Tack Sverige, från Aisha & Victor!

Our first Tango Tour in Sweden was a smashing success! While packing our suitcases to leave this wonderful country, we want to say: THANK YOU, SWEDEN for an unforgettable spring-summer and autumn 2007! Even though Sweden was only one out of 10 countries we will have visited on this tango tour, we are proud to say we have spend ALMOST 3 MONTHS AROUND! And the reason is the fact, that we LOVE THIS COUNTRY and wanted to explore its diversity, landscapes and tango communities more! Accompanied by the poetry of an Argentinean bard, we started our tango travels…

Sigue por Suecia la cosa,

abajo del mar del Norte,

una quebrada y un corte,

el gringo y su “mariposa”

Ella, tan diva y tan diosa

en brazos de su tanguero,

por florecidos senderos

de un verde casi salvaje,

yirando de viaje en viaje,

con pasaporte extranjero.

Sweden welcomed us with juicy green and bright yellow of raps fields in Skåne- as each year, Skåne is our home base and we have a great tango family in Malmö, Helsingborg, Halmstad, Trelleborg, Höllviken….Lots of tango classes and shows but also familiar faces and invitations for dinners. May tango is the best in Skåne! It got very exciting in SMÅLAND, end of May, where we first saw the moose signs, tried the delicious moose meat and found a nice group of tango friends in KALMAR and the towns around. We could feel Astrid Lindgren' s spirit :Pippi Långstrump and the children of Bullerbyn! The weather was always accompanying us, inducing to the garden parties in those houses in the middle of the woods! Kalmar-Öland was the place which we double visited with tango- thus, had a chance to see its charm end of May and end of August- both times great weather…Anyway, nobody will convince us anymore that it is cold and full of mosquitoes in Norrland! SOLLEFTEA , SUNDSVALL and HÄRNÖSAND were full of sun and enthusiasm for tango and exotic milongas, like the one in fäbod of Ramsås! We became brave norrlänningar, going through the test of surströming in Solleftea, and as if it was not enough we were offered a surströmingsost in Härnösand! We tought them tango-they have taught us how to drink snaps and sing Helan går. It was where we first danced bugg and polska! Lots of good tango and fun were had there, but us, intrepid tango travellers were heading more and more north , towards the midnight sun ( tango)! We have danced in most extravagant sceneries, like the medieval castles or on the ice of Russian river, but we have never experienced dancing tangos during the night with the bright sun on! We found out the PITEÅ-Luleå-Umeå-Haparanda tango dancers have so much energies during the summer and we have given more tango workshops and performances there than anywhere else in the world so far- during this extensive week! Our tango friends in Piteå are so enthusiastic that it was there that we were made to dance Carmencita by Taube, to the choir singing of the whole tango community… And, we are booked for next year ( Swedish organisation!) As our tango roads were always leading to Skåne, we had a chance to participate more in tango life here: we were surprised how full our agenda could be. Let’s have a look at one week’s calendar: Wednesday a show at the best milonga in Malmö at ‘ Carlitos’, Thursday and Friday- our tango for the Kristianstad days, then dancing in Beddingestrand to the guitar of Steeve Grahn and accordeon of Tord Sölvesson even to Cornelius Vreeswijk songs, Saturday-tango party and milonga in Vinslöv in Tangotellet, Sunday-tango barbecue party in Beddinge, Monday- a show in Smygehus Havsbad and so on. Now, it is Skåne which is waving us good bye as we we are leaving to Switzlerland and Spain, a couple of weeks before landing in our home, Buenos Aires. However, we do not want to say ADIOS to Sweden, we are only saying ‘ Hasta la vista’. Many of our students and friends from Sweden will visit us in Buenos Aires before.

The tango dancing will go on…

Que nombres, Madonna mía,

los arrabales de Suecia,

ni la memoria más recia

manya su cartografía.

“Yo soy un hombre sencillo,

de donde crece la grama”,

bailo tango en Tangorama

y después, ¡Santa resaca!

juntito con la polaca,

a no dormir en la cama.