Ryan had stopped with his "taking tourist photos" thing he was doing, it wasnt a great earner anyway he told me. As you can see from above and in future blogs , hes a very good photograhper.
We started wondering around the city, going to places to eat for free like churches etc, homeless shelters. We took a shower at a hostel on Plaza Real as the one at the Gspot didnt work. He had done it often, we would just walk straight in, hang in the bar then nip off to the showers and leave.
It was easy to sell the cigarettes but I started to get dragged into Barcelona and was spending the potential petrol money on the bed at the Gspot and "sexy" beer at night.. (sexy beer is what the small cans are called that people sell in the street),and so the cigarettes were dwindling fast. Barcelona was really comfortable and a fucking mad city if you meet the right people.
I had to get some smoke also, and when passing some Africans making sand sculptures on the beach and I shouted in Mandinka, a Gambian language, "wheres the weed?!" As always they were very shocked that a white guy was talking their mother tongue and I was in luck that they were gambian- and they said "Come over!"
They asked much I wanted and I had just 4 euro and told them also "whiteman broke", so they just put a bag in my hand and said "any whiteman that speaks my language, its for free" I wished them luck and we and ryan went off happily. Oh and a packet of the cheapest ciggettes from Gambia called MonteCarlo really made them happy. They were so cheap I dont think they contained any actual nictotine!
In the evenings we went and met Ryans friends and usually it would end up us wondering around the streets taking photos and just exploring.. ending up many times in a plaza with 20 people and a flamenco party on the street.
Because i was shit at saving the money for petrol, we had started to go on real missions on the subway and to just enjoy the cigarettes and the money for weed and some beers because I remembered after a few days that the road I parked on had a tube station at the beginning of it and a Gentleman concert poster on a lamppost at the junction, the one and only thing I had noticed and remembered in the van whilst driving to the parking spot. Worth a shot! but no luck, we sat on the subways to see if I recognized a name of a station where it could have been.
After Ryan had been helping me so much , he asked that when we finally had found the van, if he could come along for the ride. "Sure" I said, why not. We had had such a great time already just completely spontaneous that it would be fun to have him along. He knew many of the artists and performers on Las Ramblas and he had told one that he would be leaving whenever we had found the van, and one of the guys, a mexican, also wanted to come along.
The search circle had now extended further and further and I was really thinking that I wouldnt find it again.
We had approached it from a different road but I recognised it instanly. HAPPY DAYS!
Ryan even knew the subway station and I knew that was the beginning of the road where I had parked the van.
Of course we drove up the road and it was there in all its glory, and the locks were still untouched which was nice to know. Ryan was exited to actually see it, the poor guy had spent so much energy helping me out that he was also now at rest as I opened the side door and we sat inside. First thing I did was brush my teeth, very happy to have my new home still to use.
So that was the deal, Ryan would be comming on a trip to wherever we ended up. We got back on the bike and found our way back to the Gspot. Luckily that place was very easy to find as it was very close to Plaza Real. I get to use Ryans surviving photos for this blog, he also lost all our 4 months together on the road when his camera and hard drive got stolen.
Oh and the Mexican guy too would also be coming and we would leave in a couple of days time...