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Excerpt from postcards sent in February, 1986, at the start of Dean's World Tour I:

Arch of Triumph, Barcelona, Spain

Cathedrals, Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Spain, 12 Feb 1986:  Hola, buenos dias (Hello, good morning)! -- Everything is overwhelming!  Brussels was a dazzling first impression.  I was conned out of $10 in a Paris subway, a small price to pay for the lesson learned.  Barcelona is many, many times more interesting and beautiful than I could have ever imagined.  I cannot use enough superlatives to describe the parks and buildings.

I toured the city yesterday with an Argentine senorita.  The hostel costs $2.75 a night, has co-ed bedrooms and showers, and is filled with interesting people from everywhere.  And it amazes me that people understand things I say in Spanish that I hardly understand.  The Spanish people are very nice.  I usually understand very little of what they say, but enough to get by.

The drivers drive far more insanely than anyplace I've seen.

Siestas and Dean Omans go well together.

Barcelona, Spain, 18 Feb 1986: -- I'm eating well.  Some of the food is very good and some is mediocre.  To avoid insulting my senora, I am eating things that I would never eat at home -- all kinds of vegetables and fish, etc.  The senora is about 50 years old and says she's had nearly 200 students stay with her over the past 17 years.  She washes and irons my clothes.  The other night we went to a gambling hall, and I visited with some of her friends.  I don't understand Spanish enough to usually know what is being said, but I can usually express my points and, with some effort, be understood.

The Spanish instructors at my school can speak English, but they won't.  The students in my class are from many countries, and many speak no English.

As expected, there is not much warm water for baths here at the home where I am staying.

I am a little over a mile from school and can ride the subway for about 20 cents or walk.

Barcelona, Spain, 23 Feb 1986: Judging from the number of works of art in the Picasso museum in Barcelona, the man must have created one for every three days of his life.  There are 30-40 rooms, each with 2 or 3 dozen artworks, all Picasso.  He was incredible.

The weather was great today (low 70s, clear, light wind) and I rode my bicycle to the top of an 800 foot hill overlooking Barcelona and the Mediterranean.  What an incredible vista!  Unexpressible!  There's a snow capped mountain not far in the distance, a crowded, yet somehow artistically disorganized collage of buildings housing over 3 million people in the valley below, and a seemingly endless sea as blue as the ink you are reading.

Riding a bike in this city is going against the odds.  I generally avoid it.  It is normal for cars to drive up to 50 mph down crowded city streets, and cars frequently drive onto the sidewalks in order to park.

Late February -- I broke the chain one pulls to flush the toilet here.  The senora and I agreed that I'd pay half of the $50 repair bill.  It wasn't repaired until after I had a couple days of diarrhea, and I had to use a bucket of water each time to wash it down the toilet.

Hasta luego,
Dean

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