Posted by Chris Showers on August 20th, 2009.
 Cars parked outside the blue lines… is this a way for Spaniards to rebel against the parking police? I took this “aerial shot” from the living room window of my apartment (I live on the fourth floor). I wanted to share it with you because, as you can see, there are four cars parked along the street and, to my disbelief, none of them are actually parked within the blue lines the way they should be. But don’t take my word for it — click on the picture above to see the larger version and judge for yourself just how “off the mark” each car is.
No matter what time of day it is or how many cars are parked along my street, none of them ever use the blue lines. In fact, I am looking out the window right now and see over 20 cars parked everywhere but within the blue lines. When I see this, I can’t help but wonder why and how it happens. In the USA, it’s pretty unlikely that you would regularly see cars parked like this for the simple fact that they’d be fined almost immediately for taking up more than one space.
So, here’s something for us to debate in this post. Why do you think that “park jobs” in Spain are so “unique?” Are Spaniards in Burgos starting a non-conformist parking movement? Is this a way for them to rebel against meter maids everywhere? Maybe it just boils down to a different way of looking at the world? Leave your opinion below. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 20th, 2009.
 I never tire of walking past the Cathedral of Burgos on a sunny day. Here in Burgos, we are lucky enough to have a Gothic-style cathedral known as the “Cathedral of Burgos” (unique name, right?). Construction on the cathedral began way back in the year 1221 and the marvelous building has been standing ever since then. As far as Spanish cathedrals go, this one is actually a bit on the famous side and, during the summer months, tourists flock to see it.
You know, I have been living in Burgos for about a year now, have walked past this cathedral hundreds of times, and have made numerous visits to see its interior. Still, I can’t help but stop and admire it every time I walk by. When I think of the age of the building and the fact that its ornate artwork had to have been done by hand, I simply can’t help but be impressed — and believe me, the building is impressive both inside and out. I guess having it here is just another “perk” of living in Burgos.
For those of you who are interested, you can visit the interior of the cathedral any day of the week (the times vary by season). If you’re going to be in Burgos either the second or fourth Sunday of the month, you can enter the cathedral for free after 4:00 PM; otherwise, entrance costs four or five Euros. The visit includes seeing the actual cathedral itself and a walk through a small museum that explains how the building was originally built and later restored. Continue reading this post…
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 8th, 2009.
As some of you know already, I’m currently in the USA visiting my family. My time in the USA is coming to an end and over the next few days I will be packing and leaving again for Spain. As a result of my travels, the blog may be a little empty for a day or two. I’ll be sure to post something new next week once I’ve returned to Burgos. If you’d like something to read in the meantime, check out the category archives on the left hand sidebar or the tag archives on the right hand sidebar and be sure to leave me some comments! Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 4th, 2009.
 Bicibur bikes in their docking station, just waiting for someone to take them for a ride! Here’s a pretty cool idea that the Spanish Government came up with to both cut back on car pollution and keep people healthy at the same time: bicycle renting. Basically, bike “docking stations” like the one pictured above are starting to crop up all over Spanish cities. The idea is that a user can go to a docking station, swipe his ID card, and take a city-owned bike out for a ride. When the user is done with the bike, he can return it to any docking station in the city, eliminating the need to use a car to get from point A to point B.
Burgos recently implemented one of these systems (under the name “Bicibur”) and I think it’s actually a pretty ingenious idea. The cost of renting the bikes is really low — about two Euros for an ID card that unlocks the bikes and can be used for life – and the bike docking stations are pretty well-located within the city to allow users to pick up a bike at one location, drive it to their destination, and just leave it there without necessarily having to return it to its original location. In short, I’m pretty impressed with the program.
Still, I do see one small problem, at least in Burgos. Here, the bikes are really old and a tad on the crappy side. They generally work to get you from one side of the city to the other, but they don’t seem to be very well maintained. I suppose it’s too early to tell if the city is going to let the bikes deteriorate even more or step up and make repairs.
Another slight problem with this system is that I don’t usually see too many people using it (at least not here in Burgos). That leads me to something that we can debate in this post’s comments: if your city had a program like this one, would you use it? Why or why not? Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 2nd, 2009.
In this edition of Spanish Sunday, I would like to explain the meaning of an expression used constantly by Spaniards: qué va. It’s actually a really useful little expression used to strongly say “no” to something. Loosely translated, you could say that qué va means something along the lines of “no way.” Let’s look at this expression in a sample dialogue:
Random Spaniard: Chris, ¿tienes miedo de algo? (Chris, are you afraid of something?)
Me: ¿Miedo? ¡Qué va! Soy un hombre valiente y no tengo miedo de nada. (Afraid? No way! I’m a brave guy and I’m not afraid of anything.) Continue reading this post…
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