Things I like about Spain

I tend to complain a lot about some things in Spain (and I just tend to complain in general), so today I'm going to make a list of things I like about Spain.

1. Tapas

Una caña at Amoa bar

Tapas are number one on this list because whenever I get asked this question by Spaniards it is the thing that pops out of my mouth. It's the easy, lighthearted answer. Tapas are nice. Go to essentially any bar in Galicia and order any cheap little drink (between 1 and 2 euros for a beer or a fanta or a fanta-beer) and you get given some tasty morsel to go with it. A bit of bread with meat or cheese, a chunk of tortilla de patatas, maybe a little bitty bowl of something calentita. 

2. Things are Cheap

At least some things are. If I shop smart, I can get away with spending about 10 euros (13 bucks) a week on groceries. If I go to a coffeeshop, I'm not going to break the bank on a five-dollar fancy coffee drink. Partly because bathtub size soy-mocha-frappa-dappa-chino is not normally an option on the menu while tiny-cute café con leche is. 

Other things that are cheap: rent and utilities, train tickets, seats to the local philharmonic, new clothes at the mall. Healthcare too and university tuition, though I haven't taken advantage of those things personally.

3. Walkable, Lived-in Cities

enjoying the atmosphere at the Barrio de San Pedro festival

I walk a lot in Santiago, much more than I did in Bellingham and it shows on the wear and tear in my shoes and jeans. All the Spanish cities I've seen (perhaps with the exception of Vigo) have a huge, pedestrian-only old town, jam-packed with churches and shops and terraced cafés. Even newer neighborhoods (like Santiago's zona nueva) boast narrow streets and sprawling squares that the locals treat like backyards. I'm not the only one who walks either, and it's not unusual to run into someone I know on my way to the library or a private class. And then we simply say "goodbye" as an easy way to acknowledge each other's existence without having to stop and make awkward small talk.



4. The Presence of History

This hit me harder more towards the start of my European adventure than it does now, but I still have to stop every so often and think wow, this thing, this thing that I'm looking at right now has been here for a hundred, five hundred, a thousand years or more. In school the kids learn from a young age how to distinguish between romanesque, gothic, baroque, rococo and other architectural epochs that I don't even know the names for because these are everyday features in their lives.


5. A Feeling of Place

There are two parts to this bullet point: the idea that every little town or village has its thing (usually a food thing) that makes it different and special, and that even if people move away from their ancestral village, or if their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents moved away, they still remember and consider themselves to be from there. They go back and visit the distant relatives who stayed behind and sample the local tarta or cheese or whatever that is special from that place. 

This isn't to say that we don't have a sense of place back home--I for one am still pretty attached to my hometown, even if I don't want to live there and haven't kept in touch with anyone there except my parents. I'd rather not leave the region if I don't have to, and I've met a lot of Galicians who feel the same way about their comunidad autonomo.

*****************

There are a bunch of other little small things I like about Spain (such as rolled Rs and shutter curtain things that actually keep the light out) but I think I'll end my list here. I actually wrote this post out weeks ago, but took forever in taking and uploading photos. So here's one more photo I've taken since the last post.

It's the noria or ferris wheel that the city put in the park for Ascension Festival! It cost three euros to ride and went really fast (which you can't see from the photo because the photo is a static image so you're just going to have to take my word)

In final news, I'm going to Poland tomorrow! Do widzenia!