Clarendon Grill Three Years Later

December 29, 2008

This time the social was underway by the time I arrived around 9:15. Considering that lessons were supposed to end at 9, I’d categorize it as prompt and as advertised.

I watched for a little while before starting. For my first dance, I asked a stranger I had not seen dancing before and wearing a sweater no less. I thought it was quite nice, and within a minute I decided that the DC scene is alright – less dire than I had been led to think based on the last outing. I think her name was Kate (not 100% sure because there were too many new names).

At the start of the evening it seemed quite leader-heavy, but things more or less evened out as more experienced dancers arrived. I remembered the woman who helped hosting Saturday’s event – Ruth or Ruthie. [note: This was Tanya - Ruthie is someone else altogether] I had not danced with her last time, so I decided to ask her early in the evening this time. It worked out really well for me because not only did I get a nice dance, but she also gave me a few nice referrals.

Pretty much everything was an upgrade – larger number of higher calibre followers to choose from, more familiar music (similar in character to Saturday except with more mainstream bent), nicer lively atmosphere. The floor was a little uneven, but I didn’t think the Dance Collective floor was great either. I had far fewer dance partners having difficulty staying on the beat. There was one stretch where two Merengue preceded two Bachata, but I didn’t mind that too much. There were no other such stretches afterwards. About half of the dances were On2.

I finally got a chance to chat a little with Beto, who seemed to be a prominent DC Salsero. I had glimpsed him briefly Saturday too, but never got a chance to say hello. Last year, he had advised me on which venues to try, but he himself did not show up to either of the parties I attended. I think he has been in the scene for quite long time; I think I first saw him at a StuckOnSalsa social at a place called Avenue Night Club in December 2005, and he carried himself like a local celebrity already. I don’t think his standing here has changed unless possibly for the better.

There were several other people whose names I received, but it’s too difficult to remember so many names at once. The only other name I still remember for sure is Ben; it helps that it’s a guy (too many new girl names) and an unusually short and distinctive looking one to boot. I’m not sure but I think there were a lot more men (compared to women) who attended both the Saturday event and tonight’s party.

It was amusing to see that it was the mid-level followers who were being cliquey or unwilling to dance with strangers. There’s nothing new here except it was amusing to see it time after time. It’s universal – Cambridge had and has followers who would throw themselves at me for a dance but would turn their nose at not-so-good or new unproven leaders; I like dancing with some of those followers but not all – even if I dance with all willing. I had fun trying to match people from here with people I know back in Cambridge or London. There is nothing much to be done about their insecurities of their dancing abilities – I did end up rolling my eyes a few times at some of the more blatant examples, however.

I find it interesting to see how tonight compared to Clarendon Grill three years ago. What tonight confirmed to me is that Clarendon Grill Mondays is still the best DC weekly night and can be better than some of the special events too. For the Londoners, I would say Clarendon Grill is similar in calibre to Bar Salsa Mondays except somewhat smaller and with earlier hours (dancing starts at 9 and ends at 1).

DC Dance Collective Monthy Social

December 27, 2008

Several days ago - much nicer airplane trip compared to last time; among other things I was bumped up. Today - much nicer birthday compared to last year. The fact that it was celebrated outside a hospital was a definite plus, and I had my first cake in decades.

I did not have this event on my list of venues to visit until this afternoon. I was intrigued by the advertised closing time of 2 AM as well as a separate room for non-Salsa/Cha Cha. The location seemed fairly convenient as well. One or two of the people who made reservation via the meetup group made me think it might be worthwhile. Mostly I was getting a little bored so I decided to give it a try.

How was it? It was okay, not exactly great. The venue felt a bit warm. Floor was rather slow. It was oblong and reasonably spacious but not especially airy and smaller than every other DC venues I have seen in the past. The setting was a mirrored studio rather than a bar or a club. There was no chance of random person walking in. The music volume was fairly low although some people were wearing earplugs anyway.

The musical choice seemed unnecessarily highbrow (or obscure) and restrictive; it was arguably more challenging than in most congress nights I’ve attended and seemingly not really being utilized by most dancers. I think there were two DJs, but they were not distinguishable. Well-known classics from any period were mostly absent; the only songs I knew by title were Ajiaco Caliente by Eddie Palmieri, Mi Desengano by Roberto Roena, and Perla Fina by Monguito, and I would consider Perla Fina as at best an obscure classic. There was nothing Colombian or Venezuelan (never mind Timba, Son, etc), nothing from the 1990s or 2000s and nothing from the 1950s, no Romantica, and I don't remember any Charanga being played either. Pretty much everything sounded the same aside from a handful of somewhat smoother big-band jazz-like tunes. There were plenty of transitions, breaks and solos. Melody was driven pretty much by horns and occasional tres/cuatro only (trumpets mostly and very little trombone or sax, no vibraphones and very little violins and flute if at all, and piano was usually not prominent). At least not everything was fast, but it was quite monotonous. I would say that playing NYC Salsa CDs vol 1, 2, 3 straight through minus one or two better-known tracks would have achieved a similar effect as the selections tonight.

Dancing was again okay but nothing to write home about. There were too many dances where I felt my partner was not on the beat; music might be partly to blame. Good connections came by infrequently - too infrequent that good ones felt more like a relief more than anything else. I did not get to dance with everyone I asked – probably the new guy factor for the mid-level followers in the scene. Meanwhile I now wonder if some people appreciated that I danced with them period rather than because they thought I gave them a particularly good dance. I never really built much momentum. I had one repeat dance – with an improver-level follower who at least seemed to be able to stay on time most of the time. Slightly over quarter of the dances were On2.

This evening did nothing to change my assessment of the DC scene from previous years. I might add that it feels like old scene on a down cycle – the same down cycle I’ve seen for few years now. I suspect that if I were to live here, I would quickly settle down to a fairly low frequency of going out.

LDA X-Mas Party 2008

December 13, 2008

Heavy rain and potentially confusing roads to navigate through Camden Town worried me a little as I started my drive around 9:30 PM. What I did not anticipate was that M11 southbound would be closed between Stansted and Harlow for reasons unexplained. It was not at all clear which route if any was being suggested as an alternate route.

Usually with planned road closures (and these are truly ubiquitous in all of the UK), road signs for diversions are given. They are meandering, but they get you where you need to go eventually. With no obvious signs and no map, I first went down B1256 thinking A120 towards Stansted definitely was not the answer. That got me back to A120 after about 15 minutes and me ending up where I started after 5 minutes or so.

Next I went around in circles about 5 times in the original roundabout looking desperately for diversion signs. There were none. I stopped for about a minute to gather my thoughts. I decided that A10 would get me to London somehow so I headed west. In the next roundabout, I finally spotted a diversion sign leading me to Bishops Stortford. After a few miles, however, I lost the sign again and was merely heading west towards A10.

Eventually I hit A10 and took it all the way down past North Circular. It was slow, but it was okay until I hit that confusing intersection at the Roundway – I always end up taking the turn to right; I must have done this now four or five times. That led me to small roads with me looking for a way to get me back to familiar roads.

I finally breathed a sigh of relief as I turned onto Seven Sisters Road at the Manor House underground junction. Things were fine afterwards even though I had to alter my routes two more times – at least I had contingency plan in hand prepared before departing. Even finding parking was easy thanks to the Google satellite map. The M11 closure on the other hand was simply ridiculous. It was as if this country was telling the motorists to go **** themselves.

I don’t know if M11 is worse than the average UK motorway, but planned late night closures of the entire northbound M11 from Bishops Stortford (exit 8) to Duxford/A505 (exit 10) lasting well over 15 miles are very common. I think I have noticed it about dozen times this year alone. Even with good diversion signs, it means the travel time is essentially doubled. So during “normal” hours, your travels are liable to be delayed due to heavy traffic while during “off” hours, road closures are the biggest risks.

Anyhow it meant I didn’t get to Kajima Centre (new digs for LDA extension) until 11:20 PM. I’m thinking I lost 30-50 minutes because of M11 closure. On the return trip, I noticed that M11 was open again going southbound although there was a small stretch where two of the lanes were closed off. The road system here is another thing I won’t miss about the UK.

So what about Salsa? LDA X-mas Party 2008 was a social – in a dancehall setting rather than club setting. It was like SOS with fewer flashy dancers and more beginners. It was also quite steamy, and the dozen or so fans scattered around the room was certainly welcome. I regretted wearing a trouser with thick fabric. About half of my dances were On2. Perhaps half of the better dances were with complete strangers. One Cha Cha was one of the more fun ones in past couple of months. I would characterize the evening as workman-like - nothing particularly memorable.

Principal DJs while I was there were Mario and (I think) Del Salereo. Mario played mostly easy music whereas Del seemed to try to up the tempo a fair bit. There was a performance by Shaan and Aiste – same one from the one in Athens I caught on youtube. There was a birthday dance for Mario and two girls. Mario was still wearing a cast to his left hand. Susana was still wearing braces on her right ankle, but she didn’t seem to be limping as badly as she did in Athens. Other people I noted included Andrew, Sean, James and Maria (?) from Drill Hall. Dennis was minding the entry table when I entered. I didn’t remember many others from my LDA class days – maybe one from my level and two from one level below.

Home around 3:30 AM. One down, three to go.

p.s. (1) I think I have a diagnosis for the shoe problem. I think with the new pair, all the weight is squarely placed on a small area on the balls of my feet. With the old pair and with more flexible soles, the weight was distributed onto a larger area. (2) I have been working on a manuever to lead follower to walk around me in counterclockwise manner going forward (after cross body lead, etc) with mixed results. Probably the best one was done with a beginner/improver on my first try! I'd really like to get it polished before the end of the year.

Athens, Part 2

At the time of initial posting, my mind was like a scrambled egg. I thought I really should edit the entire post with a clearer head, but I thought there was not much risk in posting an early draft for friends. Wrong.

November 29, 2008

Search for a perfect souvlaki / gyros

Typical map of Athens does not tell the whole story for those on foot. What looks like a short cut can often turn out to be worth very little. This is because Athens is full of steep hills. Instead of doing the usual touristy things, I opted to go in search of a Souvlaki shop called Paliakis in what turned out to be very hilly area called Mets.

