Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

I was struck in Barcelona but the international brotherhood of ultimate. I arrived at a field in the middle of nowhere based on information found on a website. I scanned the stadium, and based solely on looks, was able to quickly identify a few ultimate players. They were of course, very casual, hippish, and interesting people from all over the world. They all had crazy stories about how they started ultimate and how addicted they were to it. Players from Brazil, the UK, Spain, the US, Italy, and Colombia were all in Barcelona playing disc. I don't just mean playing, they were of course, hard core disc players. Laying out, running all over, and joking the entire time. I felt so welcomed at home the first night at their practice.

I quickly learned some important ultimate words in Spanish, such as "el dump," "el swing," and "con los dientos" which they said for getting low and tight on the mark. I also got a quick crash course in the European/South American "el stack horizontal." All in all, it was an incredible experience. And it got better.

The next day I traveled about a half hour on train to a beautiful, quiet beach south of Barcelona. There I had my first ever intense game of beach ultimate...the same as regular ultimate except five on five and on sand. It makes a world of difference! I felt half as fast and my arches felt twice as big after a couple of hours running barefoot. It was incredible to play as the sun set along the beach. I just looked around at the international group all laughing, sweating, and sharing a passion together and felt entirely content. I did notice however that I wasn't playing ultimate in the States when the girls started changing out of their sports bras right on the beach. I guess when you're on the coast of the Mediterranean, anything goes.

I had an awesome time with Patatas Bravas, the team in Barcelona, and I highly recommend anyone looking for them on the web because their website is incredible. My time in Barcelona just confirmed the fact that I'm addicted to ultimate, want to play it the rest of my life, and that wherever you go, ultimate players are ultimate players. The fun, interesting, crazy people that I love interacting with.