I’ve been slacking on my blogging duties lately, partly because it’s Science Fair time at work and it’s sucking the life out of me, but mostly because my love and I spent the winter break in Spain and Portugal.
I’ll share some of the unique beauty of Portugal in a later post, but for now here is some of the handmade goodness (mostly food) from Spain.
Anywhere I go, I find myself drawn to the expansive public markets. I could spend hours (possibly days) wandering through the mounds of produce, fresh baked bread, meat and seafood. Spain did not disappoint.
I loved listening to the old ladies haggle in Spanish and Catalan.
Ham was everywhere, cut right off the leg.
Nothing goes to waste.
Whole chickens, some with the feathers still on, and every imaginable kind of seafood.
Spain had little to offer in the way of crafts (at least where I was). There were these odd Santa logs in Barcelona called Caga Tiós.
Apparently the children “take care of him in the days leading up to Christmas and then on Christmas day they beat him with a stick and then burn him while singing songs begging him to sh** out some presents”. I thought maybe I had grossly mistranslated this but then a guy at the Christmas Market pointed out all of the pooing wise men in the nativity scenes, shrugged and said, “It’s just Barcelona.” Hmm…moving on.
Spain was full of beautiful tile work, kissed by all of the cultures that have ruled there – Romans, Moors, Spaniards.
It’s a good thing we were walking non-stop because the food was calorie-laden.
It was a wonderful whirlwind of a trip. Look for a few Spain-inspired projects coming up.
No comments:
Post a Comment