Manly Men

Men in Spain spend more time doing manly activities together than men do back in the states. At least they spend more time than I did. From my neighbor who keeps trying to get me to go hunting wild boar with him (not likely to happen), to Angels Bar around the corner that is packed each night with an all male crowd, to the guys at the tennis club who are often meeting for dinner in the evenings, men seem to spend a lot of time away from their families hanging out together.

Of course, since I’ve been trying to gain an appreciation for Spanish culture, I’ve force myself to partake in several of these activities. I started with going to the pick up futbol games organized by the fathers of the 3^rd graders at my children’s school. They meet in the school’s gym and play for about 2 hours each Thursday night. The group is very welcoming and good natured, but there also seems to be a fair amount of “breast beating”. The first night that I stopped by, one of the fathers greeted me with “Como estas?”, to which I answered, “Muy bueno”. He responded, “You just responded that you are very sexy, I think you meant muy bien.” I said, “No. No. MUY BUENO”. After that I fit right in with the group.

I’ve also been spending some time with men from the tennis club. After playing a match, one of the guys invited me out to dinner with some of his friends on Wednesday night. After accepting, I found out that we were meeting at the restaurant at 10:30 PM. We had Jamon (of course), potatoes and cheese with a special hot plate in the middle for melting the cheese to pour over everything else. There was also plenty of wine, and for desert we had shots of Jack Daniels in deference to the American in the group. They wanted me to explain how Jack Daniels was made, and were very disappointed with my minimal knowledge about the production of fine whiskey. Only one of the Spanish guys, Pedro, spoke English well, and he was only willing to translate about half of what was said (the rest being too embarrassing). Carlos ended the night struggling through an English toast, but getting confused, he ended with, “Shit to you” when he meant “Cheers to you.” In the spirit of the night I just toasted back, “Shit to you too, Carlos”.

Mystery in the Morning

I really like cereal in the morning. If I go out traveling and have fancy breakfasts in hotels, by the third day I'm missing my morning bowl. The cereal that I like best is Honey Nut Cheerios. Luckily we've been able to find it out here, but it hasn't been easy. Cereal is not very popular here and it seems to be targeted almost exclusively for children. Most of the supermarcados in the area carry only 7 or 8 brands and almost every cereal has chocolate added to it. But, if you are willing to travel 40 minutes to the nearest El Corte Ingles (a Macy's style department store which we discovered because it was the only place that carried the kid's school uniforms), on the bottom floor there is an extended supermarcado that has all sorts of extras you can't normally find like peanut butter and (joy) Cheerios con Tostados y Miel.

Now I'm coming to the mystery part. As I was enjoying my bowl of cereal, I started to read the side of the box. There it had the CDR (equivalent to USDA) guidelines along with how Cheerios stacked up. The first mystery was that the line for Calcio showed that the amount went down in the second column. In the US, the second column always contains the nutrients when milk is added, but that couldn't be right for Spain, because, even in Spain, adding milk doesn't lower the amount of Calcium. I was stumped because the second column did list “con leche” until I noticed that the second column also changed the amount of cereal measured. A small note said that the first column tested 100g of cereal, while the second column tested only 30g of cereal with milk. While that solved the first mystery, it raised another one (isn't it always the case). Why do they show a first column with 100g tested? A whole large box is only 375g. I eat a lot of cereal, but I'm sure I get way more than 4 bowls out of each box. This mystery I didn't find such an easy answer for. Maybe it is a marketing ploy to make it look like cereal is more nutritious, or maybe people just like dealing in quantities that can be made up using only 1s and 0s.

My wife thinks she knows the answer. She thinks that this is because Honey Nut Cheerios is marketed to Americans here. The Spanish stereotype is that Americans each huge quantities of everything and my wife thinks that the Spanish would think 100g is just about right for an American. After all, we've seen coffee being sold in small, medium, large and American size. That being said, I think my wife is wrong on this one. I'm just going to chalk this up to another one of those strange European things.

Art around Sant Cugat

One difference from Raleigh is that there is a lot more art out and about the area. Not to take anything away from the giant acorn, but I prefer the pieces I’ve seen here. They tend to be abstract and modern, but very well done (unlike the welcome tower coming down Capital Boulevard into Raleigh that is practically indistinguishable from a cell phone relay station). On the way to driving the kids to school, I pass a cinema that has 3, twelve foot abstract heads. My wife didn’t even recognize them as heads the first time that she saw them, but I think that they are quite good.

Art isn’t just in Sant Cugat, but seems to have been sprinkled about practically everywhere. As we travel about the area, large sculptures seem to be about as common as rest stops. I like the entrance to Universidad Autonama which is adorned with 4 massive columns, all of different sizes, and all between 6-8 stories tall. These towers are built up of square concrete slabs that are gradually rotated, making it look like there are stairs spinning up the sides of the towers.