For tourists who want to make a trek to this shop, start from the old Panathenaic Olympic Stadium circa 1896. Walk past it on either its left or right – climb a long flight of stairs and then go further uphill to a small green oasis of Varnava Square. Hidden behind some trees are the sign for Paliakis (written in Greek only). It looks like nothing but a quickie Souvlaki take-away joint (not unlike a Kebab joint) with no seating.

I enjoyed their Gyros (or Souvlaki sandwich in tourist-only slang - see here, here and here for discussion on Souvlaki), and downed them with Coca Cola. I had one pork gyro and one chicken gyro costing 2 euros or less each. I wouldn’t call it a destination for typical tourists, but I’m a sucker for the native experience – a jaunt away from the beaten path even in the rain.

I brought an umbrella with me after a lesson well learned from Hamburg. While it was never pouring like it did in Hamburg, it was nice to have around. Less well-planned was the decision to carry my laptop around with a silly idea that I might wander over to Syntagma Square to take advantage of free public wireless internet access. It was compounded by the choice to wear a overcoat – it is considerably warmer in Athens compared to the UK.

After a detour through National Gardens and not quite making it to the Temple of the Olympian Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch, I dropped off my laptop back at the hotel and changed to a lighter jacket before heading up the Acropolis.

Acropolis

By the time I hit the trail towards Acropolis, it was already past 3:30 PM. Steady light rain seemed to have kept pedestrian traffic to minimum. The ticketing agent said I had plenty of time left and that it took only 45 minutes to see all of Acropolis. I took time going up the hill past the Amphitheatre of Dionysius and up the Propylaea via the Erechtheion to the top of Acropolis where the remains of Parthenon and Temple of Athene Nike stood. It was empty save a few buildings and maybe fifty people milling about.

All around Acropolis human dwellings packed the surrounding area to distant mountains save some parks and steep hills. I wondered what a time traveller from ancient Athens would make of the vast area covered with buildings. I tried to imagine where the ancient walls would have stood from which old citizens of Athens watched Spartans burn the fields of plains of Attica during the Peloponnesian War. I tried to look to the sea and Piraeus and find the wall between the port of Piraeus and Athens.

Perhaps half of the tourists seemed more interested in the sights of modern Athens from up high more than few derelict buildings with far-from-complete restoration job. The replacement blocks of marble were cut smooth on the outside, but the facing inside marbles were smooth round like massive pebbles. I would venture to guess that ancient Athenians did not believe in keeping things looking natural or primitive inside their monuments and places of their mysteries and worship while making great efforts at grandiosity on the outside.

I found it quite unnerving to go near the edge. Perhaps the light wind made it worse. I was reminded of all the times I would go mountain climbing while avoiding looking down. Heck, it makes me nervous to watch other people go near the edge. At least the rain had now stopped.

My camera battery failed while I tried to take a photo of the Parthenon. I was surprised because I had fully charged it just before the trip and I had taken maybe 20-30 photos at most up until that point. The back-up battery was left behind at the hotel so it meant more watching and less picture taking. I probably stared at the better-preserved inner friezes of Parthenon than I would have otherwise.

I ambled back via the Eastern slopes as the attendants were eagerly trying to get the small number of tourists walking about despite less than ideal weather. I also stopped by briefly at the New Acropolis Musuem with its sneak peek exhibits open before the official opening in March of 2008. This museum is on a block right next to Herodion Hotel.

Back at the hotel I was amused to find Gossip Girl on one of the channels. I think it must have been the Christmas episode from season 1. Sometimes I find the supposedly evil nasty characters on television irresistible. Count Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass from GG as some recent examples. Ditto Greg House.

For dinner, I decided to try the places near Syntagma with a hope that I might be able to find free internet access at or near the restaurant. First I checked Japanese and Korean restaurants near each other. The Japanese Furin Kazan (Apollonos) had received an indirect positive review at Athens Survival Guide. It looked okay, but I decided that I really wasn’t in the mood for Japanese. As for Korean restaurant called Dosirak (Voulis), it came nowhere close to a passing grade for a proper dinner spot. Maybe lunch would have been okay.

Next I went back to the Greek option. Paradosiako at the corner of Voulis and Nikodimou was about to close, and the proprietor directed me to a sister chain nearby, which was my backup option anyway. The sister branch Oinomagerio Paradosiako (next door to Furin Kazan) in fact is supposedly run by the son and daughter of the original restaurant. As a matter of fact the proprietor from the first restaurant arrived during my dinner to say hello to her daughter and maybe help out a bit. I had cod fillet (it looked deep fried) and a potato salad. It was as good Greek cuisine – home cooking style. Part 1 of the Athens entry was posted here.

Saturday Social

I diverted myself on the long tram ride by reading a book. I did end up walking from one station to the next in order to catch a faster connection. About an hour later shortly after midnight I entered the venue as they announced the start of Ye Mambo performance. Yamulee was next after I checked my coat and found a seat, but perhaps I was still not settled enough and they made no impression on me.

I guess the first performance I really paid attention to was the Tropical Gem, who was up next. Disaster. They went contemporary/modern/artsy/whatever on us - pretentious boring bullshit. The intro was especially painful – spoken clichéd word only. For whatever its worth, I have seen them three times before, and they were extremely fun to watch then.

Eddie Torres was next. I find him a bit bland although certainly very graceful as a performer. I adore his music selections – they are consistently outstanding. It got me on my feet and when I saw a stream of people starting to flood the main floor, I eagerly joined them excited. For me choosing the right music is half the battle – preferably just one song rather than some mix stitched together.

Last was the Swing Guys. I’m beyond the stage of being bored with them so that I can now tolerate them more than I did a performance or two ago. They might have changed some minor choreography in the middle but it is still the same one with the bicycle intro.

Se Me Fue, Me Libere, El Menu, Brujeria, Vagabundo, Ojos Chinos (?), Timbalero (finale), Fiesta Del Pilito (encore) were some of the songs El Gran Combo played. I didn’t recogize the sole Cha Cha, but I ended up dancing with the same adorable Greek girl I also danced Cha Cha to New Swing Sextet last night. I failed to recognize maybe 2 or 3 of the songs at most. The band was good, but I thought things got a bit formulaic after a while. They would start with a short intro then get into chorus and stay there for a while before finishing. After a while, everything to me sounded the same.

I think it took me a full hour to recover from the band hangover. Actually things were uneven until Fiesta Del Pilito, where I hit one of the two lowest points of the night (with someone I had an okay dance with the night before). Things remained uneven for next hour before I hit another low point – this time with someone I have had good dances with three times in Germany and again last night.

Finally two fun dances in a row put me back on the right track. One was with someone I danced with before – probably at Hamburg. She made me think of Edie but perhaps more provocative. I can’t tell you if she really liked dancing with me also, but she was at the very least very good at acting that way. I don’t know if such style of dancing can be maintained dancing with same person all night, but I wouldn’t have minded if she was willing. For whatever its worth, I did dance with her again maybe an hour later and it was just as good. Dances like these to me reinforce my opinion that there is nothing inherent superior about On2 compared to On1 or vice versa. It’s the dancer not the style dammit.

A rarity was multiple dances with strangers on a same night in a Congress setting. It happens but usually no more than with one or maybe two people. There were three tonight. That’s high considering that I would qualify this as a big Salsa congress and that I generally don’t dance more than once a night even with people I know well in Congress setting.

Valentyna was a most adorable and friendly Greek girl ever as well as a supremely pliant follower. After two Cha Cha in a row over two nights, I danced with her for two more Salsa. Despite protests of exhaustion and sore feet, she managed to dance anyway until the main room closed. In being the first stranger ever I made a decision to ask multiple times the next day (with a ready excuse that I wasn’t going to be around on Sunday). Maybe I can declare her the most memorable partner of this Congress or just another Congress chick to whom I lost a little bit of my heart and will never see again.

The third was Amanda. Two tonight. It was more or less planned. I might even call it a social experiment. Too bad it could not have been done double-blind. Based upon the first dance alone, I would not have asked her second time. However, the second dance was very good. I don’t know if the difference was a matter of getting used to each other or if her knowing who I was before the start of second dance had any effect.

On a related topic, I did not feed SM any chocolate.

Do I want to say anything about Jeans from Madrid? Or Plastico? Or about bad memory, misinformation or difficulty in communicating in noisy space? I think I'll leave it as a series of question.

The main room remained open until past 5 AM. By then I was quite tired and was with sore feet. I think my new shoes even after a breaking-in period remains to be a poor substitute for my old one. The only advantage of the new shoe over the old one is softer heel, which might make it slightly less painful to be kicked by it. I stayed to watch and videotape parts of the after party until around 7.

I had to run to catch the tram to Syntagma. There was not enough time to buy a ticket. On the same tram were Wesley and his Greek girlfriend. We passed a lot of time of chatting back to the hotel on the slow-moving tram and a <5 minute walk back to Herodion. Breakfast, shower then bed.

November 30, 2008

The pain, the pain

I couldn’t walk. No, not exactly. After all I walked a loop around Acropolis to catch a glimpse of the ancient Agora, the flea market, Monastiraki, near Syntagma and by the Temple of Olympian Zeus before returning to the hotel. It was merely quite painful to land on my right foot while walking. This is another first – after 7 Salsa congresses. It’s gotta be the shoes.

While in Monastiraki, I looked at the Souvlaki shops there – mainly Bairaktaris (a.k.a. Mpairaktaris?) and Thanasis right across the street. I think their rivalry might be not unlike the one between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. Bairaktaris probably dominates in sales figures due to all the structural advantages (more visibility, larger seating area, etc) while Thanasis appeared to be the underdog of choice for some of the guidebooks, taxi drivers, etc. I for one found neither appetizing. I was in a rush so I ended up having a gyro from Quick Pitta nearby instead. It was merely edible.

Epilogue (subtitle: now that wasn’t so smart, was it?)

I had gotten a mistaken impression that my flight was to depart at 7:20 PM rather than 8:20 PM. So I hurried and limped out of the hotel shortly after 4 PM thinking that Metro service to the airport on a Sunday might not be particularly reliable. Indeed between the time I arrived at the Syntagma station via Akropoli and the next train to the airport, there was nearly 30 minute wait – most of which I spent at Plakentias station four stops away from the airport.

