The Expat's Pajamas: Barcelona

By R.S. Gompertz

A wise person observed that visiting a new place for a day makes you an expert but the longer you stay, the less you seem to know.

From 2000 to 2005, I lived with my family in Sant Cugat, a Catalan village on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain.

Most of these essays were written and published while avoiding work on my humorous historical novel, “No Roads Lead to Rome.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.S. Gompertz
• Release date: Nov 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9780982582947

R.S. Gompertz

I grew up in Los Angeles, a suburb of Disneyland, under the bright lights of the sixties and the long shadow of the holocaust. "Life's Big Zoo" began in 2015 as a memoir of being a precocious, nerdy Jewish kid coming of age in the era of Vietnam and flower power. Like most memoirs, it quickly turned fictional. "No Roads Lead to Rome," my first novel, was a semi-finalist in the Amazon 2011 Breakthrough Novel Competition. It's historical fiction, political humor, and a wild adventure set on the fringes of the Roman Empire in A.D. 123 History repeats, again as the decline and fall continues in the sequel, "Aqueduct to Nowhere" "The Expat's Pajamas," my Barcelona stories is available as a free e-book.

Book preview

The Expat’s Pajamas:

Barcelona

R.S. Gompertz

Author of Historical Fiction

Life’s Big Zoo

No Roads Lead to Rome

Aqueduct to Nowhere

"Whether you have lived overseas or just traveled, you will laugh out loud at the cultural confusion faced by an expatriate American living near Barcelona, Spain. Reminiscent of the style of Bill Bryson, these are carefully crafted articles that cover common situations many foreigners struggle with, including local bureaucracy, driving styles and customer service (or lack of it). The only thing wrong with this ebook is that there’s just not enough of it!"

Judy Rickatson

Via del Prat

The Expat’s Pajamas:

Barcelona

Copyright 2003-2013 R.S. Gompertz

All rights reserved

ISBN 978-0-9825829-4-7

4th Edition

Kindle Version 9-3-2017

www.rsgompertz.com

Vía del Prat

Also by this author:

Life’s Big Zoo

"I’m halfway to thirteen and 1968 is already the craziest year ever. Rigged elections, H-bombs, riots, rock and roll. My rock star brother might end up in Vietnam and The Monkees TV show just got cancelled. So much for flower power.

Should I tell my grandmother that our weird neighbor is an ex-Nazi? Nana survived Dachau and deserves a quiet life which, so far, I haven’t provided. I may be the dumbest kid in smart class, but I have a really big idea: I’m going to return to the scene of the crime and avenge Nana’s lost family.

Garage bands, G-men, Germans and Jews. Laurel Canyon, where the nuts roll uphill. If the future of the free world depends on me, please accept my apology in advance.

Among the many wise things Nana tells me, one that rings true time and again is that God keeps a big zoo. In the summer of 1968 I joined the menagerie."

No Roads Lead to Rome

"… In the province of Hispania, the governor, Festus Rufius, has just taken over for his murdered predecessor, veteran Centurion Marcus Valerius. Surviving on graft, plots, kickbacks and bribery, the Empire lurches on while Hispania is beset by