MilesAstray | Spain
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essays | places


Spain

passionate siesta

 

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Sacromonte, Granada / Spain · 2017  siesta fiesta

  

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   The Spain I know is fire blood and juice of life, a passionate siesta and an eternal strum. That Spain is must-less but heavy on potential, slow vehemence, a kiss with a slap. My Spain is as deep as Friday wine, as unencumbered as first love, as old as never-ending nostalgia.

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a glimpse

Sofa and chair in the outdoors at Sacromonte Hill in Granada, Spain

 
passages   WHEN WE ARE | Come graze with us on this silky autumn air, feed off its slowly cooling warmth, sinking late tonight with all the colors making out. Now that the night leaks into the valley, it flushes atomic pulp down our collective arteries and waves of chills ripple through the marrow. And we slingshot our dreams into the firmament to never land, as we, too, never land while a flock of feelings soars deep inside our selves. We’re nimble, lean but full, a full filling of passion for passion dripping from our pores. Drowsy drifters slashing their own sails, we wake up to a dream life, the world our living room, an entire universe for a ceiling, our jest fest uninterrupted on this phantom stage. When we are, everything is.
 

A religious procession in Granada, Spain

 
passages   ROI | Devotion takes our all: love, time, hope, trust, strength, will. In return we get one thing: the thing we believe in.



 

 
passages   IN IT TOGETHER | Statistically speaking 56.97 % of these people didn’t cast a vote during the 2017 referendum on Catalan independence, 92.01 % of the rest were in favor, 7.99 % against. Some of them are revolutionaries, others moderate bystanders. And yet, looking at this subway car, I see all of them in it together. In something even bigger than politics. In life. This scene is testament to an everyday life normality that cushioned Catalonians from political unrest while they carried on ordinarily with their individual existences between societal lines, where the quintessence of our human experience dwells. It depicts people’s agency to go on with their lives into whichever direction, regardless of the political course and discourse.


 

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Arona, Tenerife / Spain · 2016   settling for nothing less



 

 
Arona, Tenerife / Spain · 2016   a night drenched in light



 

Houses on cliffs in Ronda, Spain

They built it right on the cliffs' edge, and I can't see any sound reason for that but love.
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Ronda / Spain · 2018   cozying up to the view

Sea, tree, cement, all in agreement of their respective place, for now.
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Malaga / Spain · 2018   blazing coast

Coastal panorama in Malaga, Spain
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Tenerife / Spain · 2016   day in the sun
 

 

 

 

 

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places / stories

Barcelona / Revolution in the Air, But Where?

people carry on ordinarily while the political stage is in flames 

 

...yet, between these societal lines, where the quintessence of our life as human beings dwells, our situation remains largely the same, despite political turmoil...

 

 

 

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Ronda / Que Onda

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Ronda / Spain · 2018   bridging cliffs



 

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Ronda / Spain · 2018   closer



 

La Ronda, que onda, so quiet this cliffhanger.



 

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Ronda / Spain · 2018   messy symmetry



 

 
Ronda / Spain · 2018   firm frame



 

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Seville/ Enamorarse de Si Mismo

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Seville / Spain · 2017   market melody



 

Cleaning the streets of Seville, Spain at night

Dans une ville comme Séville, quiero enamorarme de mi mismo.

 
Seville / Spain · 2017   imperfect alter ego



 

People riding bikes in the streets of Seville, Spain at night

 
Seville / Spain · 2017   night ride



 

Two business men in the streets of Seville, Spain at night

 
Seville / Spain · 2017   it's just business



 

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Malaga / Something There

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Malaga / Spain · 2018   cycle of death



 

Nature and houses in Malaga, Spain

 
Malaga / Spain · 2018   eating the balance



 

Tourists looking out from a fortification in Malaga, Spain

 
Malaga / Spain · 2018   something to see



 

A gateway to Andalusia, Malaga is easy to skip, but there’s something there.



 

Dry canal in Malaga, Spain

 
Malaga / Spain · 2018   gone river



 

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Granada / Cure for Random Rationales

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Granada / Spain · 2018   vice versa



 

 
Granada / Spain · 2018   sitting at the sky's edge



 

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Granada / Spain · 2018   vantage room



 

 
Granada / Spain · 2018   evergreen wall



 

True rumor has it that you have it all, Granada, and then some. A soothing hiccup. Punks drinking with padres, hippies passing torches to hipsters, cave dwellers in wine cellars. The odor of Chanel and medieval gutter, fancy avenue tales subsiding in forest trails, water and mountains, snow and fire. Up on a lean hill, sore seats with smelly colors, rocky luxury of the cozy outdoors. A painless painkiller to cure random rationales. A forgiving sin.



 

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Granada / Spain · 2017   Don't stop dreaming when you wake up!



 

 
Granada / Spain · 2017   temporary permanence



 

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Granada / Spain · 2017   happy whenever he is



 

 
Granada / Spain · 2017   backseat mirror



 

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Granada / Spain · 2017   caver



 

 
Granada / Spain · 2017   front curtain



 

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Granada / Spain · 2017   the night is a fortress



 

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Granada / Spain · 2018   sames



 

 
Granada / Spain · 2018   moon speck



 

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Granada / Spain · 2018   nature in C minor



 

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Tenerife / A Smoothie of Tannery and Reef

Village nestled in the cliffs of Tenerife, Spain

 
Tenerife / Spain · 2016   snake road



 

Tenerife sounds like a smoothie of tannery and reef, and it is that too, in a not too inaccurate sense, if you just bend those ever so malleable words with a firm mind. Follow me in, you'll see.



 

A skater in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

 
Tenerife / Spain · 2016   pink skater



 

An old couple in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

 
Tenerife / Spain · 2016   line walk



 

Food and music in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

 
Tenerife / Spain · 2016   food and mood



 

Tennis court in Tenerife, Spain

 
Tenerife / Spain · 2016   score



 

It’s easy to write Tenerife off as an open-air bunker for German and British sandalists, tanning their sausage legs in the unobstructed sun of Los Christianos until they are crispy leather; but Tenerife is so much more – so much more tourism; and even non-tourism. Hike up that big volcano little backpacker trekker. Have some mountain villages, culture clubbers, some with name fame like Masca, or maybe one with just a name, like Arona. Get your wines on, winos and whinos! Get your kites up and likes up, Insta-athletes!



 

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Tenerife / Spain · 2016   bleeding ocean



 

Forest and mist in Tenerife, Spain

 
Tenerife / Spain · 2016   drifting iterations



 

A colorful mix of creatures in every crack of this rugged lava island where it is always spring – much like a reef. I told you. 




 

 

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elsewhere

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