from Valencia to Katowice

In old stomping grounds of Katowice, Poland after 10 days in Spain. Valencia, Barcelona, Alicante. I will never visit Alicante again. It was a wasteland of thousands upon thousands of tourists, bright lights, consuming frenzy, over priced bottles of water. Everyone looking for a quick Euro. Lots of ripping off. Ripping off might be ok if I had extra dough to rip off and the other folks needed it more. Whatever. The game is rigged from the beginning. What is the game? Capitalism? I am not sure I know what that word means exactly. But yeah. Competition. Keeping power in the hands of the few while the rest of us lose a lot of our humantity in slaving away in cubicles and then fighting each other for the scraps from the master’s table etc etc.

Alas, I am in Katowice. Things are nice and slow here. Simplier. At least when visiting and staying in the home of a nice family. It was different living here with sometimes no friends or internet or anyone to talk to and feeling like everything was sinister after getting beat up by a Russian mafia man at the entrance to a place called Spies.

I will never visit Spies again.

Tonight I am going to Kato. Kato is a place to hang. A pub. Meeting two old friends from 4 (maybe 5) years ago.

Still processing Spain. Always wondered about Spain. I need to see more of the other parts of Spain. Maybe Granada.

Valencia rocked my socks. A lot. The hostel in Valencia is called Low Cost Valencia and it rocked my socks. Best hostel I ever stayed in. Met lots of fellow travelers there. Went to uni area with some of the fellow travelers one night. Sat down at 1 AM until 6AM in a big circle while fellas came by and sold us two beers for one euro. It was a nice circle. It was nice bud too. There were anarchists and communists and dog lovers and old time punks. Serious punks. Some good street art.

Ever word I type on this Polish keyboard is highlighted in red because I am typing in English. It is hard to see if I am mispelling. Mis spelling. HA! Drinking Turkish coffee in a place called Manhattan Estate in Katowice. It is not Manhattan. It is maybe Queens. It is not Brooklyn. It is a tight estate. It best to hang with the locals when you come to the estate. I like this estate. It feels sort of like a second home.

Time for a smoke on the balcony of the estate. The temperature dropped yesterday from almost 40 degrees celcius in Spain to 20 degrees celicius in Katowice Poland. That’s a drop from about 102 degrees F to 60 degrees F.  And some cold rain in Poland.

The sun is rumored to return by the end of the week.