Arrived in Barcelona at 7ish in the morning on Monday. Airport security seemed lax, I don't think my passport was looked at for more than two seconds. Took a while, but I found an ATM with the loudest buttons ever to get some Euros. My meager $40 only got me 25 after exchanging. Cab ride to the hotel was about 15, better than I thought. I noticed very quickly that the cab and hotel had an ever present smell of stale smoke because every person in Europe smokes a pack a day. Got cleaned up, took a nap and went to the conference not noticing that the opening remarks were at 2 pm. I guess they are serious about the whole things happening late in Spain. Unfortunately, I was still pretty tired and after lunch and talking to a guy from Turkey and an Australian who works in Dubai, I went back to the hotel for another nap, and missed all the sessions. Oops. The Turkish guy works for Turcel(?) the largest cell carrier in Turkey. I think that might be his name as well. Has a hacked iPhone. Is only 25, probably the youngest person here. The woman works for some waterfront project in Dubai which is going to be the home to 2 million people by 2020. I heard they are spending a billion dollars a month. Obviously it was no surprise that head of products for the vendor ate dinner with her, she said money is no object, they can throw as many resources as required at the project. The gala dinner was pretty good, nice steak even though I asked for vegetarian. Strange entertainment. It was like the bucket boys from Chicago or New York, but they were English. Banging on crates and shopping carts. Ended around midnight and buses took us back. Sweet hotel by the way, equestrian field, bidet, the whole works.
