2012_06_28 Spain

2012 June 28 Alexa reported:

I stayed several nights with a Colombian teacher of Spanish to Italians, Ivonne and her son Camilo, 5, and cat, Izu. Ivonne wanted to practice English and pronouced ´because´´becows´´ and had an awful time with álthough´. 

I went to the Prado museum but seeing a long line in the sun, opted first for the botanical garden next door. There was a photo exhibit with a mesmerizinig video of crowds in slow motion walking unawares towards the two cameras. I watched for half an hour. 

The Prado was magnificent with dozens of rooms of religious art, royal art, you name it. I noticed people are getting taller and taller in Europe. 

After lunch at a sidewalk cafe I walked up the hill to the Retiro park past bookstalls and found a second hand David Mamet screenplay, We´re No Angels. 

I gave Ivonne a Portuguese primer for English from the ´70´s and she was delighted. She has lots of Colombian friends with children but her best friend is a tiny Spanish cosmetologist Eunice who air-brushes make-up for weddings, etc.!

Ivonne and I walked Camilo to school, then the metro to the bus station and my ticket to Bilbao. Didn´t Kurt Weill write a song about the Bilbao moon? 

I expected a small town and found a bustling city full of elegant buildings.

 I have a phobia of the long long escalators in the subways, I can´t board unless there is someone ahead of me. 

Every sign is in Spànish and Basque. 

My couchsurf hostess Anabel in Etxebarri was waiting in her flat above her brother´s bar with her cat Lolita. We walked to the next town where she taught a relaxation class to senior women and I had 40 winks myself. 

Her daughters are in Mallorca for the summer so I had their room. 

The next day I went to Casco Viejo, the old town, visiting the Basque and archeological museums. 

There was an enthusiastic Argentinian music collective performing on the streets, www.pollerapantalon.com.ar, and I found the Belles Artes Museu, with a huge exhibit of Goya´s political etchings and modern art. But it was the old section of religious, romantic and impressionist eye candy I loved. 

Anabel met me with her mother Nieves (¨snows¨) of 81 and we visited a famous and unique bridge over the river, enjoyed pixtos (pinchos) 1-euro tapas at a bar, and Italian ices which are everywhere. Both women have hair color never found in nature!

Anabel, 57, had been an au pair in San Francisco and Seattle, and went to India, even couchsurfing there, to study Yoga. Lufthansa lost her bags and her hosts provided saris. I tried one on I admired because she needs to remember how to wrap it. 

My last day I went to the river market, photographing huge fish, a pig´s  head and a whole baby big, which was Orson Welles´favorite dish. 

A tram to the Guggenheim museum designed by Frank Gehry (my reason for visiting Bilbao) and many pictures inside and out. Andres Serrano´s huge metal mazes, Jennifer Holzers light installations, a giant spider by Louise Bourgeois---the highlight was a David Hockney installation, famous for California swimming pools. He rediscovered his Yorkshire roots with landscape paintings large and small, oil and iPad, 

again I was mesmeized by the video installationÑ 9 cameras mounted on each side of a vehicle, slowly moving through the landscape, summer on one side, winter on the other,...dancers in his studio. There was documentary about him too which held me, so that I got back to Anabel`s too late to join her in a Yoga class on the beach.

 Hours later she returned glowing with the magic of the class during the sunset, followed by a bonfire. Then we shared a fish dinner. 

The next day I left for the rival town of San Sebastian!

  

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ALexa