Looks like I got half way through this trip diary and forgot about it. Oooops.
Vandals smashed the window of my beautiful studio in the middle of the night. I didn't want to be there anymore. It felt like the calming space I had for six years was spoiled.
I finished the yoga teacher training program and left the two newly certified students in charge of the studio and flew of for a trip to Europe to see my friends in many different cities and countries, Spain, Morocco, France and Italy.
The Journey Begins: Wednesday and Thursday 10th & 11th October 2018
A usual I was lucky with my seat allocation, four seats for myself this flight. I stretched out and slept comfortably the first leg of the journey. The second leg of the journey I wasn't as fortunate. I had the window seat, squashing in with 2 big Spanish men.
In Madrid my wonderful friend Rosario met me. We were over brimming with happiness to see each other again. It was early in the morning and we had time to catch his Russian wife, Dasha on her way to drop baby Luigi off at day care. I had come all the way to Spain to meet their baby. I had met Rosario and Dasha at Wiwa's wedding in Tunisia a couple of years before.
They were both working that day so I had the day in their flat to myself to unpacked refresh after the long journey. I found a cafe for lunch and had a holiday gin and tonic and the best Spanish tortilla I ate during the whole trip. Tortilla is made from sliced potato and onion cooked in eggs.
When Dasha got home with baby Luigi, we took him for a walk around the block. It is not a very big block but it took a long time. Luigi was 14 months old and interested in what walls feel like and what is on the pavement in minute detail.
Blind Date: Friday 12th Oct
The next day I had a date with a friend, Ramon who I met when I was travelling in France in 2011, 7 years ago. We had met at in Bayeux and travelled to St Malo together. I was going through one of the most difficult times of my life and had run away to Europe to escape from my husband who had turned evil. Ramon told me how to find happiness again. He had a Where's Wally app on his Ipod, Wally had stolen a little whining man's monocle, the little whining man wouldn't leave his room because someone had stolen his monocle and and he couldn't see. My friend told me that my ex-husband had stolen my happiness and he didn't want me to have it back. My serenity and contentment had been destroyed. I couldn't have my old happiness back again but I could make new happiness. By wallowing in feelings of misery I was perpetuating the hurt. When I came back from that trip, I learnt about the Buddha and meditation and how to transform suffering into happiness and I transformed my life. I eventually escaped from my evil ex-husband and opened the yoga studio. By making other people happy, I made myself happy.
My friend told me to meet at a cafe. I found my way there but we nearly missed each other. I didn't see him standing in the street and I went into the coffee bar and ordered a coffee and a pastry. When he still hadn't come by the time I had finished I had to leave. I saw the same man still standing in the street and went up to him to ask if it was him. I didn't recognize him with a bit of extra padding, a hat on, and without his white cane. He is blind you see.
I'm not sure why we met at that cafe because that wasn't where he wanted us to go. We set off a few blocks away to a different cafe. He didn't need his cane much because it was his local area and he knew his way around. He has a very limited amount of sight. We had coffee, I didn't need anything to eat as I'd had oily bread thing at the other cafe. We didn't have long to catch up as he was catching the train that afternoon to visit his mother and sister in the country for his sister's birthday. It was nice to see him again.
His girlfriend left him at Christmas time and he has a broken heart. He is mending it. I've been thinking about the idea of attachment and non-attachment. If I don't become attached, I don't risk suffering a broken heart but I also don't gain the joy of being in love. I'm quite happy the way I am without the risk of a broken heart so why risk spoiling my happiness? Buddha taught non-attachment but I'm not sure if he was right. He sacrificed loving his wife and son for enlightenment, is love and understanding and compassion for all beings worth not loving one special person?
I found my way back to and from the flat easily on the metro. I was a bit nervous going out on my own in a new city, but like Rosario said, I found my own way to the other side of the world, he thought I would be able to find my way around the city. Google maps is the best invention since mobile phones. It has revolutionized travel, I can find my way anywhere without looking at a street map up-side-down. The ticket machine was a bit confusing, I think I put my coin in the wrong slot so I tried the next machine before anyone noticed.
