Embracing Change: From US Roots to Barcelona

Jerry Kopack [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Bike Life, a podcast from the Warmshowers Foundation. Here, we celebrate our global community of touring cyclists and hosts who make life on the road unforgettable. Through stories, insights, and shared experiences, we explore the connections that fuel every journey. Whether you're pedaling across countries or welcoming travelers into your home, you're part of a movement Rooted in generosity and adventure. Discover more and join the community at warmshowers.org. Now let's hit the road together. Hey everyone, this is Gerry Kopak, the host of Bike Life, coming to you from the Rocky Mountains of Breckenridge, Colorado. Today's guest is Brian Wiesner, and his story is proof that sometimes all it takes is a change in scenery to discover a part of yourself you never knew existed.

Jerry Kopack [00:00:55]:
After moving from the United States to Spain, Brian rediscovered cycling, became a Warmshowers host, and found himself dreaming about exploring the world by bike. Brian, welcome to Bike Life.

Brian Wiesner [00:01:07]:
Man, that was a great intro.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:10]:
Well, thank you. So I— this is gonna sound kind of funny, but you're now the second person that I spoke to recently who's moved from the US to Spain. So I'm curious, what is your story and what's it about Spain that's so appealing?

Brian Wiesner [00:01:23]:
Yeah. So basically I came here in 2015 to visit a friend and it was a university friend. It was that, it was that summer in between graduating university and before starting my first big boy job. So came here to visit him, spent 2 weeks in Barcelona, and I continued on the rest of Europe. It was like a 2-month backpacking trip, but my first 2 weeks was here in Barcelona. And I don't know if it was that he was showing me around, that I had like a local showing me around, or if it was the fact that I just fell in love with the city at first sight, but But basically, I spent those 2 weeks here and then I went back to work that job and I couldn't get Barcelona off my mind. And for 3 years, I would just keep seeing it in my journal. I would write to myself like, I should go live in Barcelona.

Brian Wiesner [00:02:07]:
And finally, in 2018, I pulled the trigger. I bought a one-way ticket. And the way I treated it was, hey, this is going to be a 1-year experiment. And at the very least, I'll learn Spanish. And if I have to move back to America after, then fine.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:21]:
Now, What do you do for work that allows you to work? Are you working for a US company or a Spanish company?

Brian Wiesner [00:02:27]:
Yeah, so I work online, I work remote, but that came way after. That didn't happen until after COVID. So I moved here in 2018 with a one-way ticket with absolutely no plan. The plan was to just live, see how long I can live off my savings for.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:41]:
Okay, I love that. And then COVID happened, for better or for worse, but allowed you to make the move full-time.

Brian Wiesner [00:02:50]:
Exactly. So basically I was, I had some odd jobs in those 2 years between moving here in 2018 and 2020. I did tours around Barcelona. I was a tour guide for a little while. I was doing some, I had some freelance photography work that I was doing. So I was just picking up little jobs here and there while I was learning Spanish. And, but throughout that time I was also falling in love with Barcelona.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:11]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:03:11]:
And so over that time, uh, yeah. And then up until COVID, I got the remote job and that was my first time. It was a remote sales job for a US company. And so I was able to do it here. year because remote work pretty much became normalized after COVID. Um, so yeah, I was doing that for a while and I just continued on picking up different remote roles ever since then.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:30]:
God, so cool. Uh, where were you in the US before that?

Brian Wiesner [00:03:34]:
I grew up in Florida, West Palm Beach.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:36]:
Gotcha. Uh, that's incredible. So are you, are you in Barcelona, the city?

Brian Wiesner [00:03:42]:
I'm in Barcelona. It's specifically in the neighborhood Barceloneta, right by the beach.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:46]:
Okay. So Big cyclist community there, obviously.

Brian Wiesner [00:03:51]:
Yeah, it is. It's funny, Jerry, my, my introduction and my, or I guess my reintroduction, cause you know, I rode bikes when I was in middle school, elementary school and middle school, I rode bikes to school with friends. Um, but then, you know, when at 16, when you get your driver's license, you just forget about the world of bikes and it's so much easier to get around with a car. And then when I came here, the first thing was I signed up for the city bike share service. So, you know, they have like the city bikes where you can get them and rent them for a little bit. So I was doing that for a little while. And then I ran into a friend one day who was walking with his bike. And after I got on a real bike, not a Citi Bike, because the Citi Bikes, you know, usually the brakes are broken or something, it's squeaky.

Brian Wiesner [00:04:30]:
So I got on a friend's bike and I took it for a little spin. And I think either that afternoon or the next day, I went to a bike shop and bought my own bike.

Jerry Kopack [00:04:37]:
I love that. And so I have to back up because so much of what you have just shared with me in the first couple of minutes has mirrored my experience so much as well. You had mentioned that you went to visit a university friend in, in Spain. I did the same thing. That was my first international experience. I had a friend from college in Boulder who was living abroad, and her partner was working. He had a job with an international company, but she didn't. So, she was just doing odd jobs kind of like you were.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:09]:
And, she just said, hey, come over and hang out with me. And so, I did. And, that turned into— I showed this before on other episodes, but— Spain was the epicenter of my first ever bike tour. So, I went to Barcelona, fell in love with it, and then while I had some time on my hands, I cycled up through Girona and into Andorra. And, it was a week that changed my life forever. And so, I guess I'm forever indebted to Spain or I don't know, maybe I'm ruined because I seriously don't know how to travel without a bike anymore. Kudos to Spain and to your story as well.

Brian Wiesner [00:05:50]:
Wow. So, did you plan to do that bike trip or you did it after you got here?

Jerry Kopack [00:05:54]:
No, I did. Yeah, it's a great question. I, like you, I grew up in a small town in mid-Michigan, a little bit different, but same thing. You ride your bike to your friend's house and that's how you get around, especially in a rural farm town in Michigan. But, once you're 16, nobody rides a bike, everyone drives. And so, it wasn't until later I got into cycling again. And then, I had been doing some I did some local amateur racing stuff, got into cycling a little bit in my 20s. And, by my late 20s, I got this invite to go to Spain and someone had told me like, hey, why don't you do a bike tour? And, I didn't know how to do a bike tour.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:32]:
And so, I bought this used Peugeot 1980s road bike for $50 online. That wasn't online, we didn't have it online then. It was at a local sports recycler.

