The job sent me back to Amsterdam in late November, my second year at the World Bulk Wine Exhibition. The fair itself doesn't change much: two trade days at the RAI, rows of tank samples poured into ISO glasses, buyers and brokers closing deals by the tanker-load. Last year I mostly learned the floor plan. This year I knew which rows to skip and which brokers actually return emails, which is the difference between attending a fair and working one.
The change I made was outside the fair. One rule for the whole trip: walk everything walkable. No trams, no taxis. The RAI sits south of the center, a solid forty-five minutes on foot from the canal ring, and Amsterdam in November is dark by five and drizzling by default. I walked it anyway, both evenings, up through the canals in order — Prinsengracht, Keizersgracht, Herengracht — with the brown cafés lit up and bike bells as the only real hazard. You see nothing of a city from a tram window that you couldn't get from a postcard. At street level you at least earn the postcard.
The rule traveled with me to Barcelona, where I spent [DETAIL: how many days?] after the fair. The Gothic Quarter is built for it: alleys that fit two people and a motorbike, La Boqueria off Las Ramblas, vermut appearing at hours no Dutch bar would condone. The Sagrada Família is still wearing its cranes; the line everyone repeats is a 2026 finish, which I'll believe when I see it.
Wednesday night I was at Camp Nou for Barcelona against Dortmund in the Champions League, [DETAIL: how did the ticket happen, and where was the seat? the steep upper tier?]. A nine o'clock kickoff, the Cant del Barça and then the Champions League anthem, and a full open-air bowl exhaling steam into the November cold. Suárez scored before the half hour, Messi a few minutes later, and Griezmann finished a Messi pass in the second half before Sancho pulled one back for Dortmund. 3-1, and the group settled with a game to spare. It was also Messi's 700th appearance for Barcelona, which he marked with a goal and a hand in the other two. There are worse ways to file a milestone.
Walking back into the city afterward with a river of other people, the rule felt fully vindicated. It comes along on the next trip, wherever the job points it.
— Lo