The other day my friend Javier (who was once my flatmate a million years ago) sent me this photo. Javi and his wife Laura have led quite a nomadic life these past years but they continue to keep a storage unit back home and he said random finds like this make it all worthwhile. This t-shirt is from 1999 when Javi did a brief stint working at Bar Campanario.

My first time at Campanario (which no longer exists) was when I drove down from Salamanca in 1993 with a friend and with all my worldly belongings in the back of his car, along with some precious cargo – my cats Lua and her son Sunny.

We arrived in Sevilla at 8 pm, as previously arranged (to meet landlord and pick up keys), and miraculously found parking almost in front of my new home in calle Mateos Gago. But there was no landlord. And as this was 1993 there were no cell phones, so we just waited. And waited. Finally we asked the bar we were parked in front of if we could get something to eat and drink, but we didn’t really want to leave the car because of the cats and all. And bless them, the people at Bar Campanario actually brought food and drink out to our car, like we were at a drive in, and it was lovely. The landlord finally showed up at 11pm full of apologies, but we were fine (and the cats were happy to see their improvised litter box!).

Bar Campanario ended up becoming my local, heck it even became my living room (my studio apt across the street was tiny). The owners became friends and still are. This photo from Javi brought back a flood of memories, which I’ve shared with the family.