Granada

I'm in Granada! I arrived on Wednesday and have been spending my time with rediscovering the wonderful streets of the Albaicín. After 7 years, I forgot a lot of things and some places have changed. But the city is still the same. I'm so happy to be here.

Terrace view from Carmen de las Cuevas school in the Albaicín.

Albaicín street.

Right now I'm sitting on one of the beautiful school terraces. We can see the Alhambra from here. It's very hot, around 40 degrees. Fortunately the nights are cool. 

I'm staying in a student flat from the school at the top of the Albaicín. People are very nice here and all crazy about flamenco. We already had a party on our rooftop terrace with some guitar and singing. Last Thursday I went to Los Veranos del Corral, a summer flamenco series. I saw Concha Jareño. She is a master of rhythm and I liked her performance very much.

Dance classes start in a week. Until then I will keep taking care of myself. I've been doing a lot of thinking about why I came to Spain. I feel a bit stressed out because there are so many things I want to do and learn. I want to be active and progress. I want to learn all about flamenco. I want to see more of this beautiful Granada of my heart. I want to dance. I want to sing and play the cajón and draw and make websites. At the same time, there are only so many things that can be done in one day. It's time to listen inside to find out what I REALLY want to do.

Decisions

Recently I posted this on Facebook:

"Sometimes you have to go against reason... go against your endless needs, against what you think is best... against your biggest fears. Just go with what your deepest guts tell you and things will happen you couldn't have imagined in your wildest dreams."

It seems I have to take my own advice now and listen to my guts. Things are not easy in Cádiz. I'm not in a good place right now. I won't go into detail, but I'll share that the living circumstances are taking up a lot of my energy - too much of it! There are a lot of good things about being here and that makes it hard. But my body has been acting up. It's been trying to tell me things and now it's time to listen to it. It's too bad because Cádiz is beautiful and I'd love to stay. But I can't right now.

I have decided to not continue exposing myself to bad vibes anymore and to leave Cádiz the day after tomorrow. I'm going to Granada! I've signed up for horse riding classes next week, yay! It's crazy but I'm very excited.

I left Granada over 7 years ago. It's time to go back. :)

Los Jueves Flamencos I

There's a concert series every summer organized by the Peña Enrique El Mellizo called "Los Jueves Flamencos". They take place in the Baluarte de la Candelaria, one of the fortification castillos around the Old town. I went to see it this week. On the way there I walked through the beautiful Parque Genovés at dusk. Again, the light was amazing.

The concert series used to be a big affair with a lot of big names but due to the crisis, 2 of 7 nights were cut and there are no stars on the program. No stars is not necessarily a bad thing, so I was prepared for anything.

First, the whole thing was quite a posh affair. The Peña members (all of them people aged 40 and older) dress up and sit at tables with tablecloths. One of the best restaurants in town, El Faro, caters for the guests. The ticket costs 20 euros. I was surprised. But then the concert had five parts so you got more than enough for the money.

Eva Rubichi from Jerez sang first. Unfortunately I didn't like her style at all. She might have sung with all her heart, as she told the audience. But her voice and tone failed to captivate me. Her performance lacked subtlety and was very loud and very long. Sang for more than 45 minutes. Next up was Joselito Linares. His singing was just fine, but it was getting late and I was getting tired of listening to cante. It does require a lot of attention! After that, an excellent Miguel Téllez from Jerez gifted us with a hilarious parody of baile por alegrías. I could see he was a very accomplished dancer. He had every single part of his body under control and still managed to dance in a completely relaxed way. I've never seen such a corny "silencio" before. It was very funny. 

It was one thirty and I had to go home. I was sorry missed the great María Mezcle and Ezequiel Benitez. 

Up next week: Flamenco en los Balcónes! 

P.S.

I'd like to extend my warmest thoughts to Oslo, to my friends there, and the victims of the tragedy along with their families. Please stay safe. Let's keep the hope going that one day violence will end.

Image from here.

Winding down

Goodbye beloved zapatillas rojas con lunares blancos. 

I did some good walking with you guys. You also got me some great compliments! But now you're falling apart so it's time to replace you. So long...

I'm back in Cádiz trying to relax. I danced with Juan Ogalla during the last 4 days. The class was fun but too advanced for me, but I felt too lazy to care. I can still feel the stress and fatigue from the last few months sitting deeply in my bones. I feel like I should be doing things like exercise more, or getting up early to go swimming, or rent a studio to practice, or even just go to the beach, but I'm just too tired. The sleep-inducing east wind (Levante) is not helping, hehe. Must recuperate! So I'm unwinding and grabbing as much sleep as I can.