Brian Wiesner [00:06:43]:
Interesting.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:45]:
put a rack on there with some panniers, and that was it. And so, it completely reshaped my whole image of cycling and exploration and everything else.

Brian Wiesner [00:06:54]:
That's awesome.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:56]:
I'm curious, had you been abroad before that? Was that your first international foray?

Brian Wiesner [00:07:01]:
Oof, no. So, that's the other funny thing. I've been to so many other countries, and my mom thinks it's so strange that I landed on Barcelona. I've been to 70+ countries. So, I've done a lot of traveling with my parents all growing up. We have a tradition where every single year, We do at least one big family trip. And then over time that evolved into doing, you know, kind of multiple family trips a year. So we've done a lot of traveling all over the world, but it— my parents had actually been to Barcelona without me before.

Brian Wiesner [00:07:30]:
And so after I came back and I told my mom, I think I want to move there, she couldn't understand because they didn't— I guess they didn't see it the way I saw it when I first came here.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:39]:
Yeah. So, so tell me, where did they think that you were going to land and why did you land in Barcelona?

Brian Wiesner [00:07:48]:
Great question. So as I was finishing up university, there was something that attracted me about cities. I wanted to be in— I knew I wanted to be in a dense environment, but at this point I hadn't really studied any urban design yet. I just, I just had this gut feeling that I would visit my grandma in New York in the summers because my dad's originally from New York. So I'd visit my grandma in the summers from Florida, and I love that feeling of being able to get on the bus and not having to rely on my parents to drive me around. So I knew I wanted to be in a city and I was in between San Francisco or New York. But then after that trip during university, when I came to Barcelona, I was like, oh, I'd been to San Francisco and New York before, so I knew what those were like. But for me, Barcelona was the winner out of all of them.

Brian Wiesner [00:08:30]:
God, really?

Jerry Kopack [00:08:30]:
Okay. And did your parents think you might've landed someplace else? Because you said they were surprised when you landed in Barcelona.

Brian Wiesner [00:08:39]:
I know. I don't think that they were— I don't think they were expecting me to get— they were open to anything I wanted.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:44]:
Okay.

Brian Wiesner [00:08:45]:
They were, they were open to whatever I want. But another little piece of the backstory that I think is important to mention is my mom's Hungarian, so I was born in Hungary.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:52]:
Ah, okay.

Brian Wiesner [00:08:54]:
Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:54]:
And was that ever, was that ever an option or an interest?

Brian Wiesner [00:09:01]:
I actually did move there before I moved to Barcelona, so I spent about 6 months living in Budapest before coming here to Barcelona, because when I pulled the trigger and bought the one-way ticket to come to Europe, I, again, I had absolutely no plan and we have an apartment in Budapest. So I was like, okay, that's a good first stepping stone. Let me at least get myself to Europe. I lived there for 6 months, caught up with a bunch of old family members and friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. And then I took a visit to Barcelona again to test my hypothesis of, okay, do I really want to move there? And then I spent 3 weeks here during that visit. So now, cumulatively, I'd spent 5 weeks in Barcelona. And after that amount of time, I said, okay, I think I'm ready to pull the trigger and go to Barcelona.

Jerry Kopack [00:09:44]:
Was it easy to build a community there, to build a network?

Brian Wiesner [00:09:48]:
Man, the first couple of weeks I kept asking myself, what the hell am I doing here? I had no idea. It's like one of those things where you— there's that saying, which I have mixed feelings about it, but you know the saying, Wherever you go, there you are.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:05]:
Of course.

Brian Wiesner [00:10:07]:
So I, that was what I felt when I first got here. I was like, okay, so, you know, I left my life back home. Now I'm here. Now what? Uh, now I still need to figure out how to, what am I going to do for work? You know, and, and I definitely felt confused probably for the first, you know, 2 weeks to a month, but then I just pretended like I was a little kid starting over again. You know, I, I got up from the bench one day and I said, okay, I need to get a SIM card. I need to open a bank account and just literally do all the basics. You know, enroll myself in a Spanish school. And then eventually the thing, the thing that really helped was I joined, I joined a coworking space.

Brian Wiesner [00:10:42]:
I always recommend people when they're new in any city, if you work remote or if you're testing a place out, go join a coworking space and you'll meet a bunch of people.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:50]:
What a great tip. Uh, it's interesting. You, you mentioned that, that quote, it reminded me of another quote. It's by the old Yankees, New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra. He was famous for making these really quirky comments and he may have made that one. I'm not sure, but he had a comment or I'm sorry, a quote where where he said, if you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else, which I thought was kind of funny. So, uh, you, you found a home, it sounds like, in Barcelona, because this is 2018 now, right? So you're 8 years into it.

Brian Wiesner [00:11:20]:
Exactly. Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:21]:
Nice, man. And so I know you mentioned, you said you didn't really become a cyclist until you moved to Spain. So tell me what changed, what inspired that, that transition to being a cyclist?

Brian Wiesner [00:11:30]:
Well, I don't know if you saw when you were telling your story, I was smiling so much because, uh, So again, with me, it was very progressive. I had the bike share service. Then I got a Citi Bike because I ran into a friend one day. But the, uh, the catalyst that I always go back to, the thing that I think really turned me into like a, a crazy person about cycling is I went on a trip with a friend to— we cycled to France. We were staying at an Airbnb like 50 kilometers from the French border. And it was during the month of August, you know, in Spain. They take pretty much all people here take the month of August off and go on vacation somewhere. So, we rented a house about 50 kilometers in a town called Figueres.

Brian Wiesner [00:12:12]:
It's actually not that far from Girona.

Jerry Kopack [00:12:14]:
I've been there.

Brian Wiesner [00:12:15]:
If you're familiar with it.

