About La Laia and La Mercè in Barcelona: In Barcelona there are two major local holidays, La Laia, celebrated as Barcelona’s Major Winter Festival on February 12th, and La Mercè, September 24th, a three-day farewell to the summer months. Both […]
Prague: The Golden City Where Beer Flows Like Water
View of Prague from Prague Castle Overflowing with UNESCO World Heritage sites, Prague is known the world-over as “The Golden City”. So it’s not surprising that sites like Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle, are packed tightly with tourists year-round. What […]
Barcelona Snow: Better Late Than Never
Trash Containers and a Snowy Street in Barcelona Snow on Parked Cars in Barcelona’s Eixample Neighborhood Winter comes late in Barcelona, or more habitually, not at all. In the five years I’ve lived here, I’ve never, not once seen snow […]
Barcelona’s Garden Maze
Entry to the Labyrinth Early spring in Barcelona somehow always brings me back to my Missouri roots. While winter in the Mediterranean is mild and snowless outdoors but frigid in my unheated apartment, spring tends to waver between the warm […]
Madrid and El Parque del Retiro
Aggressive sunlight turns dust particles into glitter floating through the heat, as I squint and stumble along seemingly endless dirt paths in Madrid’s Parque del Retiro. I’m looking for the Palacio de Cristal, a beautiful old greenhouse in front of […]
New Year’s in Barcelona: The Man with Many Noses:
About the Noseman: A Barcelona Tradition This traditional figure has as many noses as there are days left to the year, and if you find him, he must grant you a wish. Of course finding him is no easy task. […]
Olentzero: The Christmas Giant from Basque Country
A little history… A Christmas character from Spain’s Basque Country, Olentzero is sometimes said to be the last member of the “jentillak”, a mythological race of Basque giants that inhabited the Pyrenees before the coming of Christ. Other versions of […]
La Befana: The Italian Christmas Witch
Pasta with Mussels and Shrimp About Christmas in Italy: Christmas in Italy begins with Advent, a period of fasting before Christmas, much like Lent, the fasting period before Easter. It begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas and lasts until Christmas […]
Fernando and How to Make Crumbs
About Migas: Migas or “crumbs” are a traditional leftover dish in Spain made from leftover bread. Originally a rural dish, prepared for the workers in the field, migas can now be found in restaurants and households all over the country. […]
Green Vienna and Wiener Schnitzel
Museum Quartier Vienna is so much greener and cleaner than most cities I’ve visited in Europe, including Barcelona, the city, I live in. Somehow Vienna is urban, green and alive, a curiously new-looking antiquity that is especially prevalent in the […]