The magic of Sanlúcar

I'm full of gratitude. It's been an amazing week in Sanlúcar in the Curso de Flamenco.

I took Carmen Cortés' dance class for three hours every day. The choreography party was not so great but she did very good technique training with us. It felt good to sweat it all out. The excellent Manuel Valencia accompanied us on the guitar.

After that I just had 1.5 hours to shower, grab a bite and go to Cepillo's percussion class on cajón. This guy is a machine. He has a lot of humour and we practically laughed nonstop. His wife Sonia is a sweetheart too!

Every day we went to eat to one of the best tapas bars in Andalucía called Casa Balbino. They seriously were the best seafood tapas I've ever eaten. Everything is freshly displayed on ice and cooked from scratch. There are about 10 waiters behind the bar who run non-stop, take orders, prepare food and remember exactly what you had as soon as you ask for the bill. On my first evening there about 100 people were standing in there which had my slightly overwhelmed when it came to ordering my food...!

All participants stayed in the lovely Hotel Los Helechos. It features shady patios and a rooftop terrace with swimming pool to hang out on. We were completely relaxed there!

Every single night, the course organizers had a programme ready for us. On Monday, the guitarists played in the Peña Puerto Lucero. Chris & John gave us a special jam at the end:

On three nights we went to different manzanilla bodegas in town. Next to drinking the excellent wine from Sanlúcar, there was a bulería juerga every night. All students from the dance class were required to dance a pataíta. It was so much fun. We had singers come all the way from Jerez to accompany us and they gave us all they had. It was such a luxury!

And sometimes we would have mini-juergas of our own on the street:

On Friday night we demonstrated the things we learned in a chiringuito, one of the many little beach bars. Of course we weren't ready so we had to rehearse in the sand first. Haven't laughed so much while dancing in a long time:

I really haven't got a lot of pictures because I completely stopped taking photos somewhere along the way. There was too much going on and I didn't want to miss a thing. So, many thanks to John for letting me use his photos on the blog!

After the juergas we would go to Raquel Villega's Bodegón A Contratiempo to carry on with the music. Sometimes it would really jam off and sometimes we would have a quiet sip of rebujito to wind down. On Saturday night Raquel gifted us with a flamenco show the likes of which I've never seen before. She and Begoña Castro danced. Her brother Diego Villegas was on harmonica, flute and saxophone and María Mezcle sang. Diego has a way of playing that makes me cry. Together with Raquel's mindblowing dancing we went through an emotional rollercoaster. They all left us sitting there completely stunned. I think we truly experienced the flamenco duénde that night. It was simply magic.

 A lot of energies were set free last week. I met some lovely people and I cannot wait to see them again next year. On Saturday I experienced the reason why I came to Spain for. I'm in exactly the right place at the right time, and things are just as they should be. I'm full of gratitude that is hard to express in words.

I'm happy.

In Sanlúcar

I'm in Sanlúcar de Barrameda for a week of of glorious flamenco classes with Carmen Cortés, Gerardo Núñez, Cepillo and many more. My friends from Switzerland are here as well as really nice flamencos from all over the world and we're all staying in the same hotel. It's beautiful here. Someone is always playing the guitar.

We started with a fantastic juerga in the garden last night. 

Classes go on all day and the fiesta goes on all night. I'll be back posting next week ;)

Chère Mamie,

Désolée d'avoir écrit en anglais jusqu'ici. C'est difficile de trouver une langue que toutes mes connaissances comprennent!

Je suis bien arrivée en Espagne. Cádiz est une ville superlumineuse et baignée de soleil. Il fait beau et chaud mais pas désagréable. J'ai commencé par une indigestion assez violente le troisième jour, dont je me suis plus au moins remise. Je danse tous les jours dans mon cours d'été et j'ai même loué une bicyclette pour ne pas devoir tant marcher - les distances sont assez longues et il n'y a pas vraiment de transports publics.

Aujourd'hui j'ai passé une journée très tranquille. J'ai fait la sieste l'après-midi et ce soir j'ai été voir le coucher de soleil au bord de la mer:

Gros bisous, xm

One day, one project

I've heard this about other countries before... guess it's true for Spain as well. It's hard to get much done around here. I've been wanting to get things done and have ran out of time. So it's back to one project per day.

Firstly, you need time to get to places. I've been walking everywhere. People who know me know that I'm not much of a walking person. I really miss my bicycle! So after walking miles and miles, I decided to rent a bike. I looked up rental places on the Internet. I found absolutely nothing on those streets. But today I finally found another address, even though it was in a completely different place than Google Maps said. Come on Google, you can do better than this! But I've rented a 'bicicleta' now. Yay! Now I'm afraid of getting it stolen...!