Jerry Kopack [00:12:15]:
Continue, yes. That was on my route, so continue. Cool.

Brian Wiesner [00:12:19]:
So, we rented a house in Figueres. And, on the last day of the trip, me and my friend woke up and we didn't have any plans that day. Pretty much every other day, we had plans of what we were going to do, but that last day was kind of a free day. And we knew we had bikes in the garage of the Airbnb. And my friend who I was, who I did it with, he's Dutch. So he's super into cycling. And, uh, we woke up and we looked at the map and we saw, wow, you know, France is only 40, 50 kilometers away. We could, we could do this in a few hours.

Brian Wiesner [00:12:47]:
We can go get a croissant and a coffee in France and then take the train back. Uh, so that was the plan and that was my first long bike trip. And after that, I was just completely hooked.

Jerry Kopack [00:12:56]:
Now, were you doing it kind of as like, uh, what I call is like a credit card trip, right? So you're not really carrying your tent and sleeping bag. you just going from pension or hostel or hotel back to back?

Brian Wiesner [00:13:09]:
Exactly. So that at that point I still hadn't even, I don't even think I knew what bikepacking was then. And this is only 5 years ago and now I've become so obsessed with it. It's crazy. Um, but yeah, I, we literally just did a long ride and I was, I was like, wow, I want to get more into cycling. And then after that trip, that's when I bought a gravel bike. So before that I only had a city bike and I was just using it to get around the city. And I was like, oh, this is fun.

Brian Wiesner [00:13:33]:
But I had never really done any long rides. And then after that long ride, that's when I decided, okay, I want to start really getting into this.

Jerry Kopack [00:13:40]:
Yeah. And obviously where you live, as you know, you can be in another country in a matter of hours, which is incredible. So yeah, you can head up to, to, to France. You can cut across into Germany, into Austria and all these different places. And it's all right there. So, ah, man, I am, I am just dripping with envy because of the proximity you have of all these amazing cultures. Not that living in the US is bad. 'Cause the US is amazing.

Jerry Kopack [00:14:07]:
And I live in Breckenridge, which is also totally, totally gifted and benefit from that. So, uh, but man, just, I'm trying to envision all the places I would go if I was going out your front door from Barcelona.

Brian Wiesner [00:14:21]:
So I'm, I'm sure you know this, but we sit right on the EuroVelo 8, and that's something I've gone very deep on the past year or so, I guess, ever since I think it was, it was right around a year ago. Where I discovered Warmshowers and the Eurovelo. And that's when I started really doing more research and seeing, okay, how can I make this reality? How can I go on a month-long or a 2-month-long trip all around Europe? And then, yeah, that's how I found Warmshowers and Eurovelo. And I really am eager. I've ridden parts of Eurovelo 8, so I've done about— I've gone down to Tarragona, which is about 100 kilometers south of Barcelona. And, uh, yeah, I've done parts of it, but I'm excited to do a longer stretch.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:00]:
So let me see if I got this right. You signed up as a, as a Warmshowers host before you had ever done your first big tour. Is that true?

Brian Wiesner [00:15:08]:
That's correct.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:08]:
Cool. Tell me about that. How'd you, I mean, how'd you, I mean, you said you learned about it through the Euro Velo, but tell me more about that origin story.

Brian Wiesner [00:15:16]:
I think I might've heard Bike Life Podcast, or I, I can't remember the exact, uh, exact moment that I discovered it.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:25]:
Go, go with that. I like that answer. You heard the Bike Life Podcast. Let's stay with that.

Brian Wiesner [00:15:30]:
Warmshowers.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:31]:
What's this? Okay.

Brian Wiesner [00:15:32]:
So I looked into it and I saw it's a community of, and then I, oh, and then I saw on the map that there's a lot of hosts here in Spain. So I figured, okay, this is a great way to meet other cyclists, ask them questions, get to know what I might need to know before I go on my big journey. Uh, so it was really that it was almost, okay. I wanted to help other cyclists on the road, but I also wanted to learn myself.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:53]:
Yeah. I love that. So what was it like that, uh, that first guest that you opened into your front door?

Brian Wiesner [00:15:59]:
Oh man. The first guest was great. It was this guy Yuma from Japan and he was cycling from the easternmost point of Russia, Vladivostok, I think it's called, if you're familiar with it. Um, Russia's big. Yeah. So it's the Eastern, it's one of the easternmost point cities of Russia and he was cycling to the westernmost point of Portugal. Wow.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:24]:
That's a big trip. How long was he allotting for that? Do you remember?

Brian Wiesner [00:16:29]:
I think it took him about a year. I think it was about a year.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:32]:
Okay. He's, he's clipping along then. That's a lot of kilometers to click off there.

Brian Wiesner [00:16:37]:
Yeah, he was. He told me he had some days of 200 kilometers, but yeah, mostly 100-kilometer days. Wow.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:43]:
Okay. And so hanging out with Yuma and sort of lit a fire maybe?

Brian Wiesner [00:16:50]:
Yuma definitely inspired me because he was— not only was he doing this long trip, but I mean, he was 21, 22 years old. He had just graduated university. And so he was doing this trip as a trip before he started his job.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:03]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:17:03]:
And it was funny because I was, you know, that I thought back to my trip of after university, you know, after, yeah, after I graduated to starting my first job, it's like, I think everyone should take some time during that summer, or if they can do more than the summer and just take, you know, 6 months, 9 months to go on an adventure. I think it's so important.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:23]:
Yeah. And, was there a particular story or just the Yuma experience that made you think like, hey, I need to get into this, I need to check this out too?

Brian Wiesner [00:17:35]:
I think one of the things about spending time with Yuma and having him stay was also just the reality of, wow, this doesn't cost a lot of money.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:43]:
Right.

