Posted by Chris Showers on August 16th, 2009.
After a lovely five-week vacation in the USA to see friends and family, I’m now back in Spain and hopefully will be back to writing entries as normal on the blog. It’s funny when you first return to a country after being away for a while – often times you notice things you hadn’t noticed before. On this re-entry to Spain, one of the things that I noticed is what I like to call the “sidewalk shuffle.”
You see, here in Spain there is a very large aged population and, since returning, I’ve come to realize that, well, old people are everywhere. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; however, it does present a certain problem when you are trying to make your way down a sidewalk.
Imagine the following. You are late for an important appointment. You go out of your house to the street below and being walking hurriedly to your destination. All of a sudden, you come across a row of very old “señoras” sprawled shoulder to shoulder across the entire width of the sidewalk, walking at a snail’s pace, and happily gossiping with each other. They’re pretty much oblivious to the fact that you would like to get past them or that you even exist. You try to pass them on the right and somehow they drift in that direction. You then try to pass them on the left and they drift that direction too. You can’t get around them, they’re taking up the entire sidewalk, and you’re worried about arriving late to your appointment. You’re doing the sidewalk shuffle.
I guess this is just something that happens in Spain… nobody is ever in much of a hurry to get anywhere. Maybe it goes with the more relaxed lifestyle that, culturally, most English speakers aren’t as used to. In any event, I’m back in Spain and back to doing some shuffling when I walk down the sidewalk. A guiri has to do what a guiri has to do to get around in the city, I guess. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 1st, 2009.
 The Burgos tourist train chugging along. I don’t know if this is exactly what Quad City DJs had in mind when they created the song “C’mon Ride the Train” back in the mid-1990s. It’s the Burgos “choo choo” tourist train and, for a small fee, it will take you to the most important monuments in the city of Burgos for your sightseeing pleasure.
I still remember the first time I saw this unique creation creeping along the streets of Burgos at a whopping 5 miles per hour. I was just walking along the sidewalk — minding my own business — when I suddenly looked up and my eyes laid upon it for the first time, a thing of beauty: the choo choo train. You know, it’s not every day that you see a motorized, wheeled train chugging down the street, obeying traffic rules, and generally running without a train track; thus, my first reaction was to chuckle a little. After the initial chuckle, I looked inside the train and saw all the tourists — cameras in hand – comfortably seated in the “passenger compartment” and I chuckled a bit more.
Obviously, after seeing the tourist train, I just had to ride it. A few days after the initial “sighting,” I got together a group of my friends and we had at it. The ride lasted about 45 minutes and it passed by all the most historic places in Burgos. The train came complete with an overhead loudspeaker which explained all aspects of the ride to the passengers: where the train was headed, what we were currently passing, etc. To my surprise, the ride wasn’t that bad. Of course, I don’t know if I’d rely on the Burgos tourist train to get me to Madrid (I suppose Renfe is better for that), but I guess it isn’t bad if you’re a tourist who wants to see the most important parts of the city. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on July 22nd, 2009.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in a dance club in Burgos and suddenly the DJ began to blast that famous song sung by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the film “Grease” — you know, the one whose lyrics say ”you’re the one that I want.” When I first heard the song come on, I couldn’t figure out why the DJ had chosen it. After all, it’s not exactly the most “current” or “best to dance to” song on the market. At least that’s what I thought. Apparently, I was wrong.
As soon as the song started pumping from the speakers in the club, all the Spaniards formed a line and began to dance in sync — with choreographed movements and beautiful timing — just as if they were actually living in the movie. That’s right, they danced just like Danny and Sandy in the movie, complete with the wavy hand movements and the “ooo, ooo, oooooo, honey” lyrics. What was really surprising to me was the fact that most of the Spaniards were even able to mutter out the chorus in English (with pronunciation that, well, more or less resembled English).
