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So pleased with Cadiz!
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Seth Familian
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Jul 26, 2001 03:39 PDT
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Hola!
I write to you all from the somewhat small and often overlooked port
town of Cadiz, on the Southwestern coast of the Andalucia region of
Spain. And although I've only been here for a day and a half, already I
can say !que bueno! Not only is the town of Cadiz itself amazingly
beautiful, its hundreds upon hundreds of whitewashed, low-rise
apartments packed onto one tiny peninsula surrounded by the unending
Atlantic, but the people here (students, locals, a few, somewhat savvier
tourists) are equally amazing. From those staying in my somewhat
cramped but ridiculously cheap hostel to the droves of jovenes I've met
while out on the town, all the people I meet here seem to have that same
casual, laid-back fun-loving attitude about life, which makes visiting
this city so fantastic.
Last night, for instance, I decided to indulge in a bit of actual
"culture" (dare I stray from a discoteca! que horror!) and so went to
hear two jazz bands from the Sudan perform at a gorgeous outdoor seaside
theater. The first band's mellow, probably Peter Gabriel-inspired tunes
gave way to the racous percussive beats of the second group, and so
transformed a tranquil theater into a dancing madhouse. Four different
drummers pounded on stretched sheepskin in mad syncopations as hundreds
of people rocked to the rhythm, swarming around the stage and dancing,
dancing, dancing until the wee hours of the morning. And what so amazed
me about this performance was that it was in fact a *performance*, a
live jazz act, rather than simply a slickly-dressed dj spinning beats
from two turntables (not that I have anything against that, but it's
just pretty typical and not so extraordinary, no?). So anyway, to make
a long story a wee bit shorter, last night was really the quintessential
cultural experience in Cadiz, and it was truly fantastic. Tonight a few
cuban jazz bands are playing (this concert series lasts for about a
month and a half, from late June to early August), so I'll see what
comes of that musical experience later this evening!
As for the rest of my travels from when I last wrote in Paris, I've been
in Spain for about a week now, and have seen a fair bit of the southern
region (Andalucia), and have really fallen in love with it. I started
off in Barcelona, where I stayed only for a day (I had already been and
while I absolutely love the thriving live and astounding (though a bit
gaudy, eh?) architecture of Barcelona, I wanted to maximize my time in
the south), and then quickly made my way to Granada, which was also
truly fantastic. There's an expression in spanish which, translated and
roughly paraphrased in English goes something like "if you die and have
never been to the Alhambra, you've never lived." And while this
expression is a bit morose (and upon reading it, doubts raced through my
mind), all those doubts vanished once I set foot in the Alhambra and
became consumed by its absolutely unbelievable architecture. There
really is nothing like it that I, for one, have ever seen. So
elaborate, so ornate, and yet nothing at all western--a truly Islamic
and Arabic expression of design and craftsmanship. So in a word (or a
few), go to the Alhambra, and live!!
(Btw, Granada had more than just the Alhambra (like free tapas with
drinks and a really fun nightlife), so if you're ever in the
neighborhood, don't miss it.)
After Granada I made my way to Tarifa, a beach town that's also the
southermost point of Spain. Not only are the windswept beaches
absolutely gorgeous in Tarifa (as well as the people, most of whom are
avid windsurfers and perpetual beach bums still managing to live the
high life), but the view to Africa, which is only an hour or so away by
ferry, wasn't too shabby either. Staring off the Punto del Tarifa and
marvelling at the mountains of Morocco, a surreal feeling swept over me;
in this one single trip, I've seen three continents (Europe, Asia, and
Africa) and have actually set foot on two of them (Europe and Asia), all
within one month! To me, that's such an unbelievable feeling, that
sense of really having traveled, if only for a fairly short period of
time. And I think after this year's over, I'll probably end up seeing 6
or so continents! Wow!
So anyways, I better wrap this up since I need to catch a bus to the
tiny whitewashed pueblo of Arcos de la Frontera (Cadiz is also a great
base for daytrips to the smaller, less accessible towns of western
Andalucia), but I just wanted to drop you all a line, let you know that
I'm doing well and loving it here, and wish you all my best! I hope
you're all doing well and having fantastic summers, and keep those
responses/replies coming--I love them!!
take care,
Seth
p.s. After painstaking work (okay, not really that painstaking), I've
posted two more galleries of photographs, one from Vienna, Austria and
the other from Grunau, Austria. The second especially really gives you
an idea of what the Austrian Alps are like (since, um, there really
aren't that many Alps in Vienna...), so please check them out! You can
do so by going to www.photopoint.com and typing in my e-mail address
(fami-@post.harvard.edu) in the "visit a friend's albums" box.
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