Brian Wiesner [00:17:44]:
Like, you could have a great adventure You're powering yourself. You're seeing all these places that are off the beaten path. Earlier in the conversation, I told you I've been to so many countries with my parents traveling around, but they're more tourist destinations. And, we would even go to places off the beaten path. I mean, we've been to Antarctica and Zanzibar, places in Africa that people don't really think of as normal, I guess, vacation places, not like the Paris or the Rome, you know? And so, I've been to all these other places, but I think something about traveling and seeing all those in-between places that aren't really destinations, you know, that was something that really appealed to me.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:27]:
That's it. Like, you totally nailed it. It's the in-between places. I've never heard that phrase, but I love it because as you know, seeing the world on 2 wheels, Somebody else told me that they like traveling by bike because they travel at bicycle speed. And I get that because, as I mentioned before, you can get on a bus, you can take a car, you can end up at all these amazing places. You'll end up at the Taj Mahal or the Great Wall of China or all these places, but it's those in-between places that you miss if you're not on a bicycle. Oh man, I love it. You totally hit that on the head.

Brian Wiesner [00:19:05]:
Awesome.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:05]:
So talk to me about your tour. Have you set out on your, on your big cross-country or cross-continental tour yet?

Brian Wiesner [00:19:15]:
It's coming. We're— so another thing I love about bikes, this is kind of a tangent, but I think it's important to the story. I met my girlfriend while I was out on a bike ride.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:27]:
Okay.

Brian Wiesner [00:19:27]:
And, and she's also very into cycling. It's one of the things that we share that we love doing. So we have been taking some longer trips together. Even this coming weekend, we have plans to go Um, to go a little bit outside the city. We've been doing like these 50 to 100 kilometer trips just around the area to get to know our area better and to just test our gear and to prepare for our big long trip. You know, I don't know if she's going to join me, but my, my, my goal is that at some point in the coming year, I want to, I want to do the entire perimeter of Spain. Wow. Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:01]:
What, what is it about that route that's, uh, that appeals to you?

Brian Wiesner [00:20:05]:
So I know that I'm going to be living in Spain for the rest of my life. I'm fairly certain of that. And I really want to get to know the country and explore the place that I'm going to be living so that I could, you know, pick out the places that I really enjoy going to and maybe revisit those places when we have a family and just to get to know the country better.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:23]:
Cool. Wow. Okay. So is she Spanish?

Brian Wiesner [00:20:29]:
She is. She's from the south of Spain, Andalusia.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:31]:
Got it. My partner, she took a trip solo a couple years ago and did a bikepacking trip. She had some friends from the US who moved to Malaga and were living there from abroad, and she took her bike kind of like what I did to go visit a friend. And then it's like, well, I'm gonna go do this while you guys are working. And so she went down into, I think, the Sierra Nevada region as well and just had a really, really cool experience.

Brian Wiesner [00:20:57]:
Yes.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:57]:
Have you spent much time down there?

Brian Wiesner [00:21:00]:
I've been down with her to visit her family once, but I— trust me, I've been looking up all the routes. There's great routes down there. I really— I keep telling her that we need to take our bikes down there. So last time when we went in November of last year, we did rent bikes for the day and we went on a trail, um, just on a day trip, but nothing big. But now next time we go, I want to go for a longer period of time and explore those surrounding areas as well.

Jerry Kopack [00:21:23]:
Yeah, and the cycling community in Spain is is, of course, legendary, right? So, there's the Vuelta a España, of course, that goes there. The Tour de France, many years, will have a stage that starts in Spain. And then, of course, there's Mallorca, right, which is just this road cycling haven. So, have you spent much time over there?

Brian Wiesner [00:21:42]:
So, yeah, 2 points that you actually just touched on. So, you know, we just had the Tour de France start here in Barcelona, and I always joke that I am so not into the sport of cycling at all. I didn't really know any of the, Uh, you know, I didn't, I didn't really know any of the racers' names until, until just a few days before I started looking into it a little bit, but I'm so much more into the cycle touring part of it. But still, I say that, I say that to, to, to say that I enjoyed watching them, the, the, the, the extremes that they take it to and the amount that the speed that they're going, it's super impressive, you know?

Jerry Kopack [00:22:22]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:22:22]:
So that was cool to see. And then. We have actually taken 2. So if you ever come to Barcelona and you want to go to Mallorca, you can actually take a ferry there. And so we've taken, I think twice now I've taken the ferry with my bike. And so I live here by the beach. I live about a 10-minute ride from the port. So I pack my panniers, I get on the ferry and a couple hours, I'm in, 2 and a half hours, I'm in Mallorca.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:45]:
I love that. So keep with that same theme. If cycle tourists are coming through your neighborhood or Barcelona in general, What should they see? Like, what's not to miss?

Brian Wiesner [00:22:58]:
Oh, great question. I think the Costa Brava is beautiful. So the area we were talking about before, like going up towards Girona and Figueres and basically riding up towards France, you could follow the Eurovelo 8 towards France. So that's one of the ones I recommend, but then Mallorca really is stunning too. But I would recommend not going in the middle of summer, one, because it's too hot and there's a lot of traffic on the road. So. So, if you're planning a trip to go to Mallorca, try to go in the spring or the fall. That's when you're going to get the best conditions.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:25]:
Okay. With Spain being such a cycling community, cycling country, how is the road traffic? Because I know there are some countries where, like, I've been to India and I absolutely love India and I've been there 3 times, but it takes a certain level of thick skin to cycle some of the craziness, the organized chaos that is India. But I've also been in places like Italy and France and Spain, and it seems like they just understand that there are cyclists on the road and it's— it feels like a more calm environment. Do you feel the same about your area?

Brian Wiesner [00:24:00]:
Definitely. I've seen— I've actually seen, you know, I've been in Barcelona 8 years now and I've seen some— a lot of transformation happen within the city itself. So they've put in over 100 kilometers of bike lanes in the past 5 years or so. The last mayor, she was really big into cycling and micromobility, and so they installed a lot of new bike lanes all over the city. So you feel super safe anywhere you're riding in the city. And, and then, yeah, when you're going out on, for example, in Mallorca, the reason, one of the reasons it's so great for cycling is because you have one main highway that runs through the island, but then you have all these little gravel routes going through these small, tiny roads and that's what makes it great. And on those roads, you barely have any traffic. So yeah, I think also what you said as well is that the, The drivers are more aware because there's so many cyclists here, so they're paying more attention to the road.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:51]:
Yeah. And I forgot, did you mention that— have you cycled in Mallorca?

