Day 51: Sitges

Thursday, October 3

Okay! I took a shower, so i'm clean, i did my laundry yesterday, so my clothes are clean, i am ready to go sit in a theater and see some cool movies well before the rest of the world gets a chance! Film fest, let's goooo!
    The hostel's breakfast is corn flakes and white toast. Alright.
    Ten euros for a round trip on the train to Sitges from here?? And it takes an hour. Alright, i guess.
    Oh shit, i had meant to bring my laptop, so i could start writing logs and movie reviews in the space between screenings, and on the train back to the hostel at night. Forgot that. Maybe i can just take some notes on my phone, i guess.
    Other than the few video clips i would normally do, i did not do that. I'm actually writing this on the fifth. I am a few days behind and i'm starting to forget things. I'm actually struggling to figure out what to write here.
    Alright alright alright alright! Here i am. I made it.
    Oh, interesting, there's a poster right outside the train station that they're having a zombie walk on the 5th, to coincide with the screening of Apocalipsis Z. There's a zombie walk at GenCon every year, which i've participated in a couple of times. That might be fun.
    I had about an hour before my first screening of the day. My friend Huan-Hua had recommended some food to try in Sitges. I plugged that into Maps and...it doesn't open until noon. My screening's at 12:15. That is not going to work out. So i just headed in the direction of the theater. The corn flakes and white bread should hold me for a while yet. Not really sure where other food fits into my schedule today, but i'll figure it out.
    Walking through the streets of Sitges, i came to a point where i looked to my right, and saw the sea not too far away. Surely this is the Balearic, right? Or is this still considered the Mediterranean? I still haven't found an answer to the names of the seas question.
    Knowing it would make my GPS mad, i went ahead and took that turn. I wanted to see the sea. I had time.
    This led me straight to the film festival's food truck lineup. Most of them were not open yet, so i passed through, making note of the offerings. I came to a low wall, guarding against a sheer drop, fifty feet to the water, and gazed. Beautiful.
    There was a beach off to the left. I looked down, saw a man playing in the sand with his dog, a black and white shepherd or collie, like the kind of dogs Amanda and i always had. Further down the beach...
    Several naked old men.
    I went around the wall and walked out onto the boulders to get a bit closer to the water, looking down on the choppy waves crashing over the rocks. I watched a couple groups of surfers, off to either side of me, struggling to catch those waves for a bit, and then i decided to go get a Nutella crêpe, at the seaside.
    It was a wonderful crêpe.
    I resumed course toward the theater, hewing as close to the water as i could, for as long as i could, which wasn't very long.
    My first screening today was in the main theater of the festival, Auditori Meliá Sitges. As i approached, i was met by a security barrier, regulating whether cars could come into the parking lot. I tried crossing, but a yellow vest stopped me, then turned his attention toward the cars. No vehicles came through, and other people started crossing, so i just went. He didn't notice. I have no idea why he stopped me in the first place.
    There were two huge lines wrapping around the corner of the building, one on the parking lot level, where i was, and the other on a terrace above, near the main doors of the hotel. I went to the end of the lower one.
    "Hey, is this the line for Presence?" i asked.
    "Press, yes," the man answered.
    "No, Presence, the movie."
    "Press for Presence, yes."
    "Oh. Where's the line for regular viewers?"
    He pointed up the stairs. "It's very long, though," he said.
    "It is. Thank you." It's assigned seating, so i don't really think it matters how long the line is. I've already got my seat secured.
    The line didn't start moving until 12:20.
    I had some trouble finding my seat. The rows didn't seem to be labeled. I finally asked a staff member to help me find it, and they pointed out that the rows are labeled on a little one-inch round plate at the very bottom of the seat, which is angled toward the ground.
    Of course, why didn't i see that there.
    I found what i thought was my row, but to be safe, i asked the people sitting at the very end.
    "Is this row 20?"
    "Yes," they said in unison.
    A woman was also just asking to slip by them, so they pulled their legs in to let her pass, and i followed. She sat down in seat 5. I sat next to her, in seat 6. There were many empty seats beyond me. She seemed confused as to why i had sat directly next to her.
    "The seat numbers are on the top of the seats," one of the people at the end said.
    "Yeah," i said, pointing at the number on the seat in front of me, and holding up my phone, which still had the ticket displayed. "Seat six."
    The woman next to me paused for a moment, then asked, "Is this all assigned seating?"
