A long way

It's been a week of good and bad, up and down, over under, high up in the sky and far down on the ground. But now I'm back where I, for the moment seem to belong, at home with my family and MY guitars and my music software. I have missed it a lot the last weeks. Almost as much as the day I left...but then I got caught up in finding my way thru the streets of La Laguna and finding my place on an island so far away from home that it's very hard to even comprehend the fact that it really exists on this enormous planet.

This will most likely be the last post I make here, I have realized that I'm not much for the blogging thing and maybe someday I'll try the blogging scene again but I think it all will be in Swedish then.

Somehow I made it home, it was the longest day of my life I think...well, the longest two days... 48h with 30 minutes of sleep all together.
Doesn't seem real that I'm here just yet... and it's a bit sad that I've left the cloudiest place I've ever sat my foot in, La Laguna. It will be hard to explain that fact to people here... that there is this city on an island where people from all over Europe go because it's sunny and warm. But I have been freezing a lot the last weeks. So cold inside...cold outside, cloudy and humid.
So when I flew over the cost of Umeå it looked very calm and beautiful, with the morning sun and this little city down there that looks like a little village compared to landing in Madrid, Barcelona or Stockholm.
Even though it was -10 degrees outside when the doors to the plane opened and this cool breeze found its way around in the airplane it was with a worm feeling inside I stepped out and walked inside the airport.

But of cause I hate the fact that things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to. And the long goodbye at the airport in La Laguna was nice but very emotional.

I just wanted to say to all the nice people I got to meet that I'm happy I got to see you all. Even though it was a few times and maybe even just for a few hours.

I will be good here at home, with my friends in the safety of a city I know better then any other in the world.


That's it I guess, so, besitos to all!!

Extremoduro.... and a long time no see

Long time since I wrote something here... mostley because not that much has been going on. I guess...

But anyways... me and Carla went to see Extremoduro last Friday. I did't know much about the band before Friday... just heard a couple of songs before but it was a good consert...about what I expected it too be... but it was fun to go and see a big band play. But I didn't get a lot of photos...was hard to take them in the mess of people.

What else... I cut my hair...I came up with some new songs... I bought guitar strings and I restrung (hmm, English for that?) the guitar.

Carla is away on German class and I'm gonna watch CL (Champions Leauge)...

Don't know what else to tell you, they are talking about the E.E.U.U. elections all day long for a week...sick of it...so...

I will upload the photos from the concert today or tomorrow... we'll see...

Cheers all!

Heliodoro Rodríguez López

Yesterday we went to Santa Cruz with the tanvìa (correct spelling on that?)... like a sparvagn in Swedish...
When we got off one station earlier because Carla just realized that Heliodoro Rodríguez López was in the neighbourhood. So we started walking looking for the stadium that when it's full can take up to 22.948 spectators... and after 5 minutes of walking...there it was. The excitement was running high... and I wanted to walk all the way around and Carla agreed. Then out of a blue we could see the grass of the field inside...a door was open into the field but we didn't dare to go in at first. But there was an police officer with his motorbike nearby so we asked if it was ok...and he said...strange, usually there is a guy sitting there guarding it..and he continued... if no one says anything it's ok with me. So we entered... And I have to tell you there is something about football stadiums that is magical from the begging...but to be almost alone inside one is just amazing. There were just me, Carla and two other guys inside...but they were 100-200m away from us... so I took a lot of photos and just sat there for a while watching the stands and trying to imagine how it would be when it's completely full... so now we will try to go as soon as possible... hopefully next Sunday if they have a home game.

So that was really an experience!!

Today we are going to a bar for free tango classes...very strange with tango but... might be fun. And tomorrow we are going camping either at Teide or at another place...
So I’ll be back on Sunday with more photos...

Don't forget to check out my photo log... new pictures as soon as I'm finished with this massage!!

¡Hasta la vista!

*EDIT

There will be no tango tonight because we are leaving for the camping tonight... I'll be back on Sunday with the story from the camping!!

A lot of days... but today was the 1st day with the pool!!

It's been some days since I wrote the last time.. why I don't really know... nothing out of the ordinary (for being here) to report I guess.

Today me and Carla went to a beach... not a touristic one...and it was artificial... the sand was brought from the Sahara desert... so now I know how it feels to walk in the Sahara...a bit.
It was great there...5 min passed Santa Cruz close to a village called San Andrès...
On the way home we ran into some major problems on the "autopista" (motorway)...the car suddenly started to go slow (40 hm/h) and on the motorway it's three lanes going 120 km/h... so, we were going soooo slow...first we stopped at the side of the road hoping that the car would feel better after a couple of minutes in the shadow...but...nope.. still slow. So we had to get of the motorway and go on a much smaller road back home... and we made it, but it took a looong time..

After that I got to swim in the pool...it was cold..but fun..

Photos will come later...now movie and then sleep...adios

1st Aranda de Duero and now Tenerife!!

¡Hola! from the Island...

Yesterday we arrived to Tenerife.. But first let me tell you about a place called Aranda de Duero.