Brian Wiesner [00:24:56]:
Yeah, I went there twice with, uh, with the ferry.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:59]:
Okay. And awesome experience? Is it as, is it as amazing as everyone says it is on all these social media posts? Like, oh, you've got to go see Mallorca. Is it— does it stack up?

Brian Wiesner [00:25:11]:
It, it lives up to the hype. It really is. It's a special place to go cycling. The scenery is beautiful. Again, the road conditions are also just fantastic. Um, I think what's so great, one of the things that sticks out to me is you have so many great little towns, you know, just where you could stop along the way. Like obviously you have Palma, which is a big city. I think there's like 500,000 people that live in Palma.

Brian Wiesner [00:25:34]:
So it's a, it's a fairly big city for an island.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:37]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:25:38]:
Like when you're in the middle of Palma, it doesn't even feel like you're in an island because there's, you know, public transit and so many people walking around and it's, it's, it's a city on an island, like a real city. And so, but then as soon as you leave Palma, you have all these roads and great climbs as well. So I'm more of a, you know, I like going on the gravel and the trails and things like that, but there's some of the most, uh, yeah, they have legendary climbs there. That's why a lot of people go is because like a lot of road cyclists in particular. Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:26:06]:
And there's so many professional cyclists who live in Spain either part year or full year because of the conditions that are so favorable. Like, I know that probably in the early 2000s, a lot of professional American cyclists were living in Girona just because of the community, the road network, of course, the climate. I mean, I'm sure if you get outside of the city, you probably have an opportunity to see a lot of top-end teams and top-end cyclists if you were into cycling.

Brian Wiesner [00:26:36]:
For sure. So actually in, uh, so, you know, like I mentioned earlier, I'm not so much into the sport road cycling, but I think when we were in my— when me and my girlfriend and I were in Mallorca, I don't think I saw a single other bike with panniers on it besides mine. But, but I do want to highlight that it's also a great place to go do that. You know, I, I'm not sure about the camping because we didn't camp. We stayed in different hotels along the way. Um, Um, but I think it has a great diversity of cycling types. It's not just road cycling. And I think that's the one that you kind of see mostly, uh, you know, that's what you see like promoted in videos and stuff like that is going there for the road cycling.

Brian Wiesner [00:27:14]:
But I do want to highlight that it has a lot of other diversity as well. It's not just professionals in road cycling.

Jerry Kopack [00:27:21]:
Yeah. It's interesting you bring that up because I was in Spain in 2007. So this is going to date me a little bit, but that's when I did my first tour. And I, I saw one other person with panniers on their bike and it was this German guy. And I think we ended up cycling together for like the next 3 or 4 days. We cycled north into Andorra, across the border into France, just to say that I had cycled into France. And then he kept going because he was cycling back home to Germany. And it was this really cool experience because, yeah, so many people with high-end fancy bikes and just doing incredible bike rides and day trips.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:01]:
And then again, I don't think you even need to have all those panniers. I think you can just do it as a pretty simple, what I call a credit card experience, where you can just go and cycle to a hotel or a pension without a whole lot of gear and get by, which is, man, which is another thing that makes Spain just so incredible for cycling.

Brian Wiesner [00:28:21]:
Or find a Warmshowers host.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:22]:
Or, sorry, find a Warmshowers host. I don't know what I was doing back in 2007. I didn't I wasn't in the Warmshowers network then, so it took me a few years after that. But you're right, the Warmshowers sounds like we have a great community in Spain.

Brian Wiesner [00:28:39]:
So yeah, I've actually— I— that one of the things I wanted to— that I've been wanting to do, which I haven't done yet, but just doing day trips, like, and going to stay with Warmshowers hosts in the area, like, to a place that's— to a place that I could get to within one day, you know, but still seeing my surroundings. That's something I've really wanted to do. I just haven't done it yet.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:58]:
That's such a cool idea that I haven't heard anyone else bring up on the show to just do those one-day overnighter and use the— or really utilize the Warmshowers network. Because I think people think about Warmshowers as, I'm going to go and do the Great Divide Route through Colorado and through Canada or do the Transamerica. And, they think about, well, I have to link together all these different hosts for this big trip. What a great idea to just go and do an overnighter.

Brian Wiesner [00:29:27]:
Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:29:28]:
That's cool.

Brian Wiesner [00:29:28]:
I'll keep you posted if I do that.

Jerry Kopack [00:29:31]:
So let's talk about your, your tour gear. Do you, do you have it all dialed in? Pretty much.

Brian Wiesner [00:29:36]:
I got, uh, I got a solid gravel bike. I got the back rack with the panniers, um, and then a middle frame bag. That's pretty much all I got now. And it's been, it's been good for doing these, you know, one-week-long trips, uh, or just longer rides to be able to carry stuff with me. Cause we were doing, my girlfriend and I were doing some riding in the winter. Uh, and we did some longer rides, so it was nice to be able to bring our gear with us. So we didn't, so we weren't freezing the whole time on those descents.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:02]:
Yeah. Because were you getting up further into the north where you get some different inclement weather in the winter?

Brian Wiesner [00:30:10]:
Not even that. We just went during February. It's just, it can be pretty chilly even if you're going on a descent, you know, you want to layer up, but then, but then when you're climbing a hill, you want to take it all off. So we kept putting it on, putting it off again.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:22]:
Yeah. I found that my favorite piece of gear honestly is, uh, is it like a wind vest?

Brian Wiesner [00:30:28]:
Okay.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:28]:
So, you see sometimes people in the Tour de France, they'll have a wind vest. And, what it does is it allows you to sort of block that wind going downhill, but then when you're climbing, it's way too much because you want that air circulation going through your sort of chest. And so, you can pack it up to the size of a grapefruit, if not smaller, and kind of stuff it in a jersey. And, that has been my go-to gear piece for probably 20 years. And, apologize for the unsolicited advice there, but that's my go-to gear piece. So if you don't have one, get one.