    "I think so. Mine is, anyway," i answered.
    "...then where am i supposed to sit?"
    "I don't know."
    Without another word, she got up and left. I don't know where she ended up, but nobody else ever sat down in that seat.

    At 12:30, the lights dimmed, and a man came up to the stage in front of the screen. He was introduced, but i forgot his name and significance immediately. He gave a two-minute speech, it was not in English, so the only words i recognized were "Steven Soderburgh." After that, there were several different Sitges Film Festival bumpers, the last of which was a short animation of King Kong approaching a city from the sea, with three biplanes flying toward him. He grabs one and spikes it into the water. The crowd cheered at that moment.
    The movie was good, the direction is very distinctly Soderburgh, but i thought the script was a little basic for him. At about the halfway point, i saw that there would be a twist coming at the end. I wasn't quite right on what it was, but i had the right idea. There were a few moments during the movie where characters made satisfying choices, and the audience cheered. That surprised me.
    No additional guests came up to speak after the film, which was disappointing. I had really hoped that Soderburgh himself would be there to give a little speech, or do a Q&A. Not that i had any Qs, but i'd have liked to be there for it. I thought that was the sort of thing that happened at these festivals.
    Walking out of the theater, i was greeted by a wall that was not there when i entered. We were being corralled out of the building via a different route than we'd entered. This did bring me past a room labeled "Tramuntana," which was good, because my last movie of the night would be there. Or so i thought.
    I was a bit concerned with how late the movie had started. My turnaround times between films are pretty tight, so i hoped that this wouldn't end up making me miss the beginnings of any other screenings. Since films are showing in multiple locations, if they're not running on time, there's no guarantee that everyone will be the same amount of off schedule.
    The next movie, The Damned, was at the Sala Escorxador, which i'd passed on my way to the Meliá. Just a few minutes' walk.
    When i arrived, i was stopped at the door and told that we weren't being let in yet.
    The crowd milled around outside. The doors for this one also opened late.
    Once inside the building, i checked my ticket, and realized that i was in row 1, seat 1. I must have made a mistake when i was buying it, something must have glitched, i can't imagine i would have bought this seat on purpose. I was in the front row, all the way to the right. The screen looked so distorted from there.
    I looked around. The theater was completely full, though. Maybe i did buy this ticket on purpose. I do remember that some of my screenings only had a couple tickets left.
    The director of the film walked up to the center of the screen and introduced himself.
    Paraphrased, "I'm Thordur Palsson, i am Icelandic. We shot this film on location in Iceland. It was cold. It was very cold. It was very, very cold. I lost feeling in both of my big toes while shooting this film. Fortunately, it has since returned."
    I got the impression this was meant to be a humorous connotation, almost a joke. No one in the audience reacted.
    "This is the first time that my mother is seeing the film all the way through, so please clap, so it looks like i've done a good job."
    I thought the movie was really well-made, but it wasn't for me. I don't want to spoil it, in case you're planning to see it, so skip to the next paragraph if you think that might be an issue. There is a twist at the end, and i did not think it worked. I thought it undermined everything that had come before, and raised more questions than answers. You might feel differently, and that's fine. Like i said, it's a well-made movie, it's just not for me.
    My next screening, Estela, was in the same theater. I did have to exit, wait outside again, and then re-enter.
    This film is in Spanish. It's a Spain-Mexico co-production. The entire cast and the director were there to introduce the film, which was nice. They still only got a couple of minutes to speak, though, so with seven of them on the stage, the director pretty much did all the talking. The others only got a chance to say a sentence or two.

    Okay. This movie... well. I thought the two leads had great romantic chemistry between them. And i thought that Nana's earrings were fucking awesome. Absolutely nothing else about this movie works. It felt like a Lifetime movie with ghosts. If you're avoiding spoilers for The Damned, then maybe skip the rest of this paragraph too. Because this movie also had a twist at the end, and it was the exact same twist and it worked even less in this movie.
    This is the first film that i've seen that was being screened in competition. As we exited the theater, we were given a small slip of paper with instructions. A box was positioned ten feet from the exit with five slots, labeled 1 through 5; simply place this slip of paper into the slot that you wish to rate the film.
    I stuck it in the 2 slot. I saw a dozen or so people insert their votes ahead of me. No one went above a 3. There were a lot of 1s. So it's not just me.