Hispanic National Day: Saturday 13th Oct
I thought Spain would celebrate it's national day, but everybody went shopping at the mall, including us. We had to drive around the car park for eternity till we found a tiny spot to park.
I needed to buy new jeans and Dasha needed to buy pregnancy jeans as she is expecting another baby in March. It had been a surprise to see her baby bump growing when I arrived. I eventually found a really comfortable pair after trying on half the styles in the shop because of their weird sizing system. I really like them.
I found Rosario and Dasha buying a yogurt fruit cup with nuts. It was delicious and filled us up for dinner. Baby Luigi looked the man, strutting his stuff, carrying my shopping bag out of the mall.
That night my jet lag saw me sitting up at midnight watching TV with Rosario. It seemed incredibly funny to be watching an Italian show about zombies in Spain while eating a Vegemite sandwich, what a mix-up of cultures.
The City of Madrid: Sunday 14th Oct
Luigi woke up at 6:30am then we all fell asleep again till 11:30. Then we got ready to go to the city. I wore my Disiguel dress that says 'for everybody'. People asked me about my Disiguel dresses because it is a Spanish label they are proud of. Later in the day I bought a black Spanish shawl with red flowers on it to match my dress. I bought it from a Spanish man at one of the flea markets scattered around the back streets of the city.
Luigi pushed his stroller all the way from the flat to the metro station while I steered. It was only about 20 minutes to the city. It was exciting when we arrived because I had no idea what it would look like when we came up to the surface from the underground. We got off at Opera. The elevator opened onto a a white square surrounded by elegant white buildings. There was an expensive craft market set up in front of the Opera House.
While Rosario and Dasha fed Luigi, I went for a wander. Behind the Opera House was a fountain, a garden and the Royal Palace. And I found a souvenir shop to add to my collection of fridge magnets and t-shirts. Unfortunately my favorite pink Madrid t-shirt with a black bull on it is now spattered with black blackboard paint.
We went for a stroll around the city, Luigi was the master of the stroll. Rosario said we were going for wok. I told him he must be joking and I had misheard him, he must have said we were going for a walk but he wasn't having me on, we really were going to have stir fry, in a wok for lunch. I had imagined eating some of the legs of ham that was hung on display in all the windows, or sitting in a city cafe eating traditional paella or Spanish tortilla, but no...we were going to their favorite wok take-away. Not that I minded, I eat enough take-away stir fry at home, I just thought that I would be eating Spanish food in Spain.
We took the food up to a quiet shaded square and sat on a step of a bridge, listening to the buskers and enjoying being there. Until Luigi fell off the step right into the only mud puddle in the whole city.
My friends hadn't packed a spare set of clothes for him, I bet they never do that again. We washed the mud off with a bottle of water and Rosario wrapped him up in a blanket and rocked him to sleep while Dasha went to find a tap to rinse his clothes under. His clothes were almost dry by the time he woke up two hours later. We were sitting in a park eating one of the best ice-creams I have ever had, cheese cake and Fererro Rocher. Rosario took him to play in the park and me and Dasha went to just sit. It was a magical Saturday afternoon surrounded by trees with sunlight filtering through the leaves, beautiful apartment buildings looking down into the square with relaxed people chatting and strolling around the stalls of the market, dogs running around and children playing.
After a while we went home. We stopped in at the supermarket to pick up a few things. Luigi is a good helper at the supermarket. He takes the things off the shelves and puts them back on again. We made salad for dinner and then I went to bed.
My Turn to Cook: 14th October
I went to the supermarket - without Luigi - and bought the ingredients for spaghetti bolognese and some wine for lunch. In the afternoon we went to a big park with the tallest deadar trees I've ever seen. We had a lovely stroll. Luigi is the best walker.
I stayed up late and woke up early.
