The last week of my stay in Madrid has started and it is not really a stay in Madrid anymore, as I am writing this blog by the sea, with the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks in the background. A little further down there is a small rocky beach, where new friends are sunbathing, and in the shade of some pine trees – where I am sitting – there is a 90-metre highline that crosses the beach and connects with another pine tree on the other side. In this last week of my stay I am floating in a Slacklife bubble, which consists of being outside, moving around a lot and travelling by van. All this is making me want to spend more time in Spain and discover the whole country travelling from one place to another, always looking for gaps in the landscape that are waiting to be connected by loose lines.
Last Friday I finished my second bike frame just in time for Fang, who has become a good friend of mine, to take both frames I made at the Escuela Técnica de Bicicleta home with her. Then I said goodbye to Ron, my classmate, and Alex, my very empathetic welding and metalworking teacher, and went to Alcorcón to pick up the rest of my stuff. After forcing the zip of my large suitcase and with my backpack full, I said goodbye to Olga, my host during the last month, and her daughter Lara and went to Fang’s house to pack for a week of adventures. The next day we picked up Cristina, who was the first person to contact me through the Slackline group, and set off for Cogollos, a village near Granada, overlooking the Sierra Nevada and the city. There we spent two days of fiesta, Highline and lots of AcroYoga, enjoying the high temperatures of southern Spain and falling into the simultaneously physical and relaxed pace of life of living in a van and spending the whole day outside.
From Cogollos we took Ali, a girl from South Tyrol who is a friend of Cristina’s, and went into Granada, where we did a day of sightseeing, taking advantage of Ali’s shared flat to shower and store our things outside the van. We looked at the historic centre with its narrow streets, had some beers and tapas and watched the sunset from the highest viewpoint overlooking the city and the Alhambra. The next day we went down to the beach where we are now, rigged the Highline and now we are staying here for a few days to recover some energy after the first intense days of the adventure. And this Slacklife rhythm makes me very happy. However, I can’t go on like this for long, because next Sunday I’m off to Catalonia to visit my grandmother and then back home to Switzerland, which I’m also looking forward to. But for the time being I remain with the sound of the waves and the movement of webbing under my feet.