    Very exciting to be able to vote in a film fest competition though!! I had been given this opportunity once in Berlin, for Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, which i would have loved to rate highly. However, the ballot seemed to require marking, and i didn't have a pen, and i didn't know where to return it, so i ended up keeping the ballot as a souvenir. That film won their Fresh Blood award anyway (the audience award), even without my vote, so i feel pretty good about that. A different film that i hadn't seen, Skunk, won the jury prize.
    And then i was headed back to the Meliá for the Sitges Film Festival opening ceremonies/gala! Now that i've already seen three films!
    The web site didn't say how long the gala was. It listed a runtime for every film, but this didn't seem to have a defined endpoint. It started at 7. I had another film at 9. Since it's a gala, i figured i could just bounce whenever i needed to, and not miss out on too much.
    I had felt that it would be important and fun to attend the opening ceremony. I guess i had expected, since this festival has been very proactive about making sure every film is either in English or has English subtitles, that they would also do the ceremony in English, or at least have it translated. Nope. I'm unsure whether the ceremonies, as well as the Presence introduction earlier, were being conducted in Spanish or Catalan, the web site has options for either of those plus English, but i understood it just as well either way.
    Oh hey, Daniel Brühl is on the jury! That's cool. They brought four of the five jury members out for a presentation, so i can say i've been in the same room with Baron Zemo now. His speech was also in the same language as everything else.
    Several videos were played during the ceremonies, some of which had English, which was nice. I thought the "In Memoriam" video made a strange choice to use "I Will Survive" as one of its songs, even if it was a slow acoustic cover. Overall, i wasn't really getting much out of the gala. I thought about leaving several times, but what else was i gonna do?
    I'm glad i stayed, though, because i did get something out of it in the end.
    After the speeches had all concluded, they started playing a film. I hadn't been expecting this, and i didn't know what it was. I was checking the time nervously, as i had that other screening at 9.
    Well, i reasoned that i had been nervous about the 9:00 screening anyway, since, as i noted in yesterday's log, the last train from Sitges to Barcelona is at 10:58. If whatever's screening now is good, i'll stick around for it, and just miss my 9:00 movie. Surely this would end sooner, so i would have more time to make that train.
    The film was called Malet. And i hated it. I kept hoping it would get better, that all of this would be leading toward something, but checking my watch over and over anyway. I planned to leave at 8:45.
    And then the movie ended. It was just a short! That's good. It never got better, though. The rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy it, though, so this is clearly a me problem. Having such a prestigious spot, right after the opening ceremonies, though, really made me think. If this is what they want everyone to see, to represent their festival, maybe i'm not going to have a good time here.
    And then.
    Steven Soderburgh took the stage.

    He gave a short speech, it was exactly three minutes and ten seconds long. I know this because i filmed the entire thing. He was introducing the next film.
    "I've never made a film like this before, so i don't know if you're going to like it. But fortunately...it is short," he concluded.
    Oh, interesting. Given that the last film was a short, i had assumed we were going to get a block of short films to round out the gala. If Soderburgh had created a short as well as his new feature, and i got to see both on the same day? Awesome.
    And then Presence started playing again.
    Oh.
    You know, i had thought it seemed odd that the ticket for the opening gala cost twice as much as any of the film screenings did. I guess i just assumed it was because they needed to bring all these people up, there would be increased production costs for that as opposed to showing a movie, etc etc, but no. It was because the screening of that short and Presence were included in the opening gala.
    This was not listed on the ticket purchase web site.
    I felt like i'd missed something, like i had done something dumb here, essentially having bought two tickets to Presence at different times.
    I got up and left the theater.
    Still, though, as short as it was, i'm happy i got to see Soderburgh speak.
    The doors i'd gone through after the first Presence screening to get to the Tramuntana were now closed. I asked somebody how to get there.
    "You'll need to go out through these doors," he said, pointing at the main entrance, where the red carpet is. "Turn right, go around the building, and there's a door over there you can enter."
    So i did that. It was a little awkward getting through the main doors, there were people in fancy dress out there getting their photos taken, plus several security guards. I found a way to slip around them all, and walk behind the photographers, but it was tricky.
    There was a merch table just before i made the corner of the building. I bought myself a black T-shirt with the Sitges logo in pink.
    Around the corner, i found myself in a seating area with a food truck set up. I had a few minutes, but i didn't think it was enough time. I headed into the doors i'd come out of before, and into the room labeled "Tramuntana."
