Carl discovers the world

Last night around 11pm the usual Sunday night calm we've become accustomed to was absolutely shattered by the din from dozens of car horns, people yelling and shouting in the streets, and a lone foghorn blasting away.

Not knowing what was going on and suspecting the apocalypse we sneaked a peek outside the front door and not seeing any reason not to go further we gingerly stepped out a bit further.

Silly us, if only the TV was on the right channel we would have known the reason, but no, we were watching the continuing saga that is Spanish Idol, completely oblivious to the football on the other channel.

If we were a little more observant we would have known that Real Madrid had just clinched the Spanish Championship League Cup beating Osasuna 2-1 with a man down due to penalties.

So now we know how the Spanish celebrate a football win. I am certain several of the locals wouldn't have made it to work this morning, at least not if the noise was any indication of the amount of alcohol (cerveza) consumed.

BTW, the locals whether drunk or sober don't pronounce Madrid they way we would in English. They say something that sounds like 'Maahdrih', the final syllable is short with a rolled 'r', and the final 'd' is almost silent. I have no idea if this is just the local Ronda dialect but its fascinating nevertheless.

You really need to see this photo large, go ahead, click it, isn't that one of the most spectacular looking lizards you've ever seen?

I've been trying to photograph one of these for about a week or so, I found a small nest of them in the heart of Ronda in the garden overlooking the Puente Nuevo but we've had to go to the garden everyday for the last week just to get one photo, and I must say I was very proud of myself for finally getting this.

My little friend here is about 15cm long and this picture was taken from about 1 meter away, I couldn't get any closer, and I've had to crop about 60% of the photo. Sorry about the lack of focus on the rocks above the lizard, unfortunately he was about to run away from me and I just had to snap real fast. From what I've been able to research it seems this is a Podarcis hispanicus "morphotype 2", otherwise known as a Spanish (Iberian) Wall Lizard.

Acinipo is literally a ruin, there is no town left to give any idea of what the place must have been like in Roman times. These days its a hillside with numerous piles of rocks and just three excavations, one of which is what's left of the Ampitheater.

We drove up there yesterday because the sky was a lovely clear blue which doesn't happen here very often. You see being up on the mountains between the Mediterranean and the Iberian plateau the clouds get stuck here and tend to sit quite low meaning we often get really bad haze even though there is no smog. Yesterday then should have been a rare opportunity to get some great snapshots.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the reason the sky was so clear was because the wind had turned, so instead of balmy winds of the south, we were not getting freezing cold winds from the north. And Acinipo sits at the top of an escarpment that is as exposed as you can get in these parts. I pity the poor buggers who had to live there a couple of thousand years ago when they didn't have gore-tex or central heating. Read More

First things first, most Spaniards don't speak English as a second language, most don't even understand very much. They may have learned some at school or maybe picked up a few words here and there, but they are Spanish first, and if you're in Spain they kinda expect you to speak a bit of their language. In the tourist areas they speak some English but I think it would be fair to say most of them would prefer not to. You see many years of putting up with drunken British tourists has pretty turned them off English even though it is considered the world language.

In fact we've found that speaking German seems more popular in Spain. Other than the expats who live here, a lot of older Spanish men speak some German because a lot of them went to work in Germany after the war, and because of Franco many of them had to stay there until the late 70's. Women are different, most stayed in Spain so didn't learn German although you might find the odd person who speaks some French since that was the main language taught in schools for the baby boomer set.

Italians and portuguese speaking people seem to get by quite easily, most Spaniards I've spoken to have said if an Italian speaks slowly they can understand them although they themselves will reply in Spanish. Portuguese is different, and sounds different, but again with a little patience you could be understood.

However, if you only speak English, you're going to struggle to get by. Expats quickly get to know the local shops, banks and restaurants where some English is spoken. Get to know the Union Jack, regardless of which English speaking country you're from, it may be the only indication in the window or behind the counter that someone there will understand some English. Read More