling to one of my
favorite cities without recommending at least one (ah hell I can’t
help myself) restaurant?

• Mai Thai – my fav Thai place in D.C., in Dupont on P st if I
  recall. Lovely interior, bitchin drinks and ridiculously good prices
  for the stylish and beautiful Thai interior. Enjoy what tastes like a
  $40 dinner for $20.
• Les Halles – 1101 K St. – A French bistro place serving those
  working-class unforgettables, steak, fries, salad, anything else
  French you may be craving, and even the finer things like pate foie
  gras with calvados. Won’t break your wallet either. Did I mention the
  great wine list? I should.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Our Journey Through Spain Comes to an End; and a Brief Visit to the Nation’s Capital

Wed, Dec 26: This morning Tim and Ryan set out to make a local climb, so Paul and I ran a few errands. We paid a visit to a local Barcelona Starbucks for a coffee just off La Rambla (again, the main street in downtown B-town), and discovered that Starbucks uses the same numbers pretty much everywhere you go, regardless of what currency you’re playing with! Actually, I think my coffee was about 10 dollars. Paul exchanged some cash and I stopped at an ATM to pick up some Euros to pay the rental agent. Then we spent an hour at a nearby internet cafe to email family and post photos, while Paul Skype’d his new girlfriend, “the last girl he ever wants to kiss,” in Shanghai! Haha, go Paul!

We got back to the apartment to find Tim had returned home early (apparently he’d gotten a late start and ended up at the wrong metro stop, not to mention that he’s coming down with Bronchitis), so we all relaxed for a while, enjoying some Spanish television and the balcony, and then the three of us went out and caught the metro to Park Guell. Park Guell is a destination at the north end of town that had been recommended to me by every person who’d been here to Barcelona before. Apparently, the landscape architecture was designed by the famous local artist Gaudi, and the park’s central attraction is a great mountaintop vista of the whole city of Barcelona. So, we raced up about a dozen sets of outdoor stairs and escalators on the hill up to the park, hiked around for an hour or two, and Paul was given some unsolicited advice by a Japanese tourist he asked politely to take our photo: she exclaimed, “What background? You want this?! This is NOTHING!” while Tim and I burst into laughter!

Park Guell

I began to feel a pain like no pain I’d ever felt before in my right foot. My shoes are broken in pretty well, and I guess the sole of my shoe has worn down into a funny, uncomfortable shape that is extremely hard on the arch of my right foot after 6 hours of intense dancing and 12 hours of extreme hiking around, so I was limping pretty badly by the time a cafe busboy in the park (actually, a 50-something-year-old man that some spiny, mean creature must have crawled up into and died) got pissy at me for putting my foot up on one of his chairs! Laughs all around, again.

We dined with two local Spanish girls tonight. Meye (“may-yai,” short for Mercedes) is a friend that Tim and Ryan made while on their climbing expeditions—a really neat, very generous Barcelona woman, she runs her own company creating designs for pet accessories—and graciously invited us to her B-town flat for the evening. And Barbara is a younger friend of hers who is also into climbing and apparently an anthropology grad student in town (pretty cute, too). We made ourselves at home, and the six of us shared some great salad, chorizo, pasta, wine, and lots of Spanish sweets, and then shared several stories until about 1:30 am! They were really welcoming and great fun!

Dinner at Meye’s flat.

Afterward, we hired Jason Statham from “The Transporter” to taxi us back home to La Rambla, where he quickly shrieked, “Close the doors!! Aaaghh!” as we were attacked from all directions by African hookers at 2 in the morning! Oh, the adventures of international travel.

Thurs, Dec 27: After I finally rolled out of bed in a stupor and poured a cup of coffee, Paul accompanied me over near Plaça Catalunya to check out the local clothing & fashion shops. I bought some hot new shoes in the local fashion—interesting how Reeboks, Converse, or Adidas here go for about 120 Euros, which is a crap ton in US dollars, but I got these real decent Euro-style shoes for a cheap 42 Euros! Much easier on my foot. These boots were made for walkin’!

Ryan’s been working on some application essays for medical school, so when he returned from the internet cafe, we rented bikes around the corner to tour around the city for an hour. The four of us cycled down to the marina (remember, we’re here on the northern edge of the Mediterranean Sea) and followed the beach to Port Olympia, where we saw the amazing hotel we’ll be staying in on our trip back through B-town—the Hotel Arts Barcelona, by Ritz Carlton! (Five stars, rated like 76th in all of Europe! Thanks for that, Paul!) I had a blast cruising around on bikes with the guys, seeing the beach, all the local sailboats and yachts, and people watching. I visited the supermercado for some milk and 7-up (the water here tastes horrible, unfortunately).

Biking on the Barcelona boardwalk

The Hotel Arts Barcelona

We then hiked a few blocks to the open-air market looking for fresh meats, cheese and bread. At a stop for some seafood appetizers and a drink, we met two nice gals who work in London—one from New York and one from New Zealand. It was neat to hear a native English-speaker! There’s not a lot of them here in the off-season, and I don’t speak Spanish well!