    It was a ticket sales area.
    I went up to an empty ticket booth, showed the lady the ticket on my phone, pointed to where it said "Tramuntana Meliá Sitges," and asked where i needed to go. She did not quite understand. She started typing on the computer, and then asked if i needed to buy a ticket.
    "No, this is my ticket, i have it," i said. "Where is the theater? How do i get here?"
    "Oh. You need to go outside, turn right, and then there will be another entrance."
    Heard that one before.
    But there was, indeed, another entrance, fully beyond the seating area. I don't know why they have two rooms labeled "Tramuntana," i've tried feeding that word through Google Translate, and nothing comes up. Google assumes that it's Corsican, but still translates to English as "Tramuntana." Catalan and Spanish didn't give any different results.
    This room, just like the Escorxador, does not seem to be intended as a movie theater. Everything seems to have been set up just for the festival. Which is cool. At the Escorxador, there was standard movie theater-style seating, but it wasn't bolted to the ground, so moving around too quickly pushed an entire row of seats backward. I had to pull my row forward again during Estela because i'd accidentally squished the guy behind me. Here at the Tramuntana, the seats rising up toward the back (where i was, due to purchasing tickets so late) seemed to have been assembled randomly. I was in the very last row, i approached from the right side, noticing that the seat numbers were embroidered on the top front corners, but were completely jumbled. I found Seat 6 near the edge. Someone was already sitting in it.
    "Hey, sorry, i think you're in my seat."
    "Oh, no," he said, very kindly. "The seat numbers are on the tops." He pointed to a metal plate on the top of the seat. I noticed that these seemed to be in the proper sequence.
    "Oh, thank you! Sorry, i seem to be on the other side of the room."
    I went back down the stairs, across the front of the riser, and up the left side of the stairs, where i found my proper seat. Someone was already sitting in it.
    "Hey, sorry, you're in my seat," i said.
    "Oh, no," he said, very kindly. "This is my seat. Seat 5." He showed me his ticket.
    "Oh, it's the seat numbers on the metal plates on the top," i said, showing him. "I actually just made the same mistake myself. This is Seat 6."
    "Ah, okay! Thank you for showing me!" he said, and moved one seat to the left.
    What a weird way to put together your theater. Why have they done this.
    Desert Road was easily my favorite film that i saw on Day 1. I didn't like it at first, in the beginning, none of the characters are particularly likable, and the plot is a little slow to develop.  From the early character interactions, i thought it was going to be a type of horror movie that i don't tend to vibe well with. But once things start fitting together, it's a fun ride. To even tell you what genre this movie is would be a spoiler, so i won't, i think you should see this one. It does break itself a little at the end, but i can forgive it, because the movie is just that enjoyable.
    I did have a bit of a strange meta-experience, though. I kept thinking one of the characters looked an awful lot like Jeff Bridges, but he's clearly far too young. So i was like, maybe this is Jeff Bridges's son?? Beau Bridges, right, that's a name? Is Beau Jeff's son? Then i was like, nah this guy is still too young, i wonder if it's Jeff Bridges's grandson. For the record, Beau is Jeff's older brother, not his son. Anyway, it's neither, it's one of the guys from Sons of Anarchy. But there's a scene late in the movie where we see older versions of the characters; i stayed for the credits, as always, and the older version of this guy was played by Beau Bridges.
    What the fuck.
    Another name in the credits caught my eye, though, Production Designer Matt Rumer. I worked with him on a short film called Come Find Me about five years ago. I think i'm still following him on Instagram, i should send him a nice message about the movie.
    There were no special guests at the Desert Road screening, and it started very close to on time, so i was looking good for making that train. Even so, less than halfway there, i was getting nervous about the time, so i started running.
    I sprinted almost half a mile.
    It felt good.
    It felt so, so good.
    I can't wait to start training again when i get back.
    I got into the train station, and as i was standing on the platform, with just a few minutes before the train arrived, i kept looking around, and it didn't feel quite right for some reason. It was 22:55. Three minutes before the train was scheduled.
    I approached an English couple standing nearby. "Excuse me, sorry, which direction is Barcelona? This side, or the other side?"
    "It's this side," the woman answered. The man concurred. "There is still a train coming, but it's usually late."
    "Oh. I guess i didn't have to run, then," i said.
