Now, it’s not at all a [...]]]> I’ve noticed something since returning to Spain a couple of weeks ago: everyone is gone.  What do I mean by that?  It’s simple, really: August is “vacation” month in Spain and lots (and I do mean lots) of Spaniards go to the beach, the “pueblo,” or another country during this month. 

Now, it’s not at all a bad thing that Spaniards leave in August, but I kind of wish they didn’t have to close down entire stores for the duration of their absence.  It’s a little inconvenient to walk down the street to your favorite bakery and find a sign on the door that says that they have closed up shop for the whole month of August due to vacations.  Of course, I guess everyone — even the baker — needs to get away and relax a little, right?  Speaking of relaxation for the baker, I wonder how the owners of little “mom and pop” stores in the USA go on vacation?  You never see shops closed there. 

Here’s a little something fun for this August “vacation” post.  How about if everybody who reads this writes a comment about their most recent and/or most memorable trip?  I’d be interested in hearing about the great places that you’ve visited and the corners of the world that you’ve found yourself in.  Leave me a message below.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

My regular readers know that, over the last couple weeks, I have been writing a mini-series on the 2009 Burgos Festivals – the biggest party of the year in the city of Burgos.  To finish up the mini-series, I thought it [...]]]>

A garbage can brims over as the Burgos Festivals come to an end.

My regular readers know that, over the last couple weeks, I have been writing a mini-series on the 2009 Burgos Festivals – the biggest party of the year in the city of Burgos.  To finish up the mini-series, I thought it would be appropriate to write this post about the tons of garbage that were produced (and needed to be cleaned up) as a result of the massive partying during festival week. 

For those of you who have never been to Spain before, let me tell you that Spaniards are known to party hard until the wee hours of the night and all this partying can sometimes leave behind “trace evidence” in the form of empty food containers, bottles, etc.  Judging from the amount of garbage in the container pictured above, the recent festival week in Burgos was no exception to the general “party all night long” rule.  Still, despite all the partying, we have to give the Spaniards credit for always cleaning up their mess afterwards.  Just take a look at the picture below to see what I mean.

A massive army of street cleaners goes down the road just after the Burgos Festivals Parade had finished passing by.

This picture of a massive “cleaning brigade” that followed the Burgos Festivals Parade stands as proof that Spaniards ”clean things up” just about as fervently as they party.  In fact, that’s something that I love about Spain: no matter what city you are in, there’s always somebody cleaning the streets and sidewalks to keep things looking good.  Here, being a sidewalk cleaner is a full-time, paid position for many broom-and-dustpan-clad workers.  In the States you’re sure to see someone cleaning things up a bit if you go to a bigger city; but trust me, it’s not to the same level as it is here in Spain.  At least that’s what I think. 

This post is part of a mini-series about the 2009 Burgos Festivals.  To read about other aspects of the Burgos Fiestas, check out my Burgos Fiestas 2009 page.  You may also be interested in checking out my Fiesta Photos on Picasa.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

I thought I would upload this short video to give you a look at one of the fireworks displays during the recent Festivals of Burgos.  There were fireworks every night for an entire week during the celebration and I was pretty impressed with the quality of the shows.  Of course, I should let you [...]]]>

I thought I would upload this short video to give you a look at one of the fireworks displays during the recent Festivals of Burgos.  There were fireworks every night for an entire week during the celebration and I was pretty impressed with the quality of the shows.  Of course, I should let you decide on the show quality for yourself after viewing the video. 

If you’re having trouble seeing the above video, you might want to look at it on YouTube.  You may also be interested in viewing my other YouTube videos. 

This post is part of a mini-series about the 2009 Burgos Festivals.  To read about other aspects of the Burgos Fiestas, check out my Burgos Fiestas 2009 page.  You may also be interested in checking out my Fiesta Photos on Picasa.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

The fiestas of Burgos wouldn’t be complete without a parade — and there was a gigantic parade about halfway through the festival week that included clowns, street performers, marching bands, dancers, and even [...]]]>

Members of a peña march in the parade with their instruments. The interesting thing was how these people kept themselves hydrated.

The fiestas of Burgos wouldn’t be complete without a parade — and there was a gigantic parade about halfway through the festival week that included clowns, street performers, marching bands, dancers, and even giant inflatable floats like the dragon one pictured below.  For the most part, the parade in Burgos was basically the same as any parade that I’m used to seeing in the USA; however, there was one slight difference in “hydration techniques,” so to speak. 

A giant dragon float passes by during the Burgos Festival Parade.

