January 27th, 2008
Barcelona, Spain

Unknown

Taken on the day that lead up to my infamous meet with a very persistent, spanish prostitute (don't ask), this shows one of my favourite characters from my trip.

I met him on a street off of La Rambla in Barcelona, sitting on a bench with two other guys, enjoying the sunlight and the fresh air. As I walked past him, I couldn't stop staring at him, so I finally decided to turn around and ask him for a portrait.

I pulled out a slip of paper I had had the receptionist of a youth hostel write me the same morning, with "Can I do a portrait of you?" written down in spanish, and handed it to him. He just stared at the hand with the slip in it, then my face, and back to the hand.

The guy sitting next to him took the slip, read it, mumbled something to him, then handed it back to me and told me to go ahead. The man still looked utterly bewildered, but I figured it was okay, and kneeled down and got the shot.

The other guy started talking to me in spanish, but I quickly replied "No habla espanol!".I then got up, told them to have a good day in english, and waved and smiled as I walked away with that special feeling that you get, when you know you just got something good.

And no, you can't hear about the prostitute. We'll save that for later.