Sadly, it’s Ryan’s last night with us, so the four of us went for a fancy dinner right next door at a nice resto called Biblioteca at about 11pm. Paul had had a few drinks, and was becoming a mild handful giving everyone the 20 questions on camera and talking at length about Shanghai, all in good fun, but a little tiring nonetheless. Oh well. I had duck with a red wine reduction and potatoes, for the first time in my life. Also had a bite of pigeon for the first time! Mmm, street birds! We went to the bar down the street from us, but I needed some air after a while and eventually later on, back at the apartment, got into the inevitable confrontation you get into with extended travel partners with Paul. It was a-okay though, as it’s one of those experiences that makes you closer to the other person afterward, and the two of us ended up going for a 3am walk all the way back out to Port Olympia—which is almost completely silent and dead at this time of morning, much unlike the buzzing part of town we’re in. Now, I’m downloading Moroccan rap & dance music to the laptop.

Fri, Dec 28: Today is a rest day. After staying out until 6 in the morning all week, I’m feeling pretty tired, so I slept most of the day today and tried to preserve my energy. I’ve been writing, emailing, and working from the apartment. And reading my Vagabonding book. It’s just me, Paul, and Tim now. We did go a few metro stops down to visit the post office so Tim could ship some climbing equipment back to the States. It’s funny how the simplest activities can become such adventures when you’re in a foreign culture!

Paul then convinced us to wander toward the local Arc de Triomf, we had a cafe con leche & pastry along the way, and wandered through the park. As we wandered back, Paul & Tim went to a Che Guevara exhibit at a nearby museum, but I was out of steam and header back to our flat. I passed out while the guys got Chinese food. Then strangely, I was restless all night (!), and stayed up chatting on AIM, messaging on the Ibiza discussion boards, and writing New Years resolutions.

Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf

Sat, Dec 29: I’ll be doing chores most of the day today in preparation for our 9:55 pm flight to Ibiza tonight. I’ve got to have a few coffees to feel alive, get my laundry washed, clean up the apartment, and pack my things. So, nothing too exciting, but I’ll report from Ibiza as soon as I can.

Check out my Flickr photostream for more photos!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Spain for the Holidays, Part II

Sun Dec 23: I flew out of Sacramento International Airport at 6:40AM. Landing in Chicago was VERY choppy as it was both foggy AND snowy at the same time there, delaying our flight by about an hour. I met a nice couple on the flight to D.C. who recommended a few things near Georgetown for the trip back. Miraculously, our flight still made it with enough time that I could catch a quick sandwich before the Lufthansa flight to Germany. The overnight to Munich was very LONG, and of course, I got stuck next to a boring old guy who didn’t seem the least interested in even saying five words to me during the course of 8 hours! I somehow always manage to get seated next to crappy single-serving friends. Oh well, toto bien.

Mon Dec 24: Munich is completely frosted over, but the pilot made the softest landing I’ve ever felt. I had to double check whether we had even touched ground yet! Thank goodness for German perfection. This was a quick one-hour layover, so I was happy that we weren’t set back in Washington. The next flight was a very quick jaunt to London, during which every crew member spoke German to me, even though it was quite obvious that at least 60% of the passengers were British!

Upon arrival at Heathrow, I had a four-hour window in which to get my boarding passes and eat a decent meal before the last leg of the trip. Unfortunately I was met with what looked to be about a five-hour queue at the British Airways desk. Making the best of it, I met a friendly Romanian student, Mircea, doing an IBM internship in New York. The poor guy had gotten stuck in London on his way back home for Christmas, but we had a lot to chat about — very nice fellow!

On the final flight to Barcelona, I met a couple from Seattle on their way to see their parents in the south of Spain, and spoke at length with my neighbor, a kind older British gentleman, who told me of all his travels and shared that he was moving to Spain. After wandering around aimlessly for a short while, I met Paul at the BCN airport and we happened across a very nice local who pointed us in the right direction to catch the train into the heart of Barcelona. We followed Tim’s directions toward La Rambla, the mainstreet through downtown Barca, but the local tel # didn’t work at the payphone, so Paul and I had to guess our own way to the apartment. =)

The flat is AMAZING — it IS as awesome as the pictures, thankfully! Tim and Ryan have some impressive stories to share about their time traveling through Morocco and Spain so far. The four of us went for a beer at a little tavern on La Rambla, where we met a friendly German traveler who let us chat with him for a while. We then stopped in to witness the midnight mass at La Catedral — a good way to spend Christmas Eve. This seems like a fun place to spend Christmas — almost every street is literally decked out in lights and decorations that span across from building to building! At about 2AM, we did the Spanish thing and headed over to Fellini, a dance club just around the corner from our flat. The clubs here don’t really get going until around 1 or 2AM, and on party nights, the party goes until 6 in the morning. (Then apparently, some of the girls say, people go to work around 10 or so and then real hardcore purists take a siesta break around 2 – 5!) The club had a great selection of top hits and electronic music, and Tim and I kept it going to some energetic house and trance until about 6:30! It was probably the most intense dance club experience of my life! And this is only day 1 in Spain! But what better way to start off Christmas Day?