You see, in Burgos there are special groups called “peñas,” which are basically social groups (almost like a club) that sponsor the festivals and march in the parade.  The truth is that these people spend all year planning for the festivals of Burgos and prepare special songs, floats, and marches for the big parade.  These people also, however, like to drink wine — red wine to be exact.  As a result of their “strong interest” in wine, they actually use it to keep themselves hydrated while they’re marching in the parade. 

That’s right, in Spain (at least in this parade) you won’t find someone with a water bottle walking along with the marching bands to keep the musicians hydrated as is typically done in the States; instead, you’ll find someone walking along with a little “jug” of red wine.  When a band member feels as though he is becoming dehydrated — or losing his buzz — he just calls over the “official hydration person” and takes a small sip of wine.  I thought this little fact was pretty interesting since in the USA it’s usually the parade spectators who are a little buzzed during the festivities and not the actual parade participants. 

Of course, I don’t want to be misunderstood here.  The parade was not a bunch of drunks running around playing the tuba.  In fact, I did not see anyone “drunk off their rocker,” so to speak.  Still, it did appear to me that the music of the various bands formed by these peñas was a little bit “happier” than what it might have been had red wine not been the hydration fluid of choice. 

This post is part of a mini-series about the 2009 Burgos Festivals.  To read about other aspects of the Burgos Fiestas, check out my Burgos Fiestas 2009 page.  You may also be interested in checking out my Fiesta Photos on Picasa.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

Spaniards love to eat.  That was something that was reflected by the tapas stands set up throughout the city for the recent festivals of Burgos.  For those of you who don’t know what a “tapa” is, it’s basically a bite-sized portion of food served on a plate and usually [...]]]>

Spaniards enjoy an outdoor tapas booth during the festival.

Spaniards love to eat.  That was something that was reflected by the tapas stands set up throughout the city for the recent festivals of Burgos.  For those of you who don’t know what a “tapa” is, it’s basically a bite-sized portion of food served on a plate and usually accompanied by a small glass of wine or a cold draft.  Most of the time, you get tapas in bars; however, during the festivals of Burgos, stands like the one pictured above were placed all over the city streets and the bars served their tapas outside from these stands all week long. 

For me, having these stands on the street during the festivals gave people a really great chance to socialize.  Spaniards, of course, never spent too much time at any one stand; instead, they went from stand to stand to sample the wide variety of tapas.  As they were moving from stand to stand and sampling the wide array of “goodies” to eat, they ran into old friends and met new people.  It was really a great thing.  In fact, I loved the whole “tapas on the street” atmosphere during last week’s festival — I went with my friends to try the foods from the various bars and ran into a lot of people that I knew along the way and got to “catch up” with them.  Good food and good friends, what more could you ask for? 

For this post, I’d like to ask that you comment about your favorite tapa or Spanish food in general.  We’ll have to see if we can come up with one definitive “favorite” from Spain (I personally think coming up with one favorite will be hard to do).  

This post is part of a mini-series about the 2009 Burgos Festivals.  To read about other aspects of the Burgos Fiestas, check out my Burgos Fiestas 2009 page.  You also may be interested in checking out my Fiesta Photos on Picasa. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

I really wish that I had had a bunch of balloons to sell during these past festivals in Burgos.  If I had sold balloons, I probably could have made enough money to retire right now at the ripe old [...]]]>

A man stands on the street with his mountainous pile of balloons for sale.

I really wish that I had had a bunch of balloons to sell during these past festivals in Burgos.  If I had sold balloons, I probably could have made enough money to retire right now at the ripe old age of 24.  As you can see from the photo above, one big part of the festivities were balloon vendors who “set up shop” in the middle of the street selling their goods to children passing by.  I think it was probably a pretty lucrative business — every child I saw who walked past these makeshift “balloon shops” wanted a balloon. 

I was talking with a friend of mine who has a young child about these balloon vendors and she told me that she just couldn’t afford to buy all the balloons that her daughter wanted every time they passed by.  Her solution was simple: she told her daughter that the balloons weren’t for sale — they were just for looking at.  It was a pretty clever solution if you ask me, as long as the child believed it.  In any event, I think I’m going to buy myself a large stock of balloons for next year’s festival — maybe afterwards I can use the money I earn to buy a Ferrari. 

This post is part of a mini-series about the 2009 Burgos Festivals.  To read about other aspects of the Burgos Fiestas, check out my Burgos Fiestas 2009 page.  You also may be interested in checking out my Fiesta Photos on Picasa. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

All last week, the city of Burgos was in “festival mode.”  You see, last week was the famous “San Pedro y San Pablo” week in Burgos, the week in which the entire city is turned upside down by non-stop [...]]]>

French performers ride an ostrich and a large ball down the street at the Burgos Festivals.

