Notes from Spain started slowly in March 2005, and since then, according to this wonderful WordPress blogging software, there have been 736 posts and 5,582 comments, with, I hope, plenty more to come!
Many many (many!) thanks to all of you who keep reading and joining in. Without the encouragement, feedback, and occasional abuse, we would probably have stopped long ago!
It never rains in Cordoba. At least that’s what my friend Alistair and I thought when we took 24 hours out of Madrid to photograph the Semana Santa processions there this Easter Wednesday.
By 11pm that night, we were exhausted and soaking wet, having spent the entire day running around town only to discover that there was no way the vigines and accompanying processions were leaving the churches in a little bit of rain. We asked a barman what we’d done to deserve such bad luck. ‘Bueno,’ he said, ‘It’s rained here on Easter Wednesday for the last four years.’
Great. Easter dates change every year, yet it always manages to rain on that Wednesday, Miercoles Santo. Still, there was plenty to photograph – disappointed, damp Cordobans primarily…
… and the odd happy few that were sensible enough to stay in the bars…
For more Cordoba-Easter-Rain street photos from our damp, yet still immensely enjoyable 24 hours in Cordoba, check out my photos on Flickr, and more great images here, from my fellow photographer Alistair.
This post is inspired by the extraordinary discovery that the above photo, of the simple Sandwich Mixto, is the most viewed image in my Flickr Stream.
So here’s the question: You walk into a Spanish bar wanting a quick, satisfying, base food fix, something more that than the free tapa that comes with your beer. Maybe it’s eleven o’clock and you need a calorie boost, or something to take the edge off your hangover. What’s it to be?
Mine’s a Sandwich Mixto, two grilled slices of slightly oily toast, with cheap ham and cheese in the middle. The Spanish equivalent of a bacon butty. Can’t beat it. What would you order in similar circumstances?
Updates: On the coast this is often called a ‘Bikini’ – see comments. Plus, Chris from Spanish Sauce has the full Sandwich Mixto / Bikini recipe here!
This post forms part of an ongoing series about running an online business in Spain. If that is something that might interest you, read on!
Nowadays a lot of people including, I suppose, myself, are touting the dream of a live-anywhere, internet-based income. You know, the idea that you can chill out by the beach, check your email once a week, and watch the cash role in.
The reality is obviously a little bit tougher than that. Not only do you have to find an online business idea that works, you then have to lovingly pay attention to it, full time, for a very long time. Still, it beats having to commute to work every day, and yes, you can live by a nice Spanish beach if you want to!
Hurray! I’ve been looking for this for ages, and now regular NFS commenter Parubin has found it! Here’s his great comment, from an earlier post, in full:
“@ Sandy : “Is there any website we can see a list of smoking and non-smoking establishments in Spain?”
There is : http://www.nofumadores.org/
In the horizontal Menu Bar select ‘Ocio Sin Humos’ and then ‘Buscador’ (or better you can have this website in English, by clicking on the British flag select ‘Free-Smoke Enterteinment’ and then ‘Search’).
Then you can choose between ‘Bares y Cafeterías’, ‘Restaurantes’ and ‘Discotecas y Pubs’ narrowing your search by city, town or postal code.
It is the owners of the venues who choose to join the lists of this website, so I’d say there are more places than those listed there.
As an example, in Madrid city there are listed :
– 139 bares y cafeterías.
– 297 restaurantes
– and only just 1 pub?? 😦”
Thanks to Sandy for the quesion, and Parubin for the link we’ve all been waiting for. Shame there are no non-smoking bars or restaurants listed in my corner of Madrid!
OK, so that isn’t a very unbiased headline, but there is something so unappealing about the Partido Popular these days, that I really didn’t want them to crawl their way back into power again.
For deep analysis of the voting, see the BBC, or the front page of any major Spanish news site (El Mundo has pretty charts). Suffice is to say that although the PSOE once again failed to get an absolute majority, they did better than last time.
