Date: Aug 20, 2006 12:53 PM
Subject: Greetings from Cordoba
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Espana: de Puta Madre

Totally.

“de Puta Madre,” if you´re into dirty Spanish idioms, is akin to “Bitchin´”…literally: the Motherbitch…I don´t make his stuff up, just try to blend in, and, if you want to get a laugh out of the locals, throw a few “de Puta Madres” out there, apparently there´s nothing funnier.

London: not so much de Puta Madre
Lovely town, but WAY too expensive to enjoy without cringing at how much everything was costing me. Still, had a great couch to sleep on, and some good laughs with a Kiwi friend of mine there.

Valencia, Espana: almost de Puta Madre
a great town to stroll around in and excellent for cursing and clenched-fist-raising at Spanish cab drivers who refuse to pick you up at seven in the morning after completing mile four of your five mile trek back to your hostel from the club on the beach you were dancing at all night. Still, a lovely town, great hostel…cool people…and the Paella scores a 9.5/10 on the de Puta Madre scale

Granada: de Puta Madre
Managed to get the miracle seat on the bus ride from Valencia next to a totally cool girl from Granada who speaks five words of English: Yes, No, Hello, Goodbye, and John Travolta….no kidding! (note: we would later name her scooter, “John Travolta”) so, i managed to strike up a friendship…in spanish…que loca! Speaking the native language (sortof..past tense in spanish never appealed to me…which makes me a capitavting person I think: everything, even things in the past, when i talk about them, are occuring in the present…live for the now, man.) anyway…Spanish skills afforded me the opportunity to get invited out with this lovely girl and some of her friends for Tapas, and some amazing freestyle flamenco…I get taken through Granada´s winding streets one night..into the basement of this alleyway tavern..where every night/morning around 2:00 locals get together and do improvised flamenco…a guy on guitar plays while a girl sings (freestyle) to his rhythm..then another guy gets up and sings back at her..if she likes what he´´s singing she gets up and dances, then another guy gets up and sings, she sings back..they pass the guitar…this goes on for three hours…with a crowd of friends clapping the whole time(flamenco style) to the rhythm…

Granada is a very special place..the Alhambra looms enormous over the town…the tapas are cheap and delicious…there are hills to hike around in just outside of town, and my neighborhood, Albaicin, the Jewish quarter, is gorgeous…Oh yes, Granada has hobbits…(see photos)…just outside of town is a neighborhood of caves…no kidding…people occupy these caves, paint them up, put in chimneys..install windows..and live out their gypsy lives there–smoking hash, speaking spanish, and giving a lazy middle finger to society…i hung with a south african guy in his cave for an hour…”how are things in San Francisco these days”, he asks me…

anyway…all is well…in Cordoba today, a beautiful town that is completely empty..Spaniards dont like the heat so they all take off to the beach in August…no worries…more town for me… tomorrow its Sevilla–my home for the next month. taking an english teaching course there…life is funny…spanish hobbits…the motherbitch..and i have to go all the way to spain to learn to teach english…

mira mis fotos aqui:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=5hfwaq5.974paiuh&x=0&y=lqpdf2

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Shaan