Milano, Italia (Milan, Italy)

I have to go now! I will write a little about these things later.

X-Mas Time in Logrono

That's right. They celebrate Christmas in Logrono, Spain, too. We're not missing out completely. They actually just lit up lights all around the city early in December; so, we've been enjoying a little bit of extra shine in the nighttime lately. Abby and I went to the 'ceremony' of turning on the lights of the city in the Plaza del Mercado (Market Square) very near our apartment. There were a lot of little kids there having fun watching a marionette show, listening to music, and standing in incredible lines for free snacks. It was still entertaining for Abby and I, and we ran around snapping pictures at all the crazy Spaniards and the lights that eventually turned on without too much fanfare. Eventually all the lights around the city turned on, and so it does seem quite festive around here.

So, anyway, hopefully that video above works. If so, I will have to try to take many more short videos to share with you. Wow... it is taking a long time to load though, so I will have to see how long it takes in the end.

There is plenty of shopping in Logrono (and several large shopping centers), but we've been told that January is the best time to shop in the city. I suppose everything goes on sale after the holiday season is over. We're going to wait, and I might buy some new tennis shoes and some cool lookin European blue jeans.

They generally have two days in Spain when everyone gives and receives presents. These two days are Christmas and Epiphany. Spain celebrates Epiphany a little more than we do, and they have several fun traditions they practice. I will copy and paste some info from the the internet that explains it:

In Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and some other Latin American countries Epiphany day is called El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings), i.e., the day when a group of Kings or Magi, as related in the second chapter of the gospel of Matthew, arrived to worship and bring three gifts to the baby Jesus after following a star in the heavens. This day is sometimes known as the Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (The day of the Three Royal Magi).

Spanish tradition, on the day of January 6th, three of the Kings: Melchor, Gaspar, and Balthazar, representing Europe, Arabia, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing respectively gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. (In Logrono, the three kings arrive in a helicopter and land in the middle of the soccer stadium to a crowd of screaming children and their families. Wild, huh?)

In Spain, Argentina, and Uruguay, children (and many adults) polish and leave their shoes ready for the Kings' presents before they go to bed on the 5th of January. Sweet wine, nibbles, fruit and milk are left for the Kings and their camels.

So, I've been told that very traditionally, Epiphany was the only day that children receives gifts in Spain. The kings were a little like Santa Claus in that they give rocks or coal or whatever if the kids are bad and nice gifts if they behave themselves. Since Western culture is everywhere in the media and otherwise though, Christmas is now another time to give and receive gifts. I'm sure they don't mind much.

I am adding several other photos of X-Mas in Logrono to My Pictures site. You can find it in the regular place along the left side of this webpage. Click the link to go to My Pictures and then select the album.

To all friends and family who are reading this: Abby and I wish you all a very happy holiday season. Safe driving if you are doing so along icy roads, and take advantage of all those Christmas sweets and candies. We're missing out on some of our favorites, but we're making some new ones here in Spain. They have a large assortment of seasonal candies and chocolates, and we make sure we try something new every time we go to the grocery store. Rest assured, we are not starving over here.

Let everyone know that I will miss them this holiday season, and I wish them the best. Feliz navidad y ano nuevo tambien! (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!)

New Haircut!

It's been a while (just about three months) since I had my last haircut... and I was beginning to look pretty shaggy. Abby and I found a place on our walk to work that advertised cheap men's haircuts. We went there one day and it was closed; but, luckily, we went to the place next door. The haircut was slightly more expensive but Pedro the barber did a very nice job. I didn't tell him, but I think that Pedro has become 'my' barber here in Spain. Abby took pictures of my haircut experience... which I will hopefully share with you sometime later.

We started decorating our apartment for winter! We cut out snowflakes and put them on our purple wall (it looks very nice, if I do say so myself). We also have up some cheap strands of garland and a 6-inch Christmas tree. I don't think we'll have presents under the tree this year... but that's okay.

So, anyways: Abby and I took several excursions out of Logrono this past weekend and we also went to a concert. We packed our weekend full because we hadn't really gone anywhere since our San Sebastian trip at the beginning of the month! It had been too long, so we needed to be busy again.

