Spain

Every year in the middle of winter, usually around February, the almond trees of Andalucia start flowering again and by late spring we can expect to start collecting almonds if they are domesticated. The flower of the almond is really beautiful, very delicate and has only a hint of perfume though if there are enough flowers at any one time you can smell them quite strongly. But don't just eat the fruit expecting it to be edible. Wild almond is poisonous and contains enough arsenic in a single nut to kill a fully grown adult.

The economic situation in Spain has been quite worrisome for about a year or more, with people I know generally becoming more and more pessimistic with each new announcement from the central government or financial markets ratings agencies.

Recently we got some great news that the economy has finally grown again after months of decline, though we can't get too excited just yet since the government still needs to secure large borrowings in the coming months to service existing debt and public sector spending requirements.

However, a very slight increase in GDP, even if it is only 0.1% is proof that all things being equal business is still earning revenue, and with the additional small drop in the official employment numbers I'm quite bullish about living in Spain. But I don't own a property here, and no doubt if I did I'd be a lot less happy.

Property prices have fallen around 20-40% on values of 2 years ago, and that leaves a lot of working families facing large mortgage repayments with little chance of selling and getting any of their money back. In the property bubble a lot of Spaniards bought their home on mortgages that were structured on future value of the asset, meaning they could attact a much larger loan than the current value of the property.

Sadly many of them used the extra money to buy cars, spend on holidays, or generally redecorate.All of that money is now gone, or severely depreciated, so we can expect a major mortgage crisis to appear in 2011. In fact so bad is the situation the government are introducing laws to prevent banks from ever giving over-value mortgages ever again, but that still leaves 2 million mortgage holders in the sticky situation of paying back a loan they can't afford.

Probably what will happen is that a generation of Spanish people will be in debt most of their lives, and this means that real prosperity for Spain will fall to the younger generation or those who have career prospects and didn't buy into the property bubble. It will be interesting to see what the economy looks like in 5 years, or even 20 years. Very different from now no doubt.

Recently Spain experienced a 24 hour srike by the air traffic controllers, which some were describing as similar to the strike in the USA during Reagan's administration, though in fact it was nothing like it. It did however shock a lot of Spaniards who suddenly realized that greed has gone too far.

Air traffic controllers here earn on average 300,000 euros per year. Contrast that with the average wage in Spain of just 15,000 euros per year, and you see an immediate problem.

The government moved swiftly to control the air traffic controllers, going so far as to declare a state of alert, which allows them to bring the military in to control airspace, and also means air traffic controllers can be charged with criminal offenses if they don't go to work and actually do their jobs.

Needless to say the strike was quickly averted and after 48 hours all flights were running according to schedule again, but let's go back to the average earnings of these people, and consider that they went on strike to protect their rights. The reasons are less important than the public perception. It is possible the air traffic controllers felt justified, and maybe their cause is just, but public opinion immediately went against them.

First because they walked off the job on the eve of the biggest public holiday that lasts 5 days, and secondly because the average man or woman in the street looks at such a huge income gap and only sees greed. Think about it, 300,000 a year, is 25,000 a month, and the average person in Spain gets only 15,000 a year.

Not saying air traffic controllers don't have stressful jobs, but for crying out loud, when you earn more in one month than the average person earns in a year, you know going on strike just isn't going get respect, and sure as hell isn't going to give a lot of sympathy.

The consequences of the strike are that over 400 air traffic controllers now face the prospect of being fired and prosecuted for criminal offences because they were a bit slow to get back to work. Can't say I'm terribly sorry to see them have to fae the music.

Last weekend I went to Cordoba to check out the Mezquita and the historic quarter of the city, and despite a poor choice in hotel, I had a great time walking around taking photos and getting to know the locals.

Cordoba is in Andalucia, the southern most region of Spain, and the area has been occupied by people for many thousands of years, including by Europe's Neanderthal, though the city got its name from a more unlikely source, being named Kart-Juba in honour of a Numidian general who died in battle when Carthage expanded across the Guadalquivir River and took lands belonging to native Iberian people.

However the city really came into its own as capital of Baetica Province of the Roman Empire when it was known as Cordubensis. Even now it is still possible to see Roman ruins in Cordoba, though the most complete Roman construction is the Puente Romano, a bridge that until recently still carried traffic but has now been turned into a pedestrian bridge to protect it from heavy trucks.

But the real reason to visit Cordoba now is for the Mezquita and Spanish Royal Palace, and the historic center of the city that also includes Spain's only surviving Jewish synagogue, which hasn't been used since 1492, but can be visited.

The Mezquita is special, and anybody who doesn't visit it when they get to Cordoba is missing the most impressive building you're ever likely to see anywhere. Built on the foundation of an earlier Christian church, the Mezquita is the third largest Muslim Mosque in the world, though after the city fell to Christian armies in the 13th century the entire building was converted into a Cathedral.

The historic center of Cordoba also includes the palace of the Christian Kings, a gorgeous building with formal gardens dating to the same period, from where the conquest of the Spanish Americas was planned.

Cordoba is a big city, over 325,000 people, but the old town is much smaller and can be walked in half an hour, everything you want to see is just minutes from each other, making Cordoba one of the most accessible cities of such importance I've ever been in. Try walking around Rome, Paris, or London in a few minutes.

Aside from the Puente Romano, the Mezquita, or the Palace, Cordoba is also home to some of the best flamenco performers in Spain, and several tapas bars in the city feature free flamenco nights, so I enjoy hitting the streets around 11pm for dinner, but I only go into a restaurant or bar if I hear live music, and trust me there are so many that you won't have to walk far.

Here's something a little different for my website visitors who wonder when am I going to add more about learning Spanish, after all I do live in Spain and I do have a few articles about the language, but sometimes I get distracted with other topics like SEO.

Well, today I got an email from Marcus Santamaria whose list I subscribe to about instantly adding a bunch of words to your Spanish vocabulary to help you understand and speak more confidently, and all you need to do is change one letter in many English words to instantly convert it to Spanish.

Here's how it works, any word that ends in TION in English can become CION in Spanish, so information => informacion, collection => collecicon, solution => solucion, vacation => vacacion etc. Actually Marcus has translated a Beatles song into Spanish to show how easy it is to get to grips with Spanish; Read More