notes from barcelona, not in real-time (I)

r. asked me if i was excited about this trip. 'excited' is not quite the right term. okay, it's nice to leave the country for a couple of days - it's always a different experience, even if i don't leave the hotel room at night (and i always leave, mind you). or even if the trip is to barcelona, which is a great city, but which i've visited a handful of times already. real excitement... no, i don't feel it. not any more. working trips have become rather trivial, and unless i get the chance to go to somewhere different (like the u.s. or the eastern europe), i don't think i'll get that old feeling back, like i felt the first time i was going for a working trip. then i was excited about it, so excited i could hardly sleep that night. it would be my first working trip, my first time in france, and my first travel by plane. not it's all pretty much the same: the press conferences, the keynotes, the one-to-one interviews, the countless powerpoint slides, the dinners among strangers in some hot-shot place. 

still, it does feel cool right now, sitting here in the street with a mug of beer and the usual cigarrette. and yet... could really use some nice company.