New Cooking Skills: Monday 15th October
I lay awake in the early hours wondering how to spend the day as my friends would be at work after the long weekend. I decided to join a cooking class. My friends and the host of the cooking class were amazed at my spontaneity, but there is no use procrastinating in life, you miss out on things. Make a decision and do it.
I loved the new cooking skills I had learned in Cambodia and I was going to learn how to make Spanish Paella to add to my cooking repertoire. I'm going to open a restaurant with a fine menu of Italian Spaghetti bolognese, Cambodian fish amok and Spanish Paella. All my friends say they will come!
The tour took us to the local market - "Mercado de Maravillas", "one of the oldest and interesting markets in Madrid and one of the few markets that have not succumbed to the tourist and still have stalls with fresh products for local people" (according to the tour description on AirB&B. It was a fabulous market, vastly different to the one in Cambodia. It had lots of seafood and cheese and meat and a spice store and a shop that specialized in rice, and another for desert. My favorite vendor was the fruit and vegetable man with the big smile and warm heart.
We bought large ripe tomatoes, capsicum, mussels, crayfish, prawns, shrimp, squid, paella rice and spice. A nice young man, Phil from London bought me some spice to take home. We got to know each other quite well in a short time, we caught the same metro most of the way home. He and his is girlfriend were having a sabbatical from each other, I hope they get back together. He loves football and travelling and had been given a large inheritance and was lucky enough to own his own home in London and to have done lots of travelling.
We took the fresh ingredients back to the flat with its tiny kitchen that made it difficult to share the cooking.
I peeled the prawns and we used the shells to make a flavored oil. we cooked some of the prawns for a few moments in the hot flavored oil with garlic. It was like eating little drops from heaven.
We cleaned the squid, removed the spine and the ink bag. The mess and squishy feeling was quite disgusting.
He taught us how to cook mussels, to pull out the beard and throw away any mussels that are cracked or don't open when they are seared in a bit of boiling water. This was a good lesson as I used to like eating mussels until I had gotten sick from one, it was also the first time I'd eaten them since.
He showed us how to make stock with carrot, leak, tomato and a fish head, but as someone who only knows how to use powdered stock the chances of making my own are slim.
We cooked the seafood and put it aside. We chopped up onion and capsicum, fried them then added mushed tomatoes until they were condensed. We put paella rice and spice in the pan and stirred it into the tomato and vegetables before adding 2 1/2 times the amount of water and cooked it for 8 minutes then added the seafood and finished cooking it for another 8 minutes.
The other guests and I were served from a giant paella pan. There were two nice fat people from Florida, an inspiring lady who had walked the last 100km of the El Camino pilgrimage and the young man from London. They started talking about football and I ate, in meditative silence, appreciating the food.
More Cooking!: Tuesday 16th Oct
If I'd known what a delightful time I would have at my next destination I would probably have caught the train that day instead of catching the bus to El Retiro Park, a big, beautiful park with a lake filled with fish and row boats and a crystal palace. I found a secluded part of the park to practice yoga and took an amazing photo of a ring of rainbow light. The trees in the park spoke to me, I made more of a connection with them than with the sullen people of Madrid.
On the way home I bought a paella pan and made a farewell dinner of chicken paella for Rosario and Dasha. It turned out great. They have booked a table for my restaurant when I open it, haha. It had been wonderful to be with my friends in their home and be a part of a family for a week.
James Bond beach: Wednesday 17th Oct
We packed a lunch for me of chicken paella and I stole a spoon from the cafe at the train station to eat it with before I cought the train to Cadiz. The journey was 4 hours long. Around Madrid it is very dry, almost llike a desert. There were many acres of olive trees, 4 hours worth of dry hills and olive trees.
Fillip, one of the guests met me at the train station. It took about half an hour with my 16kg back pack to wander through the interesting old streets of Cadiz to get to the flat we were staying at. Wow! what an amazingly beautiful place to find myself in. So beautiful in fact that it was the precise location of James Bond movie, Die Another Day where Hale Berry walks out of the sea dressed in an orange bikini. We all spent the next few days being Hale Berry, we even filmed ourselves wading out of the sea. My beautiful friend, Emilia did it the best but I'd have to say that Fillip gave her a run for her money, especially when he got those hips swinging.