First, on Saturday, we went to the nearby city of Vitoria-Gasteiz in the northern autonomous community of Basque Country (Pais Vasco). It was an absolutely lovely little Spanish city, with cathedrals, museums, narrow cobblestone streets, and ancient walls, buildings, and other architecture. I took a lot of pictures, and I wrote captions on them so that you can know what you are looking at. Look at my pictures site and select my 'Vitoria' album.

Pais Vasco (Basque Country) is a autonomous community in Spain where the people have a very distinct culture. The Basque language is called Euskadi, and it sounds more like Russian than Spanish. Maybe I've explained this in a previous blog... I don't remember, but the Basque culture is very very ancient and distinct from every other European culture (or language). Because of this, they are very proud of their heritage, and some of them consider themselves and their autonomous community separate from Spain. They do share a lot of things with Spain, however, in that the Spanish language is widespread there (along with Euskadi). Basque Country reaches up to the sea, so they have nice beach towns there, and it also borders La Rioja (our autonomous community) in the south, so the terrain is similar to that of La Rioja, with rolling hills, small mountains, small pueblos (towns) all over the countryside, and wide valleys lush with vineyards and other crops.

Vitoria is about the size of Logrono, which is quite large, actually; and, so we didn't have time to see everything in our seven hour tour of the city. We visited several museums, ate lunch, shopped a little, and walked around in the cold rain all afternoon. Yes, we had the good fortune of taking our excursion during a rainy day. We got quite wet, but we were able to find things to do to keep out of the rain and cold.

Anyways, I write more about what we saw on my pictures link, so check it out.

We returned that evening to go to a benefit rock concert in Logrono. Last Saturday (it was the 1st of December) was actually the international day for AIDS prevention, or SIDA as it is abbreviated here in Spain. We went to see two bands that were performing: one, called China Latina, was a local band from Logrono, and the other was a band from Guadalajara (a city near Madrid) called the Despistaos. China Latina was good... a mix of rock, funk, and reggae (they played a cover of a Bob Marley song). We were very tired for the Despistaos' set, and their music was much louder and less melodic, so we left for home early. We figured we had already donated to charity, so we didn't feel bad about not staying for the entire concert.

The next day we got up and got ready to go to a small town in La Rioja called San Millan de la Cogolla. The special thing about San Millan is that there are two legendary monasteries there where ancient texts had been discovered and it is believed that it is the birthplace of the Spanish language (Castellano). Interestly enough, they believe that the Basque language (Euskadi) had its beginnings there also. So, it was the tenth-year anniversary of the monasteries becoming some kind of special program of the government... and the government paid to have buses bring citizens from Logrono to the monasteries for free. This trip also included a free tour of both monasteries.

We were excited to go, we had our cameras ready, our breakfast still digesting in our stomaches, and we got in line at the bus stop mid-morning to wait for the buses. It was a very cold morning, and to make matters worse, the government only sent one bus... one bus, which could only take about 70 of the 150 people waiting in line, could not take us either, because we were numbers 80 and 81. But I haven't mentioned yet that there was a bus scheduled to come later on that afternoon. So this next time we went an hour-and-a-half early and found ourselves first in line... a line that was much warmer, and much friendlier--since we met several of the other people in line with us and talked to them throughout our trip.

We made it on the bus, and it took us to both monasteries. One, the older one, was originally built out of a cave on top of a big hill in the forest. It was really a beautiful area, with snowy mountains within site, and the valley down below--where, later, they built a second, much larger monastery and, today, the village of San Millan de la Cogolla is located. San Millan is actually the name of Saint Emiliano, who lived in the ancient monastery on top of the hill. His tomb is in the ancient monastery today... that monastery is called Suso. The lower monastery within the village is called Yuso. Yuso is much larger... with a church, a sacricy, living quarters where nine monks are still staying today, and (believe it or not) they built a high-class hotel that is attached. Some people on our trip didn't like the fact that the hotel was attached... but, what can you do?

Pictures are going to describe the monasteries better than I am able to, since the Spanish tours were a little too fast to pick up everything. Look at my pictures site again and select San Millan de la Cogolla to check out my photos.

I have to go now... we have things to do things to do always things to do. But we're happy staying busy. I shall update again soon, as I we are leaving for Milan, Italy, this Friday and we won't be back until next Wednesday (at 2:00 am in the morning!).

More pictures coming soon. And Christmas activities start soon here in Logrono! Maybe we'll even get some snow... though it's doubtful. Everyone stay cool this holiday season... we'll be thinking of you.