Andalucia Photography Course

Andalusia is super!!! It ended up that I was kept so busy exploring the area that there's been little time to add news as it happens... but okay, here's a blatant plug for the course I came here for - it is   www.paint-andalucia.com   It turned out to be a most extraordinary experience.  I wasn't sure what to expect but it exceeded anything I had even considered!

First there was a bit of a MADRID Panic...!  As my ride to meet my friend C. at the airport didn't materialize as planned, but with the help of a long phone call by Emilio at the hotel's front desk it came and I made it to the airport on time … ONLY to find that each specific terminal is enormous (there are 4).  As we found out later, neither of us could get our Wi-Fi to work as we had both been sending emails to tell the other where we were waiting.  I finally located him after walking the length of the terminal - which took over 1/2 hour!  The thing is they don't put a gate number up as to where the plane will be until about 30 minutes before boarding, so you just sit anywhere and keep checking the boarding screen.  

Flying to Madrid to Malaga is only about an hour's flight and we were picked up at the airport by a car and driven North (about 40 minutes) to the small village town of Torrox where we were to be based.  

We ended up being housed in a small village house with our own rooftop balcony with views of the village and surrounding hills.  

It had a kitchen which we didn't use as we headed down to the village plaza every morning to have breakfast out in the open at one of the local plaza restaurants (of course we had to have a map to get there the first time as the tiny streets are a maze when they were unfamiliar - after a time or two we were fine!).  

Since the house had 3 floors, I got plenty of exercise climbing stairs, so I was really glad I'd "trained" by using the stairs for my 4th floor hotel room in Madrid!  It turned out the two of us and a British fellow (John) were the only 3 doing photography and the 6 ladies that were in the same "course" were all doing painting.    

The village was amazing and parts were very old.  I met a lady and was asked in for tea, and her house was over 900 years old and the street in front was the oldest in the village - 1000 yrs old!    Anywhere I have been so far in Spain, it seems that one needs to be constantly "alert" - as the streets and "sidewalks" seem to blur together and one really ends up developing a "sixth sense" as to when to move over to let the approaching car or scooter go by.  Sometimes there is no more than a few inches between you and the vehicle – whether a car, van, or lorry.  Once  when I had my backpack on I couldn't get far enough into the available doorway and had to turn sideways so the car could get by!

The course participants tended to separate for the day doing our own courses  (painting or photography) and then got together at night for the evening meals in the village plaza.  Our days started by walking down to the plaza for breakfast each morning and then back UP... puff puff (yes steep streets!) to be picked up at 10 am for a full day of in and out of the vehicle at different locations for photo opportunities.  We were kept busy until a late lunch around 1:30-2pm with more photo shoots afterward and then back to house by 4 ish with only time for a quick relax, shower, downloading of photos and then sorting through the 200 + photos you took that day to pick 5 (or more) to discuss with others and then back down to the plaza for a lovely dinner with the whole group at 8pm to around midnight!

Life in Spain seems to revolve around food and socializing.   After a few nights of our evening “get-togethers / dinners” in the open air of the plaza I realized just how "bereft of company” I had felt at times while I was in Madrid – with no one to sit with in an open air café.  It was wonderful to have this little cluster of companions from all over the world (Canada, Britain, Turkey, Qatar / New Zealand, Ireland, USA) and we all seemed to “gel” quite nicely.   

Since we ate at a different restaurant on the plaza each night, we had a chance to sample different wines and food and LOTS of tapas.  They just kept coming.  I have some great pictures of the food - which I will add as soon as I can.  But the tapas were like little bits of individual courses and one night we had 7 BEFORE the main meal came.  They were anything from sardines, salad, broccoli, jamon & queso, olives, broccoli mixture, to omelettes, eggplant, octopus and fresh fruit and vegetables!   Of course bread and wine was served throughout! 

jamon & queso

Salad & Omelette

Octopus that was really quite good

Since I like water also, I learned to order Aqua sin gas… which means water un-carbonated.  While in Madrid I did manage to locate an excellent Chocolateria to consume the thickest hot chocolate and superb churros, but  limited myself in Torrox to just Sangria...!  Found they also had a horchata drink in Malaga which tastes different than that made in Mexico.

We had amazing days of visiting local villages and the nearby seaside for photos, into Malaga centro for shots at the Saturday Food Market (busy place!), their large port area, and one of only 3 female lighthouses in all of Spain (all the rest are male!),  the amazing Roman and Muslim ruins, small marinas and even a hillside where there had been a local fire.  I ended up with some amazing shots which once I download to my computer at home I can add a few here.  I will see if I can find any friends that want to be bored with viewing more!

Of course I managed to meet some lovely people everywhere, not only on my course.  In one instance, when I was taking a photo of a window in one of the villages, a lady stopped to put her bicycle into the house’s doorway and said in English… “I love when people take pictures of our house”… and there started a 20 minute conversation with a retired teacher from Minnesota and I got to see inside the house too!   She rents it out guys!! 

I have met so many interesting people along the way.  When in Madrid, my tour to Avila and Segovia was made more enjoyable when I met a super lady from Tasmania, Australia.   In Malaga,  I met a lady in the Arab baths from Ecuador who lives nearby now and does property rentals around the Costa del Sol area.  A day before, I met a Russian lady coming out of a church we had both been looking at  - and on my last evening in Malaga we had dinner together at a restaurant she had found that had Flamenco dancing, where we also met a young Korean girl heading to San Diego for school!    On the day I took a bus tour to Ronda, I ended up sharing the day with 2 young ladies, one from Russian and one from Nova Scotia in Canada.  We had a super time chatting, eating and shopping while looking at this amazing village that is famous for having the first bullring and is perched on either side of an enormous gorge.  Their “new” bridge was built in the 1700’s.  As Anna said, (the Russian ballerina)… it was so nice to share the day with someone… they “colored my day” beautifully!  So it has been a trip filled with all sorts of wonderful adventures and memories and LOTS of new friends!