The windows of the flat looked out over the ocean and the sunset and the ancient fortress of San Sebastian. The long Fernando Quinones Promenade had been badly damaged in a storm some months previously and was closed for repairs.
The sun was shining and Fillip and I crossed the road to La Caleta beach where we found Michelle, another of the girls from the flat. We had a swim in the cold water and got very sandy from practicing yoga, doing hand stands and cartwheels. There were not many people at the beach as season had finished the week before. A young couple were burying each other in the sand. The beach is a small cresent with two forts guarding it on each point of the cresent.
Europe hasn't gotten over the 2nd world war. Whole communities were decimated and the thread of their traditions has been cut. Michelle is from Austria, she said that by welcoming the German's with open arms the real baddies were the Austrians. I asked them why Hitler hated the Jews so much. They explained that following the 1st world war there was an economic crisis and in the search for someone to blame they saw the rich Jews and they became the scapegoats.
They asked me why Australia has such strict visa laws, I couldn't give them a reason. It seems crazy to me that the government won't allow my friends from Europe to come to visit me. I have tried to help 2 friends come and they were both knocked back, or I could have paid $3000 to get one a working visa. If that is the case how are all the Indians and Asians coming in? Something seems unfair.
Back at the flat Maciek, another young man sharing the flat had cooked some nice stuff for dinner. We just had to cook some potatoes.
Finally my beautiful friend Emilia, who had invited me to come when I told her that things were not going so well in my life, came running in from University and went running out to go to her dance class. She is learning Bachata, like Salsa. She said it makes her feel sexy. I'd like to find somewhere to learn it, but they don't teach it Singleton.
The others went out to a tapas bar but I was tired from my journey and was happy to go to sleep.
Thursday 18th
I think Emilia went out partying after bachata because late in the morning Maciek came in to wake her up to remind her that she had to hand in a paper at the university. She threw on some clothes and ran off. The university is very close, just up the road with a giant fig tree at its gates.
I finished the yoga teacher training program and left the two newly certified students in charge of the studio and flew of for a trip to Europe to see my friends in many different cities and countries, Spain, Morocco, France and Italy.
The Journey Begins: Wednesday and Thursday 10th & 11th October 2018
A usual I was lucky with my seat allocation, four seats for myself this flight. I stretched out and slept comfortably the first leg of the journey. The second leg of the journey I wasn't as fortunate. I had the window seat, squashing in with 2 big Spanish men.
In Madrid my wonderful friend Rosario met me. We were over brimming with happiness to see each other again. It was early in the morning and we had time to catch his Russian wife, Dasha on her way to drop baby Luigi off at day care. I had come all the way to Spain to meet their baby. I had met Rosario and Dasha at Wiwa's wedding in Tunisia a couple of years before.
They were both working that day so I had the day in their flat to myself to unpacked refresh after the long journey. I found a cafe for lunch and had a holiday gin and tonic and the best Spanish tortilla I ate during the whole trip. Tortilla is made from sliced potato and onion cooked in eggs.
When Dasha got home with baby Luigi, we took him for a walk around the block. It is not a very big block but it took a long time. Luigi was 14 months old and interested in what walls feel like and what is on the pavement in minute detail.
Blind Date: Friday 12th Oct
The next day I had a date with a friend, Ramon who I met when I was travelling in France in 2011, 7 years ago. We had met at in Bayeux and travelled to St Malo together. I was going through one of the most difficult times of my life and had run away to Europe to escape from my husband who had turned evil. Ramon told me how to find happiness again. He had a Where's Wally app on his Ipod, Wally had stolen a little whining man's monocle, the little whining man wouldn't leave his room because someone had stolen his monocle and and he couldn't see. My friend told me that my ex-husband had stolen my happiness and he didn't want me to have it back. My serenity and contentment had been destroyed. I couldn't have my old happiness back again but I could make new happiness. By wallowing in feelings of misery I was perpetuating the hurt. When I came back from that trip, I learnt about the Buddha and meditation and how to transform suffering into happiness and I transformed my life. I eventually escaped from my evil ex-husband and opened the yoga studio. By making other people happy, I made myself happy.
