La Noche en Blanco

Every year for some number of years now Madrid has this big street party that lasts until 6 a.m.  There are a large variety of arts things that happen, concerts, and installations of all kinds at a whole bunch of venues around the center of the city.  It was last Saturday.  If you read the previous post, you already know, I was tired.  But the Noche en Blanco cannot be denied.  Plans were made to meet up at Shelby’s, which is a shared apartment with up to 10 people.  It seems little wild, but also really interesting.  Some people are there for one months, others for six or more and there are folks from everywhere.  So Shelby’s there.  He made some food, we drank some booze, some Brazilians, an Argentine and a Canadian showed up, there was much loudness and then Morgan and Oriana showed up.  More eating, drinking (booze, juice, coca-cola, lemon soda and coffee, in any combo or not) and then we set off, into the night.

Mostly we saw other people.  Tens of thousands of them.  We were trying to head towards the Puerto de Alcala to be illuminated by giant lights, but we were waylaid by a giant crowd waiting to see a tightrope walker.  It is pretty incredible to be on the main streets of Madrid in the middle of the night with so many people.  They shut the city down for this night.  It’s pretty amazing when it’s happening to see no traffic except of foot and bike and stroller and rollerblade, but then when you see those same spaces occupied by bazillions of cars its even wilder.  Then, the tightrope walked chickened out because of the wind and we 4 were scattered in the crowd.

 

We were eventually reunited, but in the end I went home only really having seen some inflated tubes stuck to the side of a building and some light up kisses projected on another.

beach!

So Morgan and Oriana had a wedding to attend near Cadiz

cadiz

so that meant that I could ride down with them to go to the beach.  Sounded good, so on Friday we took off. Lotsa traffic and 8+ hours later we arrived and slept at Pepe’s.  Wandered around Cadiz in the morning and went and saw a great photo exhibit of Henri Cartier Bresson.  We then went on the beach at Puerto de Santa Maria, in the bay to the west of Cadiz.  Really nice, quiet beach.  Shelby was with us and we went into the town to try and find something to eat.  At Aldi we bought garlic in a jar which then made us thirsty.  Beers (and tapas) seemed to be the logical next step.  After failing once (Shelby is vegetarian-ish) we found what looked good.  I asked about availability and improbably the man told us that “The dwarf got married today and then they came and ate all the food, so I don’t have much.”  So we ate there.  Even stranger later on that night we were drawn by an endless thumping bassline a little way down the beach.  There, at 1 am (and much later) there was some kind of stereo exhibition happening.  Lots of small hatchback cars with fancy systems and people swarming like ants (and encouraging their children to get closer as well).

After that it was pretty normal relaxing day on the beach getting sunburnt, a little swimming and a small walk through town on the way to the bus.  While wandering we ran into people, mostly children, making alfombras with sawdust in the street.  The carpets are always nice to see and in Puerto apparently they use salt as well since they’re on the sea.  Shelby and I then got on the bus for a quite uncomfortable ride overnight back to Madrid.  A girl puked, luckily, in a bag.

It was a good trip and I got back ready to find a real apartment (more about that later) and relaxed. The other pictures from the trip are here.

hello?

So, I’ve been thinking over how to keep some kind of communication on going while I’m here.  The aversion that I feel towards doing this is pretty strong, but it also seems sort of sensible.  I can jabber here and write what’s happening and how I feel and whatever and not only will it be made available to the world, but I’ll also have a record.  Seems alright.  Plus, they let me put up photos and that alone is a good deal.

Then. To begin.

Right now I’m in Morgan, Oriana, Marisol and Alekos’ house in El Molar.  Which would be a small town a little north of Madrid.  The house is super nice and a good refuge from the city.  Plus there are cats.

Tomorrow we descend again into the city.  I’m currently house hunting, which is a job.  There’s some time crunch because real orientation is Tuesday and classes on Wednesday.  Hopefully there will be some luck.

But, right now I feel a little sleepy after the long Sunday of doing very little.