Paco´s Life: Madrid

There we go again / Allá vamos otra vez

Hi folks,

I know I owe a few updates to this blog that I have left quite appart lately. There is plenty to say, about Asia, Norway, a few guests I had, the extraordinary ICEX meeting in Granda. Septiembre was just crazy, a non-stop sequence of trips and parties which partially destroyed my health. When all this get back to normality I would like to post about all these issues, right now the most important thing is the beggining of a new stage in my life, tomorrow I am leaving to Stockholm where I will spend the next year. As it happened before with England, Germnay or Denmark, I start from scrach. New country, new friends, everything new, the truth is that… I love it. I write this in companion of my last glass of Brugal in this apartment I talked about so much , waitting for my friend Tomás, who is visiting me for a short time, to finish his shower, waitting to enjoy danish night for the last time (in a while). I dont pretend this to sound too intelligent, I already talked before about these feelings I am having now. Whoever never had this feeling of departing for the unknown, leaving home, the usual places, good friends, get away of what “everybody else does”… according to my modest opinion he is not making the most of his life. This way of living, my friends, becomes addictive, is pretty hard to explain with words why is so cool to live in different places, to build a life in a new place just to destroy it and start again later on. It is not that I believe myself to be better than these people which consider going to the same local beach year after year to be the big adventure but, honestly folks, what I do is worth it. Becouse through all these trips you gain experiences, get to know people, open your mind.. Because of course the moment to settled down in a fixed place will come in the end but life is so long that I dont see any need to speed up this. And I like to think that, when the time comes and I look back, I wont regret of what I didnt do. So, what do I keep from Denmark? Well, quite a few even though I havent spend too much time here because of so many trips. I have the feeling this is a country I would not mind to live in, I felt more comfortable in two months here than in two years in England. It is definitely a nice place. No offence but I honestly believe Spain is worse than people usually believe. Sure we have good weather and great food but quality of living is a wider concept, it includes wroking conditions, how easy is to get independent, friendliness of people..and if you tell me about that “spanish party” topic, let me reply that here in Copenhagen is not too different. I was in Madrid this week and I felt totally out of place, the why is hard to explain in words, is more about feelings, maybe because the capital is not the best place in our country. People go fast all the time, the environment is different, dont ask me exactly why but it is, anyone who had lived in Copenhagen would understand me. Concerning the social circle, in this experience it has been more reduced but, as it happened to me some other times, every new experience add a couple of characters to the bunch of people I consider unconditional friends. Obviously, among all these people I got to know over all these years, I only keep in touch with a few of them. And it does not mean that the others are less valuable, is just the way life is. But there are certain guys I know they will always be there whenever the circumstances make a meeting possible. I could mention Sergio or Lolo from Newcastle, Álex, Ángel or Paul from Cardiff, a lot of people from Icex… Copenhagen left Giorgos and Iván, two great guys I have been hanging arround with this summer. I know their door will be always open for me the same way mine is for them, and whoever knows me also knows I am serious when I say these kind of things. And this is the really nice thing about this way of living, you keep adding different characters to the cocktail of the friends, maybe you wont see some of them anymore but the experiences remain.

Anyway, big Tomi is ready to go out and the Brugal empty. I depart to say bye to the vikings land and I get ready for the swedish one. Cheers…

ICEX Meeting at Granada

Amazing the ICEX IT people meeting in my spanish favourite city. I wont tell you how it was, you can check this out (if you read Spanish ) at Marta´s blog (day 1, day 2, day 2 night, day 3) and Guatemala´s blog. What I want to say here is that actually having fun is a pretty simple thing. It is not about get drunk and party very hard, someting we already did of course, in fact you enjoy more and remember better all these moments of jokes and conversations. From the beginning, when Pekin was trying to park his car, until the end, those last conversations before leaving the apartments. In the middle, all kind of stuff, Marta and Shangai spicy talk, those tapas lunches, talks over a Cachimba. Finally, what I really matter is the people you get together. The place is not so important althouth in this case it could not have been better. The truth is that I was pretty pissed off when I knew I had to spend month and a half attending a boring trainning in Madrid but now I am very happy I did it. Because of so many people I got to know, most of them with my same interests and way of seeing life, because of all the stuff we did and all the stuff we will do, because know I can have a look at a map of the world knowing that I have a friend in most of the places. Anyway, I dont wanna get boring with this, I already talked a lot about this issue. I will just leave you with Dubai´s video and soon I will uplodad some pictures. A big hug for all the ICEX 2006 IT promotion which soon will be spread all over the world!

Bangkok, the City

As I said Bangkok is a big experience for all the senses, plenty of different people hang arround the city. And I hardly experience it, only a couple of days and I limited myself to Khao San Road and the touristic areas. I am sure there are plenty of more typicals neibourghoods to explore but I had enough with this. In Bangkok the mean of transporation you normally use is the tuk-tuk, a sort of motorbike with room for passangers. Uncomfortable but cheap as long as you first negociate the price with the driver, the traffic is a hell, there is so much smoke because of the cars that drivers normally use masks…

Bangkok: Scotish Birthday / Cumpleaños Escocés

What a better way to celebrate my 26 birthday that going for an adventure in one of the most amazing cities I have ever visited. I have travelled quite a lot but never like this, totally alone, withouth knowing anyone in the place and withouth having accommodation there. I just had the address of what was supposed the street with hotels for foreign people in Bangkok. A typical backpacker place called Khao San Road. How to describe this city in a few words… amazing. It was only a couple of days but I got the impression that Bangkok is a place you either hate or fall in love with. Absolutely caotic, pollution everywhere, huge, you walk arround smelling every kind of stuff, with people trying to sell you whatever you may want. I got to Kaho San where, as I had read, there was foreign people all over and many affordable places to stay. The street itself is amazing, lights everywhere, backpackers coming and going, thai food places and every kind of shops. Definitely the place had nothing to do with the very tidy and clean Singapore, this is another world.

So I get my individual room, with AC and shower. Not luxury but fair enough..

Can you imagine how I spent the rest of the afternoon? Buying a new camera of course, first contact with the tahi culture, here you can negociate any price. Luckily, the change euro - bath (thai currency) is quite convinient so in the end you get good deals. After that, it was my birthday and I was about to celebrate it alone, besides, I was totally exhausted and sweating like hell. 10 pm, what should I do? Going to sleep? That would be sad… I decided to get down to the hotel bar and have a drink, this is also cheap here. So I sit down there, totally alone and sad and I start ordering mojitos. The good thing about these kind of places is that there are many people in the same situation, you see them hanging arround, having dinner alone or reading a book, normally after a while they leave. After I spent some time studying the situation and only when I got the inspiration that only a good rum can provide I started to expand my non-existing social circle. First I spoke with a lonely american guy, jajaja jojojojo and later on we also became friends of a group of scottish guys, finally we went out with them. So the night ended up been quite funny, much more than it was mean to be. Nothing spectacular, some temporarly friends so I dont spend my birthday alone

Singapore, the City

Singapore is actually a very occidental city, with a financial district full of skycrappers, looking a little like New York, plenty of commercial areas and a mixed environment in which it is not too strange to spot european people walking on the streets…

Singapore skylne

Paul and me

The lion is the symbol of Singapur

Only two neibourghoods can be considered more asian: Chinatown and the malasian area. But, in the end, they both happen to be just a bunch of shops trying to make money out of tourists…

And of course a visit to the beach was a must, with a souvenir for my dear ICEX friends…

Finally a nice city view from the sky…

All pictures here!