My friend told me to meet at a cafe. I found my way there but we nearly missed each other. I didn't see him standing in the street and I went into the coffee bar and ordered a coffee and a pastry. When he still hadn't come by the time I had finished I had to leave. I saw the same man still standing in the street and went up to him to ask if it was him. I didn't recognize him with a bit of extra padding, a hat on, and without his white cane. He is blind you see.
I'm not sure why we met at that cafe because that wasn't where he wanted us to go. We set off a few blocks away to a different cafe. He didn't need his cane much because it was his local area and he knew his way around. He has a very limited amount of sight. We had coffee, I didn't need anything to eat as I'd had oily bread thing at the other cafe. We didn't have long to catch up as he was catching the train that afternoon to visit his mother and sister in the country for his sister's birthday. It was nice to see him again.
His girlfriend left him at Christmas time and he has a broken heart. He is mending it. I've been thinking about the idea of attachment and non-attachment. If I don't become attached, I don't risk suffering a broken heart but I also don't gain the joy of being in love. I'm quite happy the way I am without the risk of a broken heart so why risk spoiling my happiness? Buddha taught non-attachment but I'm not sure if he was right. He sacrificed loving his wife and son for enlightenment, is love and understanding and compassion for all beings worth not loving one special person?
I found my way back to and from the flat easily on the metro. I was a bit nervous going out on my own in a new city, but like Rosario said, I found my own way to the other side of the world, he thought I would be able to find my way around the city. Google maps is the best invention since mobile phones. It has revolutionized travel, I can find my way anywhere without looking at a street map up-side-down. The ticket machine was a bit confusing, I think I put my coin in the wrong slot so I tried the next machine before anyone noticed.
Hispanic National Day: Saturday 13th Oct
I thought Spain would celebrate it's national day, but everybody went shopping at the mall, including us. We had to drive around the car park for eternity till we found a tiny spot to park.
I needed to buy new jeans and Dasha needed to buy pregnancy jeans as she is expecting another baby in March. It had been a surprise to see her baby bump growing when I arrived. I eventually found a really comfortable pair after trying on half the styles in the shop because of their weird sizing system. I really like them.
I found Rosario and Dasha buying a yogurt fruit cup with nuts. It was delicious and filled us up for dinner. Baby Luigi looked the man, strutting his stuff, carrying my shopping bag out of the mall.
That night my jet lag saw me sitting up at midnight watching TV with Rosario. It seemed incredibly funny to be watching an Italian show about zombies in Spain while eating a Vegemite sandwich, what a mix-up of cultures.
The City of Madrid: Sunday 14th Oct
Luigi woke up at 6:30am then we all fell asleep again till 11:30. Then we got ready to go to the city. I wore my Disiguel dress that says 'for everybody'. People asked me about my Disiguel dresses because it is a Spanish label they are proud of. Later in the day I bought a black Spanish shawl with red flowers on it to match my dress. I bought it from a Spanish man at one of the flea markets scattered around the back streets of the city.
Luigi pushed his stroller all the way from the flat to the metro station while I steered. It was only about 20 minutes to the city. It was exciting when we arrived because I had no idea what it would look like when we came up to the surface from the underground. We got off at Opera. The elevator opened onto a a white square surrounded by elegant white buildings. There was an expensive craft market set up in front of the Opera House.
While Rosario and Dasha fed Luigi, I went for a wander. Behind the Opera House was a fountain, a garden and the Royal Palace. And I found a souvenir shop to add to my collection of fridge magnets and t-shirts. Unfortunately my favorite pink Madrid t-shirt with a black bull on it is now spattered with black blackboard paint.