Despite the delays on the Metro, I essentially arrived at the airport before my flight’s check-in was supposed to open. I was a bit chagrined. I could have taken a more leisurely stroll. I could have wandered around in the ancient Agora and maybe the Roman Agora rather than rushing past it. Passport check for leaving Athens took a bit longer compared to entering. The airport had free internet, but I didn’t have enough material written down for another post.

Once on the plane, I fell asleep for perhaps two-thirds of the flight. Too tired. Usually I would have trouble sleeping on the plane even if I tried. Maybe half dozen people from the UK contingent of the Salsa congress was on this flight, but I didn’t interact with them except for a few brief moments before boarding the flight.

The flight was supposed to land at 10:20. The coach to Cambridge was due to leave Luton Airport at 11:25 with next coach having a terrible schedule. So I knew that there was an element of risk in having chosen this itinerary. The flight arrived more or less on time, but the trouble started with a long delay in getting the mobile stairs ready to allow passengers to disembark.

Twenty minutes later a ridiculously long queue faced us as we climbed up from the landing strip to the airport terminal. The line stretched so that newly arriving passengers was thrust onto a middle of a very long queue with no end in sight on both sides. Probably more than half the people on our flight ended up cutting into the middle of the existing line because the alternative was to struggle past a throng of people occupying the other half of the corridor to get to actual end of the line – wherever that was.

It was either the longest queue I have ever been on for passport control or a close second. This is saying a lot because I find that these passport control queues are always poor – requiring 15 to 30 minutes most of the time. On the other hand, the other European cities have been much better for me whether it was Munich, Jerez, Madrid, Prague, Hamburg or Athens. I missed my coach by a solid 20 minutes.

What next? I knew that the next coach would not arrive for quite some time and would not get to Cambridge until early in the morning. Going to London central to catch the train would not have been any better. So eat something first. I unnecessarily used the internet to check the National Express schedule. Next coach was scheduled to leave at 2:55.

I took a fast-moving coach to Stansted while struggling with overheated bus. The waiting station at Stansted on the other hand was freezing cold. I finally got on the coach connection to Cambridge departing around 5 and arriving around 5:45 AM. At least this coach had a more reasonable if slightly cool temperature. There was no sign of taxi anywhere so I walked home breathing in cold air – a shock compared to mild Athens. Just like that the plan to rest on Sunday night to get a better handle on the week went down the chutes with nearly 6 hours added to the return trip. I think this night easily would rank as one my personal top-10 worst nights ever.

Did I mention I long to get out of this endless source for frustration I call England? I have been thinking periodically about whether leaving would be sensible no more than a month or two after arriving and more or less on yearly basis. I suppose I will look back on my times here fondly after a passage of time, but I do look forward to leaving.

December 2, 2008

After

Some loser on an internet forum found an early draft of this post, and he decided to copy and paste a segment of my posts. I think his editing skills are dubious at best, and it is a little unfortunate to have to live with unfinished and rough abridged draft of my writing floating in the internet away from my control.

Settling back to normal pace likely would take a few days. Next adventure through those doors will happen soon – maybe as early as tonight.

Athens, Part 1

Posted near Syntagma Square using free public wire-less internet connection

Before

November 27, 2008

“One, two, three,” I counted in quick succession under my breath. “Four,” I uttered wryly and with a hint of smile in disgust as I tugged open yet another door. Then came a series of corridors with identical quick turns. The corridors look all the same except that at the middle of the corridor are two colored square tiles. Long corridors have two squares of same colors, and short corridors have two squares of different colors. Orange and blue squares follow two orange ones, and two blue squares come next. It’s a veritable maze. Then another door waits. This one requires that a button on the wall be pressed before. Next is the reception area. There is another door and another button, then a corridor leading to dining area. Finally a door leads me outside, but not without asking me to press yet another button – a different shaped one this time.

I came to despise doors here in England. Some require access cards, some require pressing of a button on the wall – sometimes well disguised and located rather far away. Going up or down one flight of stairs can require opening as many as four doors. At night some of the stairs are not lit. I have walked up and down dark stairs not knowing that yes there are buttons for the lights as well. Too many doors and too little lights are two of many things I won’t miss about England.

One of the rooms I often visit requires a Duesenberg of a hike. I would leave my building – two doors both requiring pressing of button on the way out and access card on the way in. I would then walk to the next building over to enter it at the North end. From here, I make way all the way to the South end of the building through eleven doors and one stairwell each way. Four of the doors are access card-controlled. Even after years of doing this I sometimes I open the wrong door or stairway and find myself in a dead-end. It’s a 15-minute trip altogether at night. Maybe it would only take half the time during daytime, but I almost always end up going at night.

As I make my way outside to make the trip one more time, a voice came, “It’s raining outside.” Great. It’s something of a surprise to see another soul at this hour. It’s only a drizzle, thankfully. “One,” I started counting again. This was my fourth trip this week. For whatever its worth I guess I won’t be making this trip tomorrow.

Prologue

November 28, 2008

I opened my eyes. The alarm clock hasn’t gone off yet. It’s an early afternoon flight, so I can afford to move at a leisurely pace. I checked the alarm clock again. Damn. I had set it to go off in the afternoon – again. The second alarm went off as I got up. For a change I walked to the bus station rather than calling for a taxi. Maybe half hour or so later and after a stop at Boots for more toiletries, I arrived with ten minutes to spare.

From Cambridge to Luton Airport, the only public transport option is the number 787 coach run by National Express. It’s the same bus, which meanders through half dozen or so towns before getting to Heathrow Airport. I won’t miss that bus when I’m out of here. Even just getting to Luton Airport, it stops at Royston, Baldock, Hitchin and Luton before getting to the airport. You get to see all these countryside and towns you never wanted to see.

Thankfully Luton Airport itself was fairly manageable in size if a bit dark and dingy like much of England. It also was crawling with the Salsa people heading to Athens like me. The first one I spot was a guy I think is with Laith Sami’s group entering the WC. At the queue at the gate, it became evident that perhaps as many as half of the London group would be on the flight. Some I recognized by face only while I knew a few by name as well, but a rather large number perhaps half I deduced to be in the group by the way they interacted with each other.

“Hello, sir” came from Shaan. Maybe I come across as aloof. Most of the times even with people we become reasonably familiar with, the best we manage is to offer smiles at each other. Inside Salsa party is not exactly conducive to conversations with loud music and people busy dancing and whatnot.

I drifted in and out of Survivor (by Chuck Palahniuk). This is the one where the story is told mostly in reverse-time. Moreover the pages are ordered backwards, but the chapters are not. This means I have to flip a few pages to get to the start of a new chapter, and then flip backwards as I read over the paragraph. It took me two or three chapters before I figured out the entire system. On the plane, I came across a part involving dancing Cha-Cha with Fertility Hollis.

For lunch, I bought two sandwiches from Pret-A-Manger. I suppose two is something of an overkill, but I managed to miss lunch twice this week because I wasn’t able to get to the diner at work on time. It seemed like I might have lost some weight by mid-late week, and I don’t have a big desire to lose weight at this time.

Athens

Nice airport. There was nothing frivolous but it had a bright and airy atmosphere. The passport check was beyond simple. Baggage claim was efficient. Rail transport to downtown Athens looked brand spanking new – clean and spacious (though not as spacious as Hamburg). The fare was rather expensive (10 euros for return trip – but seemingly for a limited time – the ticket operator asked me when I was returning and he gave me a ticket that said 48 hours when I replied Sunday), but it’s still cheaper than taxi.

At least two other couples from UK in Salsa business took the Metro with me. I think the big London group opted for taxi. One of the couples (one was Wesley from Birmingham) actually exited at Akropoli station like me. It turned out that they booked at the same hotel. Moreover, they were bumped to a sister hotel like me as well. I originally booked at Phillipos Hotel, but found myself at the Herodion Hotel. I suppose it’s an upgrade from 3 star to 4 star hotel, but I couldn’t tell you if there was any real tangible benefit. The bed is big (queen size), but it dips in the middle.

By the time I finished minimal unpacking in the hotel room, I was hungry again. Local time was around 9:30 meaning it was not even close to my usual dinner time back in GMT. Based upon information I gathered at a highly extensive Athens Guide free on internet, I had settled on one of the two touristy but good local taverns not faraway from my hotel in the Plaka. Coming up with options for meals has become a rather high priority whenever I visit a new city. Plans can fail (e.g. York), but alternative seems like an almost certain failure.

In choosing tonight’s restaurant, I think I scored a solid hit. Vyzantino Taverna served very solid Greek food at the heart of Plaka leaden with tourist traps. Based on how the internet review and my take on Vyzanitino, I’d guess that the Plaka Restaurant next door would have been a solid back-up choice. I had the special of the day fish cooked with lemon sauce (8 euros), which was delicious. It came with spinach, which was decent, and zucchini, which I wasn’t too thrilled with. I had also ordered Tzatzi (more like a yogurt sauce with some fresh vegetables rather than salad) as an appetizer (4 euros). I had not ordered any bread (1 euro), but the restaurant ordered it for me, which was actually quite appropriate. My assessment is that I would have been better off ordering a regular salad or perhaps just bread and butter on the side. Tzatzhi probably isn’t for just one person unless he or she really likes it.

Friday social

The Tram to the Taekwondo Stadium on the other hand was painfully slow - the guidebooks describe it as leisurely. After a <5 minute walk to the Loeforos Voullagmenis station, it was going to be a slow 19-stop or 20-stop trek to Aghia Skepi. After 12 stops and about 20 minutes, I lost patience and decided to get off at Amfitheas. I walked rest of the way thinking that I might save time this way. Perhaps 15 minutes later as I approached Aghia Skepi, I saw a Tram arrive from the direction I would have come from. So I didn’t save any time by taking the “shortcut.”