Then I need a Spanish mobile number. In every store I've had to wait for half an hour to ask for pricing. Turns out I cannot get a contract without a Spanish bank account. So I settled for Prepaid. Now the SIM card doesn't fit my phone. I can't even get my old SIM card to work on it. Aaah! Too many projects in one day! At least I have my bike to go back to the store now...

'Tienes que beber agua'

Well, I already have my first food poisoning. I'm cured of salpicón de mariscos and tortillitas de camarones for a while! Last night was a blast. First we went to a bar to eat. The waiters had all hands full to set up a table where 34 people could sit.

We had good food, a few drinks and a good time. Muy buena gente la de Sevilla! Then we went on to the beach bar, but it was already closed. So we sat in another bar and had a mini-juerga. The singers from the course sang and we clapped and I loved the moment.

I felt great until I went to bed. Then I realized my mouth was still smelling of the onions of my 'salpicón de mariscos', a seafood salad I adore. Something was wrong...

I was very sick today. Everyone told me to drink a lot of water. "Tienes que beber mucha agua!" Barely made it home after dance class (a nice lady asked if I needed any help - that was so sweet) and spent the afternoon in bed. Not good. In the end I dragged myself to the pharmacy, which looked like a welcoming beacon from far away:

I felt much better after a couple of Motilium and Ibuprofene. So I went to the vernissage of 4 photographers, two of which are my new friends from last Friday. They asked me to come so I went and got to meet another bunch of really nice people. 

Nos vemos!

Salt in my ears

I've been wind-blown, wave-rolled and sun-kissed today. This city is exhilarating. I have no pictures or words to do Cádiz any justice. Isabel, si estás leyendo esto - ME ENCANTA TU CÁI!!! 

The luminosity is incredible. Yesterday was way to hot do to anything, so I mainly sat at home either a) watching the heat outside, 

or b) watching the ceiling fan turn.

In the evening I went to Miguel Vargas' and Esperanza Fernández' opening show of their summer class. It was in the Centro Flamenco de la Merced, which is a small building in the middle of Plaza Merced, a small town square. It was built to host all kinds of flamenco events for free. How nice is that? Their sons Miguel and David performed on cajón and cante and it was really endearing. 

I woke up in the night to the wind blowing. When it blows, it blows! I'm not used to being so close to the sea and it's a bit intimidating. Today the weather was cloudy first and lightened up afterwards. I decided to get out of the apartment (my landlady is a sweetheart, but the family vibes are a tad oppressive... I won't go into any details on this public blog) and spend the day at the beach. Someone recommended to try the beach south of la Caleta so there I went. These crazy waves were rolling there all day and people were having all kinds of fun in them! 

Of course there are only another million people at the beach on Sundays:

There is something really powerful about the sea. I really enjoy swimming and the water is so refreshing, too refreshing to some ("Mamáaaaa! El agua 'ta congeláaaa!") Theses waves push you around, and you are completely helpless. It's such a beautiful feeling to be in this element, the water, the mother force. You know the sea is in full control of your body. You want to surrender and it's always a relief to be back on solid ground and lie on your towel and feel your heart beating fast against the sand.

I think I need another pair of sunglasses, these ones keep sliding down my nose:

And tonight everyone from next week's class is going to hit the bars. Off to shower!

Safe arrival

Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming! I'm here!!! After some very smooth travelling I finally arrived in Cádiz, city of sun, light and salt.

Already had my first swim in the sea! I feel like Alegrías should be playing everywhere. 

Signing off to go eat the fresh tortilla my landlady Charo has made for me. :)

Update: I did get to hear Alegrías. I was ready to go to bed when I heard flamenco out of my window! I decided to investigate. It turned out that the Peña Juanito Villar right at the Caleta beach (where I live) was hosting the closing night of their "Encuentros Flamencos" series outside. I made it to the second set and got to see Daniel Saltares dance, and la Pitu de Cádiz sing. And a great David Palomar was the final star of the evening. I even have 4 new friends, thanks to María who just chatted me up while I was standing shyly at the bar. She helped me get beer and introduced me to her friends who are really nice.
Full day - good times.

Adios!

I'm off! A dream of 8 years is coming true...

Thanks to everyone who came to my goodbye party last Saturday.
You made my day super special and we had a great time! Thanks to all the people who have supported me through these weeks of preparations... you know who you are!
I love my friends & family and will miss you very much...

Next stop: Calle Ángel, Cádiz!
(I hope my landlady remembers who I am...!)

Photo taken by John Flury