Now this is perfect for ex-pats like me, or for anyone with family living abroad.
The VoipBuster! is a bit like Skype, not as good yet for general use, but it does have one major advantage – free calls to landlines in many countries, including Spain, the UK and the US, once you have paid a minimum 1 Euro subscription.
Seems amazing but it really works – you pay a Euro and talk for free for as long as you want. How do they do this?
Bizarre statistic. According to El Pais the Spanish are the biggest Cocaine consumers in the world, just ahead of the Americans. And they seem like such a sensible lot…
El Mundo reports that the USA has requested petroleum, food and medical equipment be sent from Spain to help in relief efforts in areas struck by Hurricane Katrina.
Wow, things must be a lot worse than I thought when the world’s no. one has to request help from a country that doesn’t even make it into the G8.
It seems to me this crisis is being totally mismanaged. Perhaps the most rousing attack I have heard was by the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, in a radio interview. This is a must-listen piece of audio. Click here to listen.
I would be very interested in any comments on the situation from American readers of this blog. Use the comments link below to let me know what you think. Thanks. I really hope they get this sorted out ASAP.
A tour of Formentera, the small Balaeric paradise island just below Ibiza. Really worth a visit, even now in the un-crowded high season…
Hmmm… that sounds like a title from a book… Anyway, we are on holiday on a small island near Ibiza, surrounded by white sandy beaches and swimming pool seas… Tomorrow we head for 5 days in the UK, from where we hope to upload the latest podcast (back in English again this time), and our whereabouts now will be fully revealed!
Right, back to the beach! Hasta luego!
By popular demand… Marina and Ben bring you a Notes from Spain podcast in Spanish. For all you non-Spanish speakers out there, don’t worry, we’ll be back in English again next time (in about ten days, when we’re back from our holidays…)
Show notes:
It’s very common for anyone who lives in Madrid and has enough money to have a house up in the hills to the north of Madrid, in the ‘Sierra’. Madrileños will always talk about ‘mi pueblo’, the village they usually retreat to at weekends. In the case of my in-laws, the exodus is more permanent in summer, when they move up there for the 3 hottest months of the year. Sierra temperatures are a few degrees cooler and the air is fresher.
When I first met my wife I found it hard to spend whole days up in the ‘pueblo’ – the constant barrage of high speed Spanish was exhausting, a headache-inducing, non-stop, high-level listening exam. But that was long ago, and long before I accepted the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” line of thought… So, once again, I’m joining the hoardes that take to the hills every weekend. Hasta luego!
P.S. (a lo mejor grabamos un podcast en español este fin de… )
31 Million tourists in Spain between January and July this year. No prizes for guessing what the country’s major industry is then… I wonder how that compares to France?
The photo at the top of the page is of a Moorish castle on the Almerian coast, in the Cabo de Gata National Park – one of the dryest, wildest, stoniest, most scorpion-infested and beautiful parts of the coast of Spain.
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 