    "We ran too," she said, laughing.
    I stepped away and started checking notifications on my phone.

    At 23:10, i overheard that couple talking about the train, wondering when it was going to arrive. The man stepped into the train station. A minute later, he came out and reported, "The train's still coming, but they don't know where it is."
    What. How the hell can the train station not know where the train is? There's so much tracking done on these things nowadays.
    Several minutes later, from my peripheral vision, i saw the couple move down the platform a bit. I looked up to see a crowd gathering around a man in a yellow vest.
    After he finished speaking, i asked the couple, "What's going on?"
    "The train's been canceled," the man said.
    dolly zoom.gif
    "There's another one at 1:30am," the woman said. "But i don't want to wait for that. We both have to work in the morning."
    "They say there's a bus," the man said. "But i don't know when."
    "The bus is leaving from here?" i asked.
    "No."
    A group of us had formed together, one man was looking things up on his phone. The couple continued to translate for me as he told us the bus would be coming through at about 11:40. He gave the name of the stop.
    The man of the couple (i really wish i had gotten names, but of course, i did not), at first wanted to wait at the station, to see if another train would come through. A train did pass by on our side of the track, after we'd seen three trains going the other way, but it did not stop.
    "You know," the woman said. "By this point, it might've been easier for us to go the other way, to Vilanova, and catch a train to Barcelona from there. There's a lot more trains to Barcelona from Vilanova than from Sitges."
    "Which doesn't make any sense," the man said. "Sitges is not a small city."
    "No, it's quite big, and it's very popular for people to come down here from Barcelona to drink. Doesn't make sense," the woman agreed.
    "You know," i said. "I had read that they'd added more trains between Barcelona and Sitges, specifically for the dates of the festival. Is it just the 1:30am train?"
    "Yeah," they confirmed. "Just the one."
    Well that seems to have been a bit misrepresented on the Sitges website.
    A French woman had joined us. We were all making conversation for a bit, and then the couple decided to try for the bus. "Do you want to come with us?" they asked.
    "Yeah. I don't know what else to do," i said. The four of us left the station together.
    So here i was, following a bunch of strangers around a city i didn't know after midnight.
    The bus stop was just a couple blocks away.
    "I just saw this movie, called Desert Road," the French woman said. "This feels a lot like what happens in that movie."
    "Oh my god," i said. "I also just came from Desert Road. I hadn't thought of it that way. This does feel like that. I hope that's not what's happening to us."
    The city of Sitges felt eerily silent in that moment.
    "You know, i'm not seeing that 11:40 bus that guy was talking about," the English woman said, after scrolling through her phone for a while. "But i see one at 12:10."
    "Maybe we should go get a drink," the French woman suggested.
    "No, we have to work," the English woman said. "I'd prefer to wait here."
    The French woman did disappear for a while, evidently to find a drink, but she returned after maybe half an hour. She'd been unsuccessful.
    We made a lot of small talk. The English couple lived in Barcelona, had been here about 7 years (if i'm remembering correctly). They go to the film fest in Sitges every year, because it's close, and they like movies.
    They started asking each other if they had cash for the bus. The woman had 15 euros on her, the man, about 10.
    "Oh, i hadn't thought about that," i said. "I don't have cash on me. Will the bus accept credit cards?"
    "They don't always," she said.
    I reached into my pocket. "I have about €1.50."
    "Don't worry, i can cover you," she said.
    "Thank you, i appreciate that very much."
    A lot of people had gathered at the bus stop by this point.
    "Do you think we'll all fit in the bus?" the French woman asked.
    "Hmm. I think so. It always looks like it's too many people, but i've seen huge crowds like this where people have suitcases, and it still works out."

    I was getting nervous. I was having flashbacks to that time Amanda and i didn't quite make the bus in Frankfurt and our luggage almost left without us.
    The bus did finally arrive at 12:15. The whole crowd started to crush in on the door. The bewildered driver looked out at us and tried taking the money as quickly as possible, but he was clearly overwhelmed. Two women got up there and caused some confusion, they held up the line for quite a while.
    "I'm really annoyed about this. We've been here so much longer than these people and they're all getting ahead of us!" the English woman said. She looked at me. "Stay close to us."
    "I'm trying!" i exclaimed.
    She addressed her husband, who was in front of her. "Just push your way in!"
    We were up near the door. She started shoving him through it. "He's timid, i need to push him sometimes," she explained.
