On Thursday night, Pau, his girlfriend and my new English student Silvia and I ventured to Sa Riera Park in Palma to sample the annual and now worldwide festivity that is Oktoberfest. After having spent the previous Thursday night hanging around with two Germans I felt compelled to further embrace their culture plus it was a great chance to see a bit more of the city. After taking the short 5-minute bike ride from where we live in the North of the City, me on Marta's bike, we descended upon this celebration of Germanic brilliance situated in the much more modern yet still pleasant Sa Riera park on the banks of the Torrent de Sa Riera. A large marquee had been set up in the style of a German Beerhall, a kin to what you may find across the Bavaria region of Southern Germany, with long wooden tables, waitresses and others dressed in traditional German lederhosens, long wooden tables, large barrels of Paulaner beer and a live band playing various well known rock songs as well as traditional Oktoberfest jingles and chants. As we entered to the sight of various Spaniards sat at the long tables drinking beer, the lederhosen clad brigade of waitresses and the rock band playing Abba I couldn't help but feel uber-European! Pau, Silvia and I ordered a fine hog roast with chips and Bratwurst sausages with large Steins filled to the brim with Paulaner German Beer coming to a total cost of 17 euros each which we happily consumed whilst chatting amongst ourselves and admiring the whole spectacle around us. The band were a very good and very european cover band with two blond female singers, lead guitarist/lead singer, a bass player, keyboard player and drummer who certainly didn't look like they were from anywhere near the Balearic Islands. They played all the classic rock/pop songs such as Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water (my Dad would approve of this), Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry and Rockin' All Over The World by Status Quo and the lead singer/guitarist got to into it that he jumped down off the stage and continued to play the rest of the set stood on the tables along with the various drunk Spaniards who'd been getting into the Oktoberfest spirit. We left Sa Riera park with full bellies and in good spirits after what had been a very entertaining night. I definitely need to go to Munich sometime to truly celebrate and appreciate an actual Oktoberfest in Germany so I shall be adding that to the long list of places I wish to visit.
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| Oktoberfest is in town |
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| Pau and I with our Steins, Das Ist Wunderbar! |
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| The lead guitarist of the band playing Old Time Rock And Roll by Bob Seger on one of the tables |
It was no surprise that after cycling back up the hill and home wearing chinos in the sweltering 28 degree night heat that I was rather sweaty and needed to find a way to cool off. I don't know whether it was due to the fairly substantial amount of beer I'd consumed that night or just natural eccentricity but I made a spontaneous decision to try out another new experience: Nightswimming! Once back at the flat, I quickly changed into my Speedos and grabbed my camera and iPod then headed to the Swimming Pool that is at the heart of the apartment complex. I had a little moment to myself where I took some cool shots of the pool whilst listening to the song Nightswimming by REM on my iPod. I'd never truly appreciated that song until then with the cloudless still night sky and the blue illuminations from the pool bouncing off the walls of the complex. I did a quick 200 metres or so of swimming to admire the way the pool looked underwater, seeing my hulking black shadow reflected in the lights and feeling the waves I'd created bouncing off the walls. As a keen swimmer this was something I definitely had to try at some point during my life and boy it didn't disappoint. A weirdly nice moment.
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| Nightswimming, it really does deserve a quite night |
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| Proof I actually went swimming |
On Friday night I headed off with Marta, Aina and Aina's parents to a music concert in Porreres, a small town in the centre of the island. The concert was organised by Plataforma Crida to honour all the teachers who had been working hard during the strike over the TIL legislation. It all took place in the park in the middle of Porreres which was rather small with minimal features however it was jam packed with people wearing the customary green t-shirts and there was a real buzz about the place. There was large open stage set up at the end of the park upon which various local and semi-famous groups played what Marta described as 'Verbena style music'-what they would listen to at one of the popular summer parties that are held across the island- basically simple happy music to get people in the party mood. We met up with Josep, Pau and Silvia there and Josep spent much of the night offering me lots of beer so that I wouldn't play well in the Fathers vs Young guys football match the following day. With all the live music, Spanish people, the natural greenery of the park, the flashes of lightning and rain, the many cups of beer being drunk and the strong smell of weed lingering in the air, I couldn't help but think back to my summer venture to Bilbao BBK Live festival except this time I didn't know a single song being played or what they were singing about! The final band of the night was a Spanish scar band and a favourite of Josep's who he'd seen various time so we really got into it. We were jumping and dancing all over the place throwing all kinds of shapes and I did a few standard Madness moves a la my friend Luke Fern would do. Overall, a great night of partying in which the Mallorcans proved to me that they can still have fun even when it's not the summer.