Now, this entire spectacle left me quite perplexed. After all, it’s not every day that you see a bunch of Spaniards suddenly form a line and dance as if they were performing an off-Broadway musical right in the middle of the discoteca. What’s even more surprising is that the “song of choice” happened to be from an American film as opposed to a Spanish one. So, since I was so stricken by this whole affair, I began to do some research by asking my Spanish friends what they knew about the film “Grease.” I came to find out that, in Spain, “Grease” is a true classic and most Spaniards have watched the film numerous times. Pretty surprising considering that most Americans have probably only seen the film once (at least I think that most Americans have only seen the film once — it doesn’t seem too popular in the USA to me).
In any event, I’d like to get down to the bottom of this whole “Grease Popularity” issue and I need your help. Please post your own opinion about the movie “Grease” in the comments of this post. It would also help if you posted the country you are from and the number of times that you have seen this film. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on June 6th, 2009.
 A diver emerges from the water after exploration of the Pozo Azul in Covanera. On my recent excursion to the Cañón del Ebro, one of the stops that I made was in the village of Covanera, located just outside of the city of Burgos, at a place called the Pozo Azul. Basically, the Pozo Azul is a bluish colored karst spring that has a submerged cave underneath it. Indeed, the cave below the surface of the water is said to be the longest submerged cave in all of Spain.
The Pozo Azul is quite famous in Spain amongst cave divers and, to my surprise, a diver ”appeared” from the blue depths after I had been at the location for about five minutes or so and I was able to snap a picture as he made his way out of the water. Once he got out, he told me and my travel companions that several of his fellow divers were still beneath the surface wrapping up their exploration mission and that diving in this location is not uncommon. He also explained a little bit about this history of the area and said that the bluish color is due to the way the sun reflects off the surface of the water and the rocks.
I thought it was really cool to actually be able to see and talk with one of the cave divers who frequent the area and learn a little more about the history of this karst spring. It’s also pretty interesting to think that they began exploring the cave in 1964 and still to this day there are unexplored areas. I would definitely recommend a trip to Covanera if you’re ever in the Burgos area. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on June 4th, 2009.
I just made a quick trip to the supermarket to buy a few items: bread, milk, potato chips, lunch meat, and chocolate bars. When I got to the checkout counter and paid the cashier, she returned my change and handed me what I like to call my “grocery bag ration” for the day, which for today’s purchase consisted of just one bag.
Now, I’m not trying to complain, but getting everything into one measly little plastic bag is a little tricky when you have a mixture of fragile and non-fragile items to carry home. For instance, in today’s purchase I had items that could be squashed (bread and chips) and items that could do the squashing (large, heavy boxes of milk). Why couldn’t the cashier have given me just one more bag? After all, she surely saw that with just one bag I was struggling to get all my items “jammed” inside without smashing anything.
This is a trend that I see in virtually every supermarket that I visit in Spain. In fact, no matter what store I go to, it’s always the cashier who keeps the bags stashed away behind the counter –almost like a hidden treasure– only to be handed out sparingly. In the USA, when you bag your own groceries at a store you usually have full access to all the plastic bags you want… here in Spain, however, the bags are rationed and you have to “sweet talk” the cashier to get more than your daily ”allotment.”
I understand that giving people less bags can cut down on costs for the store and that less plastic can save resources and help the environment. Yet still, I sometimes think that they go a little “too far” here with the whole “bag rationing” thing. Of course, that’s just my opinion. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 19th, 2009.
 Nothing like some spaghetti sauce from a box rather than a jar. Yum! Ever since arriving in Spain in September, I have been eating my spaghetti without sauce. I would put butter on it, or maybe some cheese, but never spaghetti sauce. Why? Here in Spain spaghetti sauce is only sold in boxes – not in jars — and until recently I just couldn’t bring myself to eat “fried tomato” from a cardboard box. In the USA when you want to have some sauce with your spaghetti, you buy a little Ragú in a jar and have at it. For the longest time, I just couldn’t comprehend how “cardboard box sauce” could be the same.
Anyway, things have changed now. I finally got tired of eating my spaghetti dry and bought a box of “fried tomato” at the supermarket down the street. As you can see in the above photo, the box came complete with a picture of a tomato on the front (for us foreigners to easily recognize it) and there was even an “easy open top.” Continue reading this post…
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