Perhaps even worse was finding the entrance to the stadium. It was so frustrating. I bet it took me at least 10 minutes after spotting the stadium to get to the entrance. The venue location in fact was the least attractive thing about this Athens Salsa Festival. It was far from the historical city center and without a decent Metro access. When I was booking for a hotel, I did consider picking a hotel very close to the Salsa venue, which would have made trips to and from the airport and tourist sites more problematic. A hotel with good Line 2 Tram access as well to the tourist sites and Metro was my ultimate compromise. I would not be surprised if the access to the venue from the hotel and city centre turns out to be the biggest complaint from the out-of-towners.

The first person I knew and chatted with was AndrewS, who informed me that I had arrived just in time to hear to first song after the performances. In the end I managed to arrive shortly after midnight after all the shows were finished. Hooray! I had a few dances before New Swing Sextet started off. Mario was the second person I exchanged greetings with followed by Roger from Hemel Hempstead and then Mark and Lisa from Oxford. In all there must have been well over 30 maybe over 40 people from the United Kingdom, including the girl I think of as “Abby Bridges” and Rico (maybe he was there with the Laith Sami group – I seem to recall seeing that name on the list of performers somewhere).

Some of the early dances featured partners, who seemed too intent to show off their skills. That got a little tiring especially dancing to a live band playing long-ish songs. I also felt slightly dehydrated early, which I overcame by buying three bottles of water at the start of the evening. The bar was rather far away from the dance floor, but water was cheap (0.50 euros for 500 ml bottles). I danced mostly on the main floor, but I also had one dance on the concourses with marble floor with a girl, who probably was a bit intimidated. I think her friend videotaped us, which I found amusing. In retrospect, it was a great space to make a spectacle of yourself.

I think this Friday compared favorably to the UK Congress at Bournemouth in terms of social dancing tonight. I think this was a little better than Hamburg this summer also. All dances were singletons. There was only one girl I was tempted to ask more than once mostly because the first dance was to a Cha Cha – not particularly good one at that (I Like It Like That done by New Swing Sextet – I would have preferred El Raton). I recognized and danced with more than a few faces from the Hamburg Congress. I also danced with a handful of London girls. In one case, I amused myself by cutting in to ask a girl displacing Mario. It ended up a Cha Cha also.

The songs played by New Swing Sextet included Che Che, My Favorite Things (I might have been dancing on marble floor for this one – either this or En El Balcon or perhaps Maria Cervantes), El Bongo, Bobo Tu Te Quedaras, En El Balcon, Maria Cervantes and La Palomilla at the end. There was a short burst of fireworks followed by explosion of streamers. It was cute, but it would have been even better if they could have cleared the streamer from the floor at the end of the show – maybe taking a quick 5 minute break to clear the debris.

Probably around 30-40% of my dances were On2. Right now I don’t have a clear preference for On2 over On1 although some songs seem to suit one of the other. The song I danced with “Abby” for example was something I had difficulty getting into for On2 timing so I quickly switched to On1 despite the fact that she most likely prefers On2. I think it also depends heavily on what the follower is comfortable with. The proportion of followers, who expressed a preference for On2 increased as hours progressed for whatever its worth.

A benefit or penalty for not attending the shows (and workshops) is that I am quite limited in being able recognize the “elite” by their face. I did spot previously never seen-live Magna for a brief second. I know Susana and Shelley, but most others are mysteries to me (e.g. Vanda, Tamara (who I might have danced with at Salsa Kingdom) … heck I can’t even remember who else was supposed to be there). Oh yeah – there’s Lisa, whom I am under the impression that she would be happy dancing with Mark 90% of the time even at major Congresses. The only other celebrity Salsa Congress circuit female personalities I might be able to recognize at an airport would be Edie and Burju.

Henry Knowles was stuck somewhere in Asia. I actually liked the substitute DJ, who played a few decent covers. Julian the Duke was better than usual as well although he did resort back to playing Avisale A Mi Contrario, which I skipped. Songs played included Muneca (unknown cover), Nina Y Senora (TP), Lluvia (unknown cover), Mujer Erotica, Perdoname, Alejate (HL). There were plenty of songs I did not recognize. On the whole, I don’t think there was a single song I really disliked all night in the main room.

The main room with nothing but two Cha Cha all night closed around 4:20 AM. The after-party moved to “Room B” with a series of Reggaeton, a Merengue, a Bachata followed by a Timba before moving back to Salsa, which still seemed to be the genre of choice for most people still there. By this time, my feet were feeling sore so I ended up not dancing at all during the after party. I finally exited the room around 5:30 AM.

I caught a Tram going back directly to Syntagma after about 8 minute wait. It took about 35 minutes to get to my station. It wasn’t too bad in grand scheme of things although taxi no doubt would have been faster. A group of Londoners including Andrew and Shelley were using that option (back to a hotel called Metropolis). Breakfast started at 7 AM, so I stayed up a little longer for it before hitting the bed.

Salsa Kingdom Part 2

September 6, 2008

Because the Park Hall Hotel was full for Saturday night (it had been for quite some time), I looked for alternatives and settled on Parr Hall Farm B&B, which was not listed in the Salsa Kingdom website. It was located about 2-3 miles or 5 minute drive away. At 40 pounds per night for single occupancy of a double room, this was a great deal. I think it’s a better deal for singles because two people occupying the same room would have paid 70 pounds per night. The rooms were located in a converted barn and had a classy décor and were spacious. The breakfast was mostly Ploughman style with toast, porridge and soft boiled eggs made upon request – it in my opinion was the best looking breakfast I have seen in any B&B. The only amenity missing was an internet connection.

Scattered rain dissuaded me from doing any day trips to places like the Lake District. I took it easy doing little but a light walk to get a feel of the small town of Eccleston. Lunch was at The Original Farmers Arms, which seemed like a nice local pub (with cheap lodging options – cheaper than Parr Hall Farm). Dinner was at Verdes, a fashionable Italian eatery short walk from Parr Hall Farm. The food in my opinion was at least as good as better standard Cambridge eateries. Because I only got a table for dinner a little after 9:30, I ate hurriedly and made it to the party around 10:15 (or a bit later than I would have liked).

Eddie Palmieri and La Perfecta II started playing around 11 or about 30 minutes late, which isn’t bad. They started off with La Malanga (a song from after the breakup of the original La Perfecta) followed by Sujetate La Lengua. I was worried about the speed of the songs, but I should not have been. However, the songs were long to give musicians a lot of room to show off. Other songs played by the band included Bilongo, Muneca, Picadillo, Cuidate Compay, Azucar, Oyelo Que Conviene. Obvious songs one might have expected to hear but did not were Tu Tu Ta Ta, Lo Que Traigo Es Sabroso and Ajiaco Caliente from La Perfecta days alone – Eddie has a lot of hits outside that period too (at one point I thought he was hinting at playing Puerto Rico before starting Cuidate Compay). There was at least one more Cha Cha (well-known one but I cannot remember which tune it is now – was it Ay Que Rico? Not sure) as well as a more Afro-Cuban not-really-for-standard-Salsa song closing off the first set.

It was interesting that a young bass player (I learned later that he is only 25!) was given as much opportunity for solo riffs arguably as Eddie himself. It was especially nice to see because Salsa music scene doesn't have very many young musicians - he was very good. Comparatively speaking the small horn section (Jimmy Bosch was one of only two horn players – trombone presumably) had rather little to do. Most of the action happened on the Eddie’s side (Eddie in rear left, bass player next to Eddie, tres/guitar in front of Eddie and bass player, and the Conga and lead singer in center). The other musicians included timbalero and flutist (occ. minor percussion). New Swing Sextet was an excellent band playing dance music; Eddie Palmieri and La Perfecta was a superb group of virtuosic musicians who played songs you also can dance to if you had enough stamina and could find a partner who could match the intensity.

Finding a dance partner was something of a challenge, however. Although it was far from empty, the total number of dancers was not as large as type of event like this one deserved. The fact that the dance floor was quite small really did not help matters – even with small number of people there, the floor could have been twice its size without appearing empty. It probably did not help that the length of the song made agreeing to dance a major commitment. In the end, I probably danced to no more than 3-6 of the songs played by the band.

The DJs were fine – about the same as Friday. Both Henry Knowles and Lubi had some problems with the sound system due to miscommunication with the engineers at the main control. I’m guessing that neither of them are used to not having total control over the sound system. I for one thought that the sound system worked quite well in terms of never becoming shrill or too loud. The song selections were fine mostly - I won’t complain about a few Timba or near-Timba type songs. On the other hand, I was getting a little tired of Julian the Duke always playing Avisale A Mi Contrario by Tito Rodriguez pretty much every time I see him play anywhere. The most amusing moment in terms of song selection was hearing Otra Oportunidad coming on right after my first dance with Jimmy Bosch dancing right next to me. Playing favorites with DJs for this weekend, I would place Henry Knowles (no constant blending and many of the mixing was not distracting) and Lubi above Julian the Duke (so-so at best) and Pepe Bassan (blending songs for major deduction).

There were more people tonight than Friday night although the number of people dancing a lot wasn't much greater. People I don't remember seeing last night included Aiste, Rafael and Wesley. I don't remember seeing Leon, Inaki or Sekou McMiller. I probably would not have recognized rather large number of international guests although I might have danced with some of them. Mark, Lisa and Susana were present both nights. Steve did not make it - car trouble.

My dancing overall was again just okay. I’m not sure if there was an improvement over Friday quality-wise. There was less in quantity or at least in frequency; the fact that I stayed until later might have made the total number fairly close. Near the end, I opted to concentrate mostly on dancing On2 – not because it felt better or anything but because I thought I might be better served practicing it and because I wasn’t having any better time dancing On1.

September 7, 2008

I left Parr Hall Farm a little after 10:30 and headed over to M61 in order to take a side trip to York on the way back. I only became lost three times on the main roads – twice on the motorway including a detour into Leeds and ensuing forced entry into M1 southbound rather than northbound and once entering York and following the wrong sign for Park and Ride. I ended up parking on Bishopthorpe Road, which ended up saving me a bus fare.

