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SN2S 12/7

Growing Old

On 14, Aug 2012 | 2 Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain, Travel & Places | By MR

Growing Old
During their lifetime, Churchill and Gandhi, amongst others have stated that: "You can learn a lot about a culture by how it treats its' old". When I first heard it, I didn't really know what it meant, as I wasn't around old people much. My parents at the time were young and my aunts and uncle were all very young, and two of my grandparents had passed away before I was born while the other two passed away while I was too young to remember. As my dad passed away, and my mom started getting older, I started to notice that the young as a society does not really pay much attention to their elderly. It used to be more apparent in Western cultures, but nowadays it is more existent in eastern cultures as well. The elderly often become invisible because they are tucked away, out of sight out of mind. More and more old folks homes are popping up, to take away the burden of caring for older loved ones. When people grow old in traditional villages in Fiji, family and friends care for them at home until their dying days. In America, the elderly are more typically sent to nursing homes — I understand the demands of a typical workday in the US, and I understand what leads someone to make that choice, but by contrast it appears unfeeling, even cruel. What is really intriguing is that it varies a lot culture by culture, as to how the last generation grows old, and what the younger generation dos to care for them. In Europe and US, older people are much more independent, and there are facilities for them to be independent, so you end up seeing more older people live by themselves, and have a life on their own. Observing this passage of life is very interesting to me, because I feel it is a chapter with a lot of stories. Older people live their lives slower, with majority of their actions based on their life experiences and wisdom earned over the years. One day I would love to do a project, to focus on how people embrace the wonders of aging and deal with its challenges.

It also seems older people like to take the bus a lot.[....]

Harmony

On 25, Jul 2012 | No Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain, Travel & Places | By MR

Harmony
This was taken in The Cathedral and former Great Mosque of Córdoba, locally known as ...[....]

Walking in Edgar Allan Poe’s Mind

On 20, Jul 2012 | No Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain, Travel & Places | By MR

Walking in Edgar Allan Poe’s Mind
This was taken in in Ubeda, a small town near Cordoba, in the south of Spain. The town is really small, and at night the smaller streets are lit up using halogen lights, which give it a really orange glow. But its not really lit up in all spaces, and in combination with the smaller streets, sometimes gives a very dramatic feel. If you are familar with Edgar Allan Poe's writings, it gives a very similar vibe (but maybe not so macabre). The high contrast lighting this provides is what I was after, and the shadows of the two people walking completes it.[....]

One Face of Occupy -blank-

On 24, Apr 2012 | One Comment | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

One Face of Occupy -blank-

24

Apr
2012

One Comment

In SN2S 12/7
Spain

By MR

The Occupy Movement, and protests of that nature did not originate in the US on Wall Street. It was probably one of the more covered by the media, being where it is, but various other nations have been doing it for a while. The first of these, is Spain. The Spanish Indignados movement started sometime in May 2011. By the end of the month, there were hundreds of camps in Madrid and elsewhere. By the time I went to Spain around June, Some of them had begun to die out. In small town like Burgos, the protests were dying down faster than the big cities. The above shot is from the town square, where there is just few camps left, with very few people. This long guy playing the drums are one of few that are actually active in some way, but in the end looks sort of demotivated.[....]

Break

On 23, Apr 2012 | No Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

Break

23

Apr
2012

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Spain

By MR

Scenes like this are common place in Spain, especially in the smaller towns. A midday break to grab a small drink and some tapas are the norm, and most people enjoy this perk. This one stood out to me, as I saw the guy on the left totally stare down the guy on the right reading the newspaper. Its almost like he was thinking 'dammit - just put the paper down and enjoy the smoke and drink'. [....]

Brothers

On 19, Apr 2012 | 2 Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

Brothers

19

Apr
2012

2 Comments

In SN2S 12/7
Spain

By MR

Aside from the road trip in Spain, one of the major highlights of the trip was David's (the older brother) communion. Brothers David and Sergio are about 7 years apart and they fight from time to time, but they get along for the most part and have a pretty strong bond. [....]

Lost Art

On 18, Apr 2012 | No Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

Lost Art

18

Apr
2012

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Spain

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This is chacoli being served at the famous Bar Haizea in San Sebastian. If this guy looks familiar, you probably saw him on an episode of No Reservations, when Anthony Bourdain went on a culinary tour around Spain's Basque region. Chacoli (or Txakoli in Basque) is a sparkling dry wine produced in this region, and is really refeshing in the summer. I remember when I saw the episode that I recognized this guy but couldn't place him, until I saw this picture. Same as in the episode, this tapas bar has a neighborhood feel, and this guy knows everybody. People come here and hang out of hours, chatting with the bartender and eating all sorts of delicious tapas. He takes pride in his work and his food - something missing in a lot of places these days. Just in case you are in the area, you should visit - this place comes highly recommended by the Arzak family.[....]

