The Return to Jerez

The bad part about travelling, is travelling itself. There's the airports (five to get to Jerez), the airplanes (four), the hours in transit (countless). And the sense of doubt and anticipation of whether or not you'll get to see your luggage again.

Take my experience just last night, in Madrid: my travel buddy, Carolyn, and I both checked in at the same time in Victoria. We were both assured our bags (one small suitcase each) would be checked through to Madrid. So, three airplanes (Air Canada, British Airways, Iberia) and four airports (Victoria, Vancouver, London, Madrid) later, we're waiting at conveyor belt #10 at the Madrid airport. We wait. And wait. And wait. No suitcases showed up--except for a lone black hard-case that's going round and round and round... Then suitcases start to pop up. In threes and fours, with looong intervals in between. The last batch sees Carolyn's green suitcase materialize, so naturally, you'd imagine, mine should be close behind. Well. No.

Turns out Iberia (or the Madrid airport authority) sent some suitcases from our flight to conveyor belt #8. So, off we go, looking for my bag. No luck. I go to the Iberia customer service desk and they check my luggage bag... Only to let me know that, yes, it's in Madrid, and yes, it's been unloaded from the right plane... And sent to conveyor belt #6.

Go figure.

At least my poor little blue bag made it after all.

Anyway...

So, I'm back in Jerez. My friend Carolyn and me. We're staying at a tiny apartment on Calle Palma, just around the corner from the Centro Andaluz del Flamenco, and walking distance to pretty much everywhere we need to go for the Festival de Jerez. I'll take some photos and upload them later.

It's so nice to be back in Jerez! Still having a little trouble getting back my bearings, but it's only been a day. Most of the places and streets around the Teatro Villamarta are super clear in my memory. (For those of you who don't know, the Teatro Villamarta is the main sponsor of the Festival de Jerez [or a major one, anyway]. It has a studio, where some of the classes and workshops take place, and, if you're taking classes during the festival, you have a free pass to all the shows taking place in the evening at the Villamarta.) 

Not much to say about classes just yet, as we only had our first today. My feet already hurt, but I'm pleased to say I already seem to be getting more out of it than I did last time. More on this as the classes progress...

The show tonight was La Farruca's Homenaje a los Grandes. What an amazing dancer. And her little son, "El Carpeta," is just... So ridiculously talented! Dunno whether to feel inspired or depressed when I see the way these people dance. Talent, energy, feeling... Sigh.

Other than that, we walked a lot, shopped for groceries (inexplicably fun when you're "living" far from home for a bit) and walked some more. To sign off for today, here's a picture of the Jerez Cathedral and bell tower.

Until next time!