130 – A Village Christmas

Poco a poco, paso por paso ….  Little by little, step by step.  Each Christmas and New Year in a new country represents another step forward in learning about and understanding my new environment.  The first Christmas day here, I went to a lovely English-run bar for turkey and all the English trimmings.  The second, I stayed with an English friend in a Spanish hotel, and we had a traditional Spanish Christmas Eve dinner AND a traditional English Christmas Day lunch!  Followed by a German-style enormous buffet meal that evening!  This year, Christmas number three, was a strange mixture of Spanish, Argentinian and English traditions at home.

109 – Just Sitting

If there’d been a World Cup for sitting, Spain would have won it.  It’s a daily activity and it is taken almost to an art form.  The best thing about sitting, is the practising.

Every Andulcían pueblo has its old benches with the old guys sitting there.  Busy doing nothing, but doing it in company.

93 – Spitting Distance

Tough decisions on Sunday.  So many options, so few hours in the day!  Finally the choice was made. Despite getting home from the opening night of Málaga’s Carnaval in the wee small hours, I decided I didn’t want to miss the mountain walk, so dragged myself grumbling from my cosy bed to pull on walking boots and make a sandwich for the midway break.

59 – Slow Food

Even Francisco, the chef, described the taste of snails as “insípido” (I really DON’T have to translate that one into English, do I?).

50 – The Splendour and the Silence

La Virgen del Rocío – Foto – Ayuntamiento de Málaga

Changeable weather couldn’t keep the penitents, the celebrants, the Nazarenos or the tourists away from Semana Santa.  In every city, town and village in Spain, people turned out to see the richly-decorated floats and the cofradías (brotherhoods) carrying them.