Brian Wiesner [00:31:01]:
No, it's, it's funny you brought the, the gear up because one of the things I, I literally have one in my shopping, in my online shopping cart right now in Decathlon. I already picked out the mattress. I just need to get, I need to get the camping gear. That's what I don't have yet.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:14]:
Yeah. How is the camping in Spain? Is it, uh, is it pretty easy to, to find places to, to throw a tent?

Brian Wiesner [00:31:22]:
So I've, I, I'm, I'm that guy that goes up to, you know, we get a lot of bikepackers coming through. Uh, because we're on the Eurovelo 8. And, uh, I mean, that's why I've hosted multiple people on Warmshowers as well. And I, I'm that guy that when I see somebody with bikepacking gear and, you know, I'll be on my Citi Bike, but I'll ride up next to them. Or if they're stopped, I'll go up to them and be like, hey, so where are you going?

Jerry Kopack [00:31:43]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:31:44]:
And I'll always strike up a conversation. 'Cause I'm just like, oh, there's my people. I need to go talk to them. And, uh, yeah. So I just go talk to them and I ask them and everyone that I've talked to that's done camping in Spain, they, they said it was, uh, fine. Some people said that they would purposely look for like campgrounds, like authorized campgrounds, and then some people told me they just did wild camping, and both said they were fine.

Jerry Kopack [00:32:06]:
Yeah, I'm guessing once you get outside of sort of the denser urban area, the more remote places, there's probably plenty of space to find a tree to sleep underneath.

Brian Wiesner [00:32:16]:
Exactly.

Jerry Kopack [00:32:17]:
Yeah, it's funny you brought up that you see people who have their tour gear and you'll ride up next to them, It reminds me of a story. My partner, she was driving home from work one day up in Breckenridge. And again, we get a lot of bike tours coming through because of the Great Divide, the Colorado Trail, the Transamerica. They all come right through Breckenridge. So, it's really, really cool experience. And, she was driving down the highway and she saw 2 people with loaded-up bikes and she pulled in front of them and waited. She's like, hey, are you guys bike touring? Strike up a conversation. They say, oh yeah, we're staying with Jerry Tan at Warmshowers.

Jerry Kopack [00:32:53]:
And she's like, oh, okay. So she's like, hey, follow me, you're almost there. So it was just really, really cool. So it's funny that, that you rolled up on some people as well, because we often do the same thing.

Brian Wiesner [00:33:06]:
Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:07]:
It's just, it's just cool to see people out there kind of exploring things. And I don't know what— tell me more about this as far as what are you most excited about for this big circumnav of Spain tour?

Brian Wiesner [00:33:21]:
You know, I think I'm— I think I tend to get into the same routine when I'm back here at home. And I spend— because my work is online, I spend a lot of time, you know, sitting staring at a screen. And I think the thing I'm most excited for is just breaking my day-to-day routine and not having a routine. And, you know, not knowing how my day is gonna end or where I'm gonna sleep that night. I was telling my girlfriend the other day is that that, you know, I'm loving these little trips that we're doing, but I always know that I'm coming back to my bed. And I want to know the other feeling, the feeling where I don't know where I'm going.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:58]:
Yeah, yeah. I read a quote from somebody, I forgot who it was, talking about how dangerous routine can be because it makes life go really, really fast. And I get it. We all have life, we all have jobs, we all have things we have to do on a daily, weekly basis. But, as much as we can try to break up some of that monotony, it kind of spurs learning and creativity and all these great things that come from sort of getting outside of our comfort zone.

Brian Wiesner [00:34:30]:
Totally.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:31]:
Yeah. How much time do you think you're budgeting for this trip, for the circumnav?

Brian Wiesner [00:34:39]:
I think I looked up and mapped it out, and I think it's going to be roughly 2 months.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:45]:
Okay.

Brian Wiesner [00:34:45]:
I think. Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:47]:
And can you do that while you're working because you're in the same country, the same time zone, all that stuff, or is it going to be a little bit of a life diversion?

Brian Wiesner [00:34:57]:
You know, that, that's the thing that I'm—

Jerry Kopack [00:34:59]:
I'm not trying to get you in trouble, like saying, hey, I'm going to quit my job in 2 months.

Brian Wiesner [00:35:03]:
So no, not at all. It's that the thing is, I like what I do for work and I have a ton of flexibility. So I've— it's so funny that you brought this up and you asked this question because I've been, I've been playing this out in my head of like, Hmm, can I, can I do this while I'm still working? You know, I think that the thing that would be tricky is the, the camping part and finding where to stay. I think, I think I could do it while I stay working, but maybe just taking a couple days off here and there. But because I, I, I don't want to give up what I'm doing for work, you know, and, and I do, I do. Yeah, I really like what I do. So I want to see if maybe I can somehow work it out where I get to continue doing my remote job and just check Slack and log into Zoom every now and then when I have to, like in evenings because at the end of the day, I work for a US company, so I can get, I can get some solid riding in up until 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM my time. And then as long as I have signal and I can hotspot to my laptop, then I can, I can do what I need to do.

Jerry Kopack [00:36:03]:
Yeah. And that's exactly what my partner did. She would basically play all morning until 2 o'clock. And then because of the time change, she would get on her computer and work. And so it worked out really well for her. Now, you mentioned that you work for an American company. American companies don't always have the same holiday or vacation policy that, say, European countries or Spanish countries have or companies have. How is that? How is that? Because you probably have a bunch of Spanish friends who have whatever, 8 weeks of holiday per year and you get your whatever, 3 or 4.

Jerry Kopack [00:36:34]:
So.

Brian Wiesner [00:36:36]:
Yeah, it's, it's funny, man. There's, there's so many. It's crazy how many holidays they have here and how many days off they get. But Again, I have a lot of flexibility with my schedule. So if there are one of those days where it's a holiday in Spain and I want to do something in particular that day or do something with my girlfriend, I can manage my day so I don't work a full 8-hour day that day. So I have a lot of flexibility to be able to play around with my schedule a little bit. It's more of a performance-based role. And as long as I'm getting my work done, it doesn't really matter what time of the day I'm doing it.

