KARETHE LINAAE
I wanted to write something about Spanish tapas, but realize that I need a whole lot more ‘field research’ before I will be able to speak with any kind of authority on the subject. Yet, as we lick our chops and smack our lips, I thought it was only fair to introduce you to at…
My uncle from Lillehammer told me that they have 15 degrees below zero at the moment, so they stay mostly indoors. Winter in Ronda is not hot by any stretch of the imagination. Our town is located nearly 800 meter above sea level and surrounded by a mountain chain (la Serranía de Ronda), which these days…
This morning I was sitting in the back of the car of our future Rondeño car mechanic, who was bringing us to a guy who sells cars. He spoke Spanish with Jaime, I knew that much. Just that it wasn’t the Spanish I know, nor a Spanish I can fathom how I ever will learn…
Waking up in our neighbourhood, one can hear birds and bees and other country-like sounds, reminiscent of Grieg’s ‘Morning Sonata’. Usually there is a stray dog out in the campo barking into the wee hours and sometimes an entire canine choir joins in. Every so often one can discern the bleating of grazing sheep on…
Ever since we got to Spain I have seen Almodóvar everywhere. Not Pedro himself, mind you, but all the ‘Almodóvaresque’ characters that populate his films. They may be seen walking down most Spanish street for those who care to notice. Ronda does, at least on the surface, lack his most infamous characters; transvestites, whores and junkies,…
Flying across the Atlantic, I saw a 75th anniversary video about Air Canada’s history. I decided that next time I’d see my mom, I would ask her about working as an air hostess in the 1950s, before the age of jet planes, charter flights and mass tourism. My mom was born in 1930, in a…
I was walking home last night, across Puente Nueve and into the Casco Viejo, the old part of town, between hundred-year-old stone houses, passing the old minaret, meandering through alleys where cars barely can pass, coming out through the old Arab city wall into Barrio de San Francisco, our new ‘hood’. I cannot believe we are here…
Of course we all have heard about the infamous Spanish fly, the aphrodisiac that became legendary in movies and folklore myth in this past century. It may seem like a dated form of Viagra to some, but I assure you that the Spanish fly is alive and well. It has come to our attention that…
Unless one is Professor Higgins, most people know Spain as a sunny place. In fact, millions upon millions of people from all over the planet (my clan, the Vikings rank highest on the list) travel to Spain every year exactly for that purpose, to bask and fry in the Spanish rays. Granted, that was the…
I met my first Hand of Fatima, or Hamsa as it is also called, 14 years ago when I was shopping at a lingerie store in the somewhat disreputable red-light-district of Amsterdam (accompanied by my toddler son, another thing he will tell his psychologist one day…) I asked the girl at the counter if I…