I ended up spending over 4 hours in York and probably could have stayed longer except for being somewhat sleep-deprived and having a long drive back. York was still suffering from flooding of the Ouse River, but the weather while I was there was nice. I took a walk on the Western side of the York City Walls (from Bishopgate Street to Station Road), which was more interesting than I expected. Then I headed over to the York Minster and took a look at the chapel and the undercroft. The Minster in size was comparable to many of the major Spanish cathedrals I have been to (Seville, Toledo, Segovia) but was considerably less opulent – no doubt helped by the Reformation and the wealth of the countries and the church when the cathedrals were built and were in prime use. Visiting the undercroft was in some ways more interesting than what was a rare bare chapel. I then roamed the streets of York downtown including the Shambles.

Finding a nice-looking place for lunch was something of a challenge; Betty’s was too full and a few others I considered were closed. I also forgot to take a list of possible places to eat with me after my parking debacle. I ended up in Vegan café called El Piano (it was listed on Lonely Planet). The music was amusing (Africando was on when I entered), but my verdict is that British Vegan (gluten free to boot) was not for my palate. I think on the whole I am not crazy about meat-free food – although I did enjoy a vegetarian Indian restaurant in London some years ago.

I only managed to start the final leg back to Cambridge around 5 PM. It wasn’t bad. There was only one traffic accident to cause a major traffic jam. However, by the time I got home around 7:40, I was dead tired and was with a minor headache.

Salsa Kingdom Part 1

September 5, 2008

The drive there was nightmarish. I started the journey at 3:40. I arrived at the hotel at 8:55. In between there were queues that caused cars to come to complete halt near Cambridge (20 minute delay), approaching M6 (for about a mile), between junctions 4-6 in Birmingham (15 minute delay), between junction 8 and 9 again in Birmingham (5 minute delay), and near Stafford and near Stoke-On-Trent (15 minutes combined). Even outside the worst areas, the cruising speed in the Midlands was 40-50 mph. Visibility was very poor in the Midlands – it was fine on A14 and on M6 after crossing the Manchester Ship Canal.

The Park Plaza (the room for New Swing Sextet and Eddie Palmieri) had a rather small dance floor (no bigger than the lower floor for Scala). The carpeted part of the floor with seats, etc was much larger. When I arrived shortly before 10, the dance floor was nearly empty, but it filled up by the time band started playing. With no more than 30-40 couples dancing on the main floor, the space was filled but was not overcrowded. I did not see Lancastrian Suite.

New Swing Sextet started off with Che Che (a.k.a. Buenas Noches Che Che) followed by El Tiroteo (well-known cover done later by Joe Arroyo and re-titled Ban Ban). They played essentially all-Salsa set except for one Boogaloo (I Like It Like That), which I found to be the weakest song by far from their set. Otherwise, their performance was as good as expected. Most of the songs were at mellow speed except for a couple of songs near the end (e.g. Cachondea). Other songs they played not included in their new album included Maria Cervantes reminiscent of Tito Puente version, a different arrangement of My Favorite Things, and a different arrangement of Pico Swing or Picadillo. Also there was a song, which started off sounding like Vibe Mambo (but wasn’t).

The DJs were good. Lubi played mostly classic New York set. I did not know exactly most of the songs by Pepe Bassan, who tended to blend songs together. He also played the only two Cha Cha in a row of the night. Henry Knowles was mixing and blending a little as well but played fine songs. The only song I didn’t enjoy was a Bachata, which I mistook for a Cha Cha (and I didn’t like it because it fooled me). The proportion of vibraphone-based songs probably was higher than usual. There were more Eddie Palmieri songs than usual as well, and most of them were from between late 70s and 90s (i.e. nothing from La Perfecta or La Perfecta II days or mid 70’s Coco recordings).

Jimmy Bosch was here tonight dancing! Apparently he’s a surprise guest for Eddie Palmieri tomorrow! I wouldn’t have recognized him, but Gillian knew him presumably from the Manchester / Salsology anniversary party. I should have tried to say something nice to him. Maybe tomorrow. I did shake hands with the lead singer Jose Medina and vibraphonist/leader George Rodriguez of New Swing Sextet. For whatever its worth I only recognized five of the six members of New Swing Sextet from the new CD cover. The bands were the key attractions for coming to Salsa Kingdom. New Swing Sextet was the headline act for this year’s London Five Star Congress and will be for next year’s Zurich Congress. They are the second bananas to Eddie Palmieri here.

There was a small London contingent I recognized. In fact the one of the first people I met at the entrance was from London – apparently here after having won the tickets in a raffle. I met Gillian and Mark from Manchester. I had two On2 dances and two Cha Cha in a row; everything else was On1. Dancing overall was okay – it met or exceeded expectations.

The Rest Of Hamburg Trip

July 20 and 21, 2008

After a brunch at a Pakistani restaurant and waiting out another bout of rain back at the hotel, I decided to head East take a hike around the Outer Alster Lake. I started on the West bank heading North. This part of the path traversed a waterfront park with many strollers. Most people seemed to be going the other direction towards the city centre. I wasn’t sure if this was because more people preferred to walk around the lake in counterclockwise direction or because I had started somewhat later in the afternoon. At the North end of the Alster Lake, the path became neighborhood streets away from the water before returning to the waterfront on the East side but without large greenery separating the footpath from the streets and houses. Here I also found most people walking South towards the city centre but now going the same directions as me thus seemingly invalidating “counterclockwise” hypothesis.

Just before reaching Inner Alster Lake, I took a turn towards Hauptbahnhof and Kunsthalle, None of the Hamburg museums seemed especially noteworthy so my main aim was to get some impressions of the city in its outward appearances such as its architecture. Thus some of the main targets once I was done with the walk around the lake included Chilehaus (a building shaped like an ocean liner), Hafencity (a gigantic construction site) and the future site of the Elbphilharmonie (a supposed Hamburg’s equivalent of Sydney Opera House). Chilehaus was a nice enough looking building, but without a guidebook I probably would have walked right by it without noticing it. Hafencity construction site was interesting merely because of the scale of construction. I realized that I had walked by Elbphilharmonie without seeing it yesterday – thanks to wet conditions. It looked like this building was going to be more reminiscent of Guggenheim Bilbao rather than the Sydney Opera House in look. I had to beg a question, “How big a deal would these building be as more and more like them are built?” An apt comparison from my recent travel experience could be the Cubist buildings of Prague – avant-garde at first but completely unremarkable sans historic reasons today.

Precipitation was minimal after I started my long walk of the day. However, it was cold and windy. Pretty much everyone I saw was wearing windbreakers. It seemed like I was one in a thousand with neither a overcoat of some sort nor an umbrella.

I left the hotel for CCH a little past 11:40 this time around and thus continuing the trend of leaving later and later. I saw no signs of the first set of shows. I had a little bit of the social dancing in between the shows. As for the second set of shows, I decided to take a seat closer (half-way) although I still ended up watching the screen mostly rather than the live performers. After Eddie Torres suggested that the organizers dispense with re-introduction of the performers of the evening, it looked like the social would get kicked off earlier. Oh no. After barely starting the song, Imad stopped the DJ and decided to do the introduction and ensuing clowning after all. I had already a partner picked and asked and everything (and she had to leave early too). Not only that, they followed it up with a competition asking “randomly” picked entrants to copy of move demonstrated by one of the performers. It ended up being quite amusing, but it still went quite long and I had to wonder about losing all steam. I found it all too much standing doing nothing even though I was sitting until the penultimate show - by Eddie Torres and Melissa once again. Fortunately, I was still feeling lively past 4 AM and ended up staying until 4:57 with no immediate end to the party in sight.

The Sunday party was somewhere between Friday and Saturday in many ways. Timba and Son made its return but not quite to the degree seen on Friday. There was more Cha Cha than Saturday but less than Friday. More miscellaneous non-Salsa – not quite sure what to call them but they weren’t completely disastrous because I somehow managed to make something out of dancing to those (in fact they were arguably better than average for the night to some of the best of the evening). There were considerably more dances with less accomplished followers compared to Saturday, but there were a number of dances on par with the best of my Saturday dances. The most consistently good dances were Cha Cha rather than On1 or On2 – once again. I think I could argue that nearly half of my top 10 and top 20 dances all weekend was Cha Cha - or at least a third of the top 10/20.

I had very few dances with people I knew from elsewhere – no more than 3 people including Edie. I think this happened in large part because most of them were stuck in the most crowded corner of the dance hall, which I stayed away for large parts of the evening. The crowding supposedly happened because most of the performer and instructor types were dancing in that corner. As a result, the only big names I saw social dancing all weekend were Mario and Edie – the ones most likely to move out of that pigeonhole. I might add that I would not be able to recognize at least 90% of the performer types out of a line-up.

All in all I probably had more than one dance all weekend with no more than 10 people. I still somehow managed to dance with 2 different people on all three nights – one for 3 Cha Cha altogether (with it getting better and better each night) and another for 8 all weekend (it started with me accidentally continuing on for a third dance in a row because of a song fusing business on Friday leading to her asking me first one Saturday and me asking for a second consecutive one on Saturday and then ending up with 3 more on Sunday). It was a record of sort for Congress setting although it was really no more than a combination of chance, and her seemingly find me nice to dance with and thus dancing with enthusiasm and me finding her pretty good rather than extraordinarily good but nevertheless finding her responses much to my liking. There was another woman I ended up dancing with for probably three songs on two different occasions on Sunday and probably would have tried to dance more with her had I danced with her on Friday or Saturday; I’m not even sure if she was there first two nights. I’m guessing I danced at least 40 dances a night on both Saturday and Sunday and more than 30 on Friday.

In summary I would say that the Hamburg Congress was very good. The calibre of social dancing was near the top. Music was sometimes really good but at times marred by the DJ (with caveat that DJ Dave was the only one sticking out like a sore thumb – with too many Timba/Son in a row on Friday and too many miscues on Saturday and a unique self-promotion to end his set on Sunday) and so-so band. The floor was near the bottom (unevenly slippery thus making carpet preferable for some) although certainly better than concrete floor of Madrid.

