Taken at last night’s Flamenco & Tapas Tour.
I also got about 50 pics of total blurs…
christmas flamenco
26 Wednesday Dec 2012
Category Archives: fiestas
my granada apartment
04 Monday Jun 2012
Posted in culture, fiestas, food & drink, social media, spain, travel, trips, twitter, work
Tags
granada, Holiday Apartments, sevilla, travel, trips, veoapartment
So tomorrow I’m going to Granada and this is where I’ll be staying!
As with my recent day trip to Córdoba this trip to Granada will be part of my 20th anniversary celebrations but will include doing some research for my own websites and also for my friends at veoapartment.com. Markus very generously offered to split the cost with me by providing the accommodation, and well, just look at it! Small and perfect and in a dead-centre-of-town and easy-to-get-to-everywhere location. I couldn’t be happier.
At first the plan was to just stay overnight but it turns out that not only is it Feria in Granada this week, but also Corpus Christi, which is apparently a huge deal over there. Seriously, even more than here where they spend weeks erecting a couple of elaborate arches for a 3-hour procession…
Anyhow, I now have two nights in Granada! So I’ll be leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow (it’s a three-hour train ride) and will spend the day meeting old Twitter buddies John (aka @benzo8) and his wife Gale. I’ll also be meeting a new Twitter friend and travel writer Molly (aka @piccavey) and possibly also with fab photographer Fred Shively during my stay. Peter is also coming but will be taking a later train tomorrow because he has an English class in the morning. He’ll also be leaving earlier, on Wednesday evening, because Azar really can’t be left on his own for more than one night. Still, it will be a nice break for Peter, and he can also help me with some of the research stuff. Win-win!
If you want to feel reallly envious check out the veoapartment “apartment tour” video of my fabulous get-away place here…
Granada Plaza Nueva Studio Apartment
feria de córdoba
27 Sunday May 2012
[watch full screen if possible]
Some pics from my first visit to the Feria de Córdoba. Another fair, like the one in Jerez, that is totally different to the Feria de Sevilla and which, in my opinion, is much better. The casetas are larger (with air con) and are open to the public. Depending on what you fancy you can opt for traditional flamenco music (sevillanas), flamenco rock, salsa, disco… the casetas ranged from fairly rough & ready tents to solid structures decorated like country homes with servers dressed in maid’s outfits. You can get some great looking food, watch the crowds or join in, or stroll the streets and enjoy the parade of horses and carriages in the afternoon.
It really felt like being at a country fair – I even went on the ferris wheel! Too bad we were just there for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I found myself wishing that I could stay to see the fairground lit up at night but duty called and we had tickets booked on the 19.30 train (which we almost missed, arriving at the station with about two minutes to spare).
Note: at 2.44 is the horse of the day – a gorgeous beast, my photo doesn’t do him justice.
feria horses and hoes
28 Saturday Apr 2012
Every year I try to get over to the April spring fair (Feria de abril) at least once to take photos of the horses during the afternoon. This year I also saw what appear to be Feria hoes!
It wasn’t a great day for taking pics, all overcast and grey. But at least it wasn’t raining and so I spent a couple of hours walking around the site after lunch.
When I first moved to Sevilla I was much more interested in Feria and would join the crowds for the opening night “alumbrao” when they lit up the gateway at midnight on the Monday and then stay until the wee hours. Although it’s pretty much an exclusive event for those who can afford their own private caseta, I would always get plenty of invitations so I could avoid the (quite awful) barnlike public ones. But frankly, since I don’t dance sevillanas and don’t enjoy milling about talking trash with a bunch of privileged posers, I eventually stopped going, except to see the horses.
There are more Feria photos – including some of horses for Beth! – over here.
I also quite like this collage of colourful ruffles I made…
[click on image to enlarge]
rained out
04 Wednesday Apr 2012
Tags
customs, easter holy week, festivals, semana santa, sevilla, seville, spain
[click on image to enlarge]
Things have been very quiet around here Semana Santa-wise. After months of scarcely any rainfall it’s pretty much been coming down non-stop since Palm Sunday. Tomorrow it looks like it may lift for about 24 hours before starting up again on Friday.
Above are some pics I took on Monday evening. It was quite sad to see everything deserted and the odd nazareno – like that young boy – making his disconsolate way home after his procession was cancelled.
On the right are a couple of rogue nazarenos I saw yesterday, making their way over to their church. But about an hour later the skies really opened up. Me? I was all cosy at home in PJs watching a film on DVD with Peter and the cats, as I will be again this evening. But tomorrow I have a tapas tour – I don’t know what I was thinking! Oh right, about paying the rent 😉 …. but in fact I do love a challenge and so it should be an interesting night.
It’s actually been a few years since I’ve gone out following the processions and looking for the best vantage points. But I do love Semana Santa and the general upheaval and chaos. I don’t even mind the inconvenience of shops being closed or not being able to get out and about because of the crowds. I guess a part of me enjoys how this crazy week really shakes things up. And in spite of loving my “new” home I still miss hearing La Madrugá played below my bedroom balcony on Martes Santo… so glad now I got up to film that video as it was my last time.
Oh, and this is also the first time in my 19 years here that the orange blossom (azahar) has coincided with Semana Santa. It also seems to be lasting a bit longer this year. Heaven.
casa azahar 