Aranda de Duero is a little city where Paloma lives, and Paloma is a girl who was in Umea last semester. We left Zaragoza at 7 in the morning with a bus. 4 and a half hours later we were in Aranda... Almudena (another girl who was in Umea) came with car from Madrid with car and Pablo (who also was in Umea) was suppose to come with her but he came with bus from Madrid a couple of hours later.

When we arrived in Aranda it was about 27 degrees warm and sunny. There was a kind of festival for the city the day we spent there so almost all the day we spent out in the streets... and it continued into the night.

I got to experience what the word "fiesta" really means... and now I know what a "bodega" is also... (view photos to the left).

At 7 o'clock we woke up to go to Madrid and take the flight to Tenerife. I slept in the car all the way (about 1 and a half hours) and then I slept on the plane about 2 hours more. And then we arrived in Tenerife.

Carlas mother were there waiting... and the Spanish kissing went better than expected!!

In the evening Carla went to a little gathering for a friend of hers who are leaving tomorrow, but I slept another 4 hours!!

The house is very beautiful, but I haven’t tried the pool yet...

But today...but today I became a bit more Spanish, I now am listed as living in Spain, officially. Me and Carla went to the police station in La Laguna (But we should have gone to Santa Cruz, but all went ok anyway) with all the papers needed to get a paper where it says that I am living in Tenerife... so from this day on I will be in the statistics of people who not just live in Tenerife but also Spain!!

The weather is normal.. 20 degrees and cloudy, it even rained a bit... but all is good and La Laguna seem to be a very nice city. A lot of cars everywhere like in all of the places I've seen here in Spain. But at the same time very nice and even though they drive like crazy there is a couple of streets without cars where you can enjoy a good calm walk!

I don't know what else to say...so much has happened in my first week here so I guess maybe tomorrow I can fill in the blanks a bit... we will have a day of rest tomorrow (it looks like)...

Tonight we have dinner with Carlas English class...well some of them...

And then sleeeeeep!!

Hasta luego!!

In Zaragoza now

Now we are in Zaragoza for a couple of days. We arrived yesturday after a four-hour long bussride from Barcelona. It was nice to see the landscape between Barcelona and Zaragoza. Even though 4 hours was a bit too long...

Last night we went out to a neighbourhood full of bars and had some god beer and eat some really good tapas.

Besides from that not much has happened... it's warm, around 30 degrees and yesturday we even had a bit of rain for about 5 min.

Soon we are going to a big supermarket and maybe we can find a good pair of shorts, im borrowing shorts from Carla right now...

Well, maybe there will be more to tell tonight!

Have a good day!

The trip has started!

¡Hola!

Yesterday we started our trip to Tenerife. First stop was Badalona and Carlas cousins house.

10.05 we left Alvik, Umea and at 11 we arrived at Arlanda, Stockholm.
The next plane to go to Barcelona left at 15.30, it should have left at 15 but someone who had checked in their baggage didn`t show up for the flight so they had to go thru all the baggages and remove his for safety reasons.

We got about 40-1h of sleep on the plane and it was a bit bumpy time to time. When we starded our descent to land I got an amazing veiw over Barcelona. It was something completely diffrent. All the houses with a swimming pool next to almost all of them was a really cool thing to see. And even though I tried my best to see Nou Camp I didn`t, I think it might have been better to sit on the other side of the plane.

Once in Barcelona we ran from the baggage pick-up to try to catch the train but we failed with 20 secounds... the next one was only 30 min away so it was no big deal really, exept that we already was souking wet of sweat. The humidity was really high and it was 28 degrees witch came as a chock for bouth me and Carlas bodies.

But after changing train to the Badalona train, which we also had big trouble getting on, but this train we made somehow, the doors cloes right behind us.

We got a good cold shower and some clean clothes and then we went out to eat something. We found a place not that far from the appartment and ate tapas and drank a beer.

The appartment we are staying in is amazing, and it`s only 100-150m from the beach so we have a beautiful view over the sea.

Today we woke up around 10.30 and went to the "inner city" with a lot of shops. We had coffey and I had a Bocadillo (sandwitch). We continued walking down the small streets just looking, and a bit trying to find a pair of shorts but this proved to be a bit hard, they are almost just selling "winter" clothes now, and the only shorts they have (what we could find) are basketball shorts or football shorts which are really expensive, 40 € was one we looked at.

But we bought beer, three 33cl for 1€... not that bad...

Now we just arrived back from the beach were we had beer and chips in a little bar on the beach..

Well, tonight Sweden is playing Hungary, but as you can imagine that wont be shown on the TV here, but we will watch Spain - Armenia instead! At 22.00... and remember that its the same time in main of Spain as in Sweden, but in the Canary Islands it`s one hour less. (Sweden GTM +1, Canary Islands GTM)

That`s all for today I think, but it's great to finally be here!!!

Don't miss my NEW PHOTO ALBUM, I have a link on this page, it says "Photos" to the left... but here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/nicodelasnieves

Ta luego!!!