After a weekend of touring Hamburg, the striking features to me were the trees and vegetations in general as noted on the first day and the bodies of water seemingly everywhere. Pretty much the only way a city could be so dominated by water as Hamburg is to be a city wholly within a small island or better yet large number of islets (presumably like Venice). Maybe I could add rain to the mix since getting wet seemed difficult to avoid. I believe it went from about raining 50% of the time on Saturday to 20% on Sunday to 90% on Monday. In fact the Monday rains prompted me to give up on some short expeditions before heading off to the airport.

Postscripts. I had brought my camera with me to Hamburg but found that it was not working. I realized that I left my keys at the hotel after arriving home. Upon checking my e-mail, I saw that the hotel management had sent me e-mail about my keys while I was still at the Hamburg Airport. There were five or six hotels in the same building (Dammtorpalais) with two of the hotels making the list on my Lonely Planet Guidebook. Not mine (Hotel Wagner). However, I think it probably was the cheapest. The only complaint was the unpredictable alternate drops in both hot- and cold-water pressure, which they were not able to address when I mentioned it Sunday afternoon (not exactly a big surprise). Returning to a warmer UK made me think of Madrid last year.

Main Party At The Hamburg Congress

July 19, 2008

After another dinner with Tracy (this time Italian – Tiffany’s I think? It was less interesting all-around than Café Paris last night), I headed to CCH shortly after 11:30. This time I missed the first set of shows altogether.

After a few decent or better dances typical of this Congress, I watched the second set of shows seated in the far corner looking at the screen rather than the performers directly. I think this made the performances even less interesting. I disliked pretty much all of the music and especially the way they were cut up and bandaged together. The only exception was Eddie Torres. The dancing was okay but not particularly impressive on the screen, but the music represented a change back to sanity. The final act Swinguys were utterly boring on the screen – no doubt in part because I have seen the same act several times already. I wonder how they and the rest of Alberto Torres’ entourage will be received in Cali.

The rest of the social started well enough. Solid to very nice dances. Then Andy Montanez and his band Mercadonegro started. Hmm. First two songs were so-so. Third was better. Three of the best known hits were Se Le Ve, El Swing and Un Verano En New York. Although Andy Montanez is a pretty big name, he doesn’t have a great deal of hits – probably no more than a half dozen dance hits are known even to a fairly serious non-native collector. For me the extending of many of the songs didn’t do much – quite boring in fact. The attempted conversation with the audience fell completely flat, not surprising given only a small minority of the dancers spoke Spanish.

It was a relief when the DJ started spinning again. The first several songs were nice well-known ones too. The songs choices by the DJs for the rest of the evening was very good and much to my liking. Even the DJ who played the three Timba in a row last night was doing much better in terms of selection – at least to my liking. However, the same guy was making a big nuisance of himself in other ways including using sound effects (nonchalant to irritating), premature stopping of songs (why? why? why?) and the worst – accidental or deliberate lowering of the volume on two different occasions. I think there were some boos and hisses second time it happened. Amazing. The two times I look at the DJ booth in irritation both nights, it was the same clown acting as if he’s on the top of the world or acting defiant.

Overall Salsa dancing for me was better than last night. Very very good. There wasn’t as much Cha Cha, but I found enthusiastic partners for most of the opportunities given. I felt less tired at the closing time at 5 AM compared to how I felt by 3:30 AM Friday night.

Once again the space closest to the stage and to the left of centre was the most crowded. Once again I ended up staying away until much later in the evening. I was dancing more than taking breaks, and huddling in tight space simply did not appeal. I couldn’t even tell you how much social dancing the performers and big names were doing because I really wasn’t paying attention. Also I wouldn’t have been able to recognize most of them anyway – aside from Mario and Edie, who I did spot once or twice all night and Eddie, who I didn’t see during social dancing. My impression was that many of them were indeed dancing unlike at Bournemouth for whatever its worth.

Walking Tour Of Hamburg

July 19, 2008

If Sergio were to ask me, “So how was Hamburg,” I might reply, “Very wet.”

Within five minutes of starting my walk I was telling myself that it would have been so easy to bring an umbrella with me to Hamburg. As I was packing, I had it within inches from my grip. I had plenty of luggage space. It was only a combination of eternal optimism and the attitude of whatever happens that stopped me.

After another five minutes Westward I was in the middle of Strenschanzenpark under another tree saying to myself, “This is not a light rain. It’s a downpour.” All the weather forecasts I had saw back in England talked about less than 50% chance of light rain. I was soaked and I was unsure what I wanted to do and I didn’t see any shelter. A couple emerged without an umbrella – the boyfriend using his light jacket to cover his girlfriend. They asked me a question in German – presumably asking whether I was lost. I replied I didn’t speak German. Few seconds later I proceeded forward and found a U-Bahn station (Sternschanze) a mere 10 meters from where I had taken cover. There was a croissant shop but I was completely out of money having spent what I took out yesterday on the ticket, meals and large number of drinks. I waited for about 10 minutes until the rain became a trickle.

Soon I found myself in Schanzeviertel, which has an ambiance similar to busy London neighborhood but with clear Teutonic majority. After searching for an ATM, I retraced my steps back to a couple of cheap eateries in the Schanze recommended by Lonely Planet. I settled on Shikara Quick – an Indian fare.

When I came out after brunch, the sun was shining and I was dry. I made my way down South with the idea of swinging around to the South side of the Hamburg downtown. At a split on the road Neuer Pferdemarkt, I decided to take a slight detour to go further South rather than starting to turn Southeast. This would lead me to Reeperbahn, supposedly the largest red light district in Europe.

I thought the visit to Reeperbahn might be amusing when I spotted a large group of teenage schoolgirls a block from where I started off sucking on a pink candy attached to a ring. As I passed them I realized that the candies were miniature replica of penis, which led to give myself a chuckle after passing them. However, when I did get to the red light district, I was quite unimpressed by the neighborhood. It seemed like no more than a very large area with usual sex shops no different than places one would find in any major city in the western world. I suppose the open window displays and large advertisements isn’t universal. I was going to give it a quick pass and head over next to downtown as originally planned.

Then it started to rain again. I was near one of the shops as it started, and this one looked a bit different. The exterior was similar to certain upscale fashion stores rather than grimy sex shop. Inside I found just as more perfumes and clothes than more obvious sex-related paraphernalia. My first thought was, “It’s a Gap-fied sex shop.” Actually its look might have been a little more upscale than Gap – aside from the concrete floor. Maybe it had a touch of Sharper Image and presumably Victoria’s Secret. I don’t know if this was typical, but there were more women than men in this store. The rain switched from light to downpour from one minute to next so I found cover in several different shops. None of the other stores were remarkable although one did make me think, “This one’s a Woolworth’s.”

Past St. Pauli U-Bahn station, I continued on Budapester Strasse still getting hounded periodically by heavier turn of rain. From one cover, I had a good look at St. Michaeliskirche from Baroque era. With fits and spurts of movement, I proceeded until seeing a sign pointing to Rathausmarkt and Hafencity. What the heck, I have plenty of time. I headed South towards Hafencity.

Looking back I don't think I quite made it to Hafencity but some aspect of the neighboring area was surprisingly interesting. Speicherstadt made me think of Venice but with all multi-story modern red brick buildings housing large companies and attractions including an amusement park called Hamburg Dungeon. I had gotten on a wooden bridge to cross the water and found that the network of elevated wooden walkways continued onward covering several parallel avenues running up and down North to South as well as East to West. They didn’t seem particularly functional, but I thought it was very neat nevertheless. I watched the ships traversing the Elbe River and a public transit boat docking to a station.

Rest of the walk was more hurried. I was in search of a place to buy some large bottled water so that I would be better hydrated at the start of the social. This led me back to Rathausmakrt and then up to Hauptbahnhof and back in rain. It’s a big downtown shopping district, crowded and pleasant but nothing special. No doubt all visitors to Hamburg end up here so no reason to dwell on it. The walk back to Dammtor and the hotel was very wet too.

The account of the Saturday night after a short break.

Impressions Of Friday Night At Hamburg

July 18, 2008

The quality of social dancers attending this event is very high. It is pretty friendly too. In my experience the overall quality of followers probably was at least as high as any other Congresses I have attended to date and probably higher. Having said that, I found the overall enjoyable-ness of the evening as merely solid. As I feared, last week’s SOS was too good – so much so that this evening was a slight downgrade by comparison.

I think the two biggest factors for not pushing tonight into the beyond HC category were music and water. When I finished dinner (Café Paris), I realized that I was quite thirsty. I may simply not have drunk as much liquid as usual. Moreover, I did not drink more before heading over to the CCH for dancing. I ended up getting something like 5 drinks including a large bottle of water as the last resort, but I was dancing mildly dehydrated all night. Not good. Music was a little underwhelming also. Sometimes the DJs stayed with one type of music too long. There was two Bachata in a row and no other rest of the evening. There was a three Timba-tinged songs in a row at another point, and the later part of the evening was surprisingly Timba/Son heavy. There were plenty of heavy music but there were no Romantica.

Some songs played included the following: Ahora Si (Ismael Miranda) was played twice all night! I never heard this song played by anyone else before. Que Quiera Nina (Kako Y Totico) was a new one too. Aguanile (I stayed away from this one, but then again there was a even faster song later I ended up dancing On2 but without doing much partner work). Un Verano En New York, Don Goyo (El Gran Combo), something by the New Swing Sextet (?), Cuando Se Canta Bonita (Willie Rosario), something by Tabaco Y Ron (?), something by Oscar D’Leon (?), a version of Tiene Sabor. Some major artists ignored included Africando, Angel Canales, Bobby Valentin, Cal Tjader, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Frankie Dante, Frankie Ruiz, Fruko Y Sus Tesos, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Grupo Gale, Grupo Niche, Hector Lavoe, Hector Tricoche, Henry Fiol, Ismael Rivera, Javier Vazquez, Jimmy Bosch, Jimmy Sabater, Joe Arroyo, Johnny Colon, Johnny Pacheco, Jose Alberto, Larry Harlow, Lebron Brothers, Linda Leida, Machito, Manny Oquendo, Marvin Santiago, Marc Anthony, Orquesta Guayacan, Rey Reyes, Ray Barretto, Roberto Roena, Santiago Ceron, Son Boricua, Sonora Carruseles, Sonora Poncena, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Tito Rodriguez Jr, Tommy Olivencia, Tony Vega, Willie Colon. I’d have to venture to guess that some of the DJs might have been being a little too clever.

