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Dean In Barcelona W @Pokerstars: From Stranded To Premium Economy, Twitter>The Canadian Government, And So Long Spain

Aug 30, 2019
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I’m sitting in the Barcelona Airport departures area 3 hours before my flight and I’ve never been happier to sit and wait 3 hours to board a flight.  After being denied entry into Canada due to some bogus rule that you cannot, I repeat cannot return to Canada without a Canadian Passport.

Granted “Stranded in Spain’ is melodramatic but now I know what Matt Damon felt like in ‘The Martian’.  The curb of El Prat, Airport on a steamy Barcelona morning looking into the blazing sun.  Alone.

After a VERY sweaty drive to the Canadian Consulate in downtown, Barcelona, I was given three options:

  1. Have someone send my Canadian Passport through the mail (which Cindy from the consulate told me was illegal but to ‘do it anyway’)
  2. Apply for an ETD (emergency travel doc) effectively canceling the Canadian Passport I didn’t have and wait until next Tuesday (the consulate closes at 2:30 pm WEEKDAYS and Monday is a holiday, don’t you know).
  3. Fly into Buffalo and drive home to Toronto IF the Canadian government lets me in ASSUMING the Americans are cool with me using their country as my portal home.

Then Robert Mcleod AKA @Robby_Mac saved my entire life with one tweet.

I quickly found and filled out the form Robert kindly tweeted me and within 10 minutes I had this email in my inbox.

The Government couldn’t and didn’t help but stay at home fan Robert Mcleod did with one tweet.

In Fact, Luis from the Embassy called me 20 minutes after I had boarded the flight to tell me I wouldn’t be flying out until after the long weekend.   He said my new passport wouldn’t be ready till Tuesday. Add in the impending Barcelona Airport Strike there was no way I’d be leaving for a while.

I thanked him then sent him this video with the caption “Twitter rules’.

Guess everyone at the Consulate was wrong including Luis, Cindy and Anne who are paid to sit in Barcelona from 9 am an oppressive 2:30 pm to tell people the only way they’ll get home is by giving them the embassy $200.

So I’m on my way home reliving the mo.  Lot’s of great mo’s

The week was incredible.  We were invited to take part in @PokerStars EPT Tournament stop in Barcelona Spain for the Chase Your Dream Tournament where 5 finalists were awarded a Platinum Pass to Take part in Chase Your Dream back in Barcelona next August on top of playing for 10k in cold hard Cash.

https://crier.co/news/barcelona-with-pokerstars-day-2-3-canadian-vet-w-ptsd-big-sexy-chris-rooke-knows-how-to-exit-the-pool/

News and Notes.

  • PokerStars EPT stop in Barca was everything.  It was unreal to see it live.  PokerStars made the lives of five people better with a Platinum Pass to next years even for freeski.  Games within the games to show Poker Players how much PokerStars appreciates their players.  That’s what’s called a corporate ‘Solid’ and PokerStars gets it.
  • You’d think Paella would be and All Spain thing but you’d be wrong.  Barcelona is Catalan which isn’t Paella central.  That would be the rest of Spain and mostly Valencia and Madrid.  Here its all clams, mussels and big crawfish with a thin layer of red rice.
  • Food is incredible, the sidewalks are massive and you can walk everywhere.  Barcelona city center, The Casino, and El Born are no more than a mile and a half away from each other.  The Beaches in Barcelona are super Family-friendly with miles of night clubs and restaurants facing the water.
  • I felt safer in downtown Barcelona than I normally do downtown Toronto.  Seriously.  Never had my pocket picked.  Was never accosted for money.  Not once.
  • Scooters and Motorcycles are allowed to do whatever they want including split traffic on a two-lane highway which was awesome to see.  Men and women on two wheels splitting traffic
  • Seafood is the best in the world. Rookie ate a family size Paella
  • It’s the cradle of Mediterranean and Western Spanish civilization.

After 5 days abroad I feel like I could be a food and travel writer like my buddy Paul Feinstein.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0qpCLOpCSK/

You travel, look at the soaps for little hairs, write about your hotel/food/ touristy shit and whammo.  Doesn’t seem like its that tough.  The problem is Paul Eats anything and he’s a Chef/Journalist.  I’m just a moron with a blog who just went to the @PokerStars EPT Event in Barcelona, Spain.

PS. Special thank you to the wonderful people @PokerStars. After the Passport disaster, they took care of my flights and hotel for the night. Only a really good company with really good people help others when they don’t have to.
PSS. Big Sexy Chris Rooke, our head of production got engaged to the wonderful Lindsay Matthews and wish them a better than 65 % of making it.

 

Dean Blundell

Dean Blundell is a Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime morning host on CFNY-FM (The Edge) in Toronto, Ontario. In 2015 he was named the new morning host on sports radio station CJCL (Sportsnet 590 The Fan). Dean started his career in radio in 2001 and for nearly 20 years been entertaining the radio audience. Dean’s newest venture is the launch of his site and podcast which is gaining tremendous momentum across North America.

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