Jerry Kopack [00:37:10]:
Okay. So, you pretty much have leaned into all of the Spanish culture, it sounds like. How does it work for you having dinner at, say, 10 o'clock at night? Are you into that now? Has that been normalized?

Brian Wiesner [00:37:25]:
I did it for a while when I first moved here.

Jerry Kopack [00:37:27]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:37:29]:
But, I think I've— I still— 9 o'clock. 9 o'clock is our dinner time. My girlfriend gets off work at 8:30, and then we typically have dinner together at 9 when she gets home. So, so I'm not fully doing the 10 o'clock dinners yet, but it's definitely later than usual. For example, when I go back to visit my parents in Florida, it's like 6:30.

Jerry Kopack [00:37:47]:
Yeah, of course. Yeah. And, and that's, that's how I live as well. Like, I mean, I think I'm in sleep by, by 9 o'clock and I sleep from like 9:00 PM to like 6:00 AM. And that's my normal schedule. And whenever I remember when I was in Spain, like that was, that was definitely a challenge for me that, you know, you eventually, you kind of normalize, you get used to it. But the hardest part for me was, was the mornings, honestly. It was like, okay, I need to get up.

Jerry Kopack [00:38:11]:
I need to go find someplace that's open at 6:30 or 7:00 so I can get breakfast, something that's not just a coffee and a pastry. Like, I need some substance. And it was, it was tough. And then, of course, you get off your bike and it's like, okay, I've ridden all day. It's 5:00. It's getting late. Where can I find food at 5:00? Like, well, that's tough. Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:38:32]:
You typically have that gap from like 4:00 to 7:00 where a lot of restaurants will close.

Jerry Kopack [00:38:37]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:38:38]:
And then in the morning, I, you know, it's, it's tough to find anything open at 7:30 AM. I mean, when you're in a city, sure, but, uh, typically most places open at 9:00 AM, which is so different than back in the US. You know, coffee shops are opening up at 6:00 AM there.

Jerry Kopack [00:38:52]:
For sure, for sure. Yeah, yeah. Uh, so you had mentioned the circumnavigate of Spain. Any other transcontinental tours that you're eyeing up? I know, I know you said you've been to over 70 countries, Is there something outside of Spain that's like, man, I would love to go cycle there?

Brian Wiesner [00:39:11]:
Great question. I want to take my bike to Hungary. I want to ride to Budapest and see what that ride is like.

Jerry Kopack [00:39:18]:
From your front door?

Brian Wiesner [00:39:20]:
Yeah. From, from, from, from my front door to our other front door, to our apartment there in Budapest. I would love to do that ride and just map it out and see what it's like because, um, are you familiar with Hungary at all?

Jerry Kopack [00:39:30]:
A little bit. That's one of the countries that I have not been to.

Brian Wiesner [00:39:34]:
Okay. So there's a big lake called Lake Balaton, and there's a great trail that goes around that lake as well too. And a friend told me that you can actually, if you're in the city, that they recently built a path that goes from Budapest, the city, to the lake, a bike path. So I really want to do that bike path as well.

Jerry Kopack [00:39:51]:
So cool. And I don't have a map in front of me, but where would you Where would you kind of navigate through? What countries would you be passing through?

Brian Wiesner [00:40:01]:
Brandt, so I'd go along the, along the coast through France and then Italy and then up through, I think it would be Slovenia or Slovakia and then into Hungary.

Jerry Kopack [00:40:15]:
Okay. I mean, what a great route. You could find all kinds of amazing routes through there. You could find coast, you could get into the mountains if you wanted to. Which kind of brings up another thought. If you had to label yourself, do you tend to gravitate more towards coast, towards beaches, water, mountains? What's the kind of terrain that you really like?

Brian Wiesner [00:40:38]:
I like the coast. I like gravel on the coast, gravel roads with no cars on the coast. That's my favorite.

Jerry Kopack [00:40:45]:
And have a lunch swim and then get back on the bike.

Brian Wiesner [00:40:48]:
Exactly, exactly. I like doing the climbs every now and then, not for the climb, but for the descent, of course. Uh, I would say my girlfriend has a little bit more difficulty getting up some of the climbs, but I'm trying to get her more used to it so that, cause I know that, you know, if she were to come on the, on the trip with me, the, the, the trip that I want to do around Spain, I know we're going to have some climbs ahead of us.

Jerry Kopack [00:41:11]:
So yeah, the Pyrenees.

Brian Wiesner [00:41:12]:
Yeah, exactly. So we're trying to get her trained.

Jerry Kopack [00:41:17]:
Yeah. Well, you know, they have pedal assist e-bikes too. So gravel bikes, road bikes. I mean, that's, it's, it's an option. It's not just for, not just for people, you know, of a certain age. I think I've seen people use those for sure. If that's okay.

Brian Wiesner [00:41:30]:
I know they're big too, because the scenery there is amazing. But, but, you know, it's, if you're not a, I think a seasoned cyclist, it could be difficult unless you're on an e-bike.

Jerry Kopack [00:41:40]:
Yeah, for sure. I actually had the opportunity several years ago to cycle through the Dolomites. And I saw plenty of people on e-bikes and they were getting out. And I honestly, I think they're great. If it gets more people on their bike and out of their cars, seeing the world at a different pace, sign me up, I'm into it. I think that's a great thing.

Brian Wiesner [00:41:59]:
For sure. And to that point that you just brought up, another one of the reasons I fell in love with cycling is because I see the diversity of people here in Barcelona, in Spain that ride their bikes. And I see these groups of like, you know, on Sundays and Saturday mornings, I see these groups like 4 or 5 older guys in their 70s, and they're all geared up with their e-bikes and they're getting out there. And I'm just like, man, this is a sport I'm going to be able to do for my whole life.

