My First Celebrity Sighting

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DAY 258: You never know when you may bump into someone famous in a major city.  During my days in New York City, I’ve randomly stumbled upon Keanu Reeves, Nathan Lane and Sarah Jessica Parker to name a few—friends and acquaintances of mine have encountered Kiefer Sutherland, Uma Thurman, Andre 3000 from Outkast, Jerry Seinfeld and even the guy who played his TV dad Morty.  Being in the world city of Barcelona, another celebrity sighting was bound to happen.

JACK AND I WERE AT THE BARCELONA-SANTS TRAIN STATION waiting around for our number to be announced for service—the regular train station staff was on strike so getting information about trains were a long and slow process.  A voice called from behind me while I stood staring at the digital numbers.

“Are you Erik?” a tall guy said in an American accent.

“Yeah.”

“It’s Bill from your blog.”

“Oh hey!” Bill had contacted me via e-mail that he too was in Barcelona, but we had no definite plans to meet up.  He too was waiting around for service amidst the train station strike when he saw a five foot five tan-skinned Filipino-American guy wearing glasses and a baseball jersey. 

“I saw you and thought, nah, it couldn’t be, but then I saw The Global Trip logo,” Bill said.  I introduced him to Jack and Jack back to Bill, as I was wearing the familiar outfit as seen in my bio picture on the main page of TheGlobalTrip.com.  “I feel like I’m talking to a celebrity right now,” Bill told Jack.

Celebrity?  Really?  Well, if the shoe fits...

“Surely you’ve been recognized before, traveling.”

“Actually, no,” I informed thinking about the past eight months.  “You’re the first.” How about that?  My first celebrity sighting.

Bill told me he was an avid reader of The Blog since Day One and that reading it was a daily work time activity—all other travel blogs didn’t compare because they were updated only every week or so.  He and his co-workers at his former engineering firm followed me on all my (mis)adventures thus far and couldn’t wait to tell them he ran into me.  “You’re a legend at the office,” he told me.  “You have a lot more people reading than you know.”

“Really, I keep on asking how many people are our there.”

“I think most guys don’t post because they think it’s just you talking to your buddies.”

“Actually, I think there are more people that I don’t know now posting.” Bill was one of those unknown Silent Blog Readers (SBRs) but that moment it changed; I knew him and he knew me.

Bill hung around waiting for his number to come up while Jack and I left to check out the buses since we had number 292 and they were only up to 112.  We made plans to meet up with Bill later on that night and head off to the nearby bus ticket office, managed to get a bus at a time we wanted the next day, and at a cheaper price than a trains that would go just as fast.  Afterwards, we had the rest of the afternoon to see more famous Barcelona sights until meeting up with Bill at 9 p.m.

OTHER THAN MIRO, DALI AND PICASSO, the big artistic celebrity of Barcelona is architect Anton Gaudi.  His mark can be seen throughout the city, but his wildest designs are best exemplified in Park Güell, a city park to the northeast corner of the city.  Originally intended to be a housing development, its sixty projected houses weren’t completed before Gaudi’s death—only three were made.  The project was transformed into a city park development, which became something out of a fairy tale; Gaudi’s Modern, organic style had a minimal use of straight lines, making the colorful buildings near the main Palmetto Gate like something from a Grimm fairy tale.

Jack and I walked amidst the crowds of tourists all attracted to the wonderland, admiring the sounds of live jazz coming from under one of the stone tree caves while feasting their eyes on the sights of the tiled centerpiece statue of a lizard, the Hall of One Hundred Columns and the stone tunnel inspired by a tidal wave.  Unlike Bill, no one was excited to come across me.  We rested in the Plaza de la Naturalesta, where we took notice of a pair of women reminiscent of celebrities Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie.

From Gaudi’s famous park we went to one of Gaudi’s famous buildings, the Casa Mila (picture above), arguably the architect’s best example of his Modernism style.  Also known as La Pedrera (the “Stone Quarry"), the apartment building with no straight lines in its design has an organic undulating facade and houses not only expensive apartments but a roof deck and exhibition space.  The free temporary exhibition was of ancient Mexico sculptures, many of it very intentionally phallic—perhaps an idea they got from the Spanish.

BILL WAS WAITING OUTSIDE the Hostel Sun & Moon when Jack and I arrived from an internet cafe across town.  We decided to go out to dinner somewhere in the vicinity of the Gothic Quarter.  I stopped to get some cash at an ATM on La Rambla.

“I’ll watch your back in case that guy from Cape Town shows up,” Bill said, pounding a fist into his other hand.  How about that, a fan to protect me from danger. I was starting to like this celebrity thing.

After wandering, we eventually settled on a seafood place in the Port Vell, collection of eateries near the marina where we dined on paella for three, beer and sangria.  A post-dinner walk through La Rambla de Mar’s island of dance clubs only introduced us to a scene where nothing but American English was spoken or heard.  Bill knew of a place he’d been to before that was a bit more laid back, a local bar hidden down an alley in the Barri Gotic with an enchanted forest theme, complete with trees growing inside the tavern.  The three of us had a couple of rounds there talking about another bar in the area with a pirate theme.  Needless to say, it spawned a whole bunch of pirate talk.

“Shiver me timbers!”

“Walk de plank, matey!”

“Yaaaaaar!”

Pirate talk made the beers all the more merrier as we stood around a barrel repurposed as a table.  If anything makes any situation more fun, it’s pirate talk.  (Go ahead try it now with whomever is in the room with you.)

Bill was tired and went off to get some shuteye.  It was a pleasure meeting him, a dedicated fan, and we made tentative plans to meet up somewhere on the continent.  Jack and I went off to check out the pirate bar (there are actually two of them across the street from each other), but it was nearing 3 a.m. and they had both already announced last call.  Not even my newfound celebrity status could open the door for us.  Yaaar, shiver me timbers.

Good ol’ American sneaking in (and not the phenomenon of celebrity) got Jack and me into Sidecar, a loud foreigner-frequented club in the Plaza Real—and one of the few places in the area still open with a long line out the door.  Luckily we befriended an Aussie who had been in already and had his arm stamped for a quick re-entry.  Following him to the head of the line, we quickly flashed our arms to the bouncer like we had red ink on our arms too.  Once in the foyer, we thought the coast was clear and headed down the stairs.

“Hey!” another bouncer called to me in a scolding manner.  I turned around halfway down the staircase, revealing my face and my arm.

“Okay,” he said, motioning me to just go on in.

Whether it was my “celebrity” status or just the fact that the lights were so dim no one could really tell if I had red ink on my arm I don’t know, although I’d like to think it was the former.  I suppose if that wasn’t true and I ran into any problems, there’d always be a fan like Bill out there somewhere to get my back.


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This blog entry about the events of Saturday, July 03, 2004 was originally posted on July 11, 2004 on the blog, "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World (Or Until Money Runs Out, Whichever Comes First)," hosted by BootsnAll.com. It is one of over 500 entries that chronicled a trip around the world from October 2003 to March 2005, encompassing travel through thirty-seven countries in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. It was this blog that "started it all," where Erik evolved and honed his style of travel blogging. (It starts to come into focus around the time he arrives in Africa.)

Praised and recommended by USA Today, RickSteves.com, and readers of BootsnAll and Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, The Global Trip blog was selected by the editors of PC Magazine for the "Top 100 Sites You Didn't Know You Couldn't Live Without" (in the travel category) in 2005.





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