October 6, 2013

Today is a bittersweet day. Today Mechanical Pinckney Hugo Pencil and I disembarked the Liberty of the Seas in Barcelona, pencil in pocket. But upon getting to the center city I found Mechanical Pinckney Hugo Pencil gone, with only this note left behind:

My mechanese is rusty but I think it says:

Dear Caroline (or camel?)

I love Barcelona, Spain, with it’s cable car views, delicious cuisine, wine and flamenco dancing!!

I have bought the deed to a little cottage on the hillside.

Please don’t miss me or think of me and be sad, some day your mechanical princil will come.

Give all my love to Zack, Christine, Chris and Doug.

Peace,

Mechanical Pinckney Hugo Pencil

So…

Today I arrived in the heart of Barcelona. Then I marveled at how, in a country where the name “Caroline” doesn’t exist the dude at Starbucks manages to spell it correctly when not a fucking one in America can. Then I walked for hours, visiting famous landmarks like la Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi-designed church. Then I found myself at La Barceloneta, the beachfront boardwalk district. Then I walked La Rambla, shopping the markets for souvenirs and gifts. Then I found a nice little cafe with a view of the sun setting and the hills of Montserrat and found myself wondering if Mechanical Pinckney Hugo Pencil was watching the same sunset as he sat on his terrace on those very hills and then I thought of Fivel Goes West and then I poured a little of my sangria out for the homies.

It has been a long, tiring and emotional day.