No Thanks to Rich Pav for bringing me the best blonde joke ever. I guess everyone in the blogosphere has heard it by now.
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Author: Ben
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V-logging, video-casting…
Just what is it called? Anyway, having asked you many times if we should be videocasting or not I’m still no closer to doing anything about it. However, check out this v-cast from David Shuff’s hitchhiking trip across Northern Japan. Inspiring stuff. This is the sort of thing I’d like to try to produce one day…
Technorati Tags: video
We’re back! It was about time for another in the original Notes from Spain series – thwarted in our attempts to get to Asturias for the weekend, we bring you another delicious cooking cast – this time it’s ‘Pisto’, the wonderful vegetable stew served with eggs and bread.
Plus we discuss whether or not the Spanish deserve their fame for being lazy, and whether or not this is truly a liberal country these days.
Something I’d like to add: a couple of times in the podcast I mention that Spain was different when I arrived 7 years ago. Don’t worry, everyone said the same to me when I arrived – Spain is always being accused by ex-pats as having been better when they first arrived. But worry not, it’s still just as magical as it was when I first got here, come and have a look some time!
The recipe: Chop up 1 corgette/zucchini, 2 green peppers, 1 red pepper, and 2 onions, and fry in olive oil until tender (about 15 mins). Add 1 large tin of tomatoes, salt, a bay leaf and a sprinkle of oregano. Cook for 15 more mins. Fry an egg and place on top to serve. Tastes even beeter after a day in the fridge!
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A classic work of anthropology by a classic travel writer. In the 1950’s the village of Farol in Catalonia is inhabited by leather-fearing fisherman and stray cats. Life centres around a feud with the dog village, and worries about the non-arrival of the tuna shoals. Then a black-marketeer arrives with designs on bringing tourism to the doomed beaches of Farol, and a thousand years of subsistence fishing are wiped out in a flash. It’s just lucky that Lewis produced this vivid documentary before it was too late. Pick up a copy at: Amazon.co.uk (Europe)  Amazon.com (USA)  |
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Hi, if this is your first stop by Notes from Spain, then here are a few of our favourite podcasts to get you going!
How about starting with a night out in the tapas bars of San Sebastian, or a journey down the fjords of Galicia’s Rias Baixas coast. Want a step by step lesson in Tortilla making perfection? How about listening to live Flamenco in Madrid?
The full Notes from Spain archive can be found here, and details of our latest, new Spanish language podcast ‘Notes in Spanish’, here. This weekend we are off to the wilds of Asturias, so expect a couple of great new travel casts for Notes from Spain as soon as we get back.
Finally, please feel free to contact us with any feedback or ideas. Thanks! Ben and Marina.
I started listening to the great Lonely Planet podcasts a while ago, and thought I would write to them about Notes from Spain when they requested input from listeners. And guess what? The Gastronomic Society podcast has been included in their program! Check out their ‘travelcasts’ list here.
Thanks to John at LP, Steve, Nerea and family in Zarautz, and you lot for listening, and keeping Notes from Spain going with all the encouraging feedback over the months. More next week from the North Coast!
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Palabras del Dia
My palabra del día today has to be ‘traducción’: I’ll be in front of the computer all day tackling some of the most boring translations known to man – insurance and commercial contracts, and building specs. Still, all from the comfort of my own home, so ‘no me puedo quejar…’ too much.
Meanwhile, check out tenuous connections, an interesting blog that has many a palabra del día and quite a few ideas on learning Spanish.
3 big stories from this weekend, all amazing in their own right:
1 – General Jose Mena was placed under house arrest after insinuating that, under the terms of the Constitution, the army would have to intervene if Catalan’s are granted greater autonomy. Shades of the attempted 23-F military coup in 1981?
2 – A man was shot dead in Seville, receiving nine bullets to the head, after hitting a girl with his car. The girl, a member of a gypsy family, survived with only minor injuries. The 64 year old got out of his car to help as soon as he hit the child, but several members of her family jumped out of vans parked nearby and began shooting. Four people have been arrested so far, but no-one has been formally accused of the crime.
3 – 176 people died on Spain’s roads this Christmas, from December 23rd to January 8th, 39 more than last year’s total for the same period. The CEA (European Automobile Commission) has blamed a soft approach to road safety advertising, black-spots on minor roads, and a lack of regard for the dangers of drink driving.
Technorati Tags: driving, accidents, roads, spain, shooting, Catalan, gypsy, news
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Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises
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Pamplona has a lot to thank Hemingway for, or not, depending on your point of view. The wild fiestas he depicts in this book have become known all over the world as San Fermines, and every year thousands of foreigners join the locals to be trampled under-foot in the dawn running of the bulls. Essential reading for the Spain fan, the Hemingway fan, or anyone heading to Pamplona for the fiestas this July. Pick up a copy at: Amazon.co.uk (Europe)  Amazon.com (USA)  |
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On January 5th every year the Madrid Metro fills with parents holding their children in one hand, and a step ladder in the other. How else are the kids going to see over the heads of all those greedy adults, that also come down for the thousands of free sweets tossed from the floats in the passing ‘Cabalgata’ procession? Led by the ‘Reyes Magos’, or three kings, this traditional parade of open-bed lorries and tractor trailers heralds the end of the exhausting Christmas marathon, a succession of ever-more important family feasts, endured every year on the 24th, 25th, 31st, 1st, and ending at last, today, on January 6th.
Today is ‘Reyes‘, when Christmas presents are traditionally exchanged all over Spain, and the whole country has the day off. An uncharacteristic calm has settled on the rainy city. The shopping is over, there’s a park-anywhere rule as relatives pour in from the provinces and stick their cars down the centre lines of the streets, on pavements – no towing or tickets today. And there’s a palpable sense of relief. At last, with all the celebrations under our belt, perhaps we can get back to our run-of-the-mill, hectic city life.
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 