Jerry Kopack [00:42:27]:
That's it. That's completely it. And that's what I have been kind of banking on as well, because I think that people who maybe are runners, I feel like there's only so many marathons that you can run before maybe your knees say, okay, I've had enough of the abuse. But cycling, it's just, it's such a low-impact sport. And there's a guy who lives in the town of Breckenridge, and I think he's probably in his 70s, but he— so we live at the base of the ski resort. And what he does in the wintertime is he'll strap his skis to his bike. He'll bike from his home up to the base of the mountain and then put his skis on, skin to the top of the mountain, ski down before the lifts open. and get back on his bike and go home and go back to work.

Jerry Kopack [00:43:13]:
He's a physician in town and he's just this remarkable human. It's like, okay, that is, that's my model right there. That's my target. So—

Brian Wiesner [00:43:21]:
That's super cool. What a great way to spend your morning.

Jerry Kopack [00:43:24]:
Yeah, in 20-plus years, if I'm still doing that, I think I'm doing it right then. I'm doing well. So, I wanna wrap this up with something that you said, and I like this. You said, you're never too old to discover a new hobby. So tell me more about that and maybe lean into why do you think so many adults might convince themselves that it's too late to reinvent themselves?

Brian Wiesner [00:43:53]:
I think it goes back to the routines and habits that we talked about earlier. You know, you get, um, and this is why it's good to take like an extended time off to break that routine and habit. You know, a lot of people A lot of people will take a vacation somewhere and go away somewhere for a week, but I'm a big believer in multiple times throughout your life taking— I've written about this on my blog, but it's called mini retirements. So, not just taking one big retirement at the very end of your life, but taking little mini retirements throughout your— every decade, take a few months. And, if you can take off work or if you work remote, just try to change up your routine and change up where you're located. That's what changed me as an adult is I came here to a place that has such great cycling structure. And I discovered this hidden part of myself that was, that was lying dormant for so long.

Jerry Kopack [00:44:41]:
Yeah. Do you think there's another mini retirement or another kind of life change that you can foresee? I mean, it's hard to predict the future. We don't have a crystal ball. But you probably didn't expect to be living in Barcelona and cycling and cycling around Spain and throughout the continent. But anything that's kind of piquing your interest that you might want to tip your toes into later in life?

Brian Wiesner [00:45:08]:
So, well, first I want to do this big long bike ride because the next step in mine and my girlfriend's relationship is we want to have a family and we want to have kids. So, that's going to be kind of the next journey that we embark on together. But before we take that step, I really want to do some long bike rides like this one I mentioned doing the perimeter of Spain. And going places on the Eurovelo. Also, there's a great route along the, that goes along the whole Danube. Um, so I really want to do that one as well too, cause I've heard great things about that route. And so yeah, basically the, a big long bike trip and then start it and then starting the process to have kids.

Jerry Kopack [00:45:47]:
Okay. That, that would be definitely a pivot, a change in your life for sure. And a very good one.

Brian Wiesner [00:45:53]:
Of course, the good thing is, and this Cargo bikes are becoming such a big thing.

Jerry Kopack [00:46:00]:
Yeah.

Brian Wiesner [00:46:01]:
And the kids with the— or the adults that have the kid's seat on the bike, and I see the joy on the kids' faces and I'm like, oh man, I can't wait to take my kid out on the bike when that day comes, because it's so cool to see how parents have integrated bringing their kids out on the bikes and using the cargo bikes here. And so, I don't think that having kids is going to limit my kilometers.

Jerry Kopack [00:46:24]:
No, no. And, and I'll share this with you in parting, but I had 2 friends, a Swiss couple that I met a decade ago in Nepal, and we toured together through Nepal and India and China and Morocco and a bunch of places together. And then they had kids and, you know, it's going to change a little bit because they can't do the same stuff that we were doing together until the kids get older, but they were touring with those kids kids as soon as they could essentially have enough strength to hold their head up. And so, they would tour them along in a trailer and then they would have the little kind of the third-wheel thing that attached so they could actually hold on and pedal themselves.

Brian Wiesner [00:47:04]:
Right.

Jerry Kopack [00:47:04]:
And now, I just talked to them and the kids I think are 6 years old and they're twins and they're doing their own tours now. So, there's a family of 4 and they're doing tours. I mean, they're not touring through the Himalayas yet, but they're touring through Europe And doing little week-long trips, and it is just the coolest thing. So yeah, absolutely tour with your family. What a cool thing, man, to look forward to.

Brian Wiesner [00:47:29]:
Definitely.

Jerry Kopack [00:47:30]:
Ah, well, listen, Brian, I want to take— thank you so much for taking time to hang out with me, share your stories. Uh, you mentioned you have a blog. Do you want people to read that? Should we share that, that little URL here or what?

Brian Wiesner [00:47:43]:
Yeah, sure. It's, uh, Serendipity Lab.

Jerry Kopack [00:47:45]:
Okay.

Brian Wiesner [00:47:46]:
Uh, it's a, it's a Substack, so I'm sure, you know, many of your listeners are familiar with Substack. So if they just search Serendipity Lab Substack, it'll be hopefully the first one that pops up.

Jerry Kopack [00:47:56]:
I love that. So we'll, uh, we'll post that in our show notes as well. And if you guys are listening out there, if you're rolling through Barcelona, reach out to Brian. He's got some good ideas for things to do. Yeah. And as we wrap up, I want to thank everyone for listening to my conversation today with Brian Wiesner. I hope stories like these will continue to inspire you to maybe set off on your own bicycle adventure, maybe open up your home to a traveler passing through, because really that's how this community continues to grow. So until then, keep the wheels rolling and the stories coming.

Jerry Kopack [00:48:29]:
Thanks for joining us on Bike Life. I'm Jerry Kopak, and I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you. Please leave us a rating and review. review, or just tell your friends. This helps us reach more cyclists and hosts around the world. To learn more or become part of this amazing community, visit us at warmshowers.org or follow us on Instagram at WarmShowers_Org. If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have a question you'd like us to explore, email us at podcast@warmshowers.org. Thanks for listening.