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| Pictures from the concert in Porerres |
Saturday was the day of the big football match between the Fathers (los Padres) and the Young guys (los Jóvenes) at the Poli in Sa Pobla. 'The Fathers' ,as Josep refers to them, are a friendship group of Marta and Josep's who all meet up with all their familys about once every two months for a day to catch up and spend some good quality time together and on the agenda today was football. Josep along with 4 other Fathers were one team and on the Young guys team was myself, Pau, one of the fathers called Pedro and two of Pau's friends. As the match kicked off we were missing a player as Jordi (one of Pau's friends) was late so we spent much of the game outnumbered which despite my 2 opening goals giving us a 2-1 lead proved to be detrimental as we were so tired from having to chase down their one man advantage that we ended up losing 11-9 although I did have a goal controversially disallowed as it rolled along the goal line- let's just say FIFA approved goal-line technology was definitely needed for this one. Like most amateur football matches it was a game of gaffs, goals and casualties of which I was one when I managed to fall over the ball in a tackle and land smack on my arse leaving a plum sized bruise. I promise you, landing on your arse whether metaphorically or physically is never cool and it hurts every-time I sit down now. The game ended when one of the fathers managed to do a me and fall over the ball except he was less fortunate than myself as he managed to crack his head on the hard surface causing him to go and get stitches so the match was abruptly ended. Although we lost, the last time I played football was the night before I went away to Leeds festival so I was glad to be back playing again. We later had lunch where I was introduced to a local dish literary called 'Dirty Rice', a grey-ish looking stew with rice (of course), bits of meat and some kind of seafood, which went down a treat. We then hung around the Poli for the rest of the afternoon talking and occasionally playing with the kids whilst sipping on our Gin & Tonics, the favourite alcoholic beverage amongst the group. Part of the day was spent planning a hiking trip up one of the many mountains on the island which should be happening about mid-November time so I should have something to tell you about that in the future. That night we headed into the centre of Sa Pobla where there was a traditional balero dancing event in aid of a local Alzheimers charity. There lots of cheap local food with each item costing a euro each so I had lots of Spanish omelette whilst watching the dancers do there stuff.
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| Los Jóvenes 5-a-side team after our grueling 11-9 defeat to Los Padres |
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| Bolero dancers in Sa Pobla, I apologise for the poor picture quality! |
Sunday was a lazy day for me as I was battered and bruised from the previous day's football match so I updated myself with the goings on on the internet whilst watching my beloved Norwich City play valiantly but ultimately succumb to 2 late Chelsea goals to lose 3-1. Some friends of Marta and Josep's came round for a bit so the kids forced me to play an impromptu concert for everyone in which I was able to sample the great acoustic the house in Alcúdia had to offer. Marta and Josep were so impressed that they are insisting that I play for the whole family at the Poli sometime. Looks like I've got a gig! The kids and even the parents now go singing the songs I play for them around the house which is really amusing (especially hearing a 7 year old trying to sing along to Breezeblocks by Alt-J but having no idea what 98% of the words are) and really appreciated even though pretty much all of them aren't even my own songs. I feel like a modern day Clement Mathieu from Les Choristes or Maria Von Trapp from the Sound Of Music-well a guy version anyway.
Just before I finished my last post, I had a Skype session with my parents and brother Ethan last Wednesday. We both caught each other up on what had be going on in our respective areas of the world and Mum told me how Ethan had secretly been missing me and had been playing recordings of me singing from my soundcloud page on the speakers at home! I must say I was surprised to hear this as he didn't seem very heartbroken when we said goodbye to each other at the airport before I came out here. Anyway, the important news is that they should be coming over for a long weekend over October half-term so I expect to see them in the flesh in just a matter of weeks.
I don't have a great deal planned yet for the upcoming days so maybe within the next week or so I will have a post about my regular routine presuming the strike is resolved. The strike is currently on a ceasefire so the kids are back in school actually learning but I doubt that's the last we've heard of it.
Anyway, I should probably stop rambling now, ciao for now!
FP
#FraserOnTour
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| FOOD OF THE WEEK: 'Dirty Rice' for lunch at the Poli |
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