Modern art is also added to almost every historic site. We recently took a trip to Costa Brava, which is the ritzy, vacation area in Spain. In Begur, there is a big hill, with the remains of a castle/lookout tower that watches over the coast for miles around. We hiked up the ancient crumbling stones, wrapping around the hill 4 times to finally reach the tower. You climb in and in the parapet you not only have a great view, but there is also an 8 foot sculpture made out of metal gears and rods. I actually liked the sculpture; I just found it a little odd to be stuck in the middle of an ancient rock structure.

There was another example that was even odder in Besalu, a historic town about 45 minutes inland from Begur. Beselu is a great town that has been preserved for who knows how many years. To get into the city, you park you car and then walk across a giant stone walking bridge, passing giant iron gates designed to keep out the invading hoards. Once inside the town there are restaurants, shops, and apartments all in the ancient stone structures. As an aside, one of the shops that we passed specialized in flat screen TVs. I wonder who has the brilliant business plan to rent a space in an ancient city to sell modern electronics. I’m pretty sure the store tries to compensate by offering free delivery, but my Spanish is still not good enough to know for sure. Back to the point…while walking down one of these narrow streets we noticed that someone had welded a metal chair 2 ½ stories up on the side of one of the stone walls. After we noticed the first one, we started to notice that, every once in a while you would turn a corner and there, welded way above your head, would be another vertical chair.

Andorra

On our return trip from France, we decided to spend a night in Andorra. We didn't know anything about Andorra, we just noticed it on the map so we thought we would head that way. After winding up a mountain path for about an hour, I started to wonder if this was such a good idea. It was starting to get dark, we hadn't seen that many cars, and we hadn't made any reservations. Andorra is not part of the EU. Could that mean that there were Andorran rebels hiding in the mountains? Was this a country filled with Andorran shanty towns that didn't have nice hotels? My concerns were not alleviated when we finally reached the Andorrian border. It was a mountain pass with nothing much around and there was a HUGE line of cars trying to get out of Andorra with practically no one going the other direction. After being waved right through customs (they didn't even look at our passports), we continued onward in the dark for about half an hour going higher and higher into the Pyrenees. Eventually we reached our first Andorran town which was a relief because it looked like a little ski village. We decided to continue on and after winding our way through some more mountains, we reached a place that was larger and looked like it had nice accommodations.

This was a very mountainous area. Everything was built clinging to steep slopes. In fact, when we went to park the car we had to corkscrew down a tunnel 3 times before it opened up into the parking area. We joked about being sent to the Andorian mining pits to park and my wife practiced her Volcan greeting of “Live long and prosper” (with the two fingered V). She then left me to take the elevator back up to the reception area while I stayed with the sleeping children. We soon confirmed that we had left France when my wife came back and said that they wouldn't allow us to take our dog to the room.

A little further down the road we did find a hotel that would take pets. It actually didn't take pets but they made an exception because it was before ski season and they still had plenty of vacancies. The place we stayed was extremely nice and very inexpensive. Breakfast was even included. I later found out that Andorra is known for its great deals and duty free shopping.

The next day we followed the one main road out into Spain. It is hard to believe that a country could exist that is so small it doesn't even have one airport. The whole country is built in mountains around one road. As far as I know, there is only one entrance in Spain and one entrance in France. The Andorrans must have been very adept at balancing the interests of the French and the Spanish not to get gobbled up by either country. Next time we go back, we'll have to try to talk with more Andorrans to find out their history.

One final note was that it did take forever to get back into Spain. We must have been stuck for over an hour as we tried to cross the border. I think the Spanish and French do this on purpose, just to keep too many people from availing of the duty free shopping.

Traveling Europe By Car

Some things about traveling by car are different in Europe. The first difference is that it is much more expensive. Not only are gas prices higher (double to triple the expense), but whenever you go on a major highway you have to pay tolls. For a 4 hour trip to France, the toll road in Spain was about $10, and the toll road in France was about $15 dollars. It was even more expensive when we came back through Andorra where we had to go through 2 tunnels, one $7 and the other $12. The good thing about the tunnels is that they are long, so at least you feel like you get your moneys worth. My kids play a game where, if they can hold their breath all the way through a tunnel, they believe one of their wishes will come true. My kids were not even close to getting any wishes.

Another difference when driving in Spain and France is that you don't see any police. I have yet to see anyone stopped for speeding. The roads in Spain have a limit of 120 km/hr and the roads in France are 130 km/hr in good weather, and 110 km/hr in rain or fog. The fast lane was moving at about 150 km/hr. I'm told that there are some cameras that will send you a ticket, but there are a lot of people who just zip along. People are very good about staying to the right unless they are passing and I have not seen any accidents on the highways.

