♫ Antonio Vega - Se Dejaba Llevar Por Ti ♫ (specifically the one performed with Ketama)

Se dejaba llevar
Se dejaba llevar por ti
No esperaba jamás
Y no espera sino es por ti
Nunca la oyes hablar
Solo habla contigo y nadie más
Nada puedes sufrir
Que no sepa solucionar

INTRO

I've been trying really hard to adapt to Spanish hours and behaviour while I'm here. My mindset has been FULL COMMITMENT. While I'm here in a Spanish city in a Spanish shared apartment working at a Spanish school on Spanish hours, why not give it a go, completely? Utter surrender to the siesta and bite-sized food. An experiment.

Jack of all trades If you try something for a year, I mean really try, there will be an indelible mark left on you and you will be richer for it. There's no keeping just your feet in the water. It's gotta be a violent cannonball into a new hobby, obsession, or direction. Personality, even. I'm trying to normalise the 'it's just a phase, mom [sic]' thing. When I look back at the interests that have made me happy, very often have I stopped them, happily moving onto something else. There's something interesting happening there - I'm not giving up, and I don't think I'm simply losing interest when it gets hard. An example - my band Rat Loftus was my project for 2025 (though I had no idea it would bloom like that) and in my memory, the project was perfectly rounded. A book-ended journey with a satisfying finish. But to end at all, how could that be anything but a tragedy! Well, it was so sad, but when the boat gets to the port, it makes no sense to sail around the bay wasting time. I see a lot of my experiences like this. As humans we enjoy packaging our experiences into neat stories. Bad, or good ones. Sad, funny ones. Either way, we feel we must finish the stories, either now, through a kind of continuously changing reinterpretation by the present, or sometime in the future (i.e. death).

Outside of the very city I'm living in, I have felt like I have more places to travel solo. There's a really precious experience you get when you do this. I don't take it for granted. One feels not just their independence growing, as it will naturally, but also the perspective really widens. I find that while travelling with friends is preferable (I am reminded of Christopher McCandless writing "happiness is only real when shared")

León (not the French one)

I had heard big things about León. Provocative things. Valladolid and León are supposedly rivals, owing to their similar size and location in Castille y León. My biases lean me to Valladolid naturally, but I had to see for myself. Their football team is definitely shit and ours is better, but everything else I keep an open mind to.

The best part about León must be its nightlife in the barrio humedo 'wet quarter', which features a wandering medieval city design full of bars. The drunk layout of the quarter aptly reflects the desired and common mental state there.

Los Peregrinos (pilgrims (of the camino)) I had the good fortune of meeting Fernando, Javier and Helena, who were to my knowledge the only other group of people staying at my albergue. An albergue (Galician word) is a kind of hostel, except it's traditionally meant as a refuge, or shelter. We talked about the camino and its various trails, and what they were doing there. Their entire family from separate marriages gets together every year to do the walk together. Like most camino walkers there were non-religious, but I was full of spiritual awe as they told me about why they do it.

Owing to my stupidity, I forgot to take a photo with them, but just picture my dumb happy face being treated to hospitality and kindness by three kind travellers at a restaurant too rich for my blood. In spite of my desperate pleas, they paid for my meal - "un placer" - and I think we call that the young and pretty tax on my end.

I will tell you, on a saturday night in a new exciting city, I was disappointed I hadn't made any friends to drink with. And by the emptiness of the hostel I couldn't even blame anybody. So meeting these peregrinos was a huge relief and I felt so full of connection afterwards!

The actual best part about León is its very impressive cathedral. Going in I was skeptical, as I want the city I was picked to stay 8 months in to be better, but it jumps leaps and bounds over ours. The stained glass windows are a marvel, conveying GOD'S POWER in all the colours of the rainbow. There's even symbolism in how the windows not illuminated by the sun are of the prophets who proceeded Jesus' time and thus God's presence on earth. Adding more grandiosity, the arches above are one of the first examples of ribbed architecture, allowing for more stability and thus higher ceilings. It's a knockout cathedral.

Astorga

I had given myself a bit too much time in León. It being a Sunday most of the cool attractions were also closed. After calling Jessie and Josh and walking and talking with them for 2 hours I felt like I had it in me to do more. I booked a trip to Astorga, which was further south-west. I'm so glad I did, as there's another one of Gaudi's buildings, El Palacio Episcopal. Here, the Astorga diocese was placed with an important religious man, Juan Bautista Grau Vallespinós, a friend of Gaudi's.

BUT LET'S MOVE ON TO THE TOILETS. What better way to assess the quality of a building - it's comforts, functionality and style - than through it's toilets. After all, it's an indispensable quarter, something that we all use. And so I present to you an analysis of the toilets of Gaudi - the architect famous for design coherence, and a function-before-style philosophy.

Dinosaur footprints leading to the bathroom for extra whimsy. How exciting!

Unexplainable contraption to lock the bathroom door to leave me confused on the toilet.

Hm.

Tasteful.

Madrid

Everytime I go to Madrid I really do see a different part of it. In 2023, I was in Argüelles, a really pretty and well-kept area. A month ago, with Morris, we were in Malasaña, in basically a party hostel. This time, with Maisie, we stayed central, which was admittedly more touristic but most convenient. If you stayed three times in Melbourne, one in Fitzroy, one in Toorak, one in Williamstown, which Melbourne did you even visit? I am reminded of the ancient Buddhist parable of the group of blind men feeling the elephant. One feels the tusk and claims: "The elephant must be a gentrified inner-city suburb full of yuppies, walking billboards for their Hinge profiles!" Another man feels the ears, rubbs his chin and says "The elephant must be a refuge for the landed gentry, an individualist village of for the wealthy and morally challenged!" The other blind man feels the body and says "The elephant must be a historical safe haven for the working class, a quaint beachside area in the port-side underbelly for disgruntled Unionists!" I got carried away.

Here's Madrid, in photos.

Gig at the Wurlitzer Ballroom. Nueve Desconocidos. Post-punk synthpop moshable good music