We went for a stroll around the city, Luigi was the master of the stroll. Rosario said we were going for wok. I told him he must be joking and I had misheard him, he must have said we were going for a walk but he wasn't having me on, we really were going to have stir fry, in a wok for lunch. I had imagined eating some of the legs of ham that was hung on display in all the windows, or sitting in a city cafe eating traditional paella or Spanish tortilla, but no...we were going to their favorite wok take-away. Not that I minded, I eat enough take-away stir fry at home, I just thought that I would be eating Spanish food in Spain.
We took the food up to a quiet shaded square and sat on a step of a bridge, listening to the buskers and enjoying being there. Until Luigi fell off the step right into the only mud puddle in the whole city.
My friends hadn't packed a spare set of clothes for him, I bet they never do that again. We washed the mud off with a bottle of water and Rosario wrapped him up in a blanket and rocked him to sleep while Dasha went to find a tap to rinse his clothes under. His clothes were almost dry by the time he woke up two hours later. We were sitting in a park eating one of the best ice-creams I have ever had, cheese cake and Fererro Rocher. Rosario took him to play in the park and me and Dasha went to just sit. It was a magical Saturday afternoon surrounded by trees with sunlight filtering through the leaves, beautiful apartment buildings looking down into the square with relaxed people chatting and strolling around the stalls of the market, dogs running around and children playing.
After a while we went home. We stopped in at the supermarket to pick up a few things. Luigi is a good helper at the supermarket. He takes the things off the shelves and puts them back on again. We made salad for dinner and then I went to bed.
My Turn to Cook: 14th October
I went to the supermarket - without Luigi - and bought the ingredients for spaghetti bolognese and some wine for lunch. In the afternoon we went to a big park with the tallest deadar trees I've ever seen. We had a lovely stroll. Luigi is the best walker.
I stayed up late and woke up early.
New Cooking Skills: Monday 15th October
I lay awake in the early hours wondering how to spend the day as my friends would be at work after the long weekend. I decided to join a cooking class. My friends and the host of the cooking class were amazed at my spontaneity, but there is no use procrastinating in life, you miss out on things. Make a decision and do it.
I loved the new cooking skills I had learned in Cambodia and I was going to learn how to make Spanish Paella to add to my cooking repertoire. I'm going to open a restaurant with a fine menu of Italian Spaghetti bolognese, Cambodian fish amok and Spanish Paella. All my friends say they will come!
The tour took us to the local market - "Mercado de Maravillas", "one of the oldest and interesting markets in Madrid and one of the few markets that have not succumbed to the tourist and still have stalls with fresh products for local people" (according to the tour description on AirB&B. It was a fabulous market, vastly different to the one in Cambodia. It had lots of seafood and cheese and meat and a spice store and a shop that specialized in rice, and another for desert. My favorite vendor was the fruit and vegetable man with the big smile and warm heart.
We bought large ripe tomatoes, capsicum, mussels, crayfish, prawns, shrimp, squid, paella rice and spice. A nice young man, Phil from London bought me some spice to take home. We got to know each other quite well in a short time, we caught the same metro most of the way home. He and his is girlfriend were having a sabbatical from each other, I hope they get back together. He loves football and travelling and had been given a large inheritance and was lucky enough to own his own home in London and to have done lots of travelling.
We took the fresh ingredients back to the flat with its tiny kitchen that made it difficult to share the cooking.
I peeled the prawns and we used the shells to make a flavored oil. we cooked some of the prawns for a few moments in the hot flavored oil with garlic. It was like eating little drops from heaven.
We cleaned the squid, removed the spine and the ink bag. The mess and squishy feeling was quite disgusting.
He taught us how to cook mussels, to pull out the beard and throw away any mussels that are cracked or don't open when they are seared in a bit of boiling water. This was a good lesson as I used to like eating mussels until I had gotten sick from one, it was also the first time I'd eaten them since.
He showed us how to make stock with carrot, leak, tomato and a fish head, but as someone who only knows how to use powdered stock the chances of making my own are slim.
