It was getting dark as I left my hostel. A few metres from where the Beatles played their first gig abroad, a man dressed as a pirate was singing let it be and accompanying himself on a guitar. Friday night on the Reeperbahn was just getting started....
A Tale of Two Milongas
I’d been travelling for a month, during which I’d been to eight tango events, all of them by myself, but for some reason I was nervous about Singapore. This was to be my first time at a tango festival and I didn’t know anyone attending. I didn’t even know anyone in Singapore. It was my first time here. When planning my trip a few months ago, I was researching...
A class, a practica, a milonga: two nights in Melbourne
Within hours of arriving, I was on my way to my first tango class since I started this trip. Melbourne, like Sydney, seems to have tango events nearly every night of the week and I wanted to make the most of the 48 hours that I had there....
Dancing Tango in Hobart
Apparently I was staying in a remote part of Hobart. The driver of the airport shuttle reluctantly agreed to drop me off, but said I’d have to get my return pick up from one of the hotels in the centre. We don’t normally come out this way. The tour guide who picked me up two days later said it was the first time in his career that he’d picked...
Tango come rain, hail or shine
That blue sky is deceptive… One of the first things I did when I arrived in Sydney was to go shopping. For warm clothes. The changeable early Spring weather reminds me a bit of home and not in a good way. After a week in the Northern Territory I have to say that day time temperatures of 12 °C come as a bit of a shock. So it took...
Tango at the Top End
“This is number 13,” the taxi driver insisted as I stared dubiously at the building from which no light was emerging. He very kindly agreed to wait while I went to investigate. The first door I came to was locked. I went around the corner to the next door and looked inside. No dance floor, no tango music, but what seemed to be an office. Luckily there was still...
You’re never too tired to tango
My first full day in Bangkok and I spent it walking, boating and tuk-tuking through the heat, the downpours, the crowds and the chaos of this fascinating city. In true first-time tourist style, I also fell for a minor scam, but that is, perhaps, a story for another day. I got back to my hotel around 6pm, weary, legs aching, headache starting. Was I coming down with something? Maybe a...