One thing odd about Spanish highways is that the exits are often different depending on what direction you are going. If you miss an exit and go to the next one to turn around, you seem to only have about a 50% chance of getting back on the highway. This is just one of the many times when having a GPS unit in the car is great. Especially in France, where you really don't want to be asking for directions, having the GPS meant that we had a lot more time at our destinations instead of circling around lost.

One last point of interest is that there is a surprising amount of English music being played on the radio. This is not only true when driving around, but also in the shops and restaurants. There may not be that many people that speak English in Sant Cugat, but there are a lot of people who know the words to Bon Jovi's, “Have a Nice Day”. I think I have heard it at least 30 times while driving around the town. It was also the first song we heard when we got to France (though I think it was a Spanish station). Spanish people like Bon Jovi.

Good French Things

I am feeling a little guilty about my last post since it was so critical. There were several great things about France. The first thing that comes to mind is the food, which was fabulous. Our first dinner might be the best meal I have ever had, and my wife's dish was equally as good. Even the kids meals were special, with my son having a lamb dish and my daughter having fillet mignon. At another restaurant, we noticed that about half the people were speaking Spanish. We were told by a waiter that many people drive hours just for their desserts.

The cities were also beautiful. We walked the historic section of Montipellar and were able to walk along the original walls of the city that had been created centuries earlier. Around many corners there were intricate sculptures and meticulously manicured gardens. We also were able to visit a French fortress near the Spanish border and walk through the garretts. It seemed impossible that anyone could break through the defenses with anything short of a modern tank.

The French also love dogs. We were traveling with our Shihtzu, and the dog was welcome everywhere. From staying with us at the fancy chateau to joining us for gourmet meals, the dog was our constant companion. At the restaurants they would even bring over a bowl of water for under the table.

We met one very nice 25 year old, Alex, along the way. My wife started talking to him in French and he was very friendly. We were both looking for a Chinese restaurant and we ended up joining each other for a meal. It turns out he was a Canadian from Montreal, and he was taking a year to bum around Europe. We gave him our address in Sant Cugat so we may see him again.

"French people are scary"

During the long weekend, we decided to visit France. After about a 4 hour drive, we were able to make it to Montpellier, a French town on the Mediterranean. It is amazing how much difference there can be in people who are only separated by 4 hours of road. As we walked through the square of Montipellar, it looked like practically everyone was a little annoyed at something. In the middle of the square, my son pulled me aside and whispered in my ear, "I think French people are scary". Being the ever understanding father, I whispered back, "Don't look now, but I think they've surrounded us."

My wife was also having difficulties. We were having trouble finding the restaurants that our hotel recommended, so she tried out her French to ask a women for directions. The conversation went something like:

< >Wife: "Do you know where the restaurant, Guía, is?"
< >Woman: "Gooeu"
< >Wife: "Oue (yes), Guía"
< >Woman: "Gooeu"
< >Wife: "Oue" Showing the restaurant name on a piece of paper
< >Women: Rolls her eyes and says, "Gooeu" again.
< >Wife: "Gooeu"
< >Woman: "Gooeu, I have no idea"

The woman wasn't going to help us, but she just wanted to make sure that my wife didn't mangle the French language. This was followed up with the waiter at the restaurant saying (in an annoyed tone), "Look, why don't we do this in English", after we tried to order.

Even the people in the fancy French chateau where we stayed lacked warmth. They had 3 concierges, and they all were similar. They were all attractive women in their 20s, dressed to the hilt, but they all did their best to try to pretend that both you and they were invisible. They would ignore you unless you talked to them directly, and then they would talk in hushed tones. It seems that the hight of French hospitality is to make it seem like there is no one else around you. Given what the other French people were like, maybe this is understandable.

There was one notable exception. The breakfast at the chateau wasn't great, so on our second night I zipped out with my daughter to a McDonalds to get breakfast for the family. To my great relief, the people working at McDonalds not only spoke English, but were also both cheerful and nice. The McDonalds in France don't have a breakfast menu, so we ordered chicken sandwiches that took a while, but it was such a good surprise to meet nice French people that we didn't mind. I read someplace that when McDonalds opened in Moscow, they had to have smiling lessons for the new hires. I'm not sure whether the people in France went through special training, but there was something definitely different about them.

Halloween

Halloween isn't much in Spain. They know what it is from American movies, but it still is rare that anyone is doing anything for it. One exception is the kid's school, who had a dress up day and then an afternoon party. The most interesting part of the festivities was that each grade was only give a choice of two types of creatures they could dress up as. My daughter could either be a vampire or a hunchback. My son could either be a mummy or a werewolf. The high schoolers were given a little more freedom. They could be any character from the Adams family.
Of course Halloween is a national holiday from work. It is traditional in Spain to go and visit your dead relatives in the cemetery, but, with the day being a holiday, many people use it as an opportunity for a "grande noche". We missed the festivities and instead took the opportunity to tour a bit more of Europe.