I recently returned from my college tennis teammate’s wedding in Maui. When I look back and try to think of words to describe the week’s activities, the only things that come to mind are mayhem, chaos, douchebaggery, and extreme joy mixing together to provide one of the best weeks I’ve ever experienced!

Of course this is what happens when you bring a bunch of CMCers together with BBW (booze, boats, and waterfalls), perhaps that synonym applied to other situations as well…

In any case, as each illustrious members of the S.W.A.R.M joined the ranks of Kyle and Heather’s wedding party, our powers grew stronger, but it was a rough start for the early comers, which brings me to the first reason why having a Hawaiian Wedding is Kick Ass!

Reason 10 – You’ll never have as much scenic beauty surrounding you, while experiencing utter physical pain than having your best man and groomsmen join you on an epic 26-mile journey of the Maui Marathon! (This was of course the first thing planned for the week’s festivities!)

The best part was that Kyle’s mom nearly beat out one of the groomsmen (The House), at the six and half hour mark, barely perserving any sense of dignity The House had remaining (which frankly wasn’t that much in the beginning).

Moving along…we spent that evening camping on lovely beach near Lahaina, but by nightfall we were inundated by tempestuous rainfall. Although we had sand in every orifice of our bodies, thankfully a little water didn’t do any damage to our spirit!

 

Looking strong!

 

Although we were a little worse for wear, after having a little coffee and breakfast the next morning, we were ready to tackle the day and brings me to:

Reason 9 - Hiking through creeks, bamboo forests and climbing steep rock walls, while sipping on Forties to eventually reach a stunning waterfall is just freaking cool.

 

Thumbs up for America!

 

 

Easy does it!

 

 

Oh you know, just chillin in Panda Heaven!

 

 

Life = Win!

 

 

Best shower ever!

 

To think, this was only the beginning of the day!  As we made our way deeper into Hana, the scenery just got more stunning.

 

Love this shot! Look at Gui! (on the right)

 

Reason 8 - Swimming in the half salt and fresh waters of the Venus Pool makes for a splendid afternoon. We also discovered using serious scientific methodology that Forties do in fact float!

 

Chilling at Venus Pool!

 

 

Testing out the Forty!

 

 

Reaction to a Forty floating! (obviously excited)!

 

We spent that night camping near the Seven Sacred Pools and we were anticipating a quiet night as we had spent the day traveling from one end of Maui to the other. Not to mention we all had had our fair share of a good time…some of us far more than others perhaps, which takes us to one the best reasons having a Hawaiian Wedding is Kick Ass:

Reason 7 – If you pass out drunkenly in field, a random girl will in all likelihood take off her clothes and lie on top of you without any provocation at all.

To think I’ve been doing it all wrong all these years…going to bars and this whole “dating” thing. This guy had it right all along!

Our bewildered buddy woke up just in time to quite the surprise! To say the least, let’s just say he enjoyed the rest of a pretty ridiculous night!

The next day, we hiked our way up to the falls at top of Seven Sacred and by the afternoon we were on our way back from Maui’s tropical jungle.  After all our hard work, we were rewarded by ending up in none other than the Great One’s humble abode!

Reason 6 - Polly’s Mexican Cantino Restaurant is the best Mexican food in Hawaii and some of I’ve best I’ve ever eaten period!  Kyle’s father bought the restaurant about 20 years ago and it has been a family run business ever since! Some of the veteran waitresses were telling us stories when Kyle used to used to bus tables when he was only 6 years olds!

 

Oh What up S.W.A.R.M.!!??!!?

 

 

Oh Yah!!!

 

The next reason is pretty solidly kick-ass, because as Andy Samberg and the rest of the Lonely Island crew said:

Reason 5 – “I’m on a boat!!!!!!”

 

Love the fire starters!

 

 

Dance Party!!!

 

 

I'm on a boat!!!!

 

We used the boat to go to a smaller island, where you will find my next kick ass reason!

Reason 4 – Driving out to a remote location on Lanai and enjoying a private beach with fellow S.W.A.R.M. members and enjoying an incredible sunset is just tough to beat.

 

Of course the truck would be stuck in the sand! !!!!!!!!KYLE!!!!!!

 

 

Yah, this is an ok sunset...(sense the sarcasm?)

 

 

Sweet Moon rise!!

 

Reason 3 – There is probably no better morning than waking to the sound of crashing waves and then gathering around for a jam sesh on the ukulele.

