Sitting
here under the sun in a pristine Veggie Square in Ponters at midday,
it's hard to believe that at 9 last night I was in the same spot
feeling like one of a can of very inebriated (and largely female but
non-violent) sardines. And that at 10 those who'd just sat down for
dinner in one of the many a-tabled streets and squares were drenched
by sheeting rain. And that the same waiters and waitresses serving me now were working until the very early hours of this
morning. Truly do the Spanish know how to party hard and the South
Americans who serve them know how to work hard.
But
it's not all good news. The sun may be shining, the squid may be as
good as ever, the albariño wine just as palatable - but the
bloody free wi-fi isn't working. Life can be such a bitch.
Anyway,
in their desperation to prove they're as non-Spanish as the Catalans,
many Galicians work as hard as South Americans at proving they're
more Celtic than anyone else in Iberia. Including the Asturians only
next door. They do this by 'reviving' (or inventing) various Celtic
traditions. Such as a marriage which lasts for only one year and is renewable (or not) at twelve month intervals thereafter. So it is that the town
of Cadeira in NW Galicia has had, for all of three years now, an annual festival devoted to this practice. Of which
you can read more here.
Talking
about festivals . . . Walking with me around a very crowded Ponters
old quarter last night, my elder daughter made a couple of
perspicacious comments:-
-
"It seems most people are in costume, especially the women. I
guess it gives them a chance to wear boddiced, bosom-baring dresses".
And,later:-
-
"The city's well-endowed ladies seem to be taking full good
advantage of the fiesta."
I
told her I hadn't noticed but, now that she'd pointed this out to me
and after some research, I felt compelled to fully (and happily)
agree. Sadly, as we left before the rain started falling, I
was deprived me of a second, more pointed, research opportunity.
As
for tourism on a national scale, here's an interesting post from my
fellow-blogger Lenox.
And here's
another article on Spanish white wines, in which you can read more about
the Galician Godello variation.
Finally
. . . I thought I'd pass on the good news that I made a whole 93
cents from Google Adsense in August.
Finally,
finally . . . I hate to be a party-pooper but I sincerely hope the
following is a bit a Galician blarney and not remotely true . . .
Even
within Spain, where Asturian bean stew will satisfy the hungriest
belly, Valencia is credited with creating paella and a Mediterranean
diet is the staple of a dozen provinces, Galician cooking is
generally esteemed as the best of all. And above all, this means
seafood and shellfish. One such delicacy is the gooseneck barnacle
(el percebe).
I
must say that, in ten years, I've never heard this nonsense from anyone but a
Galician. Which is what you'd expect in the nation of a thousand
patrias
chicas.
Where one's grandmother always makes the best tortilla
in the world. Bar none.
No comments:
Post a Comment