KARETHE LINAAE
“I’ll meet you at the plaza.” If you live in Spain, you must have heard these words a million times. The Spanish word plaza, which has been used in English since the 1830s, comes from the Latin word platea (meaning square or place), and originates from the Ancient Greek word plateîa. It can refer to a space…
Moving to another country can be incredibly exciting. Everything new can be quite intoxicating. You feel fully alive, almost like a child again. An adventurer or perhaps an explorer (although we are far from a Robinson Crusoe in today’s convenient jet age). However, an international move can also be challenging, difficult and…
Wine is mostly considered a man’s domain, but that is not always the case – at least not when it comes to port. This sweet wine named after the city of Porto is still drunk worldwide and is a timeless classic constantly being renewed. However, the history of port wine is not as well-known…
Every month, a small group of art- and history buffs meet in an esteemed library in Ronda, Andalucía to hear a Spanish philosopher talk about anything between heaven and earth. It can be a book, a piece of music, a painting, or some random object he chooses to elucidate – because that’s what philosophers…
Everyone in Spain has probably seen the lottery kiosks with the sign ONCE in capital letters. Many know these are run by the Spanish National Organization for the Blind or Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE). But what most people don’t know is that Grupo Social ONCE is much more than an aid organization for…
Seguramente todo el que vive en España ha visto los kioscos de lotería con el cartel ONCE en mayúsculas. Muchos saben que están gestionados por la Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE). Pero lo que la mayoría de gente no sabe es que la ONCE es mucho más que una organización de ayuda a personas…
They say that when it rains, it pours, and that can certainly apply to Spain. After several years of intense drought, all the precipitation we should have had during the last 12 months came in a single night or just a few hours. The tragedies and destruction, especially in Valencia, are unfathomable. As…
In Andalucía, we have almost unlimited possibilities to participate in wine tastings – in vineyards, bodegas, or even wine shops. One learns to distinguish between young and well-aged wine, understand the concept of terroir, know whether the wine comes from sweeter or drier grapes, and try to recognize the wide variety of flavours and aromas…
It is not only the Spanish real estate market that was competitive this summer. It also applies to every square meter of sandy beach on Costa del Sol and other parts of the Spanish coastline. Unlike the real estate market, however, public beach spaces are not for sale but intended for general use. This means…
You see them everywhere. Most Spanish shopping streets are filled with tacky souvenir stores. They have walls covered with fans, miles of Spanish-inspired ceramics, figurines of bullfighters and Flamenco dancers, trays with Alhambra patterns, coffee cups and eyeglass cases with reproductions of Picasso’s art, aprons and dish towels with Velasquez’s Las Meninas, castanets in wood…