 

Singing some jams and drinking some brews at 8am!

 

 

Try and guess who's who? I'll give you a clue I'm on the right!

 

Oh yah and I forget to mention obnoxious amounts of male nudity?!?!?

After we finished packing up, we headed back for the big event! The entire week was filled with so many activities that we entirely forgot the main reason that we were even there!

Reason 2: There is not a more beautiful place to get married than in Maui! The ocean to one side, filled with islands rising up like mountains reaching the sky, makes this backdrop hard to top!

 

Getting ready for the big moment!

 

 

Adorable!

 

 

Nice walk guys!

 

 

Tying the Knot!

 

 

Ah the paperwork!

 

The reception in was held a little down Front Street at Timba. Things were pretty mellow in the beginning, but they soon got out of hand as the evening went on!

Reason 1: Going Dummy Dums when E-40 dropped, then blasting techno like a European style dance party til we shut the place down!!!!

 

Yah Tomithy!

 

 

Rocking it with KJ!

 

 

Schilathian!!!

 

 

Dayno, Fro, Tom and House

 

 

Congrats Kyle and Heather!!!

 

I hope you have enjoyed my reasons why a Hawaiian Wedding Kicks Ass! It was sad to see everyone go and taking one last look at the the view from our 5-star penthouse suite, I was thankful for this wonderful couple and all the friends who helped put this week together. Truly an unforgettable experience.

 

Til next time!

 

…stay hungry America, next stop Thai Opera!

It’s a strange feeling being back in the US, after almost a year in Spain. As I fondly reminisce about my time spent there, and the thoughts that continue to run in my mind are, “How are the Spanish able to do so many cool festivals!?!?”

Throughout my blog, I have talked about how unique España’s festivals are, from the Running of the Bulls, to Semana de San Sebastian, the human castells in Catalunya, las Fallas in Valencia and even how festivals celebrated all over the world like Nadal (Christmas) are spiced up with an unique twist of the present giving log-dog  Tió!

During my last week, I experienced the Festa Major de Gràcia street festival and the world-renowned Tomatina food fight! The former makes the trendy and hippy barrio of Barcelona, Gracia, into an all out block-party! There is a competition between different parts of the neighborhood to see who can have the most creative and best decorated street, but the catch is you have to use recycled materials!

The wooden forest!

The end result is a labyrinth of outdoor bars, live bands, and some of the most unique street decorations you will ever see! Take look at some of my photos.

Those lights look otherworldly!

This set up was soo sick! and it was made out of water bottles!

I ran into one of my tennis students!

As you can see this was quite a lively event and the energy was so positive and exciting! The cool part was that every corner we turned, it felt like another surprise was awaiting us!

These look like dragon flies!

At the concert!

Kat in the Hat!

It was an incredible weekend of debauchery to say the least and what a way to start off my last week in Spain!

The Wednesday of that week was Tomatina and I had a lot of mixed feelings going into the week. First, it was my last few days of living in Barcelona, which after the last year was easily one of the best of my life. Second, my excitement was mixed with pure exhaustion (I also snuck in a trip to Begur in Costa Brava the day before) and went straight to the midnight bus that took us to Buñol!

Group shot before we left!

The drive up wasn’t too bad, except for an annoying American girl that felt compelled to speak at the top of her lungs about how Barcelona is the most nudist friendly city in the world, but everyone has to wear shoes or there will be a fine policy, while everyone was trying to sleep at 4am in the morning.

However, after I told her to politely “shut-up,” the rest of the bus was very grateful and we were all able to get some sleep.

As the sun was rising on the small town of Buñol, we were approaching the outskirts of the city. We got down and our adrenaline started to kick in immediately. The fact that we were all going to be taking part in an 80,000 person tomato fight was becoming a reality very quickly!

Getting ready to get into the mix!

Looking towards the pole with the ham on it!

There was a bunch of men, occasionally a lady, hugging, humping and attempting to scale a lubricated 20ft pole to remove a leg of ham at the top! SERIOUSLY!!!!

Talk about an engaging look!

SEE!!! Look at Harry go!

I was actually stuck in the at the bottom of that mess! The main problem here was that there was ZERO organization. Everyone wanted to jump on top of the other and push and shove their way to the top, but there was no chance of this ever working!

One Aussie dude, did make it all the way, but he thought all he had to do was touch the ham and not bring it down, even though he probably could have!

The horn sounded at 11:00am regardless and we were off to the races!

