Le Tango around the World!

and it did with a bang…. in the last 10 days, I have been on 4 different continents!! not bad. I was in America, then Europe, when I was in Istanbul… the European and then Asian side… and now in Africa! My start as a world traveller!! well, at least continuation.

I arrived in Istanbul on the 17th. Ozhan and Serkan were there to meet me… I had planned this trip for a while, wanting to go back there to see them and because when I was there about 5 years ago, I feel in love with it. On top of it, there was a small tango weekend organized with Eugenia and Ezequiel.

So, after the boys picked me up and we went to pick up Ezequiel and Eugenia to have dinner on a boat on the Bosphorus!!! We picked up fresh veggies, fresh fish on the way, cooked them and then went on for a short boat ride, watching the sunset over Istanbul! It was fabulous, the view amazing, the company quite delightful.

Then off to the milonga. So, here it is, I had that great memory of the tango in Istanbul from when I was there 5 years ago. It was great, good level of dancing, great locations, nice people…. so, I was kind of anxious to see what would happen this time, looking around to see if I recognized familiar faces and wondering how much I would dance. This was the opening milonga of the tango weekend, in a place called Patika. It is the regular thursday milonga organized by Aydin from tangoist.com. Lots of people showed up that night as they wanted to meet Ezequiel and Eugenia. When I looked around, I couldn’t really recognize people, but one guy I had met in Sitges a couple of years ago. So, we danced and of course I danced with Ozhan and Serkan. great way of starting my stay in Istanbul! Then a funny thing happens…. I danced with Aydin, the organizer of the milonga, and then I thought to myself… I know him, I have danced with him before!!!… so I started wondering where I could have met him…eh eh eh it was in buenos Aires in December! We were at Practica X and we danced for a tanda or so! I couldn’t recognize him when I saw him… but the dancing, I did remember! funny.

So, then the workshops started on Friday evening, many people in the classes and great instruction from Eze and Euge. and we went on from classes, to milongas, to classes, to food to milongas etc etc!! usual tango weekend… that I did not have to organize! eh eh eh
Then I started to meet some of the people I had know from my former life as a Baila Tango instructor (the Metin Yazir tango schoo), it was nice to see them again after so long.

Monday we sent everybody home and I could start my vacation in Istanbul!!! but then on Wednesday I got so sick that I couldn’t do anything anymore… I had wanted to go to a Hammam, visit the mosques, have a good look around istanbul, go on the bosphorus etc… and I couldn’t do anything! Just the sight of food made me dizzy!!! and of course, all got better on Saturday… when I had to leave on Monday!!!

Now I am at the airport of Johanesburg. I am on my way to Mozambique where I’ll be organizing a meeting for work.
I’ll be posting some pictures soon too!!

anso