One final word, then no more politics on this blog for some time:
What I’d like to see the PSOE do over the next 4 years
– Find a new approach to the internal terrorism problem, and solve it once and for all
– Improve the lot of, and respect for, immigrants
– Find a way to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse when the construction trade tumbles
– Ban smoking in bars and restaurants, in line with so many other western European countries
What would you add to the list?
Spain has cancelled campaigning ahead of Sunday’s general election after the murder of a former councillor from the ruling Socialist Party.
Can someone with more political insight than me please comment below on how this is likely to affect election results?
Last post on the impending elections before the big day. By the way, did you know that the Spanish vote in local schools? All the classrooms become voting stations – I always go along with Marina as it provides a glimpse into a little bit of a Spain past that I obviously don’t have. Perhaps this weekend I can get some photos.
Talking to my Spanish mother-in-law the other day, she mentioned a friend, a female, middle class, 60-something friend, who declared they would be voting for the Partido Popular – ‘por lo de la inmigracion’ (because of all the immigration).
Now this is a sad, and very likely widespread, state of affairs. There is a sector of the Spanish population that is going to vote for the previously ousted right-wingers because they don’t like the scale of immigration they’ve seen over the past 4 years.
The press has to take a lot of the blame for this, reporting with glee any crime that has anything to do with anyone that isn’t 100% Spanish.
But it does show an unbelievable shortsightedness on the part of people that are taking this stand point. I’m willing to bet that most of them have cleaners from Ecuador, or have friends with grandchildren being looked after by a girl from the Dominican Repulic, or Peru. The tomatoes in their salad were likely harvested by Moroccans working in horrendous conditions in Almeria, long after all the Spaniards became the boss, or were able to go off and earn far more in Madrid. And who do they think is going to be paying their pension? Taxes from the Spanish alone couldn’t take the burden.
P.S. For those that enjoyed/want to relive the recent great debates between Rajoy and ZP, you can now download all of ZP’s famous charts from the PSOE website. Click here to download what they’re calling ‘The White Book’ pdf – aka whopping propaganda machine, allegedly light on real facts and heavy on artful invention. Be warned: it’s pretty dull, though some of the charts are kinda pretty 🙂
Warning! If you think this online business stuff may not interest you, you are probably right – why not go and read about Spanish Presidential Candidates’ sex lives or browse our forum instead!
Still here? OK, as mentioned recently, I want to write occasionally about running an on-line business in Spain… or beyond. But some people may wonder what on earth I know about that?! (I often do!)
I built my first website in 2004, a site called booksonspain.com, which reviewed, wait for it, books on Spain. Every book had an affiliate link to Amazon, and I thought I’d soon be a very rich man as everyone jumped from my new site to Amazon, spending loads of money there and giving me the resulting affiliate commissions. I think I made about 100 dollars in the year or two the site was running.
My favourite online trash news site 20minutos.com had some thrilling election news today that I shall happily copy here for our general amusement (they did the same for me a while back, after all).
According to their front page article, beardy Mr Rajoy, leader of the aging and hopefully doomed-again-this-time-round Partido Popular, is unable to find time for sex in the two week campaign leading up to the general election next Sunday, March 9th. (That’s right, friends from America, the campaign here lasts just two weeks! Imagine that!) Zapatero, on the other hand, like naughty footballers before a big match, sees sex in the lead up to the big day as perfectly possible.
More thrilling tidbits from the article include:
How often do the candidates shower at the moment?
Rajoy: Once a day
ZP: Twice a day
How much do they sleep at night?
Rajoy: 7.5 hours
ZP: 6.5 hours
Who chooses their clothes?
Zapatero: Himself
Rajoy: His wife gives him a hand
Who prays?
Rajoy: Before bed every night
ZP: Nope
So, who would you vote for? The lazy religious beardy guy who sleeps more, washes less, doesn’t like nooky, and can’t dress himself in the morning? Or the sporty clean guy, who won’t let an election get in the way of the finer things in life?
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 
