Spain goes on strike and I'm going...

On vacation! Tomorrow Spain will go from its usual slowness to a full stop with a general strike to protest the newly proposed budget. Spain's President, Mariano Rajoy, has proposed to cut the budget 40 billion euros this year. No wonder people aren't happy. However I am pretty excited because we finally have some vacation! Semana Santa starts Friday and I'm going to a place that's been on the top of my travel list for a while now. I'll give you some hints and maybe you can guess where I'm going!


I'll be eating the Mediterranean diet but it will look a little different.

I'll be surrounded by ancient history.

And I'll be viewing sunsets like this:

Can't wait!!!

City on Fire: Las Fallas

This past weekend I was lucky to check off another item of my Spain bucket list: going to Las Fallas. The valeciano celebration was the first major Spanish fiesta I have been to and I was really nervous. I feel like I can tough it out under most traveling circumstances but lots of drunk people, firecrackers, and fire sounded like a potential recipe for disaster. But I loved it! On Friday I loaded my bag into my co-worker Eva's car and headed down to Valencia. As we headed out of the metro into the center of the city 5 hours later, the wafting scent of pumpkin buñuelos and sound of firecrackers greeted me. I couldn't wait to see the massive statue-like fallas hidden around every corner of the city. 

The first falla I saw!

Las Fallas is a Valencian celebration that commemorates St. Joseph (as in Mary and Joseph). Neighborhood clubs or casal fallers all around Valencia hold fundraisers all throughout the year to raise money and create the fallas that are placed all over the city. The fallas are generally satirical, poking fun at everything from celebrities to political figures to Spanish expressions to Cristiano Ronaldo. I was shocked and delighted at the amount of detail and money (the winner cost 400,000 euros) that goes into each and every one. 

For me the most interesting thing was the contrast between a Christian ceremonies like the women falleras and men falleros bringing thousands upon thousands of flower bouquets to la  virgin for her opulant cape and decorations and almost pagan parades/fire obsession. The Valencian virgen's cape took 3 days to complete and was absolutely astounding. 

Las falleras bringing their flowers to the virgen

In all her glory on the last day

And yet after seeing that awesome cape of flowers, we went to another parade that had people dancing around in devil costumes and trying as hard as they could to light the crowd on fire. WTF Spain? 

But I digress. What is the point of this entire ceremony with its beauty, intrigue, and murky Christian origins? To burn it all to the ground of course! Every falla is thrown up into flames except for the winner and boy is it fun/terrifying to watch. 

Here we go!

Viva las Fallas!

I'm still here!

I know you may think have fallen off the plains in Spain but no I'm still chugging along in Madrid! The truth is I haven't felt like writing to much lately so I haven't. Instead I've been enjoying the nice weather in Madrid right now and doing things I haven't done in ages like going to the Rastro or the neighborhood La Latina on Sundays. But I haven't forgotten about you readers! And this weekend I'm going to Las Fallas in Valencia so I'll have lots to post about when I get back on Tuesday. Get excited!

Why Spain makes me more environmentally conscious

There are a lot of reasons as to why I enjoy living in Spain and one of them is that I feel like a more environmentally conscious person (sorry to sound pretentious). Here is why:

1. I use my reusable grocery bag

Here in Spain almost all grocery stores charge you a small fee for bags (usually between 3-5 cents). It seems like an inane expense but it annoys me so much that I have to pay for bags that I started to use my reusable shopping bag every time I go to the grocery store. Just by charging a some pennies for bags, Spain made me more environmentally friendly. Those Spaniards are so sneaky!

2. I walk or use public transportation everywhere

Since I have no car here and am terrified to drive in Madrid even if I did have one, I use public transportation or walk everywhere. Thankfully, Madrid has an excellent metro and bus system making it easy to get everywhere without much hassle. Also the amount of walking I do helps to keep off the kilos!

3. My piso is never fully heated

The apartments in Spain are made for combating the miserable summer heat, not warding off the cold. My apartment for example has no central heating making energy saving much easier. And my apartment the north pole. 

4. Bills, bills, bills

Energy and water bills in Spain are much higher than they are in the US so I am much more conscious about leaving lights on when I'm not in a room and taking shorter showers. Thinking a little more about the lights, heat, and water saves me more at the end of the month. 

Although they seem like little things, I never thought about making these changes while living in US. Have you become more environmentally friendly because of living in another country? Are you environmentally friendly even though living in the US?

Snowy Spain

Thanks to a Siberian cold wave my weekend of Basque pinchos hopping in Vitoria was turned into a winter wonderland. Although I was sad not to see even the Plaza Mayor in Vitoria, seeing the snow was a treat!

Ratoncito Perez

Last week I saw a play with all the infantil kids at school about the Spanish tooth fairy...who is a rat. Which got me to thinking: in the US when you lose a tooth a nice little princess fairy comes to leave you a quarter (or nowadays 5 bucks wtf? kids are so lucky). 

Awww what a nice little fairy

Well in Spain when you lose a tooth...a rat crawls into your bed to leave you some euros. His name is Ratoncito Perez and he looks something like this:

I think I'll stick with the Tooth Fairy. 

Milk was a bad choice

 Grocery stores are a great way to see cultural differences. Often when I go traveling, I love to wander through a local grocery store for a while just to see what products they have and the weird things that pop up in the aisles. 

Typical American grocery aisle

American grocery stores are generally really big. Even the "smaller" stores are huge by most European standards. There are lot of aisles, lots of options, and lots of products. Having so many options is one of the things I believe the American consumer has come to expect. 


In Europe and in Spain, neighborhood grocery stores are generally smaller with fewer options (minus their olive oil selection which has an entire aisle). And one of the most shocking things I remember from my first few visits to a supermercado was the milk. It was just sitting there on a normal air...at room temperature! I remember standing there for a couple minutes totally dumbfounded. Milk not refrigerated...was I in a third world country or something?

I quickly learned that most of Europe and 95% of Spain drinks UHT milk (for ultra high temperature milk). The milk is heated at a very high temperature for a short period of time allowing it to be stored at room temperature for long periods of time. Since Spain is a hot country and refrigerated transport is expensive, it makes since why it is normal to be able to keep milk at room temp.


But after drinking a glass a day of fresh pasteurized milk as a child and adult in the US, I'm still wary of the UHT. I usually only drink it mixed with something (like Cola Cao) or in cereal because the taste is a little off-putting. 


Expats or people who have tried UHT milk, do you notice a difference in the taste? Do you like UHT milk?