One of the rooms in our posh flat.

Ryan, Tim, and Paul standin’ on stuff at Fellini.

Tues Dec 25: I woke to the sounds of Tim’s Moroccan drums at about 3:30 this afternoon. I know that makes me sound like a lazy slob, but hey, it was a looong trip, followed by a long night! It’s okay, we can get a chance to catch up during the afternoon siesta, and dinner around here isn’t until about 10PM or later. My kinda place! =)

Paul, Tim, and I wandered up La Rambla a ways to Plaça Catalunya and grabbed a cafe con leche. We later stopped in a take-away Asian food restaurant for some Christmas fried rice across the street from our flat, where I chatted at length with Tim about his travels through Thailand, his leadership retreats that he has given around the world, and his first book on personal development and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, coming out soon. I crashed again for an hour or two, but awoke to the whole gang back at the place, and Ryan was busy whipping up an awesome meal for us all. The four of us enjoyed some marinated pork, spicy ravioli, Catalan peppers, salad, and champaign for Christmas dinner, and shared more adventures while listening to some peppy Berber pop music! It’s my first time meeting Tim and Ryan, and Paul’s first time meeting Ryan as well, so it’s fun to all get to know each other at the same time, and to have such interesting and fun-spirited travel partners! Tim lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and runs Grand Dynamics, while Ryan is a physician’s assistant in SF.

Tim, Paul, and myself at Plaça Catalunya.

Sitting down for a great Christmas dinner.

Post dinner-time, we all had a caipirhana at a packed little bar down our side street, and then Paul and I wandered down toward the marina. We walked around the city for a few hours and saw Port Valle and Port Olympia, where we’ll stay on our way back through Barcelona the second half of the trip. One unfortunate thing about European nightlife is that there IS NO escape from smelling like cigarettes! My sweaty airplane shirt smells better than any of the clothes I’ve worn out since! Haha. That, and the fact that my whole body is now thoroughly sore from yesterday’s five hours of dancing and todays hours of walking, so I took the opportunity to use the other guys’ shower for my first HOT rinse in four days! (One drawback to renting a place as opposed to staying in a hotel — the plumbing on our side of the apartment is out of whack.) Now I’ve been up typing and listening to the soothing sounds of Mallorca on the TV, and I think it’s like 5:40 or something crazy in the morning again, so I better get some rest before tomorrow!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Spain for the Holidays, Part I

The rumors are for real! I finally got my tickets and I’ll be leaving for Spain for the holidays with my close friend and colleague Paul Dickey on December 23rd! We’ll be adventuring with his best friend Tim Walther through Barcelona and hopefully Ibiza for the Christmas-New Years break.

Tim and Paul are experienced globetrotters, so I’m really looking forward to this trip as a great “training wheels” experience before I go conquer Thailand all on my own! Tim Walther is president of Grand Dynamics, an awesome company that does corporate retreats and team building adventures. He’s also an accomplished rock climber, and he and his buddy Ryan have already been traveling across Morocco and Spain this month doing climbs. Check this site to see some of their recent adventures — these are the guys I’m going with! So far this December, they’ve already ventured to desert kasbahs and been bitten by camels, climbed with a 7-time female Spanish climbing champion, attended a Barça v. Stuttgard futbol match, and more! So I know this is gonna be unforgettable!

Tim and Ryan will be awaiting our arrival on the 24th in Barcelona, where we’ve already booked this incredible executive apartment — 4 bed/3 bath in the heart of the city center on La Rambla. Look at these photos — it’s incredible what you can find at such a decent price when you know where to look.

After the 29th, the plan is to hit up Ibiza, one of Spanish Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is home to the biggest night club in the world and is best known for its intense summer parties, with thousands of European vacationers flooding in for beach raves and foam parties. But it also has a softer side — winter is the off-season, and though several of the clubs close down, the locals say it’s the best time of year, with blooming almond trees, relatively warm-ish temperatures (highs of 61-62), and space to enjoy the beautiful beaches.

We might do Pacha for their giant NYE bash, maybe Amnesia, and DC-10 for their all-day after party. These Ibiza clubs have become the center of the worldwide electronic music movement — tons of house and trance and others of my favorite eclectic musical tastes all come out of this spot, so I’m super excited! The “Balearic Beat” sound in the 80s and 90s was typified by heavy, slow, R&B-influenced beats, with drum ‘n bass, laid-back swing-beat patterns, soul, Latin, African, funk, and dub ingredients. DJ Paul Oakenfold imported this awesome sound to London and it influenced electronic music around the world. Ibiza is also a haven to artists like Sasha, John Digweed, David Guetta, New Order, and the ambient chill-out music of Café del Mar.

I’ll do my best to keep you all updated with some fun travel journals while I’m abroad, so keep an eye on this site. On my way back, I hope to check in with a friend or two in London for a night (I’ll being staying January 7th if anyone’s reading), and then visit my cousin Ian Achimore for a few days in Washington, D.C. (where he’s attending Georgetown) before I return home.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Invading Spain for the Holidays!