Waiting for the bench

On 11, Feb 2012 | 3 Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain, Travel & Places | By MR

Waiting for the bench
A comedic moment in San Sebastian, where I saw four guys sitting on a bench while the only woman was standing. In this day of equal rights and all, its not such a big deal, but I still thought it was a funny moment in the midst of a busy city. [....]

Perfectly Aged

On 24, Jan 2012 | One Comment | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

Perfectly Aged

24

Jan
2012

One Comment

In SN2S 12/7
Spain

By MR

When I saw the beach at the famous Playa de la Concha in San Sebastian for the first time, immediately a beach scene from 1960s movie came into my head - complete with tanning women with their skulls caps and a lifeguard sitting perched up on the tall white chair. Not sure why this came into my head, but all the buildings/houses around the area seemed to be preserved in that era. Many travel books have written that San Sebatian (Donostia, as it is known in Basque), a summer capital of Spain, is here where the Belle Epoque ( beautiful era ) lives on - very visible from the pictures above. I tried to give the pictures a vintage treatment try to convey this feeling as well.

One of the things I enjoyed was the proximity of a very urban development so close to the beach - there are very few cities like in that in US. Not only is there a close urban development right next to the ocean, but it has the European city feeling as well, with tiny streets full of shops and small bars, where hidden away in the alleys you can stumble upon some of the best tapas(pintxos) in the world. Also along the La Concha Bay is the sculptor Eduardo Chillida's and architect Peña Ganchegui's landmark The Comb of the Winds (El Peine del viento) steel artwork on the rocks. [....]

Away from everything

On 23, Dec 2011 | No Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

Away from everything

23

Dec
2011

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Spain

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Another shot in Potes, one of my new favourite villages. Sometimes nature makes you feel very small, and in the greater scheme of things, we are. This planet is huge, and beautiful, and I think once in a while you need to visit a place that will remind of you of this. Standing next to these mountains, and seeing them everyday must be wonderful reminder indeed.

I think this will end up effectively become my last post of 2011, as today I am going back to the country where the village of Potes lives. Have a happy new year, and see you all next year! [....]

The Backyard

On 19, Dec 2011 | No Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

The Backyard

19

Dec
2011

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Spain

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Who wouldn't want to wake up in the morning to a view like this? Well, its the view that most people who live in Potes see everyday. Potes is a small village in the region of Cantabria, and is on one of the prettiest. The village is in the centre of the historic Liébana region, an area that is surrounded by spectacular mountains, with running streams and rivers. Its old quarter has the Property of Cultural Interest designation. Its the first stop on our road trip through Spain, in the series SN2S 12/7[....]

Sergio

On 23, Nov 2011 | 2 Comments | In SN2S 12/7, Spain | By MR

Sergio

23

Nov
2011

2 Comments

In SN2S 12/7
Spain

By MR

I've been to Spain four times now, and every time we visited, we spent most of the time with family albeit a few day trips here and there. I really haven't travelled around Europe very much, and Spain is my real foray into the region. I love it that this region has so much variety in cultures all packed into one of the smaller continents. I've seen enough road trip movies as a kid to have that idealic impression of a road trip, made famous by the likes of Easy Rider, Smokey and the Bandit, and The Motorcycle Diaries. Even though I have been on many mini road trips around the US, I've never been on a planned one. It was about time I experienced one. So the summer of 2011 we decided to start with Spain - a road trip from the northern tip of Spain in Santander, all the way to the southern coast, to Fuengorila/Malaga, and really see the country from road warriors point of view. I tried to enjoy the places more than take pictures, so there are tons of pictures of places that are missing from this trip, but in essence, we visited 12 towns, in about 7 days. I named this series SN2S 12/7 (Spain, North to South, 12 Towns in 7 Days) to mimic the European car license plates - a fitting name, I thought, if any.

We first start with Santander, which is the regular pit stop every time we visit Spain. We always have a great time when we visit here, and this time was no exception. We start with a picture of Sergio, wearing the Spanish national colors. This is quite fitting to start a picture of a road trip in Spain, I thought, and the bright national colors stands in quite stark contrast on top of the concrete background.

[....]