Spanish views from a small town

Yesterday I failed to write because I felt like I was melting. Yesterday (and today) will vie with the few truly hot days we had back in July; right before the temperatures fall into the low twenties (60'sF) next week, and the rain comes in. Yesterday, the high temperature in our neck of the woods must have been 34ºC/93ªF. Unfortunately, I couldn't spend the afternoon in our relatively cool house, but had to do the weekly shopping. There was not a breeze of any kind, nor does every supermarket around here have air conditioning, and the combination of heat and mask created a bomb in me. When I got home I had a throbbing headache. I had to take my pain medication laced with codeine, and drink almost a bottle of water. Toward late evening, the headache wore off, things were mostly back to normal, and the codeine helped me sleep. Today is the high feast day of our local festival of Guadalupe. On a normal year, there would be Masses all morning at the chapel, overlooking the entranc...

Today is the first Sunday in August. That means it's the Romería dos Milagros in my father's parish of O Araño, the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Miracles. I think that only in Spain does the Virgin Mary have just about every atribute. Virgin of Snows, Virgin of the Pilar, Virgin of the Miracles, Virgin of Carmel, Virgin of Guadelupe, Virgin of the Forlorn, Virgin of Mercies, Virgin of Heads, Virgin of the Oak, and the list goes on and on, passing through some very strange attributes (heads? really?).  More than anything, I assume that the Virgin Mary has taken on the names, attributions, and locations of ancient deities once venerated widely in certain areas. The spot where the chapel of the Virxe dos Milagros is in O Araño, is next to a pre-Roman hillfort, and may very well have had religious significance before Christianity came by.  Because the Virxe dos Milagros is not the patron saint of the parish. That's Santa Baia (Saint Eulalie), and her feast day is in Dec...

Old is a state of mind. However, it is very much a fact physically, as I am discovering to my dismay. That doesn't mean, though, that I am about to retire to a rocking chair and knit. To begin, I don't have a rocker, and to continue, I don't know how to knit. So, I'll ignore the physical as much as possible. When we heard last November that Scorpions was going to come to the Galician rock festival, Resurrection Fest, I convinced my husband we should go see them. We like their music, they aren't getting younger (My daughter saw AC/DC just in time; she saw them on their last tour together.), and it promised to be an adventure. The festival lasts three or four days, and it is customary to camp. While camping out was not on our minds, and we weren't about to spend the three entire days there, it seemed a good idea just for that night, because the concert would surely end late, and it's over a two hour drive to Viveiro, where it's held. So, Friday evening...

Pick a date on the calendar. Now, choose your poison. Today you have mussels in Rianxo, Albariño wine in Cambados, German sausages and beer in Sanxenxo, sardines in Teis, tortilla in Laro (Silleda), bonito in Burela, peppers in Arnoia, razor clams in Fisterra, horse mackerel in Chaín (Gondomar), roast pork ribs on a spit in San Clemente (Caldas de Reis), roast ham in Mondaríz, and octopus in O Carballiño. Apart from that, if you're not hungry, you have various different traditional, religious festivals that turn into musical nights in tons of different parishes. Then there is a medieval fair in Ferrol, the Cultural Week that ends today in Zas, a beach party in Ézaro, a motorcycle concentration in Vilagarcía, and the disembarkment of the Vikings in Catoira. And I know I'm missing stuff from the list, such as the book fair in A Coruña which I think is this week.  August is the month on which Spaniards have traditionally gone on vacation. There are still factories that turn thin...