    "I am too, i get it," i said. I'd done very little of the talking this whole time, it was mostly the two women, with occasional comments from me. The English man had mostly just been looking at his phone.
    "Do you need me to push you also?" she asked.
    "It might help," i laughed, but i stayed behind her. Someone did try to get between us, but i was able to wedge myself in front of him. He made some complaints, but i ignored him.
    "Three of us," the woman told the driver. He accepted her cash, and we were on.
    We walked all the way to the back of the bus. The French woman was near the front, she saw us, and said, "Oh, thank god you made it!" I never saw her again.
    They found seats on opposite sides of the aisle just at the back of the bus. There was one more open seat behind them. "He says he's saving it for his friend," the English woman told me.
    "That's okay. I'm just going to go stand up there," i said, indicating an opening near the back door, where there was a nook with no seats. And so i did.
    The bus took more than an hour to get to Barcelona. There were two stops. I watched the English couple at the first, but they didn't move, so i waited for the second. They had asked earlier where i was staying, and when i told them, they said it wasn't far from their place. So i figured i'd follow them off the bus.
    The second stop was where we parted ways.
    Once we were off the bus, i said, "Thank you again for all of your help. I probably would have just stood on that train platform all night."
    "You're so welcome. You know where you're going from here?" she asked.
    "Yeah, i've got a map."
    "Great. Well, have a good night, enjoy the rest of the festival!"
    "You too!" i said, and i turned left where they went straight.
    The streets of Barcelona were pretty empty and quiet at 1:15 in the morning. It was about a twenty minute walk back to the hostel.
    You know, i've seen a lot of European men just pull out their dicks and pee on the sidewalks across this whole journey. I think it's really gross, but it's pretty widespread around here. It's worse in cities with pay toilets, as i've alluded before. But this was the first time i saw a woman pull down her entire pants and squat to pee on the sidewalk. Her whole ass was out. She put a hand on the slanted ground to steady herself, but man. She did not understand how inclines work. Gravity was going to take that stream somewhere she did not want. I walked away quickly.
    I had not eaten anything all day except the cornflakes, white toast, and that nutella crêpe. What would even still be open at this time? I passed a Five Guys, but, no thank you. I also needed to drink a lot of water before bed, which was truly unfortunate.
    I found one of those bottle filling stations on the street. I had more or less made peace with the idea that i would not be eating tonight, but the water goal is non-negotiable. I haven't failed my water intake in five years. I'd hate to start now.
    I filled one of my bottles and chugged it. The pain in my stomach started immediately.
    Okay. I cannot continue to drink water without putting something solid in there.
    I filled both of my bottles, and tucked them into my vest. I should've checked Maps for open restaurants sooner. I was pretty close to the hostel now, and i wouldn't want to walk too far away. I found something that was just a couple blocks out of the way, so i diverted.
    It did not seem to exist. Maps had taken me to a completely different establishment, not even a restaurant, and it was closed. The whole block was dark other than the street lights.
    I walked back to the hostel. There were a few other possibilities, but they were further, and in other directions. I wasn't gonna spend all night chasing closed restaurants.
    Maybe the bread from breakfast would still be accessible, and i could steal a couple slices.
    Two women were sitting on the stoop outside the hostel smoking. We all said hey, and i stood there awkwardly, waiting for Bluetooth to connect to the gate and open it for me. Have i mentioned how much i hate having to have apps to do simple things that do not need a technological intermediary? Christ.
    I went straight to the kitchen. Breadbox was empty, but there was an open pack of tortillas sitting in front of it. No idea whose these are, but i might steal one or two, if i can find something to put in it.
    The refrigerator has a sign instructing people to put their names and checkout dates on their food, as most hostels do. I opened it, hoping to find something with a date earlier than today that i can take, since that person theoretically ought to be gone and the food abandoned.
    There was a completely full pot with a post-it note on the top reading, "FREE PASTA!"
    I don't know who cooked this penne, but you are a god damn lifesaver.
    It was alright, too. Noodles, marinara sauce, some peppers and maybe other diced veggies. They even seasoned it, including bay leaves. I had two bowls while i chugged water.
    I was burned out. I'd spent the day watching movies, how could i be this exhausted? Maybe just the stress from trying to get back to Barcelona.
    This was not inspiring for the rest of the festival.
    I finally made it to bed around 2:30.