Dancing. The best ones were Cha Cha. It might have helped that the first one was with Edie and next several scattered Cha Cha were by far the most solid string of Cha Cha dances I pulled off. I think I was asked to dance Cha Cha two or three times by people I never saw before. In any case I consistently enjoyed Cha Cha more than On1 or On2 tonight. In most cases, I simply asked "On1?" rather than "On1 or On2?" assuming that people who really preferred On1 might be less likely to blurt out On2 with the former. For whatever its worth the On2 dances on average did not give me any better partners compared to On1 dances. Two somewhat long breaks were induced first by a fairly long series of dances finishing with some of the heaviest followers all night long and by aforementioned 3 Timba in a row.

Socializing. Not much during the party aside from chatting a few times with the Singaporean contingent – Justin and the second girl mostly, not Yanqing. I chatted a little with some of the London contingent as well – huge as expected.

I was there from around 11:30 (arriving just as Anne and Anichi were finishing the first half of the showcases) and stayed until around 4:30. Dancing was started relaxed and not trying hard at all and finished lackadaisical not wanting to spend too much energy because I had so little left.

The big surprise was Eddie Torres closing the showcase with nice social dancing. I rather liked it but it would have been better without the big crowd in front (i.e. better as accidental glimpse and having a prime view).

A Traveler's Tale

July 18, 2008

9:15 AM flight leaving from London City Airport meant no Salsa Thursday night. Alarm was set for 5:25-5:30 AM. I only started reviewing the trip in earnest ~7 PM previous night and was in bed shortly before 1:30 AM. I took the 6:15 AM train to London Kings Cross. This time I remembered that these early morning trains get very crowded as it collects more passengers along the way. Once in London, a diversion to London Bridge instead of Bank for DLR was recommended for the tube. I mistook Canary Wharf for Canning Town resulting in ~20 minute delay. No harm done though as I made it to the airport with barely under and hour before departure time. The extra time did give me time to remember that I probably had some Euros stacked away somewhere at home from some years ago.

I was relaxed because I knew that life is pretty simple at the London City Airport – compared to Stansted and especially to Heathrow. The fact that there was only one self-help booth open (second one was not working) for Lufthansa and that people in front of me were taking exceedingly long time was a little annoying, but really no problems. As I neared the gate, I made sure to check and see that no fuel was leaking from the engine of the airplane; I didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time I took a flight from this airport. A small turboprop plane operated by Contact Air for Lufthansa performed flawlessly. I had considered doing some writing or editing as well as reading the guidebook, but I ended up staying with Anabasis (Xenophon).

Hamburg airport was very efficient. No long walks. No long lines. I decided to take public transportation into downtown. I was slightly surprised that the bus from the airport to the nearly S-Bahn/U-Bahn station Ohlsdorf was part of the public transit system as opposed to a free shuttle service – this meant I bought the ticket at the bus stop without English instructions. This will all be obsolete in a few months because an extension of S-Bahn to the airport is scheduled to open later this year. I was tripped up for few minutes by there being a interruption to the U-Bahn service southbound from Ohlsdorf; their webpage without English translation was too much of a challenge for me to figure this out in advance previous night.

Two things really stood out while I was riding the S-Bahn S1 toward downtown. First was that I found Hamburg highly verdant. The place was full of trees! I don’t remember seeing any urban setting so heavily populated with trees one might expect only in real forests anywhere. Second was the size of the Bahn trains. The Hamburg trains are not sparkling new (no worse than NYC, about the same as some of the older London tube trains, definitely more worn than nice Boston or Portland subway or light rail services), but they have really high ceilings – higher than any urban rapid transit trains in American cities (let’s not even try to compare them to the London underground trains, which I think feels cramped and slightly claustrophobic even if they are sparsely occupied). Somewhat less striking was that the look of buildings (houses, etc) felt quite different even compared to other German cities I have visited previously – meaning Munich, Leipzig and Tubingen.

After changing from S1 to S31 at Hauptbahnhof and congratulating myself for making a rare correct split second decision in these travel-related regards. I decided to give myself a small challenge of finding my hotel without consulting a map or asking for help. I tried to recall the layout of the map and the satellite image. Then I determined the orientation (North-South etc) by using the direction I came from on the S-Bahn and using the tall SAS Radisson building, the shape of the Dammtor train station, the shape of the streets and the locations of the grassy area for confirmation of the map I had visualized in my head. I couldn’t use the sun because it was completely overcast, and I did not remember a single street name (or for that matter I couldn’t remember the complete name of the hotel). It was supposed to be a short walk – no more than 5 minutes. It started to rain. I was in the hotel lobby within 5 minutes. I thought it was pretty good considering I had not looked at the map since last night; in fact I had not touched the guidebook all day. I had seen a photo of the hotel exterior, but there was nothing particularly unique about it and there were no big signs of the hotel name.

After checking in and taking a moment for a breather, I ambled over to CCH no more than 5 minutes away. While I was waiting on the line I heard someone to my left saying “Hey.” I turned around and saw Mario H. How did I miss the big guy? I chatted a little with him while waiting. I looked around meanwhile and spotted rest of his gang – Shaan, Inaki among others. Franco (Steph’s friend from Berlin) was also hanging around with Mario’s group. I overheard Shaan saying something about someone’s timing being a little iffy. Not Eddie Torres. Mario chimed in, “Eddie is the best. Teacher of teachers.” Best teacher? No, best dancer too – still better than everyone else… including Frankie.” I simply nodded. Of course it makes a certain sense. Frankie for example looks great, but I could make something of the notion that his partner-work or turn patterns is not exactly groundbreaking unlike say his movements done apart from his partner.

Anyhow I should get back to the real world. Go sightseeing or get a more substantial rest. It’ll be a long night of dancing.

Prague Salsa Festival: one year later than originally intended

April 11, 2008 to April 14, 2008

Friday was a fabulous night – arguably the most enjoyable congress night all around for me since the first Britfest. I think the first Congress will always be the measuring stick - even though back then I was limited compared to now and every dance was essentially the same. I suppose I might think of the same of now with more experience years from now. Virtually everyone I danced with seemed enthusiastic and capable of more than just the basics. There were well over half dozen people I would have been happy to dance with over and over again. Very few people had ego issues – it was an exceedingly friendly and accomplished crowd. It felt ten times better than the UK Congress 2007 and hundred times better than the Madrid Festival 2007.

I liked the music when Lubi was DJing, but the other DJ Mauri for me was below average as a Congress DJ – I liked about 20-30% of his songs. I think Mauri was responsible for the 3-4 Timba, 3-4 Bachata, possibly most of the Cha Cha (which in principle is fine with me except I didn’t dance any) and virtually all of the more questionable selections all night Friday night. With Lubi, I’d say I liked around 80% of the songs - at least on Friday.

The songs from Friday included Cubanoson (Cubanoson), Don Anastacio (Javier Vazquez), Fuego En El 23 (La Sonora Poncena), Rumbon Melon (not Joey Pastrana but still good), Ublabadu (Fania All-Stars with Hector Lavoe), Alejate (Hector Lavoe), Tu Loco Loco Y Yo Tranquillo (Roberto Roena), Baila Que Baila (unknown artist), unknown Linda Leida song, Isla Del Encanto (unknown artist), unknown song with Marvin Santiago on vocals.

The lowlights especially for Friday were the shows, the MCs talking between shows and introducing teachers in two languages (mostly Neeraj and Michal the congress organizer with Mario taking over for Neeraj for the last part on Saturday). Among Friday shows, I enjoyed the Tango-Salsa one during the first session and the very last show with karaoke marching band. Sergio's opinion was about the same. For Saturday, I missed the first set of shows including the one done by the Oxford folks (Mark and Lisa of ConTambor were on the same flight as us both ways. I recognized them from pictures I've seen on the web, so I took my chance to strike a conversation with Mark at the baggage claim area in Prague. We constantly bumped into each other all weekend). While the Saturday performances seemed more polished compared to Friday, most did not engage me much. I found the routine done by Tamambo and Ania to be the nicest one to watch - beating out bigger names like Orville Small (heavily borrowing from Swing Guys), Hacha Y Machete (to the song of the same title) or Neeraj Maskara with a new partner. Surprise, surprise - it was completely unexpected even though I've seen both of them before separately; they may get a lot of mileage out of this new partnership. Sergio was looking forward to the performance by Jazzy and Amy because of her NYC connection so we got up from our chairs in the back to watch it only to give up after about half a minute finding it little more than a spin-fest. Sunday was essentially an amateur night for giving support and nurturing still nascent local Prague Salsa groups and was more notable for the comedy routine of sort done by Tamambo acting as the MC.

Not surprisingly I did not find many familiar faces on Friday. Aside from some of the teachers (Tamambo, Ania, Neeraj, Victor and Burju – no Mario tonight and same for Orville and Sabine) I recognized only two people from SOS including Monica from the LDA. Sergio said he spotted one more (usually wearing go-go boots but not here). Monica I danced with and I chatted briefly with Tamambo, who was here for the very first time as well and seemed to be trying to convince himself that tomorrow night is going to be much better (I told him that I found tonight fabulous). I saw Tamambo all three nights, and he mentioned to me that they have new floor at SOS – I’ve heard about this already and told him that I look forward to seeing it – as well as more speakers.

Maybe the novelty factor wore off. Perhaps it was slightly crowded for somewhat longer. Or my expectations were raised too high. Saturday on the whole was a lot less enjoyable for me compared to Friday. I suppose it could have been the music as well - Lubi did not play as much as he did on Friday.

The songs from Saturday included El Cantante (Hector Lavoe), Traicion (Roberto Roena), Debes Callar (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco), Ahora Quien (Marc Anthony), possibly Sabor Los Rumberos Nuevos (Angel Canales), Esto Es El Guaguanco (Cheo Feliciano), Guarare (Ray Barretto), Los Rumberos (Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante).

