davida rauch
Spain
day 1
Arrivel at Bilbao. Bilbao turned out to be a city with streets, buildings and even people. Apparently Bilbao is more then just a shiny building.
day 2
The group woke up early to travel to San Sebastion and make a long hike. I - just recovered from being ill - decide to stay in Bilbao alone. Wandering through the streets I created my own little observation project: the ramped streets of biblao - walking up and walking down remind me to our travel: crossing Spain from top to down. During my walk I meet the Algerian of our hostel. He offers me a drink in his favourite cafe where apparently only man are. I actually feel a litte unsafe and feel uncomforatble to drink my mint tea with loads of honey. I decide to thank him and leave to take a bus to the endpoint of the groups hike. In the bus I meet Julia from China and finally arrived in Zarautz I take a direct swim in the sea. On a nice terrace in the sun I make sketches about my project and wait for the group. It was wonderful to meet them after such a long walk and after a couple of drinks we head back to Bilbao. Returning back turns out to be not as easy as expected and we had to take a looong during 2,5 hours train back...
day 3
Traveling by train to Madrid. Taking every 15 minutes a picture of the landsape to create a portrait of the intersection of spain.
In madrid we visited Mauricio's studio party. Afterwards I decide to go and make a night walk alone through madrid. I am amazed by how vibrant this city is. At the big SOL square I am a little obsessed by the streetsellers with their merchandise on a piece of fabrique kept together by 4 cords.
day 4
Mauricio is taking us for a long walk through Madrid. I had the best paella ever. We hang around in the park and have a beautifull dinner in a very traditional North African restaurant.
day 5
Visiting and being moved by 'the weird guy's church'. In the same town we enjoyed a very nice workshop to get to know the locals and area (see page of endem sketches). Later that day Anne arrives and all together we make a walk through the park of Rio, Madrids China Town and then we have dinner all together in a spanish restaurant.
day 6
This day we visited Toledo; a beautiful day full of architecture. First in the group and later on my own I made a long walk through the town. I felt (not so positvely) suprised by the way the town got renovated a little while ago. I decide to visit an old monastry, synagogue and mosque. In the evening we had dinner back in Madrid in a Vegan restaurant. Samantha felt like a fish - uh.. shark in the see, and ordered everything on the menu.
day 7
Today we took a train crossing the second part of Spain. Also during this trip I documented the landscape every 15 minutes to create an overview of the landscape from Spain top to down (see page 'section of spain'). We arrived in Malaga... what to say...?
day 8
A absolutely beautifull day in Granada. The first part of the day I spent with Anne and Samantha in Alhambra, trying to find our way to sneek in Patio de los Leones or the gardens. During are bus ride towards Granada we realised we had to buy tickets in advance... Some of us where lucky to do so, Anne, Sam and I didn't, but had an impressive morning anywway.
In the afternoon we all collected to join a guided tour over the mouintain of Granada. All of us felt blown away by the beauty of the day. I got inspired my the cave houses and the top of the mountain provided a glorious view over Granada. We finished the tour in a super nice bar with amazing tapas and returned afterwards fullfilled back home to malaga.
day 9
After our last spanish breakfast we take off for our travel back home.