jams

last summer, i went with ely and elsa, to europ. Some friends from marseille and other parts were travelling as well there, and we all met in guca, the serbian balkan fanfare music festival. more than that, we went to italia croatia, makedonia and greece. life is beautiful, in summer on the road. and so sad in winter in a office:(
but summer is comming back very soon:)

MMMMhhhhhhh???!!!!! et si on allait en italie? Just a few days with nidal and ely over there by car, sleeping either in the car, on the beach, on the vesuve, or in a garden. Roma, napoli, vesuvio, firenze... that was the beginning of the summer 2009. nice trip even though a bit short.

last week we (tom and i) decided to run away from the crazy "semana santa", the estern party for a week here. everybody living here that we know went from here. we decided to do the same even if we came back for the last day of it, just to see it cos it s still interesting to see these religious fest, the people and what is organised..... so what? we went to lisbon hitch hiking. to go there took us 2 days and 2 nights. the first night we were on the south coast, too touristical, too english... quite nice but finally not very intersting. the second night we were in ourique, the deep portugal, were people look at you very suspiciously, scared of strangers, even more if you are holding a guitar, a hat and the night already came. So we finally met the police there that took us to their station, checked our passports and stuff, and even spoke french to us just to check we were not brazilian or moroccis. well, they were nice but still having the autority to do what they wanted. after 10 mn, we were back in the street going to the omly bar to have some food and beers in front of a football match of the champions ligue i think. there we learned a bit of portuguese with the waiter (?).
finally, we arrived in lisbon, where we had a room for 10 euros a night, just with one bed, a broken door and window, very "a l ancienne" like in the books of g.orwell (dans la deche a paris et a londres) or j.kerouac (on the road...) for the first 2 nights before going to a couch surfer place, fernando, a crazy musician, just always playing something, like possessed by the rythm and melody.
yeah, about lisbon. just a very beautiful city, a lot of energy, streets, 7 hills (like istanbul), the river in front of it with almeda on the other side (like istanbul and the bosphorus), beautiful pavements and trams, a lot of street art... a city where i could live without any problems.

We went with tom and deivid a week end in cala to help in a construction of an ecologic farm that would welcome different classes of children for a week or 2. Cala is the name of the place, like at 1h toward the north west of sevilla. there, the town semt to be very little with quite nothing to do. but the thing is that like everyone knows everyone, and like we were helping the project, we were directly welcome into the population and had a great week end. during the day, we painted the wall in red, loaded "tuiles or telas" (i m lazy to find it in english) on the roof, made some concrete, cleaned some fields from the bad plants... and at night, we were a lot of people playing music, of course flamenco, people claping their hands in rythme, singing..... that was an amazing andalucian/flamenco moment. just there in my head. and the funniest is that i thought that we wouldn t do anything cos of the work the days after, and because we were at the beginning (was already 11) just a few people in the bar (just 4 guys with their beers)and we finished at 5 or 6 in the morning doing some rolling body in front of the bar on the ground. just totally crazy. incredible. a great experience.

here in sevilla i met deivid, that works with children in a little field im the center of sevilla, just to teach them a few things about ecology, the importance of sharing the ressources between the people in this world and even between the generation. but first of all, it s a moment for everyone to work the earth, plant seeds and try to understand how the nature works and how beautiful it is.

i finished working near avignon at the beginning of march, and as i still have the nomadism illness, i just went to sevilla to join tom, a friend from marseille doing his erasmus year there. i m still here now. the weather is nice, hot, street are thin, full of orange trees, oranges that you can try but that finnally you understand why nobody takes them (very acids)  bikes everywhere, people playing flamenco in the street, drinking beer all the afternoon, having tapas or montaditos (little sandwiches of ham -ay caramba- cheese and olive oil on hot bread) for dinner very late at night,  gypsy markets, a lot of tourists and specially french people. it s an other way of life, here in andalucia, even different from barcelona or somewhere else. the shops, the city is dead between 2pm and 6 pm, and then comes back to life until 2 or 3 in the morning, even the sundays evening (i mean for people that are not specially noctambul) my feeling about it: a very nice, and calm way of life, nobody seems to be in a hurry, and a lot of animation but, there s nothing crazy here like (in my mind) istanbul or marseille, little bars with concerts.... but there s "la fabrika de sombreros", an occupied place where a lot of free activities take place. like capoera, joggling, clown, flamenco, paintings..... and a lot more. that s the best place i saw here in sevilla. but now, they are in threat of explusion (since yesterday) cause this place is illegally occupied. so let s see what s gonna happen there, if the police comes or not. but i guess something is gonna happen very soon.

back to istanbul for new year, with the jose family (niki etienne tibo davin) and the new family (basak nidal and pierre) just walking thru the neighbourhoods i was used to go when i lived there, partiing every night late, over eating everything we could (tavuk durum, et durum, pide, borek, lahmacun, manti, mediye, çorba, tantuni, kokoreç, iskembe, çikofte...), listening to the sounds of this amazing city, the smells, and colors, friends, love. We came back and lived there in the exact same way than 2 years ago. small bad point: it was raining and snowing quite everyday. Some of the pics have been taken by my bro, nidal others from my cousin pierre, and some frome me as well.

Here are some pictures i took from avignon where i'm living now since 2 month, and where i'm gonna stay probably for 3 or 4 month more before returning to my travelling life. Calm and nice city, no crazy atmosphere, this is maybe the right place to think about all my past trips....

I went, 3 weeks ago in a little festival in ardeche, circus and street art festival. i just started to work, and after a week in a office where finally people dont seem to be completely happy (they are, but often as well they are moaning, no smile, no good energy), i felt this moment like a resurrection. i just laugh and enjoyed the shows like a child. everything was just magic. maybe one of my favourite there was the one created by the "compagnie bibendum tremens" (www.bibendumtremens.com). Fantastic!

L'ete touchant a sa fin, apres un bref passage sur paris et strasbourg, je suis rentre dans mon marseille bien de chez moi, avec son soleil et son agitation, pour finalement me mettre a chercher du travail (tiens j ecris en francais maintenant?). so september was just writting and sending CV, motivation letters, having interviews here and there, in suit and tie (something to see :)). i finally found something at the end of september. Before starting my job, i had to follow a 2 week course on a computer software (solidworks, similar to autocad but in 3d). So i felt on the road again, but this time travelling by train. no time to hitch hike. the weather there was just bad, but i still had a bath in the Manche, the see between the uk and france, and even did some surf. that was just great, thanks to pierre.