We cooked the seafood and put it aside. We chopped up onion and capsicum, fried them then added mushed tomatoes until they were condensed. We put paella rice and spice in the pan and stirred it into the tomato and vegetables before adding 2 1/2 times the amount of water and cooked it for 8 minutes then added the seafood and finished cooking it for another 8 minutes.
The other guests and I were served from a giant paella pan. There were two nice fat people from Florida, an inspiring lady who had walked the last 100km of the El Camino pilgrimage and the young man from London. They started talking about football and I ate, in meditative silence, appreciating the food.
More Cooking!: Tuesday 16th Oct
If I'd known what a delightful time I would have at my next destination I would probably have caught the train that day instead of catching the bus to El Retiro Park, a big, beautiful park with a lake filled with fish and row boats and a crystal palace. I found a secluded part of the park to practice yoga and took an amazing photo of a ring of rainbow light. The trees in the park spoke to me, I made more of a connection with them than with the sullen people of Madrid.
On the way home I bought a paella pan and made a farewell dinner of chicken paella for Rosario and Dasha. It turned out great. They have booked a table for my restaurant when I open it, haha. It had been wonderful to be with my friends in their home and be a part of a family for a week.
James Bond beach: Wednesday 17th Oct
We packed a lunch for me of chicken paella and I stole a spoon from the cafe at the train station to eat it with before I cought the train to Cadiz. The journey was 4 hours long. Around Madrid it is very dry, almost llike a desert. There were many acres of olive trees, 4 hours worth of dry hills and olive trees.
Fillip, one of the guests met me at the train station. It took about half an hour with my 16kg back pack to wander through the interesting old streets of Cadiz to get to the flat we were staying at. Wow! what an amazingly beautiful place to find myself in. So beautiful in fact that it was the precise location of James Bond movie, Die Another Day where Hale Berry walks out of the sea dressed in an orange bikini. We all spent the next few days being Hale Berry, we even filmed ourselves wading out of the sea. My beautiful friend, Emilia did it the best but I'd have to say that Fillip gave her a run for her money, especially when he got those hips swinging.
The windows of the flat looked out over the ocean and the sunset and the ancient fortress of San Sebastian. The long Fernando Quinones Promenade had been badly damaged in a storm some months previously and was closed for repairs.
The sun was shining and Fillip and I crossed the road to La Caleta beach where we found Michelle, another of the girls from the flat. We had a swim in the cold water and got very sandy from practicing yoga, doing hand stands and cartwheels. There were not many people at the beach as season had finished the week before. A young couple were burying each other in the sand. The beach is a small cresent with two forts guarding it on each point of the cresent.
Europe hasn't gotten over the 2nd world war. Whole communities were decimated and the thread of their traditions has been cut. Michelle is from Austria, she said that by welcoming the German's with open arms the real baddies were the Austrians. I asked them why Hitler hated the Jews so much. They explained that following the 1st world war there was an economic crisis and in the search for someone to blame they saw the rich Jews and they became the scapegoats.
They asked me why Australia has such strict visa laws, I couldn't give them a reason. It seems crazy to me that the government won't allow my friends from Europe to come to visit me. I have tried to help 2 friends come and they were both knocked back, or I could have paid $3000 to get one a working visa. If that is the case how are all the Indians and Asians coming in? Something seems unfair.
Back at the flat Maciek, another young man sharing the flat had cooked some nice stuff for dinner. We just had to cook some potatoes.
Finally my beautiful friend Emilia, who had invited me to come when I told her that things were not going so well in my life, came running in from University and went running out to go to her dance class. She is learning Bachata, like Salsa. She said it makes her feel sexy. I'd like to find somewhere to learn it, but they don't teach it Singleton.
The others went out to a tapas bar but I was tired from my journey and was happy to go to sleep.
Thursday 18th
I think Emilia went out partying after bachata because late in the morning Maciek came in to wake her up to remind her that she had to hand in a paper at the university. She threw on some clothes and ran off. The university is very close, just up the road with a giant fig tree at its gates.