In the last few weeks I have been re-learning how to love one of my earliest and most faithful of loves: Spain. Whenever a lecturer mentions a glimmer of Spanish art I get carried away into a fantasy world – I feel like a sixteen-year-old again. And now I have the opportunity to make myself…
Tag: Spain
Sevilla and a Nobel Betrayed
How more like a clear blue sky emerging from the cracks of dawn the Moorish Alcazar appeared in comparison to the dark night of the cathedral. The cathedral of Sevilla – you’re often reminded it is one of the biggest in the world – is politics. Faith is enslaved to the earthly ambitions of…
Poems From the Alcazar
The Alcazar, situated right in the heart of Sevilla, is the city’s Medieval and Mudejar castle. It is the more understated sibling of the Alhambra in Granada. Its position in the city couldn’t be more central; it neighbours the monumental Cathedral of Sevilla. And yet, unlike the flashy, dominating Cathedral, the Alcazar is discreetly…
An Epicurean in Sevilla
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about Spanish food. It won’t be the last. Last time it was Madrid, now it’s Sevilla. Whilst Sevilla’s culinary scene isn’t as diverse as you would like, when it gets it right, it really gets it right. In terms of fashion, art, culture and tradition, Sevilla…
3 Poems From the Bullring
Having just returned to Malta from a week in Sevilla, I still can’t get a particular feeling out of my mind. A lot of things have impressed me about the city, the flower of Andalucia. A city celebrated by poets like Federico Garcia Lorca, Rafael Alberti and Juan Anton Jimenez; a city that nourished…
Hunting Duende in Sevilla
Spain is unique, a country where death is a national spectacle, where death sounds great bugle blasts on the arrival of Spring, and its art is always ruled by a shrewd duende which creates its different and inventive quality. Federico Garcia Lorca There can only be one reason why an artist…
After the Goring
“Papa, why are we eating tacos on a bus?” “Have we ever done it before?” “No.” “That’s why.” From the windows of the bus the Puerta del Sol pupated into the Gran Via of Madrid. The line of trees came into view and the whiteness of the buildings gave them their architecture. It was…
The Wayfaring Diaries – A Sample
“Here it is my friend, Argentina’s national drink, Fernet con Coca, 2 parts Fernet to 1 part Coke. Salud.” We drank the Fernets on the balcony and from the corner of my eye I kept my gaze pinned on the woman across the street. But she wasn’t looking at us anymore. She was watching television….
Pool, Bulls and Humanity
What does Mosul and the festival of San Fermin have in common? Humanity. A photograph I saw recently on Twitter (the featured photo above), of a group of Mosul residents, including children, playing pool in a recently liberated district of Mosul where IS previously forbade pool, filled me with that rarest of elements: hope. Hope…
5 Lessons Learned After Running Away From Toledo
Ever notice the apathy on the faces of people who say, about a holiday, or an experience, even a marriage: “Been there, done that?” No one says that to brag or celebrate; it’s dry sarcasm meant to topple and politely insult. I was never one for clichés. I don’t like tired expressions. And yet,…
The Champagne Epicurean 