And it begins!

COME ON!!!!!

These giant truckloads of tomatoes would drive by and people would be chucking tomatoes left and right, to and fro and in every direction you can possibly imagine. I was constantly getting nailed in the back of head!

Here come the tomatoes!

TOMATINA!!!!!

Get them Josh!

Tomatoes everywhere!

What is going on!?

Katya!

Great shot of the boys!

It was absolute chaos, but one of the most fun things I’ve ever taken part in my life! The maddness lasts for an hour with another gunshot signaling the end. Afterwards, people play in the marinara pool created from all the tomatoes!

AAAHHHHH!!!

I was going to for a tomato angel?!

You would think getting clean would be quite a challenge, but in fact it was quite easy as they had these high pressure hoses to wipe down the streets. Also, there was a really nice stream by the town to wash away all that gunk!

The Aftermath!

All cleaned up and the team reunited, we were ready to party! It was an epic end to an epic year in Spain.

August is the month of fiestas and vacation in Spain. During my last weeks in Spain, I went up to the Basque Country for Semana de San Sebastian, came back to Barcelona for the Gracia Festival and finally went down to Tomatina, the tomato throwing festival in Buñol. To say the least, these Spaniards continue to out do themselves for really cool celebrations.

The first part the trip was in Bilbao, which is the home of the Guggenhiem. Bilbao does not have the sex appeal of Madrid, Barcelona or even its neighbor San Sebastian, but it charms your senses with its modern yet classical look.

You know the day is going to be great, when you start off with a weimaraner puppy  jumping on top of you as you sit in the park, while sipping on your morning cafe con leche and eating a chocolate pastry!

Guggenhiem Bilbao

Another Shot!

The art itself is another story…I personally have a tough time appreciating certain types of modern art. Especially canvases that are painted in all black and have one patch of white, that are meant to represent the difficulties of the Spanish civil war! If one of my readers could please enlighten me with some comments it would be greatly appreciated!

Terrier in front of Guggenhiem

Cool architecture!

However, I have to admit there were some pretty creative ideas and exhibits where I can’t even imagine how the human mind came up with such thoughts! My favorite exhibit was a hall of mirrors created by Anish Kapoor (he’s the guy who designed the shiny bean in Chicago). Some of his other stuff was a little more whacky, but again, the sheer ingenuity was quite impressive.

Cool looking bridge Bilbao

The newer part of the city makes you think you are walking into a futuristic Oz, but then you stumble into the old maze like “Casco Viejo” and it is another world altogether.

Chilling in Bilbao Casco Viejo

Although the Guggenhiem has become the main attraction in the city, the region has much more to offer including small fishing towns and incredible beach fronts that host European championship surfing!

Took the bus to Bakio (small beach town next to Bilbao)!

Surfers!!!

Really relaxing!

Cliff!

The whole beach!

After a couple relaxing days in Bilbao, we made our way to San Sebastian and we thought we were ready to experience the full force of the the Semana Grande. Little did we know how much force it would be!

Sagardotegi (apple cider) and a tortilla!

San Sebastian is the polar opposite of Bilbao as its seductive streets, provocative beaches and even more intoxicatingly friendly people make this place an incredible destination.

San Sebastian at night by the river outlet

The festival includes live street performances, jaunts to the beach, concerts, hopping bar to bar to bar sampling wine, beer and sagardotegi (Basque apple cider), and of course delectable pintxos (Basque tapas)! Also, you can’t forget the nightly fireworks competition!

Talk about an incredible spectacle. Go ahead and take a look at my video to get a feel for the place!

Even with the festival rolling along, we made time to go the quaint town of Hondarribia. This ancient medieval village, not mentioned in most tourist books is must see getaway from the hustle and bussle of crazy San Sebastian.

You can take a 1.50€ boat across the port and find yourself on a lovely French beach! The funny thing is how different one side of the port is from the other.

It’s as if there is border line right in the middle of the port and by crossing it you must speak Castellano or French. Surprisingly, we didn’t hear as much Euskera as we imagined. Unlike Catalunya, Euskera is an optional, not mandatory language in school.

Beautiful Hondarribia (Spanish and French border)!

The Basque Country is incredibly endowed with hills and cliffs leading out to the sea creating magnificent beaches.  One can see the appeal this must have had to literary minds such as Ernest Hemingway and Mark Kurlansky.

That’s it for now…Part 2 of the Fiestas de Agosto is coming soon! Stay tuned!