Soft and sweaty in the deliciously warm early May sunshine…Gorgeous, round, curvy and even just a wee bit pungent. The Feria del Queso, a culinary beauty pageant takes place in the very town that Pizarro left off from on his way to conquer Peru. These creamy contestants sport names like Tortas del Casar and la…
If you’re walking the ancient Via de la Plata on your way to Santiago, by now your blisters have hardened into calluses and you scoff at a mere 15-mile walk. You’ve sung in the Romans’ amphitheater, crossed their bridges, seen that cork actually does come from trees, and figured out that olives can’t be eaten straight…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Long before San (saint) Obama’s time and the recent thaws, I recall sitting at a café in one of the posher neighbourhoods of northern Tehran. Heavy snow still sat…
And just where do you think you’re going?
Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. I’ve lived through two referendums in my life. I may have been too young to fully realize what was happening during the first and it’s true that…
Just when you thought you were getting the hang of the way Spaniards lisp their Cs, they go and change the language on you. More discreet than their more famous Catalan, Basque, and Galician cousins, speakers of Mañego in this hidden green valley have been ‘falaing’ (falar=hablar=to speak) their curious mix of Spanish, Latin, Gallego,…
Early spring and an entire valley looks to the sky and prays. However this isn’t one of the many religious festivals in Spain, but a delicate dance between the weather and the calendar. Snowcapped mountains descend into green terracing where two million trees await their cue from Mother Nature before exploding into one of nature’s…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. As I write this, a constant hum drifts up to my fourth floor vigil from the busy Rua Mayor below. I’ve been to Salamanca many…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. A few years ago, shortly before the outbreak of the neverending civil war, I found myself in northern Syria tracing the footsteps of the sixth…
Around these parts the border is porous and exactly where Portuguese villages become Spanish is lost among the cork tree forests (and in today’s Europe so is the point). Sometimes the little white houses are fringed with blue sometimes yellow but walk through the immense walls and past the Visigothic church and into a bar and the confusion ends.…