Spanish Flare

I finally got to see one of those things I never thought I would. Flamenco dancing in Spain. It was truly one of the coolest things I've seen in Europe. It was one of those things that words can't describe, so I'll let you enjoy the pictures.






















If you want to see more pics and some video clips, click the link below.

Flamenco Dancing

That's no Easter Bunny

Please read before you look at the pictures!!!!!!!

Easter in Zaragoza. The strong religious faith of this country really shows itself at this time of year. As a bunch of Americans here in Spain during the holy week preceding Easter, most of us had no idea how the Spaniards celebrate this holiday.

I think I first heard the drums on Tuesday night around 2100 (9pm for you civilian types). Beating drums that sounded like they were just down the street. "What the hell?", I thought. My roommate and I looked out the window to the dark street below and saw nothing unusual, but still heard the drumming, and it was getting louder.

It sounded like marching drums like what we always used to march to in basic military training. "BOOM!" BOOM!" "BOOM!" We headed downstairs to the hotel lobby.

There were handfuls of people here and there and standing outside on the street. We walked out the door and into the warm breezy night. Down the street by the old church, the Iglesia de Santiago, we saw what it was all about.

Pointed hoods. Hundreds of them. Beating drums. Marching down the street into the church. To an American growing up in the south, this sort of sight sent fear and hate running through you. But of course, thankfully that's not what this was. This is how the Spanish celebrate their most important holiday...

Even though there were lots of people in the streets watching, nobody made any noise. The only sound was the sound of the drums. When they stopped playing the drums, you could hear other drums from another procession happening across town.

As the marchers past by, you could tell that there were all kinds of people under those hoods. Men, women and children.

Every night at 9pm you could hear the drums start beating in the streets. Each night, the hoods were different colors. Each color represents a different church, a different station of the cross, or something like that.

Every procession carries a big float that represents a moment from the life of Jesus.

Some of the marchers carried burning incense, filling the street with its scent.

Some processions had many colors represented. As the week went on, the processions got bigger and bigger. By Thursday night, this procession lasted over an hour.

Even though, we all knew this wasn't about the Klan or racism in any way, it was still a pretty crazy thing to see.

Zaragoza Air Base, April 2006

One of the coolest things about these temporary duty assignments is that they let us Comm guys get a little closer to the action than normal.

These top two pictures were taken at the air traffic control tower here on the base. You can see the F-16s sitting on the runway getting ready for takeoff...

I took the third picture while I was riding in a truck that was towing this F-16 after it had gone through some engine testing. And the last one is me on one of my "days off", when I came in to work. Sometimes it seems like there's a lot of those...

Pictures from Zaragoza

Now that things have finally settled down here at work in Zaragoza, we've found a little time to relax and enjoy some of the finer points of Spanish life.




Walking around the town is one of the nicest things to do.

We've been lucky enough to have wonderful weather for most of the time we've been here. It's a little chilly in the mornings but it gets nice and warm in the afternoon.




This city is full of little plazas, parks, fountains, and sidewalk cafes.






Zaragoza is the perfect city for sitting outside and having a snack or a drink.







Most of the buildings in the town are not as old as buildings in Italy. But you still see some old castles and castles here and there.





More pics to come later...

A Weekend in Spain... Sort of

Have you been busy lately? I have!

The last few days have been filled with non-stop work. Finally Sunday comes and we get a day off! After 3 full days of 12-14 hours of work that start at 6:30 am, it sure feels good to sleep as late as you want and not have anything to do all day. All I really want to do is rest and take it easy.

That being said, we still made time to go out and check out the scene at night. Zaragoza is full of life after dark. There are all kinds of people out enjoying the restaurants, bars, and pubs. At midnight you could see a group of old ladies sitting in a tapas bar drinking a bottle of wine, a mom and dad walking with their children eating ice cream, a group of twenty-somethings on their way to a disco... Almost everything stays open late, but I'm not sure how late because we're usually too exhausted to stay and find out!

Being in Spain really makes me realize how much Italian I know. The languages are similar but not that similar. In Italy I can order food, ask for things, and generally get around without much language trouble. But since I've been here everything is more of a struggle. Almost nobody here speaks English. I wish I would have paid more attention when I was a kid and my mom would yell at me in Spanish!

So Monday its back to work. Maybe for my next post, I'll actually have a weekend to speak of...