There were several more people I recognized on Saturday. The go-go-boots girl was there with the go-go boots - I guess she's not the same without it (and I certainly did not recognize her without it). There was another guy - I think I had spotted him before at SOS and at Coventry. Eva showed up - she recognized me and put two and two together while she was dancing with Sergio. Apparently Sergio saying that he liked Prague made her happy. I also bumped into Pavlina and Pierre - Pavlina is a Czech also. There was an ancient guy whom I have seen in a few different congresses in the UK - I think I once photographed him dancing with Zhenzhi. There was another girl I met somewhere - I don't know her name but we recognized each other and had a dance later. Mario also showed up late - he was very busy so nothing more than a hello there.

Of dances with new people, two people and dances stood out in positive light. Most others were disappointing for various reasons - not the least of reason being that I couldn't get quite a few of my partners to be more than disinterested even though I felt that the overall quality of my partners was probably lower than on Friday - somehow.

The first highlight was just before the last of the shows where I left my drink with Sergio to have a somewhat higher energy expenditure dance than I was looking for at that time but was quite good and ended up being arguably the best of the evening. Sergio commented that she was doing her super styling (I guess she might belong to one of the performance groups) and also that it was pretty good (or was it that I did pretty well? The distinction is not important to me in any case). For the next 3 hours or so, everything else paled in comparison.

Second was towards the end of the evening when I spotted a wisp of a girl I sitting and fanning herself with her hand and with a nice outfit (white tank top maybe and a patterned flared skirt to knee level in pastel color, which might be considered retro or conservative in Salsa setting or otherwise). By this time I had so many underwhelming dances and was quite tired, but I got an intuition that I would have a pleasant dance with her even if she were not much more than a beginner. She turned out to be much more than that and was in fact quite astonishing - the hijacks, quasi-backleads and amazing recoveries. Irresponsible - maybe it should be outlawed. It was a dance that left me shocked, satisfied and yearning for more - a little scary; I think I lost a sliver of what's left of my heart in Prague. Perhaps not surprising is that I was too stunned to make suitable compliment to her at the end of the dance. I looked for her on Sunday but no luck.

The Sunday party was at a different location; the first two nights were at the Congress Center next to Vysehrad metro station while the Sunday party was at Club Tropison on the 5th floor of KOTVA department store by Namesti Republiky metro station. The floor was considerably smaller - comparable to LeL in St. Ives but without the columns in for the wood floor and surrounding carpeted floor about 2/3 of LeL but with a lot more chairs and tables on the carpet and comparable to Bar Salsa in London in total area except that the wood floor portion is about the size of the dance area immediately next to the DJ booth or perhaps a little smaller and rest carpeted. In any case, a much smaller venue meant that the organizers were not selling tickets for Sunday only. Because the party pass sold out early, Sergio wasn't able to accompany me Sunday night.

Club Tropison was considerably warmer than the Congress Center. Combine it with my tired legs from all the walking on cobblestones and sightseeing during the day and constantly switching between wood floor and carpet for dancing, it was a bit of a struggle. Lubi seemingly played even less than he did on Saturday, and there were long Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton sessions lasting 6-8 songs. There was one non-Latin song thrown in as well (was it MC Hammer?). Despite all that I had a pretty good time.

Salsa songs from Sunday included Bomba Carambomba (Angel Canales), La Cura (Frankie Ruiz), Lluvia (Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz), Vagabundo (El Gran Combo),

A main reason why Sunday was better for me was better dance partners although one would think that it should be the other way around. It's nice to dance with people who look happy dancing with me. I could say that more than a few seemed appreciative, but perhaps that would be showing too much ego. I think I ended up dancing more than one night with only two people all weekend. Both obviously were enjoyable, and tonight's one was initiated by her. I think I was going to ask at some point - I had seen her several times after the first dance on Friday and always gave her a smile, but being asked instead made it even easier to get my confidence up and to get into just enjoying the dance with little pressure.

I left the Sunday party shortly before 2:30 so that I could get some sleep before the morning flight. We stayed til around 3:30 on Friday and til closing time at 4 on Saturday. Considering that I did not get much sleep Thursday before the flight, fatigue was certainly a big issue. No doubt it will take a few days to recover from this vacation.

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Miscellaneous quotes during the trip…

I think you can do pretty well with food here as long as you stay away from Prague food.

Maybe this is the Hunger Wall.

Did I mention that you are a delusional starving student?

33 to 1.

Trust me.

I think every one is here for smokes and free internet connection.

Size 24/34 jeans for men! (Diesel)

It's a Polish Salsa Congress. (although I think 80% Polish and 20% other is a gross exaggeration - I'd guess 40% Polish, 50% max)

Don't you recognize me? (from a random vagabond at Wenceslas Square)

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Trite observations…

Prague is very pretty.

There are a lot of dogs in Prague.

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Highlights of sights....

Prague Castle

Old Town Square with amazingly underwhelming Astronomical Clock

less obvious sights near Church of Our Lady Before Tyn (or Tyn Church for short) - Bric A Brac (tiny knick-knack shop), Valentyno (café-bar & accommodation - very well hidden with a pretty yard - great location 100 m from Old Town Square yet it seemed very quiet and peaceful - check www.valentyno.cz (apartments 1-3 only … 4 is at a different location) ... I think this is a kind of place that may look much better seen in person), a small gallery, which had a painting Sergio thought would be better without the bottom 1/3 of it).

St. James Church with a mad organist

St. Nicholas Church (both - with mistaken initial idea of the first one being kick-ass)

Jewish Museum (or failed "museum of an extinct race")

Vysehrad and nearby Cubist buildings in one hour

Hike up to the Hunger Wall

David Cerny sculptures

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Food…

Egg MacMuffins - in extreme moderation, it can hit the spot (airport)

Hostine U Tri Zlatych Trojek - cheap but with an unusual mandatory 15% gratuity

Czech Pub on Jecna near Lipova - 5 of 8 beers tasted were not worth finishing (it might have turned the tide against spending money on Czech cuisine too)

Daily Market - according to Sergio good apple (from South America, I think)

V Zatisi - about being a delusional starving student … although sans lunch

Pizza takeout at 4:30 AM - enough said

Dahab - everyone was on hookah

Café Tonino Lamborghini - random chance tiramisu held up well against V Zatisi

Sausage stands lining Wenceslas square - can feel it in your stomach for a very long time

Start of another travelogue

April 11, 2008

For those wondering where I have wandered off to, I'm visiting Prague for sightseeing and Prague Salsa Festival 2008.

The internet connection here is not exactly conducive to blogging so a full write-up may have to wait until I get back to the UK.

One news of note (or more appropriately non-news) is that the travelling from Cambridge to Prague went without a hitch (aside from lack of sleep due to having to get up at 3:40 AM to start the journey). No problems whatsoever! Very unusual! Maybe it's just the luck of my travelling companion.

More to be revealed later...

Salsa in Washington DC - Clavekazi Social / Stuck on Salsa / DC Salsa Meetup

January 5, 2008

No Salsa for 2 weeks! Blame it on illness. I was hospitalized for more than three days and was bedridden for considerably longer. The hospital was never able to tell me why I was sick. Among other things, I had to cancel a planned trip to New York.

It could have been more interesting. Had I stayed at the hospital for another three days, I would have been in a middle of a shooting – some convict overpowered five police officers, took two guns, fired several shots before escaping from my floor. He died seven hours later in a shootout in a cemetery.

In some ways it has been the dullest vacation ever. During the first 16 days, I have been outside only three times – unless I count 4 days at the hospital. Because I was so unused to the outside world, it felt very strange going out the door and driving to the Clavekazi dance studio.

I arrived shortly after 10 and walked in with several other people who arrived at around the same time and parked their car next to mine - everyone had somewhat unusual names (Margarita, Vishal, etc). The cover was $8 with discount for making RSVP via DC Salsa Meetup group – well over 200 people made reservation through the Meetup group, and total number of people must have been 300-500.

There were two rooms, both larger than wood floor space at LeL. One room played a mix of music – I glanced at the room a few times but never stayed. The other room was pretty much all Salsa except two Bachata over the course of nearly 5 hours.

One of the biggest surprises was running into Kristina – Mimi’s friend. She came to visit Shaka with another Swedish friend. They were planning on catching Jimmy’s social tomorrow. It was a nice photo opportunity – for evidence’s sake.

On the whole the calibre of dancers were considerably higher than at the Cecilia’s two weeks ago. However, I failed to spot very many really good dancers – I don’t think I saw Shaka dance, and I had difficult time spotting anyone as being an obvious local star. I’d rate the event as being similar to SOS with possibly slightly higher proportion of mid-upper level people but without very many who would be considered a cut above. I think it must have been better than SOS because I was still dancing with mostly new people after 4 hours.

My dancing form was okay but not great. For the first hour, I really didn’t feel like myself – I felt like I was having an out-of-body dancing kind of experience. I’m guessing I hadn’t completely recovered. The feeling of disorientation remained for quite a long time.

It was difficult to figure out how I was rated by people there. Some people must have thought was I was alright and acted impressed. There were some who seemed a little bored although everyone was at the very least polite. I was asked for dance by about half dozen people who seemed to have looked before.

I didn’t feel I had a great pure lead-follow connection with anyone – in any case no one knocked me out in that regards. There were some I really enjoyed dancing with and had a great all-around connection, but those involved very little turn patterns. Generally the dances I enjoyed had more focus on flirting rather than flashiness. The best were with two dances with a stunner named Kim from Virginia Beach.

This could be just my imagination, but I got a feeling that not a few people were considering the event as fairly minor event – big for DC but considering everything outside of New York as second rate. It really would have been nice to check out the New York scene. Oh well. Another time.

The end of the party was a little odd – more of a fizzle than a bang. A clearer indication of when the party will end would have been nice. I finally spotted Michelle Reyes (a friend of Sergio's) near the end - well after 2 AM. However, I did not get around to talking or dancing with her.

It was raining when the party was over. One of the girls I danced with earlier were limping and was being helped by one of her friends to the car. I recognized the limping girl as someone I recall meeting at the SOS party couple of years ago (I think her name is Christina), and her friend apparently was Karen Aguilar - an instructor type although I don't think I danced with her and she made little impression on me during the party.