Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Meeting Pigeon

* I asked her if their was a name she wanted for my blog and she hasn't gotten back to me yet.  So I shall call her Pigeon.  Who is this lady that may have earned a more permanent place in my blog?  Why have I chosen to call her Pigeon?  And most importantly to many of you “Is she hot?”  These questions and others may or may not be answered in the coming posts.

On Saturday I was talking with a friend that I had made in the hostel.  She was telling me how she had been in Barcelona much too long and needed direction.  She was on vacation in Europe, but without a mission she was lost.

My kayaking friend Jerry recently sent me an email titled “This project requires two people.”  And told me that without any kind of partner, even landlubber for some on site logistical support, I should not launch my trip.

And then I was talking to Pigeon.  She was telling me she needed a mission, and I was thinking, 'I need a partner, even a landlubber will do'.

“So, ummm …  You want to follow me along my route.  You could take the train or maybe bike, and we would meet up once a day just to check in on each other.  Travel along the coast of France and Italy?”

She thought that that would be a good idea.  She would take the train and I would kayak.  We would meet up along the way, once every few days, and check in on each other.  We would provide each other with logistical support.

This was on Saturday.  She would need to reequip herself for hiking and camping.  Since on Sunday everything is closed we would spend the day on Monday getting her the camping gear she would need.

On Sunday I paddled, Day 4.

On Monday we went went shopping to the stores in Barcelona that I had already visited with a similar purpose.

The good news was that we got sleeping bags for free that other travelers had left behind at the hostel we're staying at.  The sleeping bag I'd been using was light and warm, but I wasn't sure if it was going to be warm enough.  In the hostels lost and found their were two warmer sleeping bags that were big and heavy, and one quality light weight sleeping bag that might not be warm enough.  We took them all and we'll see how it goes.

Joining our shopping trip for the day was another American that hoped to do some hiking and a fellow that had biked from Germany.  The German was a hockey player and a mechanical engineer.

I asked him if there was checking in his league and he said “Of course, but I specialize in hitting people while the ref isn't looking.”

About his work he told me “I could walk in to a lot of factories here in Spain and see machines that I designed.”

For lack of anything better to say I went with “Cool.”

“No, not really.”  He told me.  “As soon as I tell them who I am they insist that I provide them with onsite technical support.  I'm on vacation.”

The German had biked here from Switzerland.  At the store he pointed to a candy bar that had been made on one of his machines.

We first went to Decathalon, a large discount sport store.  If they had what we wanted it would be cheaper there than in other places.

For lunch we went to an all you can eat restaurant.  On account of me being kosher I watched the others eat.  There was a dessert stand that had fruit that weren't quite ripe.  For me to take from those fruit without having paid for a meal would have been stealing, a sin in my mind worse then eating traif.  Sitting next to me was Pigeon with some fruit on her plate.  She offered me and I accepted.  When she got up for seconds she came back with some fruit in an extra bowl that she put in front of me.  After that I got up to get some more for myself to save her the trip.  It's amazing what a person can rationalize with just a little bit of help.

After lunch we went to a mountain goods store that had a slightly better selection, though not much, and much higher prices.  Several more hours of trying stuff on and shopping behind us we went back to Decathlon and finally back to the hostel.

On the way back me and Pigeon had a deep conversation on the intricacies of the social dynamics of the primate fecal throw.  It looks like we'll get along just fine.


Today there are 30mph winds blowing in the opposite direction I need to be going and 10 foot waves.  Hopefully I'll be back on the water tomorrow when things are a little more settled down.

* ed.s note ~ Dov had left his kayak in a marina after the events in Chapter One and taken the train back to Barcelona for the weekend.

3 comments:

  1. That's wonderful news! Have fun :)

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  2. Special thanks to my awesome brother Ari (Bassculture) for helping me to meet Pigeon, who is from his amazing home town of Powell River.

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  3. Actually, Ari, I found one. Can't remember the URL. Because it turns out that if you go to the Google "Maps" tab, and paste in the coordinates, it takes you right there. What a thing Google is. ~ ed.

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