Saturday, October 30, 2004

Porró Open - Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Oct 30 - Nov 1 2004 (beach/hat)

This tournament is famous for being a lot of fun. When in central and northern Europe Autumn starts to set, in Catalonia the sun is still warm and the beach is still inviting.

It's a there-day tournament: Saturday 30, Sunday 31, and Monday 1. In Spain the 1st of November is a holiday. I booked my tickets from Friday the 29th to Thursday the 4th. I have had never been in Barcelona and I wanted to spend a few more days there.

Two friends of mine, Miguel and Carlos, live in Barcelona and I was hoping to sleep on one of their floors for the extra nights. Miguel had offered his floor, but a couple of days before leaving he sent me an email explaining that his flatmate, who is in charge for the flat, decided that the flat was already too crowded and did not wanted me on his floor for more than one day. In retrospect that was too bad a news as his flat is really crappy and he's staying there temporarily until he can move in a more decent place. So I emailed Carlos and he told me that he is also pretty much squatting in a shoe-box-size room in his cousin's flat, and that he could not have guests. That left me with the only option to stay in a hostel.

Friday night: Welcome Party.

The welcome party was held at the Bar Glaciar in Paca Reial. I went there after dropping my backpack at Miguel's flat and having some food. Unsurprisingly many of the people there were well known international disc sluts that I had already met in other tournaments (Alian, Lucy, Claudia, Dominick, Peter, Ikram, etc.) and in London (Milja, Beef Cake, Jason, Dribbles, Matt, Diane, etc.).

Darren

I was surprised to see Darren. I had seen his name way down on the waiting list and I was not expecting him to show up. I had already met him in May in Copanhagen and he has become since an Ultimate legend in Europe. This is his story: He used to be a factory manager from Iowa with some money saved and considering to buy a house. Then he thought “fuck it”. He left his jobs and started travelling around, mostly in Europe, hopping from tournament to tournament. He told me that this was going to be his last tournament in Europe and that he was going back to the States. His plans are to find a job, apparently he has one already lined up, save some more money and come back to Europe because he is in love with European Ultimate. We all hope to see him again soon.

Gala Lincoln

This is a hat tournament and on the fist day the first thing that comes to your mind is: What my team will be like? Who am I playing with?

This year's theme is Salvador Dali and all teams are named after Dali paintings. My team was called Gala Lincoln. This is what the painting looks like:



Team Members:

Myself
Rocky
Staphan
Minsu
Nadia
Nick
June
Helena
...
I have already forgotten a lot of names...


more to come...

Matchday One

Surreal Party

Matchday Two

Second Party

Matchday Three

Other Stuff

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