All last week, the city of Burgos was in “festival mode.”  You see, last week was the famous “San Pedro y San Pablo” week in Burgos, the week in which the entire city is turned upside down by non-stop partying.  I spent the week taking pictures of the festivities and have decided to create a mini-series here on the blog to document all that happened.  This is the first installment of said mini-series with much more to come over the upcoming days. 

In this installment of the mini-series, I’d like to talk about something of utmost importance to the festivals: street performers.  It seemed to me that no matter where I went in the city last week, I somehow came in contact with a street performer ”out and about.”  Most of these performers wandered aimlessly throughout the city; however, some were assigned to particular streets.  In any event, the thing that surprised me most about these performers was the quality of their performances; in fact, it was obvious that these people were highly trained and had years of practice and thus their shows were nothing short of amazing — this wasn’t a homeless guy strumming a banjo on the street to earn a dime. 

A Spaniard puts on an elaborate puppet show on a major pedestrian street in Burgos.

Jugglers, magicians, puppeteers, acrobats: the city of Burgos had a little bit of everything on its streets last week.  It was interesting to me to see the role these people played in the celebration; in fact, I feel as though the street performers were somewhat like the “glue” that held the festival together — they kept the atmosphere on the street light and cheery and made the partygoers happy.  In addition to that, the shows on the street added a very unique cultural element to the festivities; after all, many of the performers came from other countries and this gave the festivities a sort of “international flair.”  To put it in a nutshell, street performances are an indispensable part of the Burgos San Pedro y San Pablo festivals. 

To read about other aspects of the Burgos Fiestas, check out my Burgos Fiestas 2009 page.  The page will be updated throughout the upcoming weeks as I add more content to the mini-series.  You also may be interested in checking out my Fiesta Photos on Picasa. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

That’s right, this week was the “Caja Círculo” sponsored “Youth Music Week” here in Burgos.  That means that all week long “Caja Círculo” stages were being put up and taken down around the city and various young artists were scheduled to perform [...]]]>

Some young musicians perform during Youth Music Week in Burgos.

That’s right, this week was the “Caja Círculo” sponsored “Youth Music Week” here in Burgos.  That means that all week long “Caja Círculo” stages were being put up and taken down around the city and various young artists were scheduled to perform on them.  It was really an interesting sight — as I was walking through various sections of the city, I got to be “serenaded” by the many young musicians.  Of course, some of their music was a little too “heavy” for my taste (by “heavy” I mean head banging, screaming at the top of your lungs noise)… but that’s ok.

This is one thing that I like about Spain: there’s always a cultural “something” to do and usually that “something” is free or low-cost.  Of course, in this case, head banging teens screaming lyrics at the top of their lungs wasn’t really my “cup of tea,” but still, it’s cool that this event was held in the city. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

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 [...]]]>

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. 

If you’d like a little more information about the Pozo Azul, check out this site.  You can also view my rural photos on Picasa. 

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

I wanted to share with everyone some pictures and stories from a recent trip that I took to the Ebro River Canyon located near Burgos.  I took the trip with [...]]]>

Here I am at a lookout point over the canyon. You can see the Ebro River behind me... I'm squinting from the sun, but that's ok.

I wanted to share with everyone some pictures and stories from a recent trip that I took to the Ebro River Canyon located near Burgos.  I took the trip with some other teachers from the school where I work and, honestly, before going I wasn’t really expecting a lot.  You see, before we went, the other teachers told me that this would very much be a “rural” trip — we would be visiting small “pueblos” in the countryside and walking along rural routes.  Since I consider myself a “city boy,” I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this trip very much… but I went anyway.

After going on the trip, I have to say that I was quite impressed.  The villages that we visited were all very pretty, the landscape was very green (I didn’t even know things got that green here in Castilla y León), and I had the opportunity to see something that is a little less “touristy” and a little more “Spanishy,” if you know what I mean.  Plus, it was nice to leave the city behind for an afternoon and get a breath of fresh, country air.

Really, I think the pictures from this trip speak for themselves.  Below, I’ll leave a few more pictures for you to take a look at.  If you still want to see more, you can check out my “Pueblos of Burgos” album on Picasa.  Also, if you would like more information about the “Cañón del Ebro” you can check out this site.  Enjoy!

A waterfall on the outskirts of one of the villages we visited.

A view of a small village street.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

PS: On an unrelated note, let me apologize to everyone for not updating in such a long time.  Since it’s the end of the school year here, I’ve been busy tying up loose ends and making preparations for next year.  All